Making Your Website the Place to Be

There are certain things you can do to your website to encourage visitors to stay awhile. Of course, you must have those quality affiliate products and a strong market for them. That is your starting point. However, many Internet businesses that have quality products can do much better when it comes to selling. What's hampering their business growth? Often, it's their websites, which are not user-friendly, or engaging enough.

The following are five ways to help you make your website the place to be:

Make Where They Land Engaging Not Annoying

Your visitor's first exposure to your site is very important. You want them to have a soft landing so-to-speak. What that means is you want a visitor to your site to experience a warm welcome. A clean, organized presentation on whatever page they land on is conducive to this. Here, you don't immediately bombard them with those flashy intro messages that hinder them from getting to their destination. If you have a forced flash intro page, you had better have a "Skip Intro" escape hatch to go with it. Not everyone has time for the flash; many are in a dash for information, not theatrics.

Let Them "Get Around" Easily

You can make exploring your different web pages an enjoyable experience for your visitors. You do this by having a clear navigation bar that explains links clearly. This could be a top navigation bar or a side navigation bar. Each navigation button must be easy-to-read and descriptive.

However, you can go beyond a clearly defined navigation bar by having an internal search mechanism. This truly makes searching your site easy for visitors. Coupled with your navigation bar they will easily find what they're looking for on your site. A highly visible search box lets site visitors input their own search terms and find what they are looking for quicker on your site. You can regularly monitor visitors' search terms on your affiliate site and optimize your site accordingly.

Encourage Conversation

Do you want to get to know your affiliate product customers better? Why not install a forum page on your website. Have a blog associated with your affiliate website and a link to it on your navigation bar. Encourage website visitors to post comments on your forum. You can start conversation threads to get the ball rolling. Start threads on topics related to your affiliate product. Useful and relevant information that ties into your affiliate product provides added value to your customers.

Do the same with your blog. Post on your blog a minimum of three times a week to keep it fresh. Have a comment option and encourage readers to comment. When they do, respond promptly to let them know you value their opinions. Interaction with your customers lets them know you better as well. You build credibility with your customer base and they will trust you more. Consumers will buy regularly from those whom they trust.

Present Current Content Creatively

Make sure your site is always up-to-date. Whether its information directly or indirectly related to your affiliate product, it has to be current. There's nothing worse then visitors going to a website and always seeing the same information, graphics, news, ads, and the like. If they're always going to get the same old, same old, why do they need to visit again?

Keep your content fresh and serve it up creatively. Mix it up like a nice salad. Have short content, longer content, and an audio option. Have online video product demonstrations. Post customer testimonials, product reviews. Link to your article writing efforts, or post some articles directly on your site. Give your visitors useful information in a variety of ways. This adds to the vibrancy of your site.

Ask and then Use

To better understand your market and respond to their wishes ask questions and evaluate. Invite your visitors and customers to answer a survey on your site. Ask them about their experience with your website, whether they liked navigating it and its content. Ask them questions about their experiences with your affiliate products. In this way, you learn more about what customers want in your products. You also learn more about what they want in the website where they learn about your products.

Your website is a doorway opening into your business. Potential customers learn about your products and services via this doorway. Once they open the door into your business by clicking on your link, you want them to stay awhile. Consider the above five ways to make your website the place to be.

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