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Web Site Creation



Your goal is to build a website that will make money and get you rich. To profit from it needs time and effort.

Making a web site can be as simple as using one of the many HTML publishing packages available, including the free ones that come with your browser, or edit them manually by hand. If you don't know how to make a basic page then refer to some of the excellent sites listed in the resource page - these explain how to do it far better than I. You may not even have to make a web site as some affiliation programs (if that is what you are selling) provide you with a URL to market, but you probably wouldn't be able to tailor the page. It's much better to own your own URL even if you are marketing affiliates programs with ready-made pages, then send visitors to the affiliate site from your own. Great Domainia offer URLs from $29.97 for a whole year, and only $49.97 for two full years!

Once you have a basic web site you need to decide who it is aimed at. When marketing on the internet it is allways best to stay focused and aim at a specific group. If you have something to sell allready then there's no problem, you should allready know your target. If not then it's probably best to make a site centered around a hobby or interest of yours then look for something to sell or market.

As an example imagine your hobby was Tropical Fish. You could make a site that details how to look after your fish, tips on cleaning the tank, information on breeds of fish, etc. You could even create an e-book on your choosen field and sell this from your site! This has been a successful technique for many people. One of the best products to sell on the internet is Information! If you want more avenues for sales or don't have anything to sell then you begin your search for partners or affiliates within your field. This is detailed later. Finding content for a page is probably the most difficult but most rewarding part of the process.

Ad Copy

Whether you're selling your own work or someone elses your page should be practically a sales letter. Make sure you do the following:
  • Detail the benefits of a product and how you can't live without it. You should cover the emotional aspects of using the product as well as just the physical description and state just how much this would change your life.
  • You should be eliciting desire in the buyer and creating an interest (appeal to their curiosity).
  • You should write directly to the buyer - that means using words like "you" and "your" a lot.
  • Try illustrating benefits with metaphors and stories. Any claims should be believable.
  • Be specific on detail (eg Reduce debt by 30% rather than just Reduce your Debts!), and only focus on one product. If you can be very specific, e.g. Reduce emissions by 39.6%!
  • Give real information, not hype, and get to the point, but you can start vaguely
  • Remind them that this can be bought, but not straight away, start with a free offer!
  • Use lots of bullet lists to make points clear.
  • Don't be afraid to be verbal on a web site, tests have proved that longer sales letters work just as well as short ones.
  • Split the copy over multiple pages and link with phrases like "But that's not al..." and "Wait! There's more!".
  • Use a P.S and a P.P.S and make lots of offers.
  • Use dates to spur a buyer to buy, usually about 48 hrs away (e.g. "buy by xx/xx/xx to recieve xxxx"). Use scarcity as well, e.g. We only have 36 of these left!
  • Above all start with a question, make sure the answer is clear and help the buyer understand why he's buying! Also, the reader cares about himself - appeal to this!
  • Headings are extremely important - make the reader curious or excited or both. Use words like "How To" "x Ways To" "Secret" "Just Revealed!" "Proven" "Guaranteed" and strong words like "Extremely" "Amazing" "Ultimate" "Revolutionary" etc. Headlines that state a problem with a solution or ask a question work well, as do those that seem like a news report - "Announcing..." Try putting quotation marks around the headline.
  • Offer guarantees, even a double-money back guarantee or similar. You must have a clause to make this work, e.g. they have to actually use and try the techniques in the product to qualify. Don't offer a no-questions-asked refund unless you're sure. Longer guarantees e.g. 90-day take away the instinct to rush if given a 30-day guarantee.
  • Pricing is important: For some reason prices with 7's work well, eg $47.99 or $17.97 etc. Split prices to lowest denominator, eg. $1 a day instead of $30 a week or whatever. Higher prices give greater percieved value. Some things have actually sold better at the higher price!
  • If possible, use testimonials. If you haven't any, ask for them!
  • Don't link out of a sales site! Just follow from page to page, but offer a quick link to the order page (and `tell` them to order - e.g. Click Here to Buy Now!) at top and bottom and after intro in case they get excited and want to order right away. Offer a link to a autoresponder for more info in case they don't have time to read the entire copy.
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    Not all sites are sales copy. Some try another tactic. They try NOT to sell, but to educate. Their aim is to create a name awareness and build credibility. These sites are often `portal` sites rather than sale sites. The second aim is to harvest e-mail addresses but these are better than the average e-mail list as they are highly targeted and the person is allready educated and aware.

    A web page should be a door through which you entice your customers. The first part should grab their attention and pull them in. In the first 3 lines you should describe a problem and give a solution. Once you have the visitor, don't let go! Keep laying on the benefits of whatever you are selling and repeat the most prominent features often. The site should look clean, and a few clear graphics do help but as they say content is king. If you are developing a shopping site or similar and need database features, searches, dynamic content (think sites like Amazon) then even this is not beyond you, but you may need help. Try Anaconda - their products will make this and other site enhancements simple!

    If you don`t utilise the schemes mentioned here and intend to start, or perhaps already run, a `traditional` company, one that sells an item or service then you could lose out big time if you don`t offer credit card purchases. An internet business depends a lot on impulse buying, and letting the shopper use a credit card is essential. You don't need to buy a merchant account (but Merchant Systems offer great deals) as there are companies who will take the card payments on a comission basis - but of course you'll probably lose out that way on higher volume sales. Even if you are now contemplating running an affiliation program it should be your ultimate goal to make money for yourself, selling your own product/service/ebook etc. That is where the true riches lie.

    Once your site is ready to be uploaded to the Web you should take a moment to edit the keywords on your page. We touch on search engines in the next section but keywords must be added in the site-creation phase. To do this use the <META NAME="keywords"> and the <META NAME="description"> tags. Put these in the <HEAD> section of your webpage, or insert them with your Web Editor if you are using one. The format is <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="put keywords here"> and <META NAME="description" CONTENT="put description here"> tag. Don't worry if you don't understand web pages yet, just remember this information ready for when you build your first page. There is a good meta-tag guide at Jim Tools

    Try and cover every word for your site but don't repeat too often or use to many words. As an example the Tropical Fish page could have for keywords words such as "tropical fish, tropical, fish, aquarium, heater, species, goldfish, breeding, feeding," and the description tag could be "How to look after Tropical Fish - site includes tips, tricks, downloads, links, free guides and more!". You should also repeat as many keywords as you can in the (readable) first paragraph of your text. To choose good keywords look at your sites content and look at other similar sites on the web. There are sites and programs that will help you choose keywords, such as Overture

    You should now have a web page, with content, and the appropriate keywords set. Now you put it on the web. If you can afford it buy a URL (try Great Domainia) that describes your site as the URL itself becomes a keyword. TropicalFish.Com is undoubtedly gone, but try variations such as KeepingTropicalFish.Com etc. If you opt for a free site you may have to put up with banners or similar but they are not too off-putting. Choose a subdomain or username that reflects your site as this too can help as a keyword. Your site will then end up being something like TropicalFish.freesite.com or freesite.com/tropicalfish. Try GeoCities or Tripod for free web pages, but there are literally hundreds of them out there. If the URL you get is too unwieldy then you could go a step further and get a free redirection address such as go.to/tropicalfish that would send people to your site. Great Domainia will let you see if a domain is available and also give you two great tools to find a suitable URL.

    Armed with your site at it's new URL you can proceed to the next page!