Getting a #1 ranking in Google is only a small part of winning the online war, yet it seems to be what most people focus on. The fact is, increasing your conversion rate can often be the easiest way to increase your bottom line.

It’s true all markets are different and often you’ll need to run split tests to find out what converts best for you and your market but here’s a few simple tips to get you started on the right track. Ready to learn more?

Where Are Your Visitors Eyes?

If you knew where the eyes of your visitors were looking, what would you do? I for one, would put your most important sales message in that space. The problem is how do we track where a customer is looking?

Short of doing eye tracking studies on your website, there’s plenty of data showing that  one of the first things that a visitor looks at are the images on that page – typically in the header. This “top left” position is a hot spot on most websites. First, your visitor wants to know where they are, second, they want to know what do to next.

So how can you take advantage of this? Simple… put your most important message in this space.

Effective And Alluring Titles

When I optimise a page headline, I am literally pull myself out of my own mindset, and place myself in the mind of the user and considering what it is they’d be looking for. How can you lead the visitor to take a desired action, such as purchasing a product, or signing up to the mailing list? Consider what it is that your visitor is looking for and how they want to get it. Don’t try to over-inflate titles with too much hype though, no one likes to feel like they’ve been sold.

Just give them what they’re looking for and make it as easy as possible for them. Tell them what they want (as long as it’s true), tell them what it will do for them, then tell them to buy the product. The same applies for every other kind of actions, whether it be an Aweber opt in form, buy an affiliate product, and so on.

Of course, there’s loads of ways to increase your conversion rate but simply addressing what the user is looking for is a great place to start.

Let’s face it, SEO is a huge undertaking: it’s complex, fast-paced and time consuming, especially when you’re developing a business. It’s hard to keep up to date with exactly what makes a website rank. It’s a lot of work and requires a dedicated presence. It’s what we do, so we can tell you first hand, being an SEO strategist is not just about keeping up to date, it’s about multi-tasking as well. So let’s get down to the raw, burning question here…

How Can An SEO Strategist Help You Develop Your Business?

Let’s divide this up into two separate tasks. The first involves you developing your business, and we’re sure there is no one better suited to develop a concept than you. You know the direction that your business is going, you have your goals to achieve and an ideal income you’d like as well. This task is in itself massively time consuming; one wrong decision can divert you from your path for a very long time.

When it comes to our business, we like to plan ahead. We develop ideas for content, base these around what is winnable in the search engines, then power through the creation of that content, whilst applying our SEO principals. In essence, SEO is part of our business, regardless of whether the concept is virtual or physical. However, we’re sure you would prefer spending more time actually developing your business than learning the complexity of SEO.

Develop An SEO Strategy For Offline Business

It’s a home truth that the internet is quickly becoming the new sales front. Offline businesses now understand the power of being online, and how this can really put them in the limelight. With this in mind, they want in, however a lot don’t quite understand that the “if you build it, they will come” philosophy doesn’t exist online. This is where hiring an SEO strategist can be an integral part of your business.

In fact, we will refer to a recent experiment that occurred here in Melbourne. The company that owns the Yellow Pages (Sensis) recently opened a Pizza restaurant called “The Hidden Pizza Restaurant”. They launched a website, created a Facebook page, created some viral videos on YouTube, and told people “If you want to find us, just look us up where you normally would look up a business”. As such, their contact number was in the Yellow Pages, and this is how people found them. Once this project was completed, they had a large number of sales, and generated a lot of interest. Their claim was that the Yellow Pages still attracts customers.

Our response to this is that without the Social Media element to find the customers where they hang out, and without the SEO video marketing that spread like wildfire, no one would have known that the “Hidden Pizza Restaurant” ever even existed. The proof is in the pudding. We even hit the streets to compare Google Vs Yellow Pages. We can almost guarantee that behind this whole viral marketing campaign was an SEO strategist who knew exactly what he or she was doing, and although their claim is that a combination of offline and online marketing was what made this venture a success, we can guarantee that if they had the contact details for the restaurant available via a Google search, their profit would have doubled. Even tripled. In fact, we didn’t even receive a new copy of the Yellow Pages this year, strangely enough.. but that’s OK because we rely on Google 99% of the time, and the rest of the time, we refer to a local business directory, which isn’t owned by or affiliated with Sensis.

