3 Key Words Needed to Create an Effective Website

All writers need a website; it's just the nature of the writing business these days. But, just throwing a website up won't cut it. You need to create an effective, engaging and appealing website.

According to a number of marketers, the most essential words on your site are: SIGN UP.

These two little words are the building blocks of your empire. They are the link to developing a relationship with the visitors to your site.

With attention spans dwindling and competition increasing, the main goal of your website is to get email addresses that convert into sales. During an initial visit, your visitor may not have the time to spend browsing your site for information to entice him to make the decision to purchase your book or product. This is where those two little words come in; it takes less than a minute to type in a name and email address. And, if you have a FREE GIFT offer for signing up, you've made the sign up decision even easier.

While it's important to offer that Free Gift, which is considered an ethical bribe, if it's of no value to the visitor, he probably won't bother signing up. So, how do you decide if your gift is valuable enough to grab that email address?

The answer to this question is easy: you know who your target buyers are. Think about it . . . what do they want? What would you want? If your site and product is about writing, guess what...your visitors would probably appreciate an e-book on that topic, maybe a how to write guide. Or, if you're into marketing...offer an e-book of marketing tips and guidance. If your site is about cooking, offer recipes, or an instructional cooking e-book. The idea is to establish yourself as an expert...as someone your reader wants to learn from. They need to want what you're offering, whether it's for instructional value, information, entertainment, or other

So, that's pretty easy, right? But, a word of caution here: make sure your new subscriber is able to get his free gift. There are a couple of sites I've signed up to because I wanted the free offers. When I received the link to the offer, either the link didn't work, or I couldn't download the gift. Either way, I unsubscribe to the sites. I have on occasion sent an email to the site owner and ended up receiving the gift, but most often I don't, and I'm sure others don't, have the time to do this.

Just a quick note here: you need an opt-in box in order to acquire those email addresses. Services such as Icontact, GetResponse, and ConstantContact offer this service.

The next two words that are essential to every website that is selling a book or other product are, BUY NOW, or some other call-to-action. The call-to-action words or button needs to be visible and near the top of your home page. It should also be throughout your site on the sidebar. It's been said over and over that only 1% of first time visitors will buy a product. It's usually after developing a relationship through your newsletter, information, and offers that your potential customer or client will click on the BUY NOW button!

These are just three of a number of items that your website will need, but they are three of the most important.