Web Site Ranking and Design Tips

Greetings and I hope this fine Tuesday morning finds you poised
and ready for a great February. The snow's still hanging around
but gradually melting, and the weather is not supposed to get
warmer for a few more weeks. We've discovered our 10 year old son
is allergic to every kind of grass and tree on the planet, dust
mites and soy. The latter is a bummer because the only way he
eats his veggies is if we let him drown them in soy sauce. Ah
well ...

My project white board is full of activity which is unusual for
this early in the year, but I'm keeping busy. I don't know about
your business, but for me it pays to have a loss leader, a
low-cost service that attracts lots of leads and opens up the
discussion for higher-billing services.

That's what product image design does for me. People come to me
for ebook covers and related product images, and then we start
discussing micro site design, sales letters, email series and
press releases.

Another way to attract business is to offer a free consultation.
I've been doing that for 25 years. I think it's important,
though, to put a price on your time so prospects understand they
are actually receiving something of value as opposed to zero
cost.

So I let prospects know that I normally charge $200.00/hour but
that the first 1-2 hours is on the house. This helps set the tone
and value for my services as well as sets my financial
expectations should we progress beyond the initial free consult.

Folks frequently ask me how do I find new business and how much
time do I spend prospecting for new clients. The answer may
surprise you: maybe 10-20% of my time is spent prospecting for
new business. Why so low? The majority of my business now comes
through referrals, word of mouth, and through my "net".

By "net" I refer to my network of 100+ web site domains. Early
on I started collecting domain names based upon my areas of work
experience and subject matter expertise. Then, over time, I
populated these sites with some basic content. This includes
articles, product reviews and recommendations, and some
promotional material. Many of the sites are cross-linked to each
other. This net helps capture a variety of leads each week.

For instance, when someone needs an ebook cover designed, they
may search for "ebook cover artist" and when they do, I am #1 on
Google. How did I achieve that? I chose a domain that very
explicitly describes my service: ebookcoverartist.com. In fact,
if you perform this search yourself, you will find I have five of
the ten listings on that page. If you search for "ebook covers",
I am #2 under my domain ebookcovercreator.com.

So one way you may be able to generate more traffic and leads is
to choose explicitly word domain names. Secure a few variations
and either fill them with some basic content or redirect all of
them to your main web site.

I tend to use longish sales letters with lots of examples of my
best work, and then add a squeeze page lead capture form at the
bottom of the page. If you have not tried this approach I
recommend using a template like this one:

http://www.graphicsassistance.com/amazingminisitetemplate.htm

While on the topic of web sites, is yours looking kind of drab
lately? If you have not updated your site's look and feel in a
while but don't want to spend a lot of money and want to
do-it-yourself, then you might consider adding a splash of
abstract graphics to the page background, your header image or
your product images. You would be surprised by the difference
these subtle changes can make. See examples of what I am talking
about here:

http://www.graphicsassistance.com/killerabstractbackgrounds3.htm

Hope these marketing tips help you out.

Until next time,

Steven

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