You've figured out one of the difficult early steps in building an online business - driving traffic. Now how do you turn that traffic into a stream of steady cash?
There are several possibilities. One is affiliate marketing, or directing your visitors to a site selling a product in exchange for a cut of the sales. Another is selling advertising space on your site using an ad network such as AdSense.
Both of the above options are excellent ways to monetize your traffic, but today we're going to focus on a strategy that has enormous income potential if done correctly - selling your own products.
Let's start with an example: suppose you have a site full of content targeted at pet store owners - blog posts, product reviews, tips on hiring, taxes, etc. Let's also assume that your site gets ~5K unique visitors per month and the bounce rate is low.
So you have a steady stream of visitors that are interested in your content. Instead of simply watching your visitors come and go, let's connect with them. We'll start by building a list of your visitors' email addresses and keeping in touch with them regularly. How the hell are we gonna do this, you ask? Let's begin with an incredibly useful little doodad called...
The Squeeze Page
Let us continue with our pet store owner example and assume that, in addition to all the valuable content you already have on the site, you can readily produce an equally worthwhile tip sheet (e.g. "5 Killer Ways to Reduce Shrinkage", "Three Ways Your Store is Losing Money Right Now", etc) or report (e.g. "Most Profitable Feed Options", "How the New Tax Code Will Affect You", etc.) that we'll call your "freebie". The freebie must contain information that is as least as valuable and interesting as your site's regular content.
Create the freebie on your computer, then have it repackaged by a competent designer into a nicely formatted pdf that echoes the aesthetic of your site. If a designer isn't readily available to you, no worries - Elance has a full-fledged army of them just waiting to tackle your freebie for a reasonable amount of money.
Next, add a form to every page of your site (e.g. in a sidebar) that promises that if the visitor provides their email address they'll receive the freebie.
Then create an account for an autoresponder using Aweber, Mailchimp, or a similar service. We will configure the autoresponder later in this post.
Once your Squeeze Page is up and running, keep an eye on your conversion rate (number of email addresses collected per number of page visitors) and split test slightly different versions of the Squeeze Page to optimize the conversion rate.
Now that you are growing your list, it's time to sell to it.
Autoresponders - Whack-A-Mole Customers for Fun and Profit
Autoresponders are the mechanical means through which you will convert visitors into customers. Let's imagine (hopefully it's not too difficult) a visitor likes your content and browses around. Ideally they enjoy your content so much that they provide you with their email address in exchange for a freebie.
After the visitor signs up for your freebie, your autoresponder will send them a series of emails over the next week or two. The emails will provide the visitor with access to valuable content, some free and some not.
Again returning to our pet store example, the following is a sample series of autoresponder emails:
(Send immediately upon receiving request)
Subject: "6 Ways to Find Deals on Wholesale Exotic Fish" attached Thanks for visiting PetStoreProfit.com. I've attached "6 Ways to Find Deals on Wholesale Exotic Fish" at your request.I'll be sure to send along more helpful tips as we add them to the site.
Have a great day,
PetStoreProfit.com
(if you don't wish to receive messages from PetStoreProfit.com click here to unsubscribe)
(Send day 2)
Subject: Three ways your store is costing you money right now Since you downloaded our tip sheet yesterday I thought you might be interested in the attached report. It's hot off the presses and guaranteed to help your bottom line.We've also found that leveraging social media is a spectacular way to increase buzz and boost sales by as much as 220%.
Regards,
PetStoreProfit.com
(if you don't wish to receive messages from PetStoreProfit.com, click here to unsubscribe)
(Send day 4)
Subject: Turn visitors to your online pet store into customers How many visitors to your online store become customers? Too few? Learn the critical keys for turning visitors into customers by downloading our free report.Don't let another potential customer get away. Improve your online pet store's conversion rates and jack up your profits immediately.
We've also introduced a new course, "Using Analytics to Your Advantage - Leave Your Competition in the Dust", which includes a step-by-step guide to achieving huge sales breakthroughs, free tools, and tons of critically helpful tips. It's taken us thousands of hours to research, test, and assemble, and it's available to our friends for only $197.
Coming Next: We're compiling a list of hugely helpful techniques for negotiating feed prices.
Regards,
PetStoreProfit.com
(if you don't wish to receive messages from PetStoreProfit.com, click here to unsubscribe)
Etc, etc. Some autoresponder sequences can go on for months. The more product and freebies you have to offer, the longer you can maintain this type of relationship with your visitor/customer.
I've found that it's best to lead with free content, then ease in with a soft sell (the "leveraging social media" link directs the visitor to a page for yet another paid product,) then gradually introduce more direct selling as you gain your visitor's trust.
The initial sequence of messages you use isn't absolutely critical - what's important is that you closely monitor the performance of each message and tweak the messages so the entire autoresponder sequence becomes more and more effective.
Create traffic, build a list, sell to the list, always measuring and tweaking as you go. Before you know it you'll have a steady stream of cash coming through the door.
How to Generate Leads to Your Site How To Benefit From An Auto-Responder Put Your Business Email Communications On Autopilot Using Autoresponders Is Helpful in Internet Marketing
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