Did we get a pizza in the end? No… but we did hire a gardener a few weeks ago, (found on Google) which resulted in a sale of $1000+. We also used Google to find cheap air fares, ($200$+), interstate car hire ($300+), hardware for the Macbook ($500+) and even a graphic designer to create animated images of the team ($90+). That’s just to name a few. And this was without the power of any viral marketing, or even so much as a Yellow Pages listing.

Start Applying This Theory To Your Business Or Brand

Now imagine if you could have this power of online marketing behind your business or brand, whilst you are given the space to focus on important business development. This is why people hire experts to develop and implement strategies for them. You then have more time to give your customers what they want. A background SEO campaign will complement what you’re doing by helping your customers find you.

Potential customers don’t carry a Yellow Pages in their back pocket, but a lot of them carry devices with internet browsers that allow them to search for you in Google. Remember this the next time you consider exactly what it is that an SEO strategist can do for your business. Ready to learn more? Don’t be afraid to contact us for an SEO quote.

Learn how we got this auction #1 most active on Flippa.com

Fairly recently, I posted on this blog a guide to selling websites on Flippa.com. For those who haven’t been following the recent boom in this area, selling websites is back, and it is back in a big way. I’m currently acting on behalf of David Jenyns on Flippa, selling his back catalog of websites, and I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned.

Take the recent auction for www.balletdancer.org for example. Having spent two days wearing the crown on top of Flippa’s list of most active auctions, what exactly made this auction so popular? Most importantly, how can you copy our techniques? Here’s the break down…

Creating an auction on Flippa is only part of the work, what goes on behind the scenes of every auction is also a large part of what will make an auction popular. Every single site that is listed on Flippa.com gains enough interest to spawn a few inquiries, either by comments on the auction, or by messages sent through their PM system. How you handle these inquires play a bigger part than most realise. Remember those inquiries will ultimately turn into bids (if you provide the right answers) and, the more bids, the higher you move up Flippa’s most active auction list.

Now back to www.balletdancers.org – in the initial stages of this auction, bidding rose very slowly, I simply checked bidder’s feedback, then approved accordingly. We start our auctions at a low price to encourage people to make a bid and once they’ve made a bid, they get emotionally invested (one of our secrets).

A few days in people started contacting us wanting to know if the site had a Buy It Now (BIN) price, some even wanting to make an offer. For a good handful of these, I took them into Google Talk, or corresponded via my personal e-mail, and for those who made BIN offers, I simply gave them a friendly nudge in the right direction.

As I built rapport with potential buyers, then the competition started to rise, and without flattering myself, it was one of the most exciting auctions that I have seen on Flippa. 3 minutes left in the auction, and three fresh bids showed up to extend the auction. This happened on a number of occasions. In fact, I think the auction went for some 5 days longer than it was supposed to… what was interesting was that the higher up the most active board we moved, the more attention we drew.

Why did this happen? Because I translated real world sales into an online sales environment – I didn’t just set and forget. This is what makes the Flippa community so great… they encourage communication and this makes for a safe environment to buy/sell websites.

So what’s the take away here?

It’s quite simple. Make sure that you are ready to talk. By this, I mean make sure that you have an account with Skype, AIM, Google Talk, and Gmail. Make yourself available to talk directly to your potential customer. Even go so far as to have a template ready for those BIN offers so that you can give them the right information as quickly as possible.

Don’t be afraid to actually talk to your customer one on one with Skype or Google Talk. Get to know them a little. Ask how they are. Ask what it is that they do. Ask them what it is that they like about the website and what their intentions are with the site, and most importantly, don’t sell too hard. When it comes to talking about the website or domain that you are selling, talk like a person, not a robot. Tell them what it is that you do. Tell them about the 500 odd other domains that you have for sale (repeat customers are the best kind of customer).

Just be honest and real

If you would like any more information about selling websites on Flippa, or even have an inquiry about any of Davids current sales on Flippa, my name is Ryan T Malone, and I am currently selling David Jenyns’ backcatalog of websites for him on Flippa.com – click here to watch our auctions

Please note: you have to be logged in to your flippa.com account to see the complete list of auctions we have going.

The business of selling websites on Flippa.com is booming. For a long time, deals such as this were made in a more risky format such as on E-bay, and on other webmaster forums like Digital Point and Warrior Forums. Along comes Flippa with a more secure way of selling websites, and suddenly we have a new breed of web masters who have realized that they can do something with pre-built websites, and of course, this sets off a chain reaction, allowing anyone and everyone to create a website for the purpose of making profit.

