Sales from the EDGE
Back Issue #009
Back to Back Issues Page
Sales from the EDGE Issue #009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sales from the EDGE
Breaking Through the "White Noise" Of Selling on the Net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>From time to time, the EDGE publishes important updates that
you need to SELL on the Net. Most "latest and greatest" Net
marketing and sales developments simply waste our time.
Today's "hot new technology" is tomorrow's "whatever
happened to?"
Occasionally, though, something comes along that STICKS.
When that happens, the EDGE cuts through all the "white
noise" of Web marketing. It explains each important new
development and outlines clearly how you can best take
advantage of it.
SALES FROM THE EDGE is sent *ONLY* to owners of SiteSell
products.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 29, 2000
Issue #009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TABLE OF CONTENTS
o SITESELL NEWS
1) MYPS! Enters Phase II... Wait 'til you see Phase III
2) SiteSell.com Gets a Facelift to Accommodate Growth.
3) SiteSell.com Named Best Affiliate Program on the Net
by Allan Gardyne and LifetimeCustomers.com
o ARTICLES
1) The Site Re-Org -- When, Why, and How
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> SITESELL NEWS
1) MYPS! Enters Phase II... Wait 'til you see Phase III
We're getting close to launching Phase III of MYPS!, as well
as our next two products. Both products will be sold in a
way that you've never seen before -- both will show a
radically new way to dynamically price products in
real-time.
First though, we need two weeks of data on MYPS! at a price
point that is less than half of what we've been offering it
at for the past two weeks. This is the final information
that we need to validate the MYPS! survey model, and also to
look ahead to our "new, dynamic-real-time way" of pricing
products.
So the price is now CAD$28.95, which works out to be under
US$20 -- that's approximately 1/1000 what a Fortune 500
Company pays for the same information. We've even had one
Fortune 500 sign up for it... wonder what happened to their
pricing expert? ;-)
Naturally, if any of you ordered at the higher price, we'll
reimburse the difference. Please send an e-mail directly to
Janice who will refund this directly onto your credit card
(please quote your order number). And for those who didn't
buy at the higher price... now is the time.
Whether you want to test the feasibility of a product
concept (before developing it), or find the Perfect Price
for a new product (before launching it), or determine
whether your pricing is up to date for existing products (in
current market conditions), MYPS! is "absolutely invaluable"
(to quote just one delighted customer, John Gleason from
Florida).
http://myps.sitesell.com/
-----
2) SiteSell.com Gets a Facelift to Accommodate Growth
Now that we're about to launch our fourth and fifth
products, it was time to convert the SiteSell.com Home Page
into a "traffic cop" for a multi-product site. At the same
time, we made another overhaul...
Our good old MYSS! site has been revamped. I'm amazed that
it continued to sell as well as it did, for as long as it
did. It was certainly looking a little "long in the tooth"
lately. But it served us admirably.
-----
3) SiteSell.com Named Best Affiliate Program on the Net
by Allan Gardyne and LifetimeCustomers.com
Allan Gardyne, the #1 affiliate guru on the Net and the #1
affiliate site AssociatePrograms.com, just launched a new
site...
LifetimeCustomers.com
Guess which program he picked as the best on the Net?...
http://www.LifetimeCustomers.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> THIS ISSUE'S ARTICLES
-------
---1---
-------
The Site Re-Org -- When, Why, and How
There's only two goods reasons to re-organize a
sales-oriented site...
1) The business outgrows the original architecture.
2) The Net outgrew the site.
Correcting those two reasons should have only one bottom
line...
Increase sales!
You'll read a lot about major re-orgs at large dot-com
sites. Why do they do it? Because they got tired of the
look-and-feel and figured their customers did, too.
But these Webmasters forget one thing. Unlike themselves,
their customers visit many sites, not just theirs. They get
used to a user interface. They know where to find things.
They get in and get out quickly...
... and then it's all changed. Big, expensive mistake.
Only change your site if it will increase sales.
In the case of SiteSell.com, we have grown rapidly. Traffic
is growing steadily, as are sales overall. So why change?
Back to our two reasons...
1) Originally SiteSell.com was a single-product site. Minor
modifications accommodated our second book, Make Your
Knowledge Sell!. And Make Your Price Sell! ran as a totally
separate subdomain site...
http://myps.sitesell.com/
But with a fourth and fifth upcoming, and with some
excellent new content begging to be accommodated, our
business had outgrown the original, simple-but-effective
architecture.
2) The Net outgrew the MYSS! site. All the principles of
MYSS! remain as valid today as ever. As a matter of fact,
as the Net gets more complex, the K-I-S-S, user-focused
response-getting approach of MYSS! is more powerful than
ever.
But the look-and-feel of the MYSS! site itself was
definitely looking old -- design has gotten sharper on the
Net. And while sales of MYKS! and MYPS! boosted sales
substantially, the Conversion Rate of the MYSS! site was
starting to slip.
So it was time for an overhaul.
-----
First decision? Look and feel.
A more sophisticated, sharper, yet still very clean look was
in order. The MYPS! site had received terrific feedback --
the swoosh look was a winner...
http://myps.sitesell.com/
This was to be the look across the whole site now. Visit
the site and click to the main product sites, even the Media
site. They all have the same basic look and feel.
As a one-product company grows, you'll naturally have a bit
of a hodge-podge as you grow. So, for your first rework, a
consistent look and feel across the whole site is an
important goal.
