Friday, August 19, 2005
The "Polite" Trap
The "Look at Me" Trap and the "Polite" Trap have some things in common when it comes to the traps that eat into website business' success. But in other ways they're the exact opposite of each other.
They're alike in that both result from the business owner injecting too much concern with the way that others see him or her. But they're different in that while the business owner who falls into the "Look at Me" trap is focused on being seen as cool, cutting edge, a big shot, the business owner who falls into the "Polite" trap is worried about being seen as impolite or pushy.
Maybe it's something about our elementary school way of learning writing. We're taught to write formally, impersonally, unemotionally. And years later, when we start our own business, we can't shake that feeling that that's the way we must write our sales copy.
So we write it with a "just-the-facts" approach that ultimately is uneffective—lists of features, but nothing to help the visitors visualize the benefits they'll receive from buying that website's products.
And heaven forbid that we should actually say something that encourages visitors to buy! Even is simple link that says, "Click here to put this item in your shopping cart," is banished in the fear that it will make us look pushy.
But the "Polite" Trap, in all its fear of being thought of as unprofessional in our writing or pushy in promoting our products, neglects to see that our visitors aren't looking for a sixth-grade essay on our products—they're looking for solutions to their problems. And if we get so caught up in being formal about our products that we don't help them see the solutions our products offer them, we're depriving them of the very solutions they seek.
And if we fear so much that we'll come across as pushy if we dare to suggest that our visitors start the process of buying our products, we leave them in their state of uncertainty—"Shall I buy this now, or think it over? Shall I buy it here or look elsewhere?" Many times, that little nudge is all it takes to help them resolve their uncertainty by giving them permission to make the decision they'd like to make, but are being held back from by inertia.
Don't be afraid to be personal, warm, outgoing in your writing style when you write about your products. Your visitors aren't looking for a formal essay on the Web; they're looking for a person they can trust with solutions they can trust.
And don't worry that you'll appear pushy if you suggest that they take the next step toward buying. If they've gotten to the point where you have nothing more to say to them than to ask, they're interested enough to not think badly of you for asking. And you may be surprised at how many more people buy when your sales copy is personal instead of formal and your suggestion to buy is direct instead of unspoken.
Jeff
The "Look at Me" Trap and the "Polite" Trap have some things in common when it comes to the traps that eat into website business' success. But in other ways they're the exact opposite of each other.
They're alike in that both result from the business owner injecting too much concern with the way that others see him or her. But they're different in that while the business owner who falls into the "Look at Me" trap is focused on being seen as cool, cutting edge, a big shot, the business owner who falls into the "Polite" trap is worried about being seen as impolite or pushy.
Maybe it's something about our elementary school way of learning writing. We're taught to write formally, impersonally, unemotionally. And years later, when we start our own business, we can't shake that feeling that that's the way we must write our sales copy.
So we write it with a "just-the-facts" approach that ultimately is uneffective—lists of features, but nothing to help the visitors visualize the benefits they'll receive from buying that website's products.
And heaven forbid that we should actually say something that encourages visitors to buy! Even is simple link that says, "Click here to put this item in your shopping cart," is banished in the fear that it will make us look pushy.
But the "Polite" Trap, in all its fear of being thought of as unprofessional in our writing or pushy in promoting our products, neglects to see that our visitors aren't looking for a sixth-grade essay on our products—they're looking for solutions to their problems. And if we get so caught up in being formal about our products that we don't help them see the solutions our products offer them, we're depriving them of the very solutions they seek.
And if we fear so much that we'll come across as pushy if we dare to suggest that our visitors start the process of buying our products, we leave them in their state of uncertainty—"Shall I buy this now, or think it over? Shall I buy it here or look elsewhere?" Many times, that little nudge is all it takes to help them resolve their uncertainty by giving them permission to make the decision they'd like to make, but are being held back from by inertia.
