You Need More Than a Website

According to a November 2007 survey by Netcraft, almost 150 billion websites exist on the Internet. Is one of them yours? How much did it cost you to have it "built?" What is your monthly hosting cost? What about changes, updates, redesigns? Do you have to pay for this too? Consider though the most important question: Exactly how much money do you earn from your website?
Be honest! Nine times out of 10 your website does not earn money for you. In fact, I suggest that most people in the country do not even know that you have a website.
Here's a quick test! You can take this test if you have a website, or if you're have thought about having a website.
Goggle the name of your company, organization, or just your name and see if you're indexed in this search engine. Now Goggle some other well known business or personality, say Wal-Mart, Target, Domino's, etc. As for personalities, try Oprah, some other other well known entertainer or sports star. What happened? Why didn't your name, or website address create even a ripple in the Goggle search engine? My business name is KOG Unity PLUS Group. Goggle KOG Unity . . . Goggle Milton C. Jordan, Sr. What happened? Why is my business name and personal name indexed high in the world's most popular search engine, and chances are yours is not?
Why is this important? Research reveals that about 90 percent of searchers who find internet information, including websites, use search engines. Therefore, unless your website, or pages, is indexed by the popular search engines, people will not find you on the Internet, and no matter what you're offering, you will not attract many takers.
Fact facts! If you list your website on your letterhead, your business card, and even on a magetic sign on the side of your vehicle, and most people who know about your website know it that way, you are wasting money on your website.
I began learning about websites early in 2003, about a year before a large telecommunications company I represented as a homebased business owner declared bankruptcy. I learned several fascinating lessons, including the following: building a website is a relatively simple "engineering" task, but is not worth a hill of beans be itself. In fact, I began noticing hundreds of websites on the Internet with dead links, outdated information and other flaws that made these sites decidely user-unfriendly. Simultaneously, though, I also noticed thousands of user-friendly websites. You found them in search engines. Hyperlinks--both internal and external--worked easily. These sites included clearly written, exciting content and led readers step-by-step to favorable decisions.
As I continued my research, I learned about Search Engine Optimization, or SEO in internet industry jargon.
According to Webopedia, SEO means: " . . .the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine."
Why should I care? Because I want a certain percentage of visitors to my website to decide to make a purchase.
By the way, did your web designer who sold you your website tell you about SEO?
Further research revealed another key fact, this one from the National Sales Executives Association. According to this professional group only two percent of sales are made on the initial contact. Three percent of sales are made on the second contact. Five percent of sales are made on the third contact. Ten percent of sales are made on the fourth contact. A whooping 80 percent of sales are made between the fifth and the 12th contact. So as the NSEA declares: "The fortune is in the follow-up!"
So even if I am indexed in all of the popular search engines and 100 visitors find me, 98 of them will go away without making a purchase? How do I get them back? What do I need to do to get 78 more of them to buy what I'm offering. Let's says I'm offering a product or service that costs $25. So $2,500 in potential sales visited my website because I was indexed high in the search engines. Fifty dollars stayed, and $2,450 in potential sales left without spending any money.
Now, let's say that I spent $1,500 to have an expert designer "build" my website, and monthly hosting costs $30, or $360 annually. The numbers provide a clear challenge. I need $1,860 in sales just to break even. Figuring my 100 visitors as a weekly count, it will take me 37 weeks just to break even.
Clearly, that example represents an oversimplification of the challenges of effective website marketing, but I believe it makes my point.
You need more than a website.
You need, for example, to understand SEO and how to apply it to your website.
You need you understand basic marketing strategies and statistics. For example, what is the difference between marketing and selling? According to one of my mentors: "Marketing is the systematic posturing undertaken in order to most effectively reach the markets that are most suitable to your expertise and goals. Selling, on the other hand is hitting the streets, talking to people--actually implementing all the marketing plans you've developed."
In other words, marketing takes place well before actual selling begins. Again, my mentor teaches: "Effective marketing should be low cost, requiring minimal labor resulting in qualified prospects and a high percentage of sales."
That challenge brings us to the third component of an internet tool I have named: Strategic Internet Marketing System, or SIMS.
This third component is an email marketing tool that includes an autoresponder feature. I will discuss SIMS, SEO and Email marketing in more detail in subsequent articles in this series.
Suffice it to say at this point that if you have or want to have a website so you can earn money, maybe even multiple streams of money, on the Internet, you need more than a website.
Yes, having a website forms the foundation of your Internet Marketing Strategy. But you need addtional components, and you must weave them together to work as components of a system that produces profitable results.