One final point... we designed now for an 800 x 600
monitor, since over 90% of our visitors now use that
resolution.
-----
Second decision? What the Home Page delivers...
Customers arrive to *any* site with very focused needs. A
cluttered Home Page has probably been one of the big, bad
trends of the first half of 2000.
Think about it... You read about a site, get excited, visit
it, and then spend 10 minutes on the Home Page totally
confused about...
o what the site's about
o what the products are
and most importantly...
o WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU!
Compare with our new Home Page...
http://www.sitesell.com/
Can you tell what's in it for you?... what we do?
Reading between the lines, can you tell what we want
the visitor to do?
Yup, visit one of our product sites.
What's our backup response? There are three, and they
are all in the left margin (what we call "dead-end" side
branches in MYSS!)...
1) Join the affiliate program
2) Take one of the 5-day Masters courses. These offer
truly excellent content, while keeping us in front of
our customers for 5 days.
3) Read one of three featured articles, each of which are
favorite articles from our three e-zines (SITE-SELL!, Sales
from the EDGE, and the 5 Pillar Affiliate Report.).
The goal here, of course, is to get subscriptions/signups.
-----SIDEBAR-----
The Masters courses and the articles are also powerful
viral, sales-getting tools for the affiliates. But that's
another story.
-----SIDEBAR-----
3) Third decision? Navigation. Again, we decided to keep
it as simple as possible. We also went out on a bit of a
limb...
For each link, we decided to pop open a new page. This way,
we still have our "traffic cop" Home Page underneath. And
we are not obliged to provide a link back to Home from each
product page.
That allows the user to focus on a single issue until a
decision is made. If the decision is BUY, terrific. If it's
PASS, the Home Page is still there underneath, ready to
tempt with another offering.
Do people complain about windows popping up? Well, "common
wisdom" should never scare you away from trying something on
the Net. You can always change it. In this case, "common
wisdom" may be "urban Net-myth" because we've had no
complaints.
Some of the pop-ups we control totally using javascript.
Others we simply pop by adding TARGET="NEW" to the A HREF
tag -- in other words, simply opening an uncontrolled
new browser window. If you try them, you'll start to
see our method to the madness. How and when to pop
windows is an interesting and useful skill to learn...
http://www.sitesell.com/
-----
4) Content. This was not complicated. A corporate Home
Page had to be written. While not complicated, I labored
over getting our "what's in it for you" statement just
right....
http://www.sitesell.com/
For the MYSS! makeover, it was even simpler...
http://myss.sitesell.com/
We merely reformatted the same copy that we had used
previously (there was nothing wrong with the words!), toned
down the red and bold a touch, and eliminated the "least
used" pages.
Of course, we left those old pages where they were -- never
eliminate old URLs. You never know who's linking to them.
But you can no longer navigate to pages like these from
the new site...
1) http://www.sitesell.com/extracts.html
2) http://www.sitesell.com/e-commerce.html
and even...
3) http://www.sitesell.com/faq.html -- Yes, even the FAQ!
Very few people were interested in those pages. Why?
They're focused on the copy on the main path and trying to
make a decision. People just don't want to take the time to
read every last word you've written (maybe for a $1,000
product, however!).
Other pages were also fairly unpopular. But they were
important, so we integrated them into the copy itself so
that they could not be missed (ex., the "about author" page,
the Guarantee and the "Testimonials). See what I mean...
http://myss.sitesell.com/
Naturally, we kept the 5 Minute Tour. A shorter version of
each of our sales sites has proven to be a hugely popular
page for all of our sites that increases Conversion Rates.
And finally, we pulled the Free Trial Download from the
site. When we look at the high Conversion Rate of MYKS!, we
concluded that this was more powerful as an affiliate tool,
to be offered from their sites. And we'll be launching a
neat little server-side app that will allow them to do
exactly that shortly.
Yes, the free trial download may have closed some sales.
But it was also an excuse to procrastinate. Better that
the affiliates offer it from their sites. When the visitor
comes to our site, our job is to get the sale.
-----
It was an interesting exercise. The site-selling lessons of
MYSS! are truer today than ever. By applying its principles
once again, this time to reflect the realities of a larger
company and a more sophisticated Net and evermore impatient
surfer, we have increased sales by 33% since the re-org. And
that ain't bad!
After this exercise, I'm convinced...
Once you understand the basic customer-focused, site-selling
principles of MYSS!, you'll be able to design a site that
sells FIVE years from now! :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SiteSell Discount Directory~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.sitesell.com/discount-directory.html
Please bookmark this page -- it's the only page that you
will EVER need to buy SiteSell products at an owners-only
discount. For owners of SiteSell products only, it provides
discounts on all products, except for the Electronic Version
of MYSS! -- if I reduced the price on it, I'd have to pay
*you* to buy it! ;-)
SiteSell Discount Directory
http://www.sitesell.com/discount-directory.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back issues available at...
>> http://www.sitesell.com/edge/backissues.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TO UNSUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe, go to the following URL and enter your e-mail
address. If you use more than one e-mail address, be sure to
enter the same one that you used when you subscribed.
>> http://www.sitesell.com/unsubscribe-edge.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Written by Ken Evoy, M.D.,
President of SiteSell.com
(c) and ™ SiteSell.com All rights reserved.
Back to Back Issues Page
© and ™ SiteSell.com. All Rights Reserved.
|