Don't be afraid to be personal, warm, outgoing in your writing style when you write about your products. Your visitors aren't looking for a formal essay on the Web; they're looking for a person they can trust with solutions they can trust.
And don't worry that you'll appear pushy if you suggest that they take the next step toward buying. If they've gotten to the point where you have nothing more to say to them than to ask, they're interested enough to not think badly of you for asking. And you may be surprised at how many more people buy when your sales copy is personal instead of formal and your suggestion to buy is direct instead of unspoken.
Jeff
Thursday, August 18, 2005
The "Look at Me" Trap
Time to resume last week's look at some of the traps that keep new businesses from succeeding. Have you ever been to a site where the purpose of the site seemed to be to prove that the webmaster knew about every cutting edge tool? Ever bought anything from those sites? Yep. I thought not.
Many webmasters never get past treating their sites as an extension of their ego, a chance to show off—and to impress everyone with how totally cool they are. Now that's fine if all you want is a vanity site. Just don't expect to sell anything on it, because people aren't surfing the web for the purpose of rewarding anyone they find who crams all those cool new tools down their visitors' throats.
Your visitors are looking for someone who will make their lives easier by solving the problems that sent them off on their search in the first place. They're not looking for sites that scream, "Look at me!" They're looking for sites that clearly communicate, "I'm looking at you and want to help you solve your problem."
Wow! Talk about a message that will stop a visitor in their tracks and get them seriously considering a purchase!
Ever notice how terribly dull big name sites like eBay and Amazon look? No animated pictures, no wild color combinations. Just clear, easy to follow navigation that takes you right where YOU want to go.
They seek to meet YOUR needs, not their need to feel "cutting edge." And that's the kind of attitude that persuades people to buy.
Jeff
Monday, August 15, 2005
A need for feed
I've settled for a blog with no feed generated for long enough. Tonight, I'm tackling getting the feed in place. Whether I'll succeed isn't guaranteed. But it's time to tackle one of the unfamiliar steps that I've been putting off.
Hey, isn't that one of the things I've been talking about? Taking steps that can open new areas of promotion rather than piddling around on busy work. Or is working on getting the feed working the piddly work.
I'm so behind the times when it comes to feeds. Time to learn.
Jeff
I've settled for a blog with no feed generated for long enough. Tonight, I'm tackling getting the feed in place. Whether I'll succeed isn't guaranteed. But it's time to tackle one of the unfamiliar steps that I've been putting off.
Hey, isn't that one of the things I've been talking about? Taking steps that can open new areas of promotion rather than piddling around on busy work. Or is working on getting the feed working the piddly work.
I'm so behind the times when it comes to feeds. Time to learn.
Jeff
Favorite Link Related Links
I shared some links that dealt with checking your reciprocal links a few weeks ago, but realized I had left some very important ones out—three that actually help you find reciprocal links.
Value Exchange
I don't normally recommend sites that offer to match you up with sites related to yours. My past experience with them is that once your name gets into one of these link exchange groups, you get flooded with link exchange requests from junk sites I'd be embarrassed to send visitors to. Owners of these junk sites apparently sign up with every link exchange group they can find and then send requests to absolutely everyone else on the list.
But that's not the case with Value Exchange. It's the only link exchange group I know of that actually screens your site to ensure for quality before they accept your application. It's not surprising, though, considering that it's run by the people at SiteSell!, whose whole philosophy is built around teaching people how to build quality websites.
I've started using it with clients and have gotten matches with nothing but related, quality sites. It's been a real pleasure to use.
Oh, and they also offer an excellent free ebook on their philosophy of linking toward the bottom of the Value Exchange signup page. It raises some overdue points about the search engines' responses to the direction that reciprocal linking has been going. And it offers suggestions about how to avoid the inevitable shake out that is on the horizon for those who have been careless in the linking practices. Good reading for anyone involved in reciprocal linking.
