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Are you happy with your website? (Does your business even have one?)

Does it 'perform' as well as you'd like?

I'm a professional web designer and I always try to influence the design of a client site with the following three so-called super-tips. If I apply these tips to a new (or existing) site, I always feel that the site will 'deliver' much more.

So here are three super-tips, to help anyone get the most from their website:

1. Make sure your website has a Most Wanted Response
2. Use these six strategies to promote your website...
3. Build trust in you and your website

Tip (1) Make sure your website has a Most Wanted Response

"What do you mean by most wanted response?"

Well, do you know what the main purpose of your website is?

• Does your site sell goods? Then which items do you most want to sell?
• Does your site offer content, supported by affiliate programs? Which affiliate programs do you most want to promote.
• Does your site simply operate a newsletter or ezine? Then do you make it easy for people to subscribe, from any page on your website?

What is the 'point' of your website?

Dr Ken Evoy introduced the concept of Most Wanted Response (MWR) in his ebook called: Make Your Site Sell. In his words, "MWR is what you most want your visitor to do after reviewing your content. It should always:

• be reasonable
• be measurable
• be a good fit
• qualify your visitor "

Tip (2) Use these six strategies to promote your website...

I think you should employ some (or all) of the following six strategies if you want to successfully promote your website:

• Strategy 1: SUBMIT to search engines and directories
• Strategy 2: BID at pay per click search engines
• Strategy 3: SPREAD word of mouth
• Strategy 4: PUBLISH a newsletter
• Strategy 5: KNOW your visitor
• Strategy 6: CONTINUE to learn more...!

I'll explain a little bit more about a few of the strategies below.

* Strategy 1: SUBMIT to search engines and directories

As you may know, you do not need to submit your site to 10,000 search engines. Simply make sure you get your site listed on major search engines like Google. This link contains 'add your site' links to major search engines like Google. Use it.

http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/site-submit

* Strategy 2: BID at pay per click search engines

You must have heard about pay-per-click search engines like Overture, Espotting and Google AdWords.

Pay per click search engines can deliver guaranteed traffic to your site at pennies per click. To learn more about using pay-per-click search engines (which ones are worth bothering with, etc.) read my article called 'Pay Per Click To Guarantee Targeted Traffic!'

http://www.howipromotemywebsite.com/pay-per-click

* Strategy 6: CONTINUE to learn more...!

No groaning, please - it's vital that you keep on learning about new ways to promote your website. Quite simply, you must always continue to learn.

These resources can help your 'quest to keep abreast':

• http://www.sitepoint.com
• http://www.iboost.com
• http://www.apromotionguide.com

Tip (3) Build trust in you and your website

So you want to sell online?

Well it isn't that easy, I'm afraid.

One of the first things you must do online is to get people to trust you and your online business. And there are a variety of methods of doing this. I'll cover one method here:

• Offer invaluable (and relevant) information, free, via repeat contact if at all possible.

Or in other words, offer a free ebook, e-mail course or article (a bit like the one you're reading right now ;-) ).

Here's an example

http://www.best-digital-cameras.co.uk/buying-guide

This is one of my affiliate mini-sites. Usually visitors take a quick look at the site and then head off to the main merchant site (in this case Amazon).

So I offer a brief guide to buying a DVD player online, in the hope that I can build a little bit of trust in my site, and collect my site visitors' e-mail addresses (that I may be able to use in the future, when they have long since forgotten my mini-site).

When done properly, offering valuable freebies can be powerful stuff.

(Just ask Harvey Segal of Supertips.com, who bases much of his online business on providing invaluable freebies like this - http://www.anyonecansellonline.com/supertips.shtml.)

--

I've talked enough.

Hopefully, you can use the three super-tips in this article(*) to boost the performance of your site. Or I may have given you some extra ideas for your next (or first) site!

Either way, thanks for reading and good luck

(*) Note: this article is an extract from my ebook: "3 Super-tactics I'd Tell *Anyone* - Yes, Even My Mum! - To Successfully Build, Promote And Profit From Their Website!"

It contains more examples, more links and more ideas to help you, and is available, free, by visiting

http://www.wise-buys.info/bonus.shtml

Copyright 2004 Steve Nash