CRAZY GLUE MARKETING!

By Ben Pedersen

http://ProfitQuick.net

Does your site perform like crazy glue? Do your prospects
find themselves STUCK ON YOU?

They should!

Your site is everything. It's your digital "store front".
It's your "home base", not just your home page. To create
a site that's "sticky", that is one that will be effective,
is simple.

HOW do you create a website that's simple yet effective?
How do you make your prospects GET STUCK on your site and
actually READ it and SURF through it instead of leaving?

If you follow some simple guidelines it CAN be quite easy.

About those simple guidelines?

Here they are! Follow these guidelines and your site will be
all sticky inside, attracting visitors like flies on
flypaper!


THE NAVIGATION

About your navigation......

It should be simple and straight forward. Nothing is more
aggravating than getting lost in someone's website. If a
visitor has to use his back button, he'll most likely just
leave.

When you design that killer site of yours, keep in mind the
"two click" rule.

The "two click" rule is a rule that I stick by when designing
my sites. Basically, someone should be able to get anywhere
in your site and BACK with no more than two clicks of their
mouse.

For example, one can click once at my home page and get to the forum. They can click ONE MORE TIME and wind up back at my home page. One can click once from my "Products and Services" page and wind up at the "ZipResponse eMail Marketing Center"intro page. They click again and where do they wind up? Back at my "Product and Services" page.

Do you see how this works?

You should also have a link to your homepage on EVERY page of your website. Ideally, you should have a link to EACH page on EVERY page of the site.

If you need help understanding this, go surf around our site
http://www.profitquick.net

 and see how you "flow" through it.

Do you notice the links on each page?

Do you notice that in most cases we use that "two click"
rule?



THE BACKGROUND

Your background needs to be soft and non distractive. I've
found that light backgrounds on dark text work best. Although
this may not be as exciting as you'd hoped, if you use other
bright backgrounds you run the risk of taking your visitors'
minds OFF of your copy.

Bright backgrounds and dark backgrounds on light text
don't work very well either.

Why?

Your website needs to be EASY to read. If you
have a bright background your visitor will fatigue.
The same goes for dark backgrounds and BRIGHT text.

If this happens, they'll take a break - for good.

What about pictures or wallpapered backgrounds?

Save those for the baby's room. Online, this only
distracts the reader and makes your site loose it's
effectiveness. Again, paint the walls of your site a soft,
light color with dark text.

If you want to add color to your site, that's great! Do that
with some simple borders and heading graphics.


THE COLOR SCHEME

While we're on the subject, lets discuss the colors of your
website. This may seem simple but it is important.

Simply dress your site like you would your kids (or yourself).
I wouldn't be caught dead in chrome pants, a yellow jacket, red
t-shirt and green shoes. Those colors are outrageous and clash
so I wouldn't dress my site like that either.

My point is, use no more then two or three colors and make sure that they go well together. Sometimes it may even be wise
to use several shades of one color.

Some good color combos that I like are red/blue, dark green/copper, black/red (black used sparingly) and blue/gold.

Basically, just use your judgment here to find some good
colors that match up.

Another thing to consider is your market. You see, certain
colors entice different emotions and thoughts in people.
Using my site, http://www.Profitquick.net  as an example, I
use dark green and copper.

Why?

I used dark green because it symbolizes MONEY. When my visitors enter, they see that and associate it with money. That is
good since my site will help them make it. Having the color green around gets them "ready' to think about money - and want it.

To the contrary, if my site sold Easter eggs I would want
visitors to think about Easter and not their wallets. Thus, I would
abandon that green color set. I'd use pastel colors that
people associate with Easter. Maybe light blue and light yellow?
This would help get them in the "mood."

It's also worth noting that when I speak of colors like this, I'm
talking about borders and such. I'm NOT speaking of text and
general background colors. Again, those should be dark text on light color, preferably a black and white combination.


GRAPHICS

Ahh...... graphics.

I just went to a website that sold internet business
opportunities and guess what?

I left.

Why?

It took a minute and a half to load! The site
was LOADED with banners and graphics.

You don't need all that stuff. All it does is.......

1. Takes too long to load.

Today's surfers are very impatient. Does your site take
more then 35 seconds to load? If so, you'd better slim it
down.

When a site takes over 35 seconds to load people will
most likely click the back button and find one that's faster.

2. Distracts visitors from that hard hitting copy of yours.

Let me ask you this: Would you set up a beautiful holiday
display in your yard and then put up a strobe light next
door?

Most likely not because it would distract people right?

Well, the same goes for your website.

Don't work hard to write that killer copy and deflate it
by distracting visitors with wild graphics.

3. Confuses visitors.

If I walked into a restaurant and the menu was all
cluttered up with cheesy, flashing graphics guess what?

I would have a hard time following it because it would
be too "busy" or distractive.

The same goes for your website.

Although I may not leave the restaurant, your visitors
will leave your site and go to the one "next door".

Want your website to get read? Unplug those "cool"
graphics. If you must use graphics, only have one or
two.



AUDIO

Real audio. I haven't seen many sites that play soft music
for me - and with good reason. If I wanted soft music, I'd
turn on the radio.

But, they're out there, I've seen 'em.

My advice is this: Leave the music turned off. If your
site plays the funky chicken or any other song, your visitor
will hit the back button so fast it'll smoke.

