Intro : NEED TO KNOW BEFORE BUILDING YOUR MARKETING WEBSITE

A MARKETING WEBSITE IS NOT ABOUT SELLING BUT PRE-SELLING

In this first chapter, the only thing you have to do is to understand deeply, the concept of PRE-SELLING to maximize Conversion Rates. It’s the foundation of building income through content.

PART ONE… MAXIMIZE PROFITS

The goal of any business, is to maximize PROFITS. “PROFIT" is simply your INCOME minus your EXPENSES.There are exactly two ways to increase your income (i.e., the amount of money your business makes)...

1) Refer more visitors to the merchants that you represent or your own business. (More TRAFFIC to your merchant's website)
2) Increase the CONVERSION RATE (i.e., the percent of visitors referred who deliver the response ( a sale) )

For example, you refer 100 visitors per day to a merchant and 1% buy, you get paid for that one purchase. But if you send 1,000 visitors per day and 3% buy, you get paid for 30 purchases.Yes, thirty times more!So it’s pretty clear how to maximize (affiliate) income!

Of course, every business has expenses. Maximizing profits does not imply that you must minimize expenses. After all, if you spend no money or time on a business...... You have no business! You MUST get the best possible traffic-building and sales-converting results for every dollar you spend... and for every hour you spend on your business and it's marketing.

Let’s examine expenses by asking two questions...

Question #1 -- What does it cost to build traffic to your merchants’ sites?

Traffic-building, no matter how you cut it, will cost you... in terms of both time and money. There are many ways, both offline and on, to drive traffic to your merchants’ sites. This course will show you the most highly profitable, time-and-dollar effective way to build traffic to your merchants' sites...Build your own Theme-Based Content Site -- one that is loaded with Keyword-Focused Content Pages which rank well with the Search Engines (SEO) and get the click throughs to your merchants’ sites.Let’s break that down... for your marketing website to generate traffic to your merchants, it must do two things well...

1) Rank well at the Search Engines, so that it pulls in lots of traffic. So far,though, that traffic is still on your site. Therefore, it’s not generating income yet -your visitors are just “looking around.” So...
2) Get those visitors to click through to your merchants.

Question #2 -- What does it cost to maximize Conversion Rates?

Good news!...Maximizing your Conversion Rate (CR) is simply a question of doing things right. There is no extra dollar or time cost to boosting Conversion Rates a to your merchants’ sites. This course will show you how to achieve this goal, too.

Before you continue with reading this chapter, i suggest you read the topic in the right column of this page about REASONS FOR LOW TRAFFIC AND BAD CONVERSION RATES.

After reading the topic on the right you know that the use of BANNERS and WRONG CONTENT will lead to low traffic to your merchant website and terrible conversion rates or in other words...your marketing website is a failure .

Then what is GOOD CONTENT ? This brings us to the concept of PRE-SELLING .

Let's assume a visitor arrives at a markerting website that is really just one, big sales website. Yes, I know that their words are sincere. But put yourself in these visitors’ shoes for a moment. They don’t see inspiring, editorial content -- they see a sales effort. But they were searching for content! “CONTENT!” I said. People resist sales efforts, so your click-through actually goes down. And if they do click, what do they see when they arrive at the merchant website? More sales effort.And, in some cases, many of the words on the merchant's website are similar to the
words that they’ve just read on the marketing website.... Result? Poor Conversion Rate.

If your marketing website is basically a “bunch of sales letters,” you have not yet built your credibility and likeability with this visitor. Your visitor ends up feeling “pitched.” And then feels double-pitched if she clicks through to your merchant’s site...
That’s why the CR actually goes down.

Conclusion?
Don’t SELL! Instead, warm your visitor up for your merchants by PRE-SELLING them with great content that they value and respect. They’ll click-through with pleasure, arriving at your merchants’ sites in an open-to-buy mindset.
It’s your PRE-SELL effort that will boost your traffic-to-merchants and Conversion Rate. Which in turn maximizes your income.

If you like to grab a coffee , go ahead, before we move on to ....


