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The Top
10 Things That Turn Affiliates Off
#
2 – The Sales Copy Doesn't Sell (continued)
When Writing for the Web
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Don’t make your site physically
uncomfortable to look at. |
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HUGE CHUNKS OF TEXT THAT
ARE WRITTEN IN All CAPITAL LETTERS or in all italics
aren’t easy on the eyes.
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is white font on a black background. |
Same
goes for a font that’s too small and letters
that blend in with the background.
And text that
starts at the left edge of the screen and go all the way to (or
beyond!) the right edge of the screen. Click
here to see a crude example of what I mean.
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Don’t use big chunks of text.
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Remember when
you were in 7th grade and the teacher said to open, say, your social
studies book and there was huge, seemingly endless chunks of black
text? [Groan] Intimidating, wasn’t it? Your site’s
visitors will have that same reaction if you try to force them to read
big chunks of black text. Instead, break your text up into short
paragraphs and use lots of white space and wide margins like I did
throughout this site, to make it more inviting and less intimidating.
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Always write your site’s copy
in a word processor, like MS Word™.
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It'll help you catch any
boo-boo’s, like in spelling, punctuation, or you used the same same
word twice, or the sentence just doesn’t ‘sound’ right, etc., before
your
would-be customers see it. |
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Attention PC Users:
You might not know it, but Word™ does weird things. If you try to
copy text you wrote in Word
and paste it into anything that uses HTML, like a web page or an email,
strange code will appear once you upload the page to your site or send
that email.
To strip the weird code out, and save yourself hassles and
embarrassment, always paste your text into Notepad™ first [If you're
using XP™ click Start – All
Programs – Accessories – Notepad], and then copy it from there
and paste it into your web page or email.
Sadly, this will strip away any text formatting, like bold and font
size, so you’ll have to put the formatting back in with your HTML
editor.
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Write FOR your visitors –
use the right tone.
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If
your target market is, say, doctors or lawyers, use a stuffier,
professional tone, but if your target market is average folks, you’d
write like you talk – not like this:
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"If you are in a start up
business or are trying to establish your personal name then it is
incumbent that you strategically get your name out on the internet as
many times as possible so that the search engines, when looking for
you, will bring back a plethora of items with you in the top results
and on the first page." |
[At what point did you zone out while reading that?]
Don’t use buck-fifty words
when fifty-cent words will do the job.
If you make your reader have to work just to figure out what it is that
you’re saying, they’ll click their "Back" button and go somewhere
else. Like Sir Winston Churchill said: "Old, simple words are
best. They go straight, like bullets from a rifle."
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Make sure your site is error-free.
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One
or two spelling or punctuation errors will damage your credibility, and
without trust and credibility, there is no sale. No matter what
you’re selling – an ebook, software, your services – consider hiring a
professional editor to look over your site’s copy to make sure it’s
error-free and as good as it can get before you go live.
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Check
out your competitors’ sites and make yours better!
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You
can find lots of free fonts at UrbanFonts.com. Save ‘em, unzip
‘em, put ‘em in your Windows™ Fonts folder (PC users)
and you’re ready to go.
But Remember:
Anytime you use a font on your site, like this, for example:
…if your site’s visitor doesn’t have
that font in their computer, it’ll either show up in:
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- Times (A.C.M.E. Secret Agent) or
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- Arial
(A.C.M.E. Secret Agent) |
…and you won’t get the effect you had
intended.
Always use an image (like I did here) so it shows up perfectly for
every user every time. But don’t go overboard or else your site
will take too long to load for visitors using dial-up.
And use your ALT tag too! Visually impaired people can’t see the
image but you want them know what it says.
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Cool
Tools
You’ve probably seen sites that are using some cool tools to get the
sale. I listed them here for you in case you wanted to use them
on your own site:
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Pop-up ads
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One
of the smartest things you can do is capture your visitor’s email
address, and the most effective way to do that is with a pop-up
offering the visitor something irresistible.
ForcedMoney’s pop-up
says:
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"Find out from me how to get $100
cash
emailed to you up to 28 times a day!" |
Who can resist?
Click here for more on pop-ups
– why they’re genius, what to look for when choosing one, how to use it
to keep reaching potential customers, etc.
