SECRETS TO BUILDING A WEB SITE THAT SELLS:
Turn Your Web Site Into An Ultimate Selling Machine

By John Lee, Hostway Corporation Every day, over 20,000 businesses are launching their Web sites. The fact that you are reading this guide means that either you already have a Web site or you are planning to have one soon. If you are not, you are missing out on over 250 million people who are either buying directly on the Web or basing their buying decisions on what they find online. You simply can’t afford not to be online.

Sergio Zyman, the former CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Coca-Cola and author of the recent bestseller "The End of Marketing As We Know It," states that marketing's goal is simple: it is "to sell more stuff to more people more often for more money." That same principle holds true for Web sites. The goal of the Web site is to get more people to visit (and visit more often) and get them to buy (and buy more often). Unfortunately a huge percentage of the business sites online today are not achieving this goal.

This article is not only intended for those who are selling directly online, but for anyone wishing to elicit direct customer responses—from lead generation to selling the actual idea of your company. A practical guide, I based my observation of the Web phenomenon since 1993 and my experiences (both good and bad) selling via the Web since 1998. Naturally, I tried to be as specific as possible in the tips and advice without wasting time on generalities. While no article can promise to answer all the challenges that you are bound to face in making your business an online success, you will find that following the simple tips and guidelines here will provide the foundation you’ll need to get on the road to success.

Most people believe your first priority is to drive traffic to the Web site and then worry about selling later. This is partly true. You can't have an ultimate sales machine that doesn't draw people in. At the same time, what good is all that traffic if you can't convert it to sales? This article begins conversion techniques and then moves on to the traffic building tips only because the conversion is often ignored. Truthfully, the two are equally important.