PART TWO… PRE-SELL TO CONVERT

This section deals with how to PRE-SELL effectively. (Later in the course we
will cover traffic-building in more detail.)
Your CONVERSION RATE will depend on ....

1) How to Reach Your Visitor...
Free-For-All Sites are a great example of how NOT to to reach people. For the most part, they have become so seamy and useless, that no matter what you say, you’re doomed from the start.Compare this with how smart and open-minded your visitor feels when she finds
you via a Search Engine!

2) What to Say to Your Visitor...
Don't write a site purely devoted to “hard-selling” your merchants’ products. Imagine a visitor who hits your site and reads an immediate sales pitch. That person will resist because she does not know you. Then, if (and it’s not likely) she clicks to your merchant, she gets another sales pitch on your merchant website ==> Negative x 2!

3) How to Refer Your Visitor to Your Merchant...
Get inside your visitor’s head -- realize how she/he will feel each step of the way.
Whatever you do, consider the impact on your visitor -- if it does not make her
more “open to buy,” don’t do it. Our target here is ... Get the click (the click-through to your merchant) with the visitor in an open to buy mindset.Let your merchant’s website do its job and get the sale.
Where do you find a great concept for your marketing website?...Inside you!Because you do know stuff other people don’t! You might have learned it “on the job” or through your hobby.There’s a good chance that you don’t even realize what you know. It’s often right under your nose.

Not clear yet? Here is an example .

Mr S. is crazy about surfing early in the morning, He's not very good at it but it fascinates him and he loves hanging around in surfers shops to find out everything about new surfboard designs , fashions,... He travels trough continents to see big surf events when his wallet allows him to . Well you can say Mr S. has a lot of knowledge about surfing.

So he sets up a marketing website . The website contains all kinds of information about surfing... News about famous surfers, upcoming events, his own experiences as a beginner, surfers parties, new gear,.... So he is makes the first connection with his visitors , or he creates a stronger band with his returning visitors by keeping the info up to date. People will think of him as a friend, this will increase his credibility! Of course Mr S. in not making any money ...YET.

He has now ...a high-value content marketing website that delivers what his reader sought at the engines , he is PRE-SELLING , and ready to send his visitors to his merchant(s) or his own e-commerce shop .

So somewhere on his website he will talk about amazing new fashion , and he will slowly slowly push his visitors to his e-commerce website (= his sales website) specialized in surfers fashionable outfits. He will talk about getting sun burned from relaxing at a beautiful beach at the Gold Coast watching his fiends in action.... but he will end up selling sun lotions . NOW he is making money !!!! He uses his marketing website to PRE-SELL and get the sales from his e-commerce.

Get the picture!

Now, the read-only chapter is finished as you will move on to the next one . We are now going to build ( or learn how to build) our Marketing Website . Some active participation will be required to truly understand the following chapters .It's like a jockey .Not because you have seen 100.000 races of L. Dettori (one of the most famous jocks in the world) , you will be able to ride a race like a champion . Right?

THEN IT IS NOW TIME TO

START BUILDING YOUR MARKETING WEBSITE

Chapter 1 : CHOOSE YOUR MARKETING WEBSITE CONCEPT

Brainstorm a high-potential idea. Discover the best “marketing website concepts” for you.Then narrow it down to the one with the most potential. Take your time to do this !!!!

Everyone has a special interest... a passion. Everyone knows something that is of value to others. What is it that you love to talk about? Read about? A hobby? What do you do for fun and games? What are your natural talents? Don’t forget to look right under your nose...What special body of knowledge have you learned from your job? What do you do day after day, without even thinking about it (ex., child-rearing, taking care of sick parents, renovation contractor, customs inspector). Think about what you do in a typical day, and what you have learned from it. What sections of a book store or a magazine shop do you automatically gravitate toward? What kind of TV shows do you tend to like most? Movies?What activities do you enjoy most about your current occupation? Is it research? Helping customers achieve their goals? Managing other people? Teaching or explaining things to others? Talking/selling on the phone? Organizing things? Making a process easier? Discovering or creating new products or services? Marketing products? Problems are also a good source for ideas, because problems need solutions! What bugs you? What’s tedious? What does not work?... Your mission is to find a subject that you really know and like.