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Audio
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A popular way to get your
visitor's attention is to grab 'em by the ears with audio.
Check out Impact-WebAudio to
see how to make your visitor's speakers work for you.
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Video
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Take it a step further! Grab
'em by the eyes and the ears with video.
EasyWebVideo shows
you how.
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Talking person
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This is cool! Go to EasyChairMillionaire
and check out the virtual salesperson on the screen. I like how
she stays fixed on the corner of the screen even when you scroll up and
down.
Go to LiveFaceOnWeb to find out how you can put
one on your site. |
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Sense of urgency
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Have
you seen the TV commercials that say something like, “buy in the next
10 minutes,” and have a countdown timer on the screen? People
don’t like to feel like they’re going to miss out on something so it
forces them to ACT NOW!
They work on websites too. ForcedMoney
has a countdown timer at the top of their site and another one near the
‘Buy Now’ button that says the price is going up – ORDER NOW!!
If you want to add one to your site, check out IMurgency.
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Peel-away ad
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Have
you seen the websites that, when you put your mouse on the top
corner of the
screen, peel back to
expose some kind of special offer? Go to PeelAwayAds to see what I’m talking about.
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Exit Pop-Up
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Click here and then
see what happens when you try to close its browser window.
The exit pop-up forces you to reconsider.
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404 Errors
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If
you’ve ever looked at your site’s visitor log to see what pages people
are visiting, you already know that some people will get pretty
creative and add anything they can think of to your URL, like these:
www.YourSite.com/Specials.html
www.YourSite.com/FreeStuff.html |
Instead of letting them see a boring, ol’ 404
Error screen, check out 404Secrets and use this as another way to
sell to them.
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These tools work!
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We all know that putting "Tell-A-Friend"
on your site is an easy way to get your site's visitors to do a little
viral marketing for you, but the guy at 21ButRich took this a step further.
Check out this screenshot from his site:
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Website Checklist
Here’s a
handy
checklist you can use to make sure your site has all the elements that
are proven to establish trust so visitors will buy (and as an added
bonus, they’ll reduce refund requests too!):
___ You have your own domain (dot com) name (We’ll talk about this in
#5).
___ Your website looks professional, not homemade.
___ You snagged your visitor’s email
address (pop-up or landing page).
___ The images on your web pages load properly in all browsers
(Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.).
___ Your web pages load quickly, especially on dial-up. (Test
them at NetMechanic)
___ The links on your web pages work properly. [ Read this! Click here
]
___ The sales copy sells on every page.
___ You have a powerful, attention-grabbing headline.
___ You have good sub headings, and used bold, highlighted and colored
text to
keep the visitor’s eyes moving down
the page.
___ Your copy taps into the reader’s emotions.
___ There are no misspelled words or punctuation errors on your pages.
___ You have glowing, how-did-I-ever-live-without-this testimonials.
___ The image of your product makes it look like a quality product.
___ You have an irresistible offer.
___ You have a detailed description of your product and how it will be
delivered.
___ You have a risk-free, no-questions-asked, iron-clad, 60-day
(minimum),
money-back guarantee.
___ You have free bonuses the visitor would want.
___ You have a sense of urgency.
___ You have Help/Customer support
available if they need it.
(Live help (chat/800 number) or email support)
___ The price is clearly stated.
___ You have a “Buy Now” button and links throughout the page.
___ You have logos from BBBonline and Truste.
___Your copyright (©2009
YourSite.com All Rights Reserved). Keep it current!
___ Your Privacy message.
___ Link to your Affiliate page (We’ll talk about this in #6).
___ The purchase process is easy and secure (We’ll talk about this in #
10).
___ If you sell an e-product, it arrives immediately
after purchase.
___ Your downloads are secure.
___ You used NoRobots on the pages
you don’t want search engines to index.
___ You snagged your buyer’s email
address at purchase.
___ If the buyer needs something, like Abode Acrobat Reader
or WinZip, to open
your product,
you provide a link to it.
___ You track your site’s visitors.
___ You find out quickly if your site
goes down.
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Follow the tips laid out
here and your sales will not only go up,
but you’ll get more sales on the first visit.  |
The
Top 10 Things That Turn Affiliates Off
On to # 3…
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