Here at Melbourne SEO Services we’re always testing things out and I can tell you from my experience that there are a few ways to increase the probability of a sale being made. As an example, my first website sale resulted in a no show, so I sat back and thought everything over. What did I do wrong, and how could I do it better? After a little more testing and a few more successful sales here is what I came up with…

Use The Right Selling Language

If you haven’t had any direct sales experience, this can be a tricky one to get your head around at first, however, it only becomes easier by the day. In effect, when selling a website on Flippa, you want to pen out some information for that site, much in a similar way than you do when creating sales copy. Open ended questions work wonders, and inspire thought. Phrases such as “imagine what you could do with a 6 year old domain that has a PageRank of 1”, and so on and so forth.

Another vital point is to reduce clutter and potential draw backs. The easiest way to express this is by giving an example of two selling phrases:

“This website ranks extremely well in Google on page one, and ranks 3rd from the top.”

“This website ranks on page one of Google for its main keyword, and receives 1500 unique views per month from that keyword alone!”

If you examine the first sentence, it emphasizes a positive initially, however some people can be turned off by the fact that it ranks third from the top for its main keyword. In the second example, we give two positives, whilst still highlighting that it ranks on page one. Sometimes by giving a negative such as, “it ranks third” can leave a bad taste in the buyers mouth, and will leave them with no desire to read further into the sales piece to see what kind of traffic the site actually receives.

Create An Informative Video

Some people don’t like to read a 700 word sales pitch, some people would rather let a video roll. Whilst videos are easy to create, using the right series of words can be a difficult task in itself. For this part, I will give you an example of a sales video that I recently did for David Jenyns selling one of his domains:

In this video, you will notice that just about everything about this site is covered. It is a no garbage approach to a website sale, giving the information that buyers search for, in a direct manner. However, there are a few things that I did in a certain order here that in a lot of cases will almost always increase buyer interest.

You may notice that much in the same way as the sale piece, I have worded the pitch in a positive light. For example, after showing the global monthly search volume for the sites main keyword, I take the buyer into the traffic stats, then proceed to demonstrate how much traffic this site is actually receiving for free. This is quickly followed by a calculation of how much it would cost to purchase that kind of traffic from Adwords. In this light, it is all about following potential negatives with a very big positive, in this example, the site is only receiving a small portion of the total searches per months, however, the cost of the traffic that it actually receives would be over the $10,000 mark.

Another great example is when talking about the potential of the site, and how it can possibly be used by a new owner, when talking about how it could be used to create a Clickbank product, I immediately lead the viewer into what is included with the sale. In this case, I talked about the e-books and the research package that is included. By going through these details in this order specifically demonstrates that the buyer can literally purchase the site, create a Clickbank product out of the free books that come with this site, and as the Clickbank community is very active in promoting all products on that site, it would be extremely easy to monetize that site. Another very large bonus for the potential buyer!

Use Your Mailing List

If you have built up a strong mailing list over time, or even have a following on Twitter or any other social media outlet, always let them in in the deal. Especially if you are in the internet marketing game, or a recognized expert in SEO, your personality and skill set will always leave an imprint on this site. For example, David Jenyns being a well known and respected SEO expert, any site that he mentions to his followers will automatically have that personality attached to it. His followers will know that this site has had his method of SEO performed on it, and from the trust earned through his mailing list and social media dealings, he will automatically become a trusted seller.

Another method that has worked very well for me is to simply use Google and find other related competing websites. Find about ten competing websites both above and below yours, and send them a courtesy e-mail. A website that is ranked lower than yours may very well be happy to purchase a website that is ranked higher.

Lets not forget that when you are selling a website on Flippa, only those who visit the site will be able to find that website for sale. You never know who may be interested in your list if you don’t ask.

Throw In A Sweetener

In any form of internet marketing, offering something for free is always the way to go. In fact, in my old line of work (floor sales), it is a common belief that when you are at that moment of deciding to purchase a product (especially high ticket items), that you are as close to being clinically insane as possible, with your ability to make rational decisions being somewhat limited. This is evident in just about any store or supermarket that you visit, think about why there is such thing as impulse items, and why we (most of the time) have such a hard time saying no to purchasing that can of Red Bull that is conveniently sitting at the checkout as we are about to check out from the supermarket.

