For most people, the main reason for creating a website is to make money. Before you can begin generating the profits you are looking for, your website must contain certain elements. An ideal website consists of many different factors and elements that all come together to appeal to your visitors, create a need, and ultimately produce the revenue you are looking for. This article will provide with you some of the necessary elements that every website must have to generate appeal, need, and revenue. Design Your website should scream professionalism to your visitors. No one is going to be interested in a poorly designed site or what it has to offer.
At the same time, your visitors will likely not be interested in a flashy or busy website. You have to find the middle ground. Your website should be clean, easy to understand, and formatted in a non-confusing way. Avoid clutter, use professional colors, avoid bright colors, and put everything in a way that is easy to find. Navigation Just as with the design, your visitors want a navigation system that allows them to find just what they want, when they want it.
Make sure you have clear avenues to and from all your pages. You do not want your visitors getting two to three clicks into your website and have no idea how to get back to the home page. You also do not want your visitors to go through a massive amount of clicks to find what they are looking for, you will lose their business instantly. When creating the navigation system, keep clear, clean, and easy in mind.
Merchant Account Without a merchant account, you will be hard pressed to make any sales or profit. You should obtain and implement a merchant account into your website to process payments. A merchant account allows you to accept credit card and debit card payments, processing them accordingly. You can find a host of merchant accounts, but on the internet the best payment method to date is PayPal or a like company. Forms of Revenue How can you expect profits without something to offer? Simply put, you can't.
Therefore, your website must contain products and affiliate links to help generate money. These are essential to making profits. Make sure you have affiliate links and products that appeal to your targeted audience. If your targeted audience are pet owners, you will want to implement pet products such as toys, cages, or food into your website. If affiliate links are more your style, make sure the affiliate links are with merchants that provide something pet related.
It is necessary to appeal to your target audience. Know your target audience This goes along with the above requirement. It is essential that you understand who you are trying to appeal to.
Ask yourself what customers do you want? What do they need? How can you provide them with what they need? Some things to consider are do you cater to: A specific gender? A specific age group? A specific group of people? Specific circumstances? These are all very identifying points in understanding your target audience. This will help you when it comes to identifying which products, affiliate links, and later what content you should be implementing into your website. Content Content is of the utmost importance, probably second to knowing your target audience.
You must have well-written and well-researched content on your website. You must again create appeal and need before you can create a profit. Your content should be specific to your target audience. In the example of pet owners, you might include content about raising a pet, feeding a pet, housing a pet, new pet owners, breeding, and other such topics. Essentially, you have to instill the feeling of trust and expertise in your visitors. You have to show them your expertise in the field and let them know you know what you are talking about.
Auto-Responder An auto-responder is an excellent method of contacting your customers. The auto-responder will allow you to automatically contact your visitors, customers, and potential customers at specified intervals that you have designated. For instance, you could greet and welcome the customer on the first contact, then several days later, send another pre-written auto-responder message to remind them, and so on.
Keeping in contact is a necessary element to creating a profit. Without reminding them of who you are and why they need you, they may simply forget you even exist. Contact Form The last but extremely necessary element in creating a profitable website is implementing some sort of form. This form will be your way of obtaining the contact information and email address of customers and potential customers. This is essential in order to even implement the auto-responder in the previous tip. In various places on your website, you will want some sort of form even if it is just asking for their first name and email address to build your list of prospects.
This is important to making most sales. It is a proven fact that many customers do not make a purchase on their very first visit to your website. No, in fact it will not be the second or third. In most cases, it is not until the sixth or seventh contact that they will make a purchase from you. All of the above tips are requirements that you must consider in order to have financial success with your website.
Just remember to create appeal, create need, and it will result in profits.
Omar Johnson is author of the homestudy course "How to Make Money On the Internet While You are Asleep" for more information visit Make Profits Easy
