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You may be a small business owner who already has a website that is under-performing. You may
be a work-at-home mom (or dad) who wants to earn extra income for your family. You may be a
net-savvy internet marketer who wants to take their affiliate or information marketing to the next
level. No matter what you want to do online you are likely going to need to know how to build a
website that works.
When it comes to building websites there is a lot of confusion about the best way to go. However,
it's important to decide what your goal is before you begin. Yes, even before you register a domain
name!
If you just want to "put up a website" and don't care about whether or not it gets any traffic or has
any potential to earn you an income, that's easy. There are many free services that will let you
create a personal website to share stories and pictures of the grand-kids.
On the other hand, if you want to create a website that generates leads or revenue you will want to
do a bit more planning.
Most Websites Fail, But It Doesn't Have to Be That Way!
The harsh reality is that most websites fail. In fact, many beautifully designed websites that have
cost thousands (or more) to develop are complete flops.
You may have fallen victim to such a website. You poured your heart and soul (and money) into a
website project and then it just sat there on the web like a virtual lump, a ghost-site where you
could almost hear the wind whistling and see the tumbleweeds blowing by.
This happens to the vast majority of websites and it leaves their owners frustrated, angry and
broke. After wasting so much time and money they give up in disgust and declare that it's
impossible to succeed online.
It's true that there are many pitfalls and gotchas on the web. If you don't know how to build a
website that works and the stages of planning that go into developing a successful site how can
you expect your website to draw traffic, generate leads or ever earn you any income?
How To Build a Website With a Solid Foundation
It may sound obvious, but when you build your website you will need to start at the beginning. The
beginning, "that's my domain name, right?", "that's getting a designer to build a snazzy site,
right?", "that's making sure to find the right products and add a store, right?". Wrong, wrong and
wrong.
Sorry, but that is the recipe for disaster that most website owners follow... with predictable results.
Getting a name, a great location and filling a store with products may work for a traditional offline
retail business but it will get you nowhere fast on the web.
Your site has to begin with your visitor. The person you want to attract to your website. You will
have to first find out what they want and then, and this is important, how they are searching for
what they want.
This brings up another point. Online nobody cares about you, your website or your business.
Online your customers are just people with a problem in search of a solution. In short, they are
looking for information that will help them solve their problem.
Care and Feeding of Search Engine Spiders
When most of us are looking for information on the web we rely on search engines like Google to
help us find what we are looking for. Your customer will also enter search terms (or keywords) into
Google when they are searching for information related to your business. That is where your
website needs to begin.
The best strategy is to do keyword research to find out what phrases your customers are
searching for, then optimize pages on your website so that search engines rank them highly for
those keywords. For example you might sell a dog training program. In this case you might find
that the phrase "dog training" is a popular search term. However, you would also find that it is
highly competitive and that many other websites have pages about "dog training".
Keyword Research: Your Foundation of Success
This is where using keyword research tools such as those included with Site Build It! (SBI!) are
critical to your success. SBI! provides the #1 website researching, building, hosting and marketing
tools in the world. Included in SBI! is the keyword research tool called Brainstorm It!
Using the information provided by Brainstorm It! you might see, for example, that the phrases "dog
training course" and "dog behavior problem" might also be popular but have much less
competition.
With this marketing intelligence you would build and optimize pages on your website around these
profitable keywords. Your pages will then be specifically related to what your customer is looking
for and search engines will rank them highly because they are directly relevant to the search terms
used by your customers.
Using the same approach you would expand on your core website theme adding sub-categories of
pages based around keywords that your research shows are popular and have a chance of being
ranked well by Google.
Don't Skip the Fundamentals
This is the beginning of how to build a website that works. So, the foundation of any successful
website is quality original content that has been optimized to rank highly with search engines for
winnable keywords. If you just skimmed that last sentence read it again because it is very
important. If you do that right your website will begin to attract free search engine traffic.
Free traffic is good. Paying for traffic has it's place but first you need to have a solid foundation of
a website that draws its own free traffic. This is another fatal mistake website owners make. They
skip the research, don't have quality original content, don't optimize their pages for highly targeted
keywords and are then forced to rely entirely on expensive traffic they have to "rent" through paid
advertising. Ouch! Those expenses can torpedo your chances of success.
While lots of traffic is good it isn't worth anything if you can't convert those visitors into customers
or leads. You've probably noticed that I haven't even mentioned earning money from your website
yet. It's still too soon. First you need to get to the next critical stage of how to build a website that
works. Building a relationship with your visitors and preselling them. You really don't want to try to
hard-sell your visitors at this point.