So, in this case, imagine what the impact would be if you threw something in for free. For example, at this sale on Flippa, David throws in a copy of The SEO Method for free. It is a basic reversal of the mentality behind the impulse item. If you leave a buyer happy at the checkout, they will always be more than willing to purchase again. In this case, not only is David tempting the potential buyer with something that is free, this is also a tool that will help the buyer in building backlinks, video marketing, and performing basic SEO to their newly purchased website.

To conclude this piece (its a long one, I know!), I will admit that there is a bit of science behind effective selling in absolutely any format, and this especially applies to websites that you are selling on Flippa, or anywhere else for that matter. However, a few basics is all that is needed to boost the possibility of selling a website. And I can promise that if you even so much as send the listing to your mailing list, your chances of selling that website will increase quite some.

There’s just a few of the basics when running a successful flippa auction. We also made another post you might find helpful titled “Website Selling Best Practice Video” and/or you can click here to see one of our recent auctions and copy that!

Wayne’s World Marketing Approach Explained and Why You Should Avoid It

For those who cannot remember the simple premise of Wayne’s World 2, here it is…

Wayne has a dream involving Jim Morrison and his weird naked Indian friend. Morrison tells Wayne to fulfill his destiny of holding a rock concert: “If you book them,” Morrison says of big acts like Aerosmith, “they will come”. With that note, WAYNESTOCK was born.

Let’s look at that simple mantra once more and segue into the world of online marketing:

“If you book them, they will come”

Thank you Jim. Sure, in Wayne’s World and Hollywood this mantra turned out all right in the end and Waynestock rocked! But how can we relate this to the world of online marketing?

Easy! The mantra of the 1990s, that still runs true today courtesy of Bill Gates can be seen as a parallel mantra.  That’s if you go about it the wrong way. He famously professed in 1996…

“Content is King”

But what does Bill gates mantra actually envisage? And where might we go wrong if we approach this self-fulfilling prophecy the wrong way?

“Content is King” is the concept that content is the biggest driving factor for success when it comes to marketing online. Content is clearly a crucial element to the readability and usability of your website. To put it simply, if you don’t produce engaging and compelling content or you don’t add something of value at every opportunity, your readers or potential customers won’t be back. The true importance of content cannot be understated.

But at the same time, it’s very easy to become misguided when it comes to content and you might easily fall into the trap of the “Wayne’s World Approach to Marketing”. You need to steer clear of the mantra “if you write it, they will come”.

Here’s the thing. If content maybe considered ‘king’, we must recognise that the building of links are most definitely ‘queen’. If you’re starting out online you can produce the greatest content in the world, that your readers would love to bits, but it won’t mean a thing if those readers can’t find you. If you don’t have a strong foothold in your niche or a web presence already then simply producing content is going to become an absolute drainer. Your journey to get where you want to go is going to take you considerably longer than it has to in reality.

Here’s where the modern day wonders of SEO and social media come into play. Not only do you have to produce great content but you also have to learn ways of promoting that content to the maximum number of people.  SEO and social media can be seen, in most instances, as a launching pad for you to get some exposure to your online ventures. As your SEO and social media efforts grow you have the potential to reach a critical mass and get a following so large that you’ll have people clambering over each other to promote your content. But until you reach that point, SEO and social media are your biggest allies.

So here’s what you might want to do now:

Get a Free SEO Education in 10 Minutes Flat

Master On Page Optimization

Optimize Your Title Tags

Create a Compelling Meta Description

Use the Link Baiting Force

Do some Ezine Article Submissions

Selling a website can be a bit of a maze to try and figure out for those who haven’t been there and done that. Considering that 2010 is shaping up to be the year to start selling websites again, there is no better time to jump on board. The questions are all the same everywhere I read. Where can I sell a website? How can I sell a website? How much should I ask for? Truth of the matter is that there are no real secrets to selling websites apart from the blatantly obvious (permitting that you have some face to face sales experience of course), which in most cases is giving nothing more than the right level of information about what it is that you are selling.

Sell For Your Buyers

Before I go too much into some of the places that will allow you to sell a web site, lets look at the information that your potential buyers will be looking for. Take a minute to put yourself in their shoes for a moment, and think about what would inspire you to spend a few thousand dollars on a website. Does the website have potential for monetization? Is the website chock full of duplicate content? What kind of traffic does the website attract? How old is the domain? What is the Google page rank of that domain? Even if some of these points are not exactly what you look for, you can guarantee that your potential buyers will be looking for this kind of information.

