Website design is not just about sticking pretty pictures up on the net with some text and hoping someone will magically discover you. Your website is a powerful marketing tool that, if set up right, will be your most cost effective strategy ever.

It’s all very well to have a site but just EXISTING on the web is not enough. You’ve got to make that website work for you! Get your money’s worth!

The more your website can help you in getting top results the better! I don’t just mean selling your products (which is obviously awesome!).

If you had a powerful Ferrari you wouldn’t park it in the garage, throw away the keys and not put gas in it right? Your website is the same! You need to get it out there, tell the world, show it off and get the immense thrill when your website is a  money making machine!

Here are a few other ideas for when you’re trying to think of your websites purpose:

ONE

Add to your site HOW TO videos showing off your product in action or, if you promote something like speaking services or consulting, show videos of YOU in action. This will give them a taste of your product or service so they see what they are getting before they buy. They’ll be far more likely to trust you and make that purchase.

TWO

Gather a following by blogging valuable tips and advice regularly. Podcasting works well for this too. Make sure the tips you give are of real value. It will give you credibility, show you know your topic and show your consistent dedication to your business.

THREE

Promoting affiliate products that you make a cut on. There are many websites out the e.g. clickbank.com that are a database of affiliate products that you can sell for other people. Go research some that are relevant to your business and sell them on your site. Make sure you keep good stats because this will also give you excellent feedback on what people are searching for and actually buying in your industry.

FOUR

Create some eProducts and sell them online. eBooks, audios or videos and add workbooks too so they are more interactive. Again, don’t just waffle. Make them valuable so the reader/listener walks away thinking “Wow – I want more from this guy/girl”. Look on websites like http://www.cbengine.com/ and see what products are doing really well. Check them out to give you an idea of what your product and topic should be.

FIVE

Add an FAQs page to answer common questions. This will free you up from hours on the phone answering the same questions over and over. Then you can spend your time focusing on growing your business, not the mundane boring stuff.

SIX

Building your list by giving valuable freebees so you can market to them. Create one of the freebees I mentioned before and give it away on your site for free in exchange for visitors joining your database. Then you’ll end up with a targeted list of potential prospects.

SEVEN

Convert your site to a membership site. Then you can charge an ongoing access fee for members to view useful information (videos, audios, PDFs). If you’re updating it constantly then this is a fantastic way it get on-going income for very little cost.

These are just SOME of the simple ideas to make your website work for you. Saving you money, saving you time, making you money, building your brand… whatever your goal is… make that puppy WORK baby!

Over and out!

J

I’m putting my stats out here for the world to see. I have always known the importance of blogging but was always “too busy” to actually do it. Now that I have finally started to delegate more I have more time to test out powerful marketing strategies, like blogging, that I KNOW is golden!

Almost everyone I talk to who needs a website says that they were referred to me or found me somewhere, then read my blog. Most of them had horrible experiences with web designers but after reading my blog felt reassured that I could help them. That is PROOF that blogs are personalized and give you credibility. You can show that you actually know what you’re talking about on your topic.

I have only been blogging a couple of months and as a result my sales conversion rate is currently at 100% and as you can see my traffic in the last month has increased by 776%. The ONLY thing I’m doing differently is blogging 3-5 times a week.

It sounds like I’m bragging but I just want to prove the power of blogging. As I said, keep in mind I have only been running my business differently for about 8 weeks so imagine, if you stick with it, the long term benefits of websites like this one.

How I actually make money from my blog:

I use the WebChik blog as my FREE INFO site. I give tools and tips that help people in their business. I do this to build my brand and give credibility. This is usually referred to as TRUST MARKETING. That’s the perfect term because if they know and trust you they’ll buy from you. If not now then at some point. They’ll at least refer to you!

The way I monetize is through creating websites for people. Not just “normal” sites (for lack of a better word), also Blog sites, Membership sites and eShops – all created using Wordpress as a base. Then we add the bells and whistles. Clients can manage their own sites and add as many pages and content as they like. We’ve also streamlined the process to keep out prices super affordable.

Check out that blatant plug. Got a bit carried away and started doing my spiel

Ok so the proof…

Since I have been blogging here is the result on my Big Fish Website Design traffic in the last month:

And here is my biggest referring site:

As you can see nearly 50% of my website traffic comes from my blog site.