Write down website concepts as they hit you -- make as long a list as you can.Next, pick the concepts that you love the most and that you think would have some appeal for others -- this is your “short list” of website concepts.Focus on topics that you love...so you won't feel like working when you write down content for your marketing website.

Now that you have your concept, i suggest that you have a look at this video . The video will give you a preview of how to build a successful marketing website.
The video will illustrate that building a marketing website is not difficult . There are various programs available in the market to design a professional marketing website. Important is , especially as a beginner that you look for a program that contains the all in one solution . Meaning a web design program that covers every issue or tool bespoken in this tutorial. On top of that , an all in one solution is usually cheaper than multiple costs for design, SEO, hosting,...

Chapter 2 : MASTER KEYWORD LIST

Before you can start writing the content of your marketing website we need to establish a HIGH-PROFITABLE KEYWORDS LIST or MASTER KEYWORD LIST. Meaning a list of keywords that are HIGH in DEMAND and LOW in SUPPLY with the SEARCH ENGINES . Finding these high-profitable keywords to write the content of our marketing website is a first step towards SEO, important for our TRAFFIC . In other words , we will write our content based upon these keywords.


Window #1 DEMAND

Use...Overture’s Suggestion Tool ( just follow the steps )... and/or 7Search “Related Keywords” Tool . Best Idea = Use both as a cross-check. Or check Google AdWords (monthly estimated searches)

Got your Overture’s Suggestion Tool loaded? Great!...

OK, one more example . Let's say you love fashion and you like to build a marketing website around "fashion" to promote products of your home based fashion shop .
Enter “fashion” and hit “Find It!”

The number in the right column is the number of times that each keyword was searched in the preceding month at Overture. In a sense, it’s an indication of the DEMAND (by your potential visitors) for each keyword that contains the word “fashion.”

OK, what do we have so far? We’ve got a good idea of what your potential visitors want. In other words, we know what’s in DEMAND, and by how much, for a variety of keywords (some of which will become your HIGH-PROFITABLE Keyword-Focused topics) that contain the word “fashion.”

Let's move on to the ....


Window #2 SUPPLY

Before we can start , we need to check out the SUPPLY of your “fashion-containing” keywords. In other words, how many sites already provide content for the keywords that we found in your DEMAND WINDOW ?

Load up Alta Vista or Google... with Google the most consistent one . You can choose , but it's better to stick with one.

And Google reports like this... “Google results 1-10 of about 455,000,000 for "fashion.”

Use Alta Vista or Google to search for each of the “fashion”-containing keywords that you found in your DEMAND WINDOW. Yes, do a search for each keyword. It is a bit tedious, but the
research will pay off in spades. I know you think it's a lot of work. That's why i told you before that it is a lot easier to use an all in one website builder .

First, though, let’s create a MASTER KEYWORD LIST. Do this either in a simple text file, or via a database or spreadsheet program. The best choice is a database like File maker Pro...
Next best choice is a spreadsheet. Both a database and spreadsheet will speed things up and provide you with extra functionality.If the idea of a database or spreadsheet scares you, simply stick with a text list.It’s a bit inefficient so it will take you a little longer, but it will do the job just fine.

OK, here’s what to do with your MASTER KEYWORD LIST. Create four columns and label them KEYWORD, DEMAND, SUPPLY, and SUPPLY SITE INFO. For each “fashion”-containing keyword in your DEMAND window...

1) Enter the keyword itself into the column labeled “KEYWORD” .
2) Enter how many times it is searched (info that you found in the DEMAND WINDOW) into the DEMAND column.
3) Enter how many sites Google or AV finds (in your SUPPLY WINDOW) in your column labeled SUPPLY.
4) Read the listings for the Top 20 sites that Google or Alta Vista returns for each keyword. Make brief notes in the fourth column, SUPPLY SITE INFO . Just get a flavor for the kinds of sites that each KEYWORD search delivers.

