It’s All About Your Conversion Rate
According to the so-called experts, a decent conversion rate is right around one percent. In other words, one out of every one hundred visitors to your website converts to a sale.
Personally, I think you should ignore what the experts say, and strive to achieve as high a conversion rate as possible. You should never be satisfied. You should always be looking for ways to improve your conversion rate. My websites consistently convert anywhere from 3 to 5 percent, and often converts as high as ten percent!
It’s a Numbers Game
Unless you’re selling a big-ticket item and making $200 or more per sale, it’s tough to make any real money with only a one percent conversion rate.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and if your website is attracting hundreds or even thousands of visitors a day, then obviously you can do quite well with a one percent or lower conversion rate.
But what if you don’t have that kind of traffic – and most websites don’t. Then what? What if you’re selling a $20 e-book and you’re only attracting a hundred visitors a day to your website? With a one percent conversion rate, that means your website is making a measly $20 a day. And believe me, that is much more common than you realize.
However, what if you could improve your conversion rate to 3 percent, 5 percent, All of a sudden; you’re making $60 to $100 a day with the same amount of traffic. Improve your conversion rate to ten percent and viola, that $100 a day turns into $200 a day!
So, how do you go about improving your website’s conversion rate? Here are some tips that should help:
1. Be Clear
Make sure your visitors know what you do, the instant they land on your website. Don’t make them have to guess. Tell them right up front with a benefits-laden headline.
2. Simplify Your Website
Make sure the design of your website is the best it can be. Make it easy to navigate. Get rid of distracting graphics, meaningless images that are a waste of everybody’s time and take forever to load. Get rid of all of the extra stuff that you don’t really need.
3. Use Psychologically Effective Colors.
The color blue suggests quality, trustworthiness, success, seriousness, calmness – the perfect choice for sales pages. Avoid purple, which connotes uncertainty and ambiguity, and only use yellow to highlight key words and phrases. In addition, try to have as much white space as possible. This makes for a much cleaner looking, easier to read website.
4. Great a real, Unique Domain Name
Get your own domain name. URL’s that contain names like, “Geocities”, “Angelfire” or “Tripod” have amateur written all over them. Invest the few bucks you need in order to have a unique domain name. It will appear to be more trustworthy than a something.something.something.com name.
5. Be Logical – Use Facts
Prove what you say. Back up your claims with cold, hard, indisputable and verifiable facts. It is tougher for someone to say no to you, if you make valid claims and solve a real problem for them.
6. Be Transparent
Put your name, telephone number and street address on your website. If you are really trustworthy, then what do you have to hide? If you really want to make sales, you may have to entertain a few questions or concerns.
7. Testimonials Rock!
Use authentic customer testimonials, complete with first and last names. Just make sure you get your customers permission first. This let’s new visitors know that you are legitimiate, and that the things you are selling are real, beneficial products. Trust is always key when selling online.
8. Guarantee Satisfaction
Offer a fair and reasonable money-back guarantee. Thirty days is good. Sixty or ninety days are better! If what you’re selling is really a good product that benefits people, then the product will stand for itself.
9. Offer Flexible Payment Options
Make it easy for your customers to pay. Offer a variety of payment options. If you’re using PayPal only, you may be losing sales. There are a lot of people out there, won’t do business with PayPal. They prefer Clickbank or other methods of payment.
10.Have a Killer Landing Page
And last but not least, make sure you have a powerful landing page. A strong and effective landing page can blast your earnings into the upper stratosphere! If you aren’t capable of creating that sort of thing yourself, hire a copywriting expert or a website designer to create it for you. You might also consider a great service, such as LeadPages. They have killer pre-made landing pages, and their landing page templates integrate well with almost any website or blog.