LinkMachine
LinkMachine offers a free version of their link directory management system. I've found their software to be excellent for easily managing your reciprocal linking. The interface is pretty much self-explanatory and once you set it up, the work you do to deal with reciprocal link requests is pretty minimal. You also get a seven day free trial of their advanced, link-finding tools that are part of the paid version.
If you want more information on it, see my LinkMachine review on my site.
Zeus Internet Marketing Robot
Zeus also offers a free version of their software. The software is based around your own spider that you train to find the kind of sites you want to link to and then send it out to find those kind of sites while you do other things. It, too, has a link directory system built in, which makes it easy to add the sites you find to your directory and send link exchange requests to their webmasters.
The features of the free version are pretty similar to the paid one; you just have a lot less ability to customize it. Also, with the free version, you are required to upload your Zeus-built directory to your website within 15 days of downloading the software, or Zeus will disable your version permanently.
You can check my Zeus review on my website, too. Or you can check my comparison review of LinkMachine and Zeus.
Jeff
I shared some links that dealt with checking your reciprocal links a few weeks ago, but realized I had left some very important ones out—three that actually help you find reciprocal links.
Value Exchange
I don't normally recommend sites that offer to match you up with sites related to yours. My past experience with them is that once your name gets into one of these link exchange groups, you get flooded with link exchange requests from junk sites I'd be embarrassed to send visitors to. Owners of these junk sites apparently sign up with every link exchange group they can find and then send requests to absolutely everyone else on the list.
But that's not the case with Value Exchange. It's the only link exchange group I know of that actually screens your site to ensure for quality before they accept your application. It's not surprising, though, considering that it's run by the people at SiteSell!, whose whole philosophy is built around teaching people how to build quality websites.
I've started using it with clients and have gotten matches with nothing but related, quality sites. It's been a real pleasure to use.
Oh, and they also offer an excellent free ebook on their philosophy of linking toward the bottom of the Value Exchange signup page. It raises some overdue points about the search engines' responses to the direction that reciprocal linking has been going. And it offers suggestions about how to avoid the inevitable shake out that is on the horizon for those who have been careless in the linking practices. Good reading for anyone involved in reciprocal linking.
LinkMachine
LinkMachine offers a free version of their link directory management system. I've found their software to be excellent for easily managing your reciprocal linking. The interface is pretty much self-explanatory and once you set it up, the work you do to deal with reciprocal link requests is pretty minimal. You also get a seven day free trial of their advanced, link-finding tools that are part of the paid version.
If you want more information on it, see my LinkMachine review on my site.
Zeus Internet Marketing Robot
Zeus also offers a free version of their software. The software is based around your own spider that you train to find the kind of sites you want to link to and then send it out to find those kind of sites while you do other things. It, too, has a link directory system built in, which makes it easy to add the sites you find to your directory and send link exchange requests to their webmasters.
The features of the free version are pretty similar to the paid one; you just have a lot less ability to customize it. Also, with the free version, you are required to upload your Zeus-built directory to your website within 15 days of downloading the software, or Zeus will disable your version permanently.
You can check my Zeus review on my website, too. Or you can check my comparison review of LinkMachine and Zeus.
Jeff
Sunday, August 14, 2005
The dog ate my post
Actually, it's more like Blogger ate my post last night. It was a very long one that Blogger choked on and would neither upload nor save. So no blog post last night due to a Blogger glitch and none today (other than this feeble explanation) because I didn't manage to reconstruct last night's post today.
I'll be back tomorrow night with my weekly sharing of favorite links and will see if I can reconstruct my planned blog for last night in a form that Blogger might find a little more digestible.
Jeff
Actually, it's more like Blogger ate my post last night. It was a very long one that Blogger choked on and would neither upload nor save. So no blog post last night due to a Blogger glitch and none today (other than this feeble explanation) because I didn't manage to reconstruct last night's post today.
I'll be back tomorrow night with my weekly sharing of favorite links and will see if I can reconstruct my planned blog for last night in a form that Blogger might find a little more digestible.
Jeff
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
