  |
Fishing the Net
First Give if You Want To Get If you intend to sell something on the Internet you must use some sort of bait. You need to attract visitors to your website. The best way to do this is to offer unique information. We call this information "CONTENT." People surf the net to find this content just as fish search the waters to find food.. You can supply this unique information either through your own expertise or through the expertise of others. After a taste of the bait, the fish return for dinner. The first consideration of the angler is what kind of fish to try to catch. You want to go after a species you have a reasonable chance of catching. On the Internet this amounts to researching the market. The fish you seek will determine the bait you should use. On-line it's your information or content that attracts the fish. Not all fish are attracted to every kind of bait. So the more specific you can be in determining the bait (content) required, the greater your chance of catching the kind of fish you want. Your unique expertise helps define YOUR market and develop it. If you choose your bait correctly, you will actually be able to select which fish you catch as opposed to accepting whatever swims into the net.More Lines in The Water How many fish can you catch with one line in the water? The pros use every tool they can get. Professionals use electronic fish finders to find schools of fish. Your server's logs act like a fish finder. They tell you where the fish are hanging out. Having one page on the Internet, you may only pull in 1 - 10 visitors a day. If you have two pages with different titles, descriptions, and content for the search engines to index, you may double your visitor count. The search engines dangle your bait. Your page titles and descriptions appear in the search engine listings for everyone to see. The title to your page and the description of it's content are more important than the content itself. Your page title and description are the bait, you can't expect to attract fish with stale or inappropriate bait. If your offer is interesting enough to attract visitors, you will have a much better chance of making sales. You want to do everything possible to develop return visitors. If you create compelling content, your customers will return to buy again and again with little or no additional effort from you. You will need to EARN return visitors to build sales. Ask them to bookmark your page. Work to understand the specific information they are looking for, and continue developing your content and you will be surprised at how fast your traffic and sales increase.Set and Gather the Net Gradually develop more pages. Make every link on your site deliver more information or present your order form. Become a content developer and others will link to your site driving their visitors to you. They send you visitors because your content adds value to their content. This is an often-overlooked marketing strategy. Beginning in 1999 the search engines have gradually changed the way in which they rank pages in order to deliver more visitors to the most popular, most content-rich websites.Set The Hook Once you get a good bite, follow up so the fish doesn't get away. Fishing for deep-sea fish from shore isn't going to work well; you need to get out on deep water. Imagine yourself in your customer's shoes. Discover what they want, then satisfy their needs by providing it. Follow up with your prospect using several short content-rich email messages. Prepare your messages from your ideal customer's point of view. Tell them exactly why they should buy from you and not someone else.Don't Scare Them Off Professional anglers don't make a move that might scare away a potential catch. So don't place banners or links on your pages that can let your catch slip away. Especially before they have tasted the bait. It's couunter-productive to place a banner at the top of a page that sends your visitors elsewhere. Consider each off-site link carefully. If you send a visitor away, there should be an added value to you in doing so. You are looking for schools of specific fish. Target your visitors as tightly as possible. Gradually gather the net. Move them along towards your order form. You can do this easily if you are providing what they want.
Try Something New Targeting on the Internet is like trolling for fish. If you continually try new things and track your results, your catch will continually grow. If you blindly do the same things over and over again without monitoring your results properly, your catch will continue to decrease.Fishing Can Be a Costly Business Don't spend too much to earn too little. Even the professional can waste money on the wrong tackle and equipment. Often we spend too much on the things that do not matter much and too little on those that do. The trick is to track everything you do. It is the only way to be certain what works and what does notHire a First Rate Guide If you are serious about your business, it's smart to get follow a professional. The best investment you can make is expert information. In every body of water, there is ONE MOST experienced angler. They are the mentors to the rest of us. They already have what we want, and they already know what we want to know. Only a fool knows everything. No matter who you are or who you think you are, there is always someone who knows more. If you want what they have you need to do the things they do.Join a Fleet of Professionals Two boats working together can often catch more fish than two separate boats. When working together; the sum can be greater than its parts. This is the concept of synergy. Set up strategic partnerships through which you can offer more products and services without doing all the work yourself. Associate and Affiliate Programs allow you to earn additional income selling complementary products through off-site links.You Don't Get Rich Showing Off Your Trophys Don't set up your website to showcase things you want to sell. Trust me. It just doesn't work. Showcase great content, then your content may lead visitors to the register.Diversify Your Catch Over Time If you fish the same waters long enough, you will eventually deplete them. Refine your targeting. Don't always fish for bass or trout. Consider all the factors, the weather, the wind, everything. Change the products you emphasize. Frequently change or add some new content. Add related products. Keep up to date. Everyone is different, so within your niche develop several solutions for a single problem. Briefly explain the benefits of your products or services. Qualify your leads while you still have them on your site. You want them to leave only AFTER they order. If your goal is to make a living from home, diversify your business into related niche markets. You will find that some of your products will attract traffic for other products you offer. Just don't overdo it. Require a clearly defined purpose for each product, one that fits with the site's purpose, and you will do much better.Summing Up Don't just throw a line in the water and wait. If you are to develop your Internet niche, you must incorporate and try several strategies. Unfortunately, "If you build it they will come" only works in the movies. Train yourself to become the leader or most expert angler in your niche. From "Be Your Own Boss" ©2004 All Rights Reserved ROBERT SMITH helps thousands successfully market their Internet based home business. You'll find tons of free marketing tools & resources on his Internet Marketing web site at:<http://www.smithfam.com/>. Download Bob's highly respected eBook "Be Your Own Boss"
http://www.1st-be-your-own-boss.com/byob.html
|
 |
 |
|
|
Click Here to Email Bob Smith
The Biggest, Most Valuable Information Products Package just got even better. Now with resale rights and free CD duplication rights