An example with 1 MASTER KEYWORD

KEYWORD ; clothing accessories
DEMAND ; 11,100,00 (with Google AdWords)
SUPPLY ; 29,600,000 (with Google.com)
SITE INFO ; clothing accessories, manufactures , suppliers,...

Your task is now ... to compare all the keywords and find the most profitable ones (LOW SUPPLY , HIGH DEMAND ) and to remove the ones totally irrelevant for your business .
Eliminate any words that appear too competitive (SUPPLY is too high or bidding competition at Overture is too intense), especially if they are not searched upon very often ( DEMAND is low).

It is better to stick with one Engine than to mix up ... Google+Google AdWords , Yahoo + Overture ,.... to find demand & supply .

There is one more window to make this list complete, it's just an extension for your MASTER KEYWORD LIST.


Window #3 BREAKOUT

We now need to come up with keywords that are related to "fashion" but don't contain the word "fashion" . You can use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find your related keywords and then perform the same techniques as mentioned above . And add these RELATED KEYWORDS to your MASTER KEYWORD LIST.

Your MASTER KEYWORD LIST is now complete . This list will allow you to write high profitable content loved by the search engines .

TO MUCH WORK AGAIN I SUPPOSE ....
If you find creating your own list (with a database or spreadsheet program) to be too daunting, and if a text list is too awkward, consider “SBI Manager” software, which is included in SBI.
A powerful automatic work-organizer and time-saver, it makes the entire MASTER KEYWORD LIST child’s play. How?

It does the DEMAND, SUPPLY and BREAKOUT windows (we talk about BREAKOUT below) for you automatically, turning hours of work into minutes, as it builds and researches an entire MASTER KEYWORD LIST for you. It even calculates the PROFITABILITY of every keyword automatically.

If you need more help in selecting the keywords for your business/marketing website do not hesitate to contact me .

Chapter 3 : DOMAIN NAME & HOSTING

Before you can start writing you will need a DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION .
A good domain name is...
• short and sharp
• meaningful -- conveys a clear message
• easy to spell
• easy to remember
• unique, descriptive, and “you”
• solid, classic, not hokey

Your marketing website also needs HOSTING.
Important for choosing a hosting provider is that you choose one where your marketing website is on line at all (99.99%) times.

Most all in one website builders include domain name registration and hosting as well .

Chapter 4 : BUILD A WEBSITE THAT GETS THE CLICK

The target here is to build a marketing website in such a way that your website will rank well with the search engines . I am not going to explain in full how the engines work (and they work all different as well) , but i will give some guide lines here to rank well.
Before we talk about the content let me explain something about the ....

1 .Structure of your marketing website
Your Theme-Based Content Site is made of a home page that gives the “what's in it for me” about your site. Think of your site as a pyramid, with the home page crowning the pinnacle. Your home page should link to seven(as most common example) other pages. These seven Keyword-Focused Content Pages will contain content that is about your most profitable keywords AND that fit with the whole Site Concept. Review your MASTER KEYWORD LIST and select your seven best keywords(select on the basis of profitability and fit). You will link your home page to these seven, both within the body copy, as you outline what the site is all about,and from within a text or graphic navigation bar. Your home page should not link to any of your merchant (or your business website) pages – it’s too early. Its job instead is to link to your HIGHEST-PROFITABILITY pages. It must get the click to at least one of these seven pages. This is important for two reasons...
1) Your visitor hits a “money page” -- your HIGHEST-PROFITABILITY Keyword-Focused Content Pages weave “in-context” text links to your merchant while OVER delivering great content. This is how you make your income, so we want to lead your visitors to your highest potential pages ASP.
2) Your spider-buddy follows the links and indexes (i.e., brings back to the Search Engine’s database) your most important pages first, and most reliably… the deeper a spider has to go, the more likely it is that he misses and fails to bring your bacon back to his database home. So we want to structure our site so that the HIGHEST PROFITABILITY pages have the best chance of being dragged back to all those spiders’ homes.

