Photo: Tracy O

There are two critical rules that will transform your web site into a money making machine:

1. Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Site
2. Drive Users To Complete An Action

These two requirements are intertwined. Success with one element is almost useless without the other. No matter how beautiful and functional your site is, no one will appreciate it until you drive traffic to it. On the other hand, all the traffic in the world won’t earn you any money if your site is poorly designed and an ineffective sales tool.

Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Some SEO “pros” charge a ton of money for placing your site within the top-10 results of major search engines. The secret they’re not telling you is that anyone can receive top placement by using obscure keyphrases that probably won’t generate much traffic. Before paying for someone to promote your site on search engines, ask them about the popularity of the keyphrases, and the kind of traffic you can expect. Also ask for references so you can verify that their SEO services are legit and effective.

Viral Marketing
The name might sound scary, but it’s a safe and powerful way to generate traffic. It’s based on the same principal as the classic “word-of-mouth” promotion. The idea is to offer an entertaining or informative free service on your site, and encourage visitors to tell their friends about it.

The viral techniques we implemented brought thousands of visitors to the site.

Common forms of viral marketing media include virtual postcards sent by email, and tools to share informative articles or video clips that automatically send emails with links.

About 7 years ago, in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, we created a humorous site to introduce visitors to the unique quirky culture of Utah. The viral techniques we implemented brought thousands of visitors to the site. A selection of irreverent and humorous Virtual Postcard were a hit with Utah locals and Mormons around the globe. Online voting for favorite models to make the Top-12 cut for a calendar was another big traffic generator. The models and their friends campaigned vigorously bringing a slew of free traffic to the site.

External Links
Using “Reciprocal Links” is a great way to increase traffic. Just seek out sites that share a similar audience. Contact them and ask them if they would like to exchange links.

Google and most major search engines base your site’s ranking on “Link Popularity”. This means that the more links on other sites that point to your site, the higher your rankings will be.

Online Advertising
If you decide to advertise with banner ads, keep these rules in mind:

1. Stay away from sites that charge a flat rate per month, unless they can demonstrate a high volume of traffic. It’s easier to know what to expect if you pay for impressions, usually purchased in quantities of 1000.
2. Be wary of paying to have your banner displayed on a site that displays multiple banners per page. These multiple banners visually compete for attention reducing the effectiveness of your advertising. Purchasing a high number of ad views on such sites can help compensate for the reduced effectiveness.
3. Have your banner designed by a professional. Poorly designed banners lack professionalism and credibility, and won’t generate much traffic.

Bidding for keywords on search engines is one of the most cost-effective forms of targeting. First, you only pay for actual clicks. Second, the audience you are advertising to is actively searching for your service or product. Third, you don’t need to spend thousands; you can start getting results with an initial investment as low as $50.

Affiliate Programs
Affiliate Programs are a great way to generate sales. Other websites promote your product or service, and you pay only for completed orders or leads that they send to you.

You can set up your own affiliate tracking software, or pay another company to handle your affiliate program for you. Some sites that offer this service are Commission Junction and LinkShare.

Drive Visitors To Complete An Action

Professional Design
Your website is your online identity. Visitors will often judge your company’s professionalism and competency by the appearance of your website. A site that appears to be designed by an amateur can hurt your credibility. It can sometimes be better to NOT have a site, than to have a poorly designed site.

Identify Specific Audiences on Frontpage
On the web, you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of the average web surfer before they move on to another site. Keep text on the frontpage brief, and use highlights to draw viewers deeper into the site.

Use vertical markets or specific solutions that your viewers can quickly identify with. For example when working with a Call Center client, we had a brainstorm session and listed the different markets that require call center services. We then created a link for each market on the frontpage.

A good example of identifying specific audiences on the frontpage is IBM which links to different sections for diverse audiences such as Executives, Developers, and Journalists.

Create a Linear Path for Each Audience
The web is a collection of interlinked pages. The very nature of the web can make for interesting and random navigation. To keep viewers from straying, it’s important to give them a linear path that starts as soon as they identify with an audience or solution on the frontpage.

The flow should start with content that generates interest or evokes an emotional response. This should be followed by facts and information to validate the initial interest. The process should come to a close by giving the user an action to perform.

Give Visitors an Action to Complete
It is important to give a sense of closure to the experience you’ve created for your visitors. This could be, for example, a feedback form to fill-out, entering a credit card, generating a phone call, or subscribing to a newsletter.

Everything you’ve put into your website comes down to this one crucial point. To increase the ratio of completed orders, make your customers comfortable. Studies have shown that simple things like reminding viewers that the form is secure, displaying a money-back guarantee, and having a Privacy Policy can drastically increase sales conversion rates.

Do you have any experiences with generating online sales that you’d like to share? I appreciate all comments, so please leave one below.