Even better… they spend on average 5 minutes looking at my services AND they look at about 8 pages. This means the people coming to my Big Fish site are QUALIFIED leads looking at web design services. I’m sure there are just a few nosey people and competitors checking it out too but that’s cool

And the stats on the blog:

This shows you the gradual increase of the last couple of months of followers of my blog. You can see it’s gradual and not really anything to do somersaults over just yet, BUT its a long term strategy and if done consistently is a MASSIVELY powerful too to increase your street cred

The bounce rate is pretty high which means there will be a lot of “robots” checking the site to see if it’s “real”. I’m cool with that though because it’s so knew I want the search engine robots to be checking me out for ranking purposes. They’re also checking to see how often I post. The more the better!

The average visitor is staying over 3 mins too which means they’re actually READING the posts.

Ok so if that doesn’t show you the value of blogging then nothing will

I’ll keep you posted on other tips and tricks and stats so you can continue to see the power of the blogmonster

Till next time… over and out

Paypal is one of the most commonly used Credit Card payment processing services out there. Probably because its free to set up and you only pay a small % of each sale. I use it myself!

So I wanted to share this video on how to insert a PayPal button to your website.

This video does show you: how to add a DONATE button however when he gets to the merchant page and selects DONATE you can just choose  BUY NOW BUTTON instead… And you can either paste the code he demonstrates into the page, a post or even on the side of your website (that sidebar is called a “widget”).

If it gets confusing just add a comment to this post and I’ll clarify for you

I also created a HOW TO printable PDF on how to set up a BUY NOW button in PayPal also just in case it helps.

You can download that free here >>

It always seems to be the simplest little things that make the biggest difference. This idea is no different. So simple yet the results are outstanding! I can prove it!

This is totally relevant for website planning AND anything you want to achieve really. It nothing new but it’s something we tend to not bother to do.

This tip works for building your website, starting a business, running a marathon, teaching a monkey to do a one handed backwards flip-flop while eating a banana… All are goals with a desired outcome.

How this trick came about…

About 2 months ago my cousin Nat and I caught up. We both chatted about our goals and how online business was by far the easiest way to achieve our goals while doing what we love. Oh and with the smallest cash outlay. (I’ll tell you why online business is all these things in another post).

Another thing we both discovered is that we were both easily excitable. We’d jump up and down at the opening of an envelope. Especially if there’s wine! We found we were both in, what I call, “Helicopter mode”. Spinning around and around in circles very fast but not actually going anywhere. So here is what we did….

The simple 30 minute trick…

Once a week, same time each week, we meet up for an hour. We give each other 30 minutes each to set ourselves about 5 tasks for the coming week. They can be as big or small as we want, as long as they are things that are moving us towards our goals. During our 30 minutes we also say what we did complete from the previous week and what we didn’t.

Sometimes we don’t do everything on the list BUT most the time it’s because something bigger popped up that was a better opportunity to move forward. Always towards our goals though.

We don’t beat ourselves up if we didn’t do all the tasks BUT if one of us catches the other procrastinating on a task we’ll ask the question “So whats REALLY going on and get to the bottom of it so we move forward. It’s these ones that are perhaps the best part of this group.

Like I said, this is nothing new. Call it an accountability session, mastermind group, wine and cheese hour. Whatever blows your skirt up. Simple… but with huge results.

The biggest, bestest thing EVER that I get out of these sessions…

When there are issues in your business or even personal life, it is hard to see the label from inside the jar. With someone on the outside who is brutally honest, and has no qualms about telling you your being stupid, you become “unstuck” a lot faster. They ask you questions that you are too stuck to ask yourself. Next thing something that was a big personal hurdle becomes a leap forward  in the right direction.

I even had a couple of sessions lately where the thing that was holding me back seemed small, but when I broke through them were so huge that I felt PHYSICALLY different. Like I could do ANYTHING. Like I was BIONIC. Some of these things were realizations that had held me back for years! And all it took to bust through them was 30 mins a week.

Having someone holding you accountable each week makes a massive difference I promise you.

So take action… find even just one like-minded person to have your accountability sesh with. You don’t even have to have common goals. Nat and I are in totally different industries… but the principle of these sessions work brilliantly for us both.

That’s all folks!