We’ll call your HIGHEST-PROFITABILITY pages “TIER 2” pages, since they are on a second TIER below the home page. Each of these pages can themselves link to 5-10 pages (“TIER 3” pages). TIER 3 pages should relate to the TIER 2 page that links to it. So, your TIER 1 home page links to 7 TIER 2 pages (not more, because your navigation bar starts looking pretty congested). And your TIER 2 pages each link to 5-10 TIER 3 pages.

Blur???? :-) , ... Easy , with an example . Let's go back to our " surfer".

Homepage.... all about surfing (no merchant) ! But there will be an in text- link to "surfers gadgets" (Tier 2) and on this page a text-link to " sun glasses " (Tier 3 ) .
From "Tier 2/surfers gadgets" and "Tier 3/sun glasses" a text-link to the merchant's website .
From "Tier 3/sun glasses" a link back to "Tier 2/surfers gadgets" . From "Tier 3/sun glasses" and "Tier 2/surfers" back to the homepage .

2 . Content of your website

PRE-SELL to CONVERT as explained earlier in the introduction .
Keep in mind the keyword focus !!!!! As in the example , the content of ''TIER 2" pages not around the keyword "surfer" but around "surfer gadgets" . By doing this peoples using search engines to find "surfer gadgets" will arrive at the "TIER 2" page but will discover there your whole website and of course your merchant !!!! (We will talk about keyword density later) . We call the focused keyword of a single page the SPECIFIC KEYWORD .

KEYWORDS SHOULD BE WORKED IN in
1) TITLE tag
2) META keyword tag
3) META description tag
4) H1 and other header tags
5) Body copy
6) Link tags
7) File name/domain name
8) Image ALT tag and name of image

Let's explain all this...

1) TITLE tag
* Must contain your Specific Keyword at least once (example "sun glasses" ) no more than twice, and with some kind of variation or synonym. Try to include your most important General Keyword, too.(example "surfing" )
* Up to 70, even 80 characters. Get your most important message in, right at the beginning. If the engine cuts your title off at 60 characters in its listing, you’ve still fired your “big gun.” Meanwhile, some engines will show up to 90 or so characters.
* Remember, the title appears as the link in Search Engine listings. It must “get the click” -- so make sure it’s attractive, without being misleading. Getting your Title right for both your reader and engine is the single most important thing you can do.

2) META keyword tag
* Simple. Don’t dilute your META tag with a million synonyms.
* You could add a few General Keywords that people might add when they search (ex., “discounts, shopping”). If you do put more than one keyword in this META tag (separated by commas),always put your most important one, the one that this page focuses upon, first.

3) META description tag
= “DESCRIPTION” content”
*The META description is the other half of what searchers see in the Search Engine’s listings. So, like the Title tag, make sure it’s attractive, without being misleading. A gentle, good-natured tease, like the above, will do well.
* 150-200 characters. Some engines cut off the title listing at as little as 140 characters.
* Should contain your Specific Keyword at least once (try twice if it fits and see how it ranks).
*Include one or two of your most important General Keywords.
* Remember, do not repeat the TITLE in this tag. The reader will just see the same phrase twice in the Search Engine’s listing, once in the title and once in the description.

4) H1 and other header tags
The headlines are more important than your regular body copy. That’s true for both human readers and for the engines.And remember this... some engines don’t use the META description tag to form the second part of their listings (i.e., after the Title) in their search results. In those cases, they will usually use the first words on the page, which are...
• Your H1 tag (first headline), and…
• The first words in the body copy after that.
Here are the key musts for your HI tag...
* Contains your Specific Keyword at least once. Try to include an important General Keyword too (different from the one you used in your Title).
* No longer than 80 characters, 40 is better.
* Helps to “get the click” -- so make sure it’s attractive, without being misleading
* Does not contain your Title. Otherwise, if the engine uses your H1 tag, your listing and H1 tag will both say the same thing... needless repetition.
A good strategy… Take your META description tag and chop it into two pieces...part for the headline and part for the opening paragraph of your body copy.

