Selling books from your own website
can be the most powerful marketing tool
you have in your entire marketing program.
But only if you do it right.
As you may have already found out, a poorly designed website could be the worst mistake you make . But then again, having a great selling website that nobody sees would be equally as bad.
And in those two sentences you have THE CORE PIECE OF KNOWLEDGE you need to successfully sell your book from your website.
It boils down to this:
Traffic + Conversion = Profits
Selling books on your own website is as simple as that. Get people to your site (Traffic) and sell to them once they are there (Conversion) and you will make money (Profit).
If your current site is not selling enough for you, there is ONLY ONE thing you need to know to make it work better.
Do you have a TRAFFIC problem
or do you have a CONVERSION problem?
(or BOTH?)
How do you know?
It is really easy to figure out.
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Free Worksheet: |
A.
How many unique visitors were on your website last week? |
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B.
How many of these people bought your book on your site? |
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C.
Divide B by A and write it here as a percentage: |
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Example:
10 Sales came from 1200 Unique Visitors = 0.83%
5 Sales came from 300 Unique Visitors = 1.66%
2 Sales came from 100 Unique Visitors = 2.00%
What do these numbers mean?
1.
If you don’t even know these numbers, you are missing a key component of being able to make your site better. We recommend the Smart Beginners course below. Without the key knowledge you’ll get from that course your site will not be able to perform the way you want it to – ever.
2.
If you have fewer than 100 Unique Visitors in one week on your site , you can run the numbers for two weeks or one month to get a truer sense of where you stand. And you can also assume that you have a TRAFFIC problem. You need more visitors to your site. See the Traffic Tools section below.
3.
If your buying percentage (your conversion rate) is less than 1%, you have a CONVERSION problem. Even if you get more people to your site, they will not buy in sufficient quantities to make it worthwhile for you. If you don’t believe me, multiple it out and you’ll see what I mean. You need to work on your site so that it will sell your book for you. Then you can drive more people to it. Check out the Conversion Tools below.
4.
If your numbers are ZERO (or very low) , you may have both a traffic and conversion problem. Start by getting some traffic to your site so you can check your conversion. Then, if your conversion isn’t good enough, work on that.
See how this works? With these numbers you are IN CONTROL of your website. You know whether you need to focus your efforts on getting more people to your site or whether you need to work on making your site better so more people buy.
If that whole concept was intriguing to you, but you feel over your head with it, we highly suggest that you grab some more website knowledge. Even though you already have a site, you are still a beginner in this and can benefit greatly by knowing more about how to make it work:
Start here:
System Smart Beginners
This program was produced by Ken McCarthy, one of the true integrity-filled guys on the Internet. Check it out. You cannot go wrong with this program as your first step into the world of selling books on your own website.
If that worksheet gave you some direction about what you need to do, you can utlize some of the tools below to increase your traffic or work on your conversion.
TRAFFIC TOOLS:
Search Engine Traffic
One of the best ways to get free, qualified traffic to your site is through the search engines. However, this is one of the most misunderstood aspects of internet marketing.
You can also find an “SEO expert” on just about every virtual street corner. Many of them are unethical or using outdated tactics. Before you hire anyone to work for you on this (and it will be very expensive to do so if they are doing it right), I highly recommend that you look into Stomping the Search Engines by Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins.
This course will teach you the PROCESS of getting yourself ranked on the search engines so you never again have to rely on an outsider for this important strategy.
Find out about getting Search Engine traffic today.
Pay Per Click Traffic
If you want (or need) traffic to your site IMMEDIATELY, then you need to utilize pay per click advertising. I am not kidding, within minutes you can have people clicking into your site who are actively looking for your topic.
The single best person to learn about pay per click advertising from is Perry Marshall. And you can start learning from him for free.
His FREE “5 Days to Success with Google Adwords” Mini Course is filled with great information that will get you started with this tremendous traffic tool.
Of course his very affordable Definitive Guide to Google Adwords is what you’ll really want to get, but start off with the free mini course today. You will be so glad you did.
Publicity
Getting yourself on radio/TV and in the newspapers and magazines is an excellent traffic tool. Check out www.PublicityOptionsForYourBook.com for ideas on getting publicity for your book.
CONVERSION TOOLS:
If your website is not selling well enough I cannot think of a single thing that would help you more (short of hiring a professional and starting over) than going through your site using Yanik Silver’s 14 Point Web Copy Analysis of a Winning Site.
In this free audio E-Book he walks you through 14 parts of a website that sells well. He shows you step by step how to make your site sell.
You get to see an actual site, read his notes about it and listen to him talk about what you need to do. It is an amazing road map to making your site sell.
Get Yanik’s free 14 Point Website Checklist.
Read it.
Listen to it.
Fix your site.
Sell more books from your site.
If you want to hire someone to write your site for you, give these folks a try. Give them each a call to see who matches your style best.
Red Hot Copy
Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero
(818) 508.1108
CopywritingNet
Scott T. Smith
406.586.4112
BACKBONE TOOLS:
If for any reason you are not already accepting orders on your site, you need to get a solid shopping cart system. Here is the one we use and recommend. For $3.95 (less than a large Starbucks coffee drink) you can try it out for 30 days.
WORKING ON YOUR SITE DESIGN:
Best recommendation for doing it yourself:
If you are going to build your own site, then save yourself as much time, money and energy possible. Because believe me, you can get in over your head very quickly.
Go with ONE of the website building programs we recommend whole heartedly -
Site Build It.
Worth every penny.
Even the page you will read about the program is filled with practical information that will help you build a site that will sell better. Read it here.
XSitePro
We built this city on rock and roll...oh wait. I meant to say,
We built this site with XSitePro. Compared to the learning curve on Dreamweaver, XSitePro was a breath of fresh air. It has enough power to do a lot of great things, but is very user friendly and fun to work in. You will love XSitePro!
Best recommendation for hiring it done:
If you are going to hire someone to do your website building for you, PLEASE do yourself a favor and work with someone who utilizes the same strategy you do. Otherwise you will spend a lot of time convincing your web designer that they need to build your site the way you know will work.
Yes, working with someone who has high level knowledge of selling online requires a significant investment (at least $7,000), but it can be worth it in the long run to have a site that actually sells.
(If that budget range is too steep for your project, don’t worry. Just start with the Site Build It we recommend above and you will do fine.)
We are happy to introduce you to a couple people we can verify know this strategy and put it into place.
How does this work?
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