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As unbelievable as it is, many people continue to believe in the myth of building a website and then have it 'magically' pull in income online without having to do anything about it after it is up. Ever. Therefore, I am here to debunk the myth today – building your website is just the beginning. You will need to continue to work at it to have it produce sales.
The reason for this myth is simple – the owners of these websites think that once they have their websites listed in search engines and directories, people will look for and find the websites. They continue to believe that there are 6.8 million people all around the world and if they can capture a miserly 0.1% of that number, they will have 6,800 people landing up on the website effortlessly. Out of the 6,800 people who end up finding the website each month, all they need is the conventional conversion rate of 2% to buy something from the website.
2% out of 6,800 people means that there is possibly 136 potential customers every month. Assuming that it is possible to make off with RM100 profit from every sale, they assume that there would be RM13,600 every month...right there in their pockets already.
From a mathematical standpoint, the calculation and expectation seems logical. But look closer. Is it REALLY logical?
According to Netcraft, there are right about 156 million websites circulating around the cyber space as of 2010. Every year, the number doubles.
With that in mind, can you imagine the competition? Ask yourself this question – what are the chances of people bookmarking your website even if they found you? How well do you rank in search engines? Is there a reason for someone to come back to your website?
Do you STILL think that all you need to do is to build a website, upload it into cyber space and then fold your arms in contentment, in full confidence, know that it is going to make you rich?
I do sometimes wonder how many people in this world have websites that makes them nary a single cent. Out of the 156 million websites on the internet, how many websites are there those has ZERO visitors.
Suffice to say, building a website is easy and getting the traffic in is not that hard either but it is the keeping and maintaining of your visitors that is tough. You need to keep reminding them and give them a reason to come back to your website...and THAT is the challenging part.
And that is what this article is about. Building a human-based website, a successful website, is a continuous job.
In many ways, a website is like a newspaper or your own personal local preferred daily. Would you open the same newspaper every day? No one wants to keep reading a paper that is never updated. Once you're done with the newspaper that was delivered to your doorstep on the 1st of January, you will most likely chuck it aside, keep it on the table for a couple of days and then never touch it ever again...unless it is to use the newspaper for some other reason.
It works the same way with a website. If you browse a website on the 1st of January, you will continue to visit it so long as you are interested. However, if you return to the website again on the 8th and you see that the website's not been updated, will go in again on the 15th?
One of the most important online marketing strategies is a content-drive. You need to offer your visitors something unique and valuable each time they go into your website. That is what keeps them there and coming back for more.
I would like to use my website, humanwebsite.com.my, as an example. It is my guarantee that you will find something new and fresh on my website at least twice a month. My newsletters are attempts to bring my readers back to my website. I do this for a very good reason and it is also the reason I say that we need to update our websites and it is a continuous job.
Search Engine Optimization. If you don't already know, search engines love regularly updated websites and pages. That is why blogs are popular on search engines, as compared to a conventional website. If you keep updating your website, the search engine robots will crawl into your website more often as compared to a website owned by a competitor.
If you offer free newsletters to your subscribers, use the right keyword density and then your chances of ranking well in search engines will also naturally increase. If you do that, you don't even have to use any other search engine marketing strategies thereafter.
I would like to use another one of my websites as an example – http://www.seaweedmalaysia.com. All I ever do for the website is to update my blog by using hot keywords that I have chosen and the website ranks tremendously well on Google for keywords such as 'seaweed malaysia', 'seaweed nutrition facts', 'seaweed nutrition data', 'seaweed information', etc.
Attract New Traffic and Maintaining the Existing One. As mentioned, a website is very similar to a newspaper. Hardly anybody reads the same paper more than twice. Since the newspaper can't update itself, we don't touch it once we are done with it. You need valuable and unique stuff in your website if you want people to surf into them and keep your existing readers from going off.
Ask yourself, why do you keep logging in the morning and naturally surf into your favorite online news portal...something like thestar.com.my? Why do you bookmark certain websites that you are interested in and keep going back to the site? The answer would most likely be that they have a regularly updated website with fresh information, articles, images, videos or news that interests you.
It is a fact that when you can maintain your reader-base, there is a higher chance of converting them into buyers.
Positioning Strategy. This is one of the most important benefits you will get when you have a well updated website. This strategy works extremely well if you are a consultant, coach or a trainer.
With the old way of doing business, we need to consistently 'chase after' our customers or potential customers by cold-calling them, placing advertisements in newspapers, television or on the radio. But we are living in a new world now and with a website, we can simply reverse the order - by updating your website or publish good articles about things in your field.
What you are essentially doing when you publish an article is telling others that you are a expert in your field. When they relate to you in that way, the very moment that they think of your field of expertise, they think of you. Once you have been categorized as an expert, your potential customers will have more faith in dealing with you compared to your competitors despite repeated cold calls from them.
What you have done is positioning yourself as the first name to pop up whenever your services come into mind.
So, in summary, you need to:-
1) Keep updating your website
2) Draw in traffic
3) Maintain long-term relationship with your customers
4) Position Yourself as an Expert
5) Close the deal
Remember, this is an ongoing process. Your website will continue to need your attention till you are filthy rich and do not need to work anymore. :-)
How to continuously build a Human Based Website? We will share more and more marketing strategies. Sign up now! :)