PS: Comment on here or email me at j@webchik.net and I’ll have a 30 min session with you on moving forward with your website, membership site, blog site or online store

This has officially been my best week in sales EVER. I wanted to share with you what i did differently. I’m not writing this to brag. I’m writing it to share so that if there is even one thing in there you can apply to your business to boost your results then my work is done

I’ve been building websites for 12 years and always had my own web design company. It’s all I know! Long live the web or I’d be delivering newspapers at 6am or a port-a-loo cleaner or something.

So why has this week been so unbelievable? As opposed to the last 12 years?

8 Simple things…

Firstly…

I put it out there. I’ll get to the marketing tactics in a minute but this part is crucial (as airy fairy as it may sound to some).

I am 6 months pregnant with our second child and I LOVE what I do. It hit me after watching a Tony Robbins video one night about 2 months ago that I need to get my arse into gear and up the income for my family.

I’m in the Internet business… I’m sitting on a goldmine! I should be loaded!

With 2nd bubs on the way we needed a big cash injection to build an extension to our house so the new baby will fit!

Instead of thinking what is holding me back I asked myself “How can I move forward“…

and then… I just put it out there! In my head said “BRING IT!”  - Basic “The Secret – law of attraction” stuff.

Secondly and most importantly… I took ACTION. This is the bit of The Secret that people miss and then wonder why a big red bike didn’t suddenly appear for them. (If you’ve seen “The Secret” you’ll know what I mean.)

There is a lot of crap on TV. A massive amount of time is wasted watching pure rubbish on TV or negative stuff that brings us down.

So… everynight… instead of watching TV, I studied the gurus of marketing and firedupness (that’s my new word but you can use it).

• I watched Tony Robbins and Frank Kern videos on the laptop with my headset on while my partner watched the crap That CSI channel that, although interesting, gave my over-active brain nightmares.
• I read blogs of people like Denise Wakeman, Frank Kern (again) and Patsi Krakoff.
• I downloaded every free audio I could fit on my ipod with workbooks and did them. Then I applied what they said.
• I signed up for Tony Robbins MONEY MASTERS and listened to the first month of him and Frank Kern 3 times! The tactic I got from that and applied to my sales is GOLD! and I’ll explain it in depth shortly.
• I read Gary Vaynerchuks book “Crush it” and applied what he said. I then made sure all the website packages we offer for clients apply the same. (You can get it at Amazon. I’ll even give you the book on my site with my Amazon affiliate link so I get a few cents for it, and maybe use those few cents to buy myself some giant jaffas to eat at my desk – yum yum Click here to get the book. )

And now for more of the marketing stuff for ya… the guts of it…

• Building relationships online – I focused on creating online credibility in everything I did online, Facebook notes, Twitter Tweets and Blogging… I used to just tweet for the sake of it but now I try to do 80% valuable stuff that will help peoples businesses. 20% of it is still crap like – hey I just dropped banana all over my to do list for the day, just so people know I’m still human and not a robot. (That actually happened by the way. The banana thing, not me being a robot).

• Blogging - I’ve been blogging like crazy.  The goal was to build my personal brand (as Gary teaches in his book.) I’ve had complete strangers message me to ask questions or make comment on my posts AND ask us to build a website. Also when people have referred to me in the last few weeks, they visit my blog, to get all the free info and tips. This has backed up the referral so before they even speak with me they can see I know my stuff. Or is it they read my blogs and see me being a dick and think I have to speak to this clown.
• Paying people affiliate commission - Money talks! I’ve really been encouraging clients to refer back to me by becoming an affiliates and getting 15% affiliate commission. Everyone wants some more moolah so why not. Anyone can sign up as an affiliate and get paid: You can click here to sign up yourself right now if you want.
• Guaranteed Turnaround time – We discovered people were getting pissed off with web designers taking too long to do stuff. We fixed this by building ALL websites in Wordpress so clients can easily manage sites themselves.  Not just blog sites, normal websites, membership sites and even online stores. We offered a 3 day turn around GUARANTEE or else the site is free.
• Guaranteed happiness! – I know right. Big call. But… they pay $1 deposit by credit card… We take 3 days to build a site… We don’t charge their credit card for the rest of the payment until day 7, so if in those few days they see their live site and play with it and are not 100% happy, then we don’t charge their card and we take down the site. At first I thought this a bit risky but was a suggestion by Frank Kerns  so thought I’d test the waters. It took away the risk for people who were scared they would not get what they paid for. No one has said “Ew Yuk I don’t want my site” yet. In fact they are sending referrals to us as well so we’ll keep it up!