When presenting information, do not be afraid to go a little beyond the others that are selling in the same market place. Use video to promote your website that is selling. Include as much information as you can in a clear and concise manner in that video. Use proof of traffic, earnings, and anything else that your potential buyer may find interesting. Personally, I only upload sales videos to YouTube, however there are plenty of video streaming websites out there that you can upload to. Just be aware to adhere to their guidelines and you will be fine.

Where Can I Sell A Website?

Now, to the juicy part! Truth be told, there are literally thousands of website market places on the internet. Too many to quote here, however there are two of interest that I will make note of for you today. One that is expected, and the other not so much.

Digital Point forms used to be the most reputable place to sell websites on the internet, and with the amount of traffic that the forums receive every day, there is absolutely no reason to doubt the potential of this forum when it comes to selling websites. The forum is full of some of the best in the game, and a lot of those will spend money if it is a good investment. Best of all, to list a website for sale is completely free. I do recommend to use a secure method of payment such as Escrow for website and domain name sales, as the rate of fraud on this forum can be quite questionable, but as a means of playing it safe, Escrow will show that you are serious to your potential buyers. Along with all of the above, become active in the forum with a link in your signature, and you will be surprised how many buyers you may attract.

The other place that deserves a lot of mention at the moment is Flippa. This market place is really starting to prove itself in 2010. Weekly sales have often reached the half a million dollar mark, with a large amount of websites fetching upwards of thirty thousand dollars. This is a competitive market place, however the scams are generally kept away by the fairly steep listing prices and commission earned by Flippa per sale. Never the less, if you market your website properly, and are actually selling prime real estate that presents value to a potential buyer, you will be pleasantly surprised at what your website could sell for on Flippa.

With all website sales, something that works great for me is to include some social media marketing in order to promote your sale. Use video to speak about the website and its potential, social bookmark the sales page, and something that is a bit out of the ordinary but seems to work great for me is to create a custom bit.ly link for your sales page, and use that link to promote the sale. This allows you to track clicks, which is great in assessing where interest is coming from.

How Much Is A Website Worth?

Last and certainly not least is the question that I am sure is bugging you all. How much should you sell your website for? There are plenty of ways to get a good dollar for your website, you can set a price, or even start bidding at zero dollars and watch it climb. Each method will depend on your website of course. Generally, I will start bidding at about fifty dollars with a reasonable “buy it now” price, however there really is no right and wrong method here. There are ways of estimating what your website is worth as well. The only thing that I do recommend that all people do is never to list for a quick sale. This makes you seem desperate and only after quick money. I generally never list for under 14 days, preferably 21 days or more. This gives people room to make reasonable offers for the site, and gives ample time for bids to build up. More than anything, the main think to remember here is that people will only ever pay what your website is worth to them, and this value generally rises with the monetization potential of that website, page rank, and traffic flow.

As I mentioned at the start of this piece, there are no set methods to selling a website apart from giving the right information to the potential buyer. Don’t scam your way be honest and transparent. Don’t be afraid to promote, and more than anything, if you have a website to sell, remember that 2010 is shaping up to be the year to start selling websites.

Marketing Genius

Being an SEO services company doesn’t mean we don’t cater to those who are looking to start their own online business. After all, the two are closely related (SEO and online businesses that is). So whatever furthers the SEO cause, we believe in it. That’s how dedicated we are.

So what does it take for one to start an online business?

It’s simple… follow the advice of the one of the best marketing minds on the planet. Ken Evoy.

Ken Evoy is the genius mind behind the massively successful Site Build It system. His system that has launched more online businesses than Helen of Troy launched ships. So whatever he has to say, you had better listen.

Luckily for us, David Jenyns managed to snag us this Ken Evoy Interview – a big (Borat voice) “high hive” to David for managing to finagle this truffle of an interview.

But let this be known: David is a huge fan of Ken, so don’t take his words as marketing hype. David is just as excited with this interview as a Sumo wrestler is at a buffet.

David Being Excited

With that aside, you will be able to tap into the minds of one of the most successful Internet marketers in the planet. That’s no exaggeration. Google Ken Evoy’s name and you’ll might be pleasantly surprised. And it might even give you some perspective on why David is such a huge fan.

So stop dawdling and listen in on the Ken Evoy interview. No matter what level Internet marketer you are, you will surely learn something from it. I did.

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