5) Body copy
Start your body copy strongly and deliver great content in your body copy.Your intro paragraphs establish your PRE-SELLING . After that, you’ll deliver the benefits of your website... you’ll answer the“what’s in it for me” question that every visitor asks when arriving at a site. And you’ll do it while blending in your keyword. Specific keywords are most important , and sprinkle gently with other keywords.
Some guidance ... for word count on pages :
*GENERAL KEYWORDS on HOMEPAGE : 2 - 3.5%
*SPECIFIC KEYWORDS on TIER-PAGES : 2 - 3.5%
*GENERAL and RELATED KEYWORDS on TIER-PAGES : 0.5 - 1%

6) Link tags
We discussed the structure of your site above. Links create the TIER 1-2-3 structure. And they belong in the flow of the copy. Text links must flow naturally,and beautifully, with the content. Think of your links as providing a service to your readers. You offer your links as recommendations or tips or as a service for your readers to see and use. So don’t just save them for the end, where you impassively list them. And it’s not just your readers who see the links. Yup, the engines do, too. So include your Specific Keyword, and variations and synonyms thereof, in visible, blue-underlined text in your links to your merchants.

7) File name/domain name
Include your Specific Keyword in the file name of your html page. It just might add a relevancy point or two with the engines.The only exception to this, of course, would be your home page. The homepage must be named “index.html” -- but that’s OK. We already have its Specific Keyword included in the domain name, because it is your Concept Keyword!

8) Image ALT tag and name of image
This is probably the least important, but what the heck. Name one or two of the graphics on each page after that page’s keyword focus.

Chapter 6 : BUILD OTHER TRAFFIC

1. PAY-PER-CLICKS advertising

Pay-Per-Clicks allow you to bid for keyword placement. For example, if one of your pages focuses on the topic of “fashion models,” you can bid for the #1placement (or any other #) on the first page (or lower, but what’s the point of being on page two?) of search results. It's Easy. No tweaking, submitting, etc. But there’s a catch, of course. The most popular keywords have become quite expensive at Overture (the first and biggest engine) and are rising at the others. So your best strategy is to work the niches. Bid on hundreds of less popular keywords related to your Theme-Based Content Site. This can be an extremely cost-effective way to build a big list of lifetime customers in a hurry.

Let’s give you a short summary of some Pay-Per-Clicks...

Overture will generate more traffic for you than all other Pay-Per-Clicks, combined. Of course, due to its great popularity, each click from Overture will cost you more than from the other Pay-Per-Clicks. Bay9 , Find What , 7Search, ....

2.MAJOR DIRECTORIES

Submit to major directories (other than the FREE ones in Chapter 5 ).In order of importance, we have Yahoo , Open Directory , Look Smart , ....

Most services still maintain a “free-submit” service, but there are benefits to forking out a few dollars...
1) Fast inclusion into the SE’s index. Often you'll find yourself waiting up to 2 months after your site has been crawled before it makes it into the index. Paying for inclusion means you should see your site included within a couple of days.
2) Repeated, regular spiders activity. Page-tweaking efforts are noticeable in a matter of a couple of days -- no waiting around for weeks for a spider to re-index your page, and display those changes in the SE’s listing results.
3) Guaranteed continuous inclusion. Search Engines are pretty mysterious creatures. One day, your site will be sitting pretty with a top 20 ranking, and the next day it’s gone -- disappeared without a trace for no discernible reason. Paying for your listing means it will never be dropped from the index.

Google offers an advertising option... the Google AdWords program.

Want a summary of the PAY PER CLICK programs that are available? Have a look at Pay Per Click Search Engines .

PROBLEMS, QUESTIONS , MORE INFO

You can always contact me if you have problems or questions when building your marketing website . Contact me at nickymail78@yahoo.com .

I will leave one post in this blog to work out problems/questions as well.

For more info , have a look at the free e-books in the right column .

One nice example of a marketing website is Audio Loft Report .

20