In short, if I want your website to make noise, I'll lick
my thumb and run it across my screen.

Leave out the streaming audio.


THE COPY

When writing the copy for your website you need to keep the
reader INTERESTED. How do you do that?

1. State the BENEFITS your site offers right upfront. People
visit your site to find information for THEM. They want
stuff that will help THEM. I don't mean to sound harsh but
nobody cares about you (and me). Your visitor only cares
about HIMSELF and as harsh as that may seem, we've got to
just accept that.

Basically your visitor has ONE thing in mind,
what's in it for him! In your site, you need to tell him
that right upfront.

Look at my site http://www.profitquick.net  for an example.
Notice that at the very top it says "We'll help you start
your OWN business....?"

It says that because that's what my site will do for visitors
and that's a major benefit.

In your body copy, only use benefit packed phrases like "You
can TRIPLE your sales", etc. (w/o hyping of course! :-)

Look at the copy on your site. There should be A LOT of
"you's" and not a lot of "I's" Talk to your visitors about
them, not you.

In summary, your visitor only cares about what's in it for her.
You need to tell her that in order to be successful and you have
do it FAST.

Do you see how this works?

2. Follow the basic rule of netiquette.

Netiquette = Being polite online. Minding your manners.

ALL CAPS. Online, all caps is a no no. When you type in all caps you seem as if you're shouting at your visitors. Don't do this. Nobody likes to be shouted at and they'll leave. Type
in "normal" mode and not in all capital letters. If you want to
use all caps only do so in the headlines and sub headlines.

EXCLAMATION POINTS. If you use more then one exclamation point you're using too many.

We know how excited you are about your product. One exclamation point gets that across. To use more then one is again, shouting.

3. WHITE SPACE. Do you notice that this newsletter is typed in short paragraphs?

We do that because it's easier to read that way. If your website
is just a large jumble of text it will be harder to read. But, then
again, who will know?

Nobody will even read it. If a visitor enters your site to see
a HUGE body of text, they'll leave.

Avoid getting skipped and use white space in your copy. Type in short, benefit packed paragraphs. Between those paragraphs, leave at least one blank line.




GENERAL CUSTOMER "FRIENDLINESS" TIPS

Here are some other tips to keep your site in the throws of success.

1. Make sure that your site has focus. Don't just toss up a ton of affiliate ads and banners and expect instant cash.

Instead, offer a theme and find affiliate programs that cater to
that theme. For example, my site is designed to help
people start and run their online businesses. As such, the products I offer are designed to help them do just that.

2. While we're on the subject of affiliate programs, only offer
products that you own yourself. Think about it. How can you
effectively market a product you don't know anything about? To do otherwise could harm your reputation.

It is also a good idea to post personal recommendations for the
affiliate programs you sell. How can you do that if you don't even OWN the product you're selling?

You can't.

3. Organize your site's content. Divide your site into sections like "Products, services, resources", etc. Design and organize your content via those guidelines. For an example visit
http://www.profitquick.net  and notice how our site is organized.

4. LOAD TIME. Sure, the broad band plays on but not everyone has a quick connection. To be safe, your site needs to load in under 35 seconds on a 56K connection.

Trim down those logos and banners to decrease load time.

5. CONTENT: Don't just toss up a bunch of rehashed, out dated
articles and call that content. It's important to put in some
effort to provide your visitors with good and VALUABLE
content.

The bottom line?

If you offer your visitors value, they'll keep coming back.



A WORD OF CAUTION

Lately there seems to be an ugly trend unveiling itself on the net. It seems that people have forgotten about copyright issues and other's rights.

You see, I mention this because I'm noticing a common misconception about the internet that concerns material online.

I bring this up because during a discussion with someone who's having a site done, this person said her WEB DESIGNER told her that everything online is fair game. He told her to just "copy and past" stuff she found online into her site. Thankfully I caught up with her and corrected the problem before she wound up in trouble.

Her reply when I told her of the wrong advice she received?

"Oh no Ben! You see, copyright isn't online. On the internet,
everything's free. I know I'm right because 'john doe' told me."

After a brief discussion, I was able to educate this person properly. I'll do the same for her "advisor" if I can ever get a hold of him.

In addition to that, TWO of my online friends have been the victims of plagiarism - the unauthorized copying of their sites. This is not lawful and can get the offending webmaster in BIG trouble. He or she can even be PUT OUT OF BUSINESS!

It's important that you understand that online AND offline, work is the COPYRIGHTED property of it's owner. It doesn't matter if it can be easily duplicated or not. Who gives a hoot if it's digital or otherwise. If you didn't create it, don't use it unless you're allowed to do so in writing. To do otherwise may take you right to court, not success.

This is not meant to sound harsh. I just want to make sure that you are aware of this and don't make the same costly mistakes that others have.


IN SUMMARY........

If you follow the above guidelines you'll be on your way to the
perfect site. You'll have one that you can be proud of - and
have success with.

Your website should reflect you and be a part of your personality. Be creative and try new ideas you have. Don't be afraid to experiment and twist these guidelines to fit your site and your personality.

Not only is your website your business, it's also an art. Art
created by an artist - you! Implement these ideas into your website with a touch of yourself and you'll be success.