Keep the Content Coming!

Your website is finally built. It's professionally designed, has compelling content, and it has vast amounts of helpful information about your products or services. But, and this is an important but...is your website working for you?

Your offline tools and advertisements may get your customers and prospects to go to your website home page once. But you want them to return many times. Here are some things to improve your website's sales power:

1. Update Your Portfolio: If you have a portfolio of your work (photographers, architects, landscapers, designers, writers, etc.), keep your "latest and greatest" work current. Send an enthusiastic e-mail to your customers to let them know it's been updated.

2. Write Articles: You are an expert in your field. Customers are hungry for the information only you can provide. Give them helpful advice and tips. On your homepage, let website visitors know about this section.

3. Add a Discussion Forum: Your website designer can help you add a discussion forum. This allows visitors to communicate with each other, and your staff can provide helpful answers.

4. Create a "Links" Page: Customers like being able to find out more information regarding their purchasing decisions. With a links page, you can map the way for them to visit other related websites.

5. Publish an Ezine: Publishing an ezine will help position your business as an expert in your field. In addition, you will be providing tips to your customers that will help them. It sets you apart from your competitors and instills confidence and trust in your readers, making it easier for them to do business with you. Archive your articles on your website on an ongoing basis to refresh your content for business.

6. Ask Your Site Visitors: Is there something in your business you are considering? Do you want some feedback on a service? Why not ask for your customers' opinion? You can post an online opinion poll and down the road, post customers' responses.

7. Start a Blog: If you are committed to posting regularly, a blog can be a great way to build relationships with your customers and leads. You can give them advice about services or products, you can offer them helpful advices, and you can give business updates. Best of all, a blog is easy to set up and update!

ACTION ITEM: This week, look at your website. Would a visitor want to come back? If not, write down several things you can add to your site that will entice people to return. Take the necessary steps to get it in place. Then, update your site!
About the Author

Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven writes Kinetic Ideas: A Marketing Blog at http://www.wendy.kinesisinc.com Sign up for Kinesis Quickies at http://www.news.kinesisinc.com : This twice-a-month ezine features free marketing tips and secrets for business owners and entrepreneurs.

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Web Design... Web Design for Newbies Content Sells and Sells Again Web design! Before a few weeks ago, when I heard those words, they went into my "other" category! "Other" people, with "other" educations, with "other" minds -- brilliant minds, unlike mine (!) -- were the designers of webpages. Certainly NOT me! But that was before I ran across a simple process that taught me to do it myself! This process claimed that I could develop a website. They claimed it took "no prior web technical experience." Sounds like so much fluff, doesn't it?! But here I am, a few weeks later, a new website (of my own!!), with 45 pages of content! And more to come! And guess what? It makes money. No, not millions(!) in 3 days, like a lot of websites claim. But certainly, slowly and steadily, I've built a website that will return profits. All by following a simple plan, spelled out step by step, that even I (with a basketball coaching degree, no less!) have been able to follow. I'm still wondering if I've really done this. The best plan for...

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