By Tom St. Louis

Small Business Canada Magazine – January/February 2002

1) The Internet is real and it will grow;

2) Great content is the most important determiner of relevancy;

3) It will be the most powerful and most profitable direct-response medium in history

The Web has grown geometrically every year since 1996. But most companies have no idea how to make money at it.

They refuse to evolve along with the Web, which is the fastest-changing medium in history.

Most sites are nothing but electronic brochures.

The following are a few Myths and Secrets to help steer you to a profitable Web presence.

Web Myth #1: The Bookmark Myth.

Naïve site owners believe that “If we build it, they will come!” And, once they come, “they will come back again and again.”

Understand this: They won’t come back, even if they love it. If you have no way of following up with your visitor, the odds are stacked against you ever selling them anything.

Web Myth #2: The Content Myth

At once time, the Web was new and people were excitedly exploring the new frontier. We all would go back again and again to the “cool sites” we thought were so incredible. But great content is not enough anymore. There are just too many sites full of rich data.

Content is not enough to guarantee your relevancy or hold on to your audience.

Web Myth #3: The “Who We Are” Myth

I’m astonished at how many otherwise sophisticated companies fall into this cardinal sin of marketing. The first goal of most misguided sites is to tell you “About Us.”

Nobody will care who you are until they see some benefit for themselves. Once they see it, they will want to know about you—but not before. It’s not about you, it’s about them!

Two Web Secrets for Actually Making Money with a Web site

Web Secret #1: A small business Web site should be a name-capture mechanism—period!

Your goal is to capture your visitor’s contact information so that you can communicate all your great value, content, offers, and information—via e-mail. E-mail has got to be the cheapest and most powerful form of direct marketing ever devised. Many otherwise smart business owners are slow to wake up to this exciting opportunity.

You can capture their contact information before they are allowed access to your site. Or, you can capture their information in exchange for a great information resource—an E-Book for example—and then send them more information via autoresponder. These are a couple of the basic strategies, but remember, capturing the names is your mission. Forget about trying to get people to bookmark your site.

Web Secret #2: Your Web Site Should be a Sales Letter!

And, the letter should follow the proven principles of direct mail. This is direct marketing, pure and simple. Direct marketing refuses to wait six months or three years until your “brand” catches on or your names gets “out there.” Learn about the principles of response or hire a professional copywriter, but stop falling into the “who we are, what we do, and how to reach us” trap.

Web Secret #3: Your Web Site Should Make a Compelling Offer

The sole purpose of your site is to get a prospect caught in the net of an amazing offer. It’s not about you at all, but about what they are going to get, or what you are going to do for them.

If you have five products, then put up five Web sites. New Web addresses can be had for under $20, and a one-page Web site costs very little—especially without all the unnecessary clutter.

Web Secret #4: Flash is Dead!

Have you seen a flash Web site? It doesn’t work. Check out sites that make money, like Ebay. They’re clean, load quickly, and get right down to the business of helping you do what you want to do.

Remember, your Web site is there to make money. The best way to make money is to turn your Web site into a compelling offer that captures the prospect’s name, allowing you to strategically and sequentially follow-up with all your prospects, and turn them into customers!