Do Your Visitors Know, Like and Trust You?
Imagine you have walked into a retail store and are immediately ambushed by rabid sales reps
asking how much you want to spend. It's off-putting and would likely make you want to run for the
door. The same is true on your website. Ask yourself who you would rather buy from or accept the
recommendations of; a hard-sell pitch artist or a respected friend?
You can't be everyone's best friend on the internet, of course, but there are ways that you can
build an ongoing relationship and develop credibility with your visitors. The first step is to provide
excellent content and make a good first impression. You can also provide a free e-course, a
newsletter or e-book that they can download. Provide something of real value.
You can use an email autoresponder to set up a simple 5 part mini-course. This is a great way to
show your knowledge and build your reputation with your customer. Again, don't assault them with
sales letters. Instead, use your mini-course to share real information of value. Toward the end of
the course you can make an offer or recommendation. You might also ask them to join your
newsletter list.
Your List is Your Lifeblood
You've put a lot of effort in and learned how to build a website that draws traffic. It would be a real
shame to have visitors come to your website once and then leave, never to return again. That's
another reason why creating a newsletter is so important to your website's success. In fact, some
internet marketing experts make building their mailing list their #1 priority. The importance of
building your mailing list cannot be stressed enough.
You heard me mention SBI! earlier because of their Brainstorm It! keyword research tool. Well,
here is another reason to consider developing your website with SBI! SBI! includes the
functionality you will need to add forms with autoresponders (for your mini-courses) as well as a
newsletter builder complete with double opt-in functionality.
As far as how to build a website that works without using the tools and support included with SBI!
goes, it is possible. However, it would likely wind up costing you a great deal more in both time
and expenses. For example, there are third party tools for keyword research and
autoresponder/newsletter capabilities but the cost of just these two tools alone could cost more
than SBI! and SBI! includes far, far more tools than these.
In some cases the third party versions will offer advanced features but for the majority of websites
they are overkill and are just too expensive. SBI! provides the core functionality that is needed by
most website owners to build a solid, professional, profitable online business.
However, the principles involved in how to build a website that works are the same regardless of
whether or not you use the all-in-one tools provided by SBI! or if you decide to go it alone and
hobble together an expensive array of third party tools. SBI! is not the only approach, it's just the
best approach that I've found - especially for beginners, those who don't have technical
programming skills or those who don't have a lot of time and money to waste.
What You've Been Waiting For - Monetization!
By now you've researched your market niche, planned your site around in-demand keywords,
optimized your pages to get high ranking with Google, earned the trust and respect of your visitors
and you are now ready to be rewarded for your efforts.
If you already have a business and are using your website to sell your products or services you
already know your primary source of revenue. However, there are many ways to earn income from
your website. For example, if you are a real estate agent your primary goal will be to generate
leads and gain new clients. However, you might also be able to earn from referrals to lawyers,
moving companies, home decorators, etc.
If you offer local art lessons you could join an affiliate program and earn a percentage on sales of
art supplies or you could create your own how-to-draw or how-to-paint e-books and offer them for
sale through your website.
Those of you who use SBI! will know that SBI! not only gives you a powerful set of tools to
research, build, host and market your site, but it also gives you a step-by-step guide that shows
you exactly what you need to do, when to do it and why. So when you were planning your site you
will have already been considering the future monetization potential of your market niche.
Others Have Done It and You Can Too!
Anyone who has a hobby, a special interest or knowledge from work can create a website around
that theme and develop a profitable website. Once you know how to build a website that works
and it is drawing traffic you can add multiple revenue streams... affiliate programs, sell your own
products or services, referrals, net-auctions, sell advertising space (such as Google AdSense) and
many more.
I hope I've been able to show you how to build a website that works. It is possible! Whether you
already have a website or are just thinking of building an online business for the first time you can
succeed with a little planning, the right tools and a bit of guidance.
Anton Hout is an SBI! Instructor with extensive experience in the advertising, graphics and internet
marketing fields. For more information about the powerful all-in-one tools and step-by-step
process used by thousands of successful SBI! website owners or to contact Anton with any
questions you may have, please visit SBI-Classroom.com
Accelerate your progress and flatten the learning curve. Learn how to build a website that works
with the SBI! eLearning Course taught by Qualified SBI! Instructors. You will complete this course
with a strong foundation in internet marketing and a fully operational online business.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anton_Hout
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