…and that’s all folks! That’s what I did differently to get the best sales week ever!

I may not have 1000 people subscribed to my blog or 5,000 Facebook fans yet BUT small steps make a big difference.

As they say… small steps will get you to the top of Everest if you take enough of them.

So look at the big picture, take small steps (even just one a week) and you’ll be moving forward to your online mega-uber-star status in no time!

Peace out hombres!

SHARE/SAVE Button: You want as many people as possible to share your blog posts with all their buddies and business colleagues, so you need to make it really easy for them to do this.

At the end of every post have a Share/Save button that they can hover over and then its usually just a one click for them to be able to post it to their Facebook, Twitter or email to a friend.

Check out mine at the end of this blog post… I pimped it out 

If your site is in Wordpress the Plug-in can be downloaded here: Wordpress Add To Any Plugin

However.. ANYONE can use this feature on their website by going to www.addtoany.com and following the instructions. Even if your website is just an HTML site. Plug-ins are far easier though and automatically show on every post.

This is what will pop up when your visitors hover over the button:

As always…  if you get stuck add a comment on this blog post on how I can help you, or email me at j@webchik.net Happy to help!

Over and out

Jodz

FEEDBURNER: Feedburner allows you to set up a little form where people can enter their email and then automatically be emailed every time you post. It’s magic and super powerful. Plus once it’s set up you don’t have to do a thing… it just sends them the email and link to your blog post every time.

so… Go get yourself a Feedburner account at www.feedburner.com.

1. Add the your blog URL to the RSS feed box. It’s the first one to come up.
2. There is a tool under the PUBLICIZE tab called EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION.
3. Just click the button to activate it then…
4. Paste the code to where ever you want it on your website.

Its easier than it may sound so just go do it!… If it seems too hard just add a comment to this blog or email me at j@webchik.net and I will do a video on it

Note: Feedburner are now part of Google so when you go the their website www.feedburner.com you will be redirected to the Google log in page. If you already have a google account, then just log in and on the Google Account Manager add Feedburner to your services.

Again…  if you get stuck add a comment on this blog post on how I can help you, or email me at j@webchik.net

Over and out

Jodz

There all sorts of rad little tools out there to automate your online business. Like little robots that just make stuff happen!

When we build websites for our clients we encourage them to automate everything as much as possible so that they can focus on what the LOVE doing i their business and what they are good at.

There are the 3 key tools to automating your blog so that every time you do a post its easy to get the message out to the world… AUTO-MAGICALLY

I’ve split them into 3 blog posts so you’re not overwhelmed. Make sure you subscribe by email in the top right of the blog to get them emailed to you as soon as they’re posted.

Best  blog automation tip #1

PING FM: Got too many social media sites to handle? Seems like a full time job? Ping.fm is a single website where you set up all your social networking sites so you only have to update the ones site (at Ping.fm).  It will automatically post to ALL your social media sites in one go.

You can spread the word to Twitter and Facebook (and whatever other social sites you have set up in Ping.fm) automatically.  Every time you post on your blog ping.fm tell the world – and you don’t have to lift a finger.

Go set yourself up on www.ping.fm, then add to your Wordpress website the ping.fm plug in. You can get the plug in here: Wordpress 2 Ping.FM Both a ping.fm account and the plug in are free and we like free stuff!

We set this up for all our clients and it saves them a bunch of time!

I know there might have been a lot to take in so if you get stuck add a comment on this blog post on how I can help you, or email me at j@webchik.net Happy to help!

Over and out

Jodz

Yo! My Peeps! Guess what!?….

Far out! Your are guna ROCK at this party of THE CENTURY!!!

I’m not going to be posting on the Pimp My Website Group here anymore because I’ve learnt the difference between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Fan Page… and I’ve converted! (see my blog post about how to do the same and why)

So… to say goodbye to the group and HULLLLOOOO to the fan page I’m inviting you to a 48 hours party! (Been a long time since I pulled a bender like this!)

In this time just visit this link below and become a fan of the WEBCHICK and I promise to keep you posted on WICKED free tips and advice on web design, marketing and basically just making money online.

Click here to join my fanpage:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jody-Jelas-The-WebChik/175314154102

See you on the flip side my peeps!

Can’t wait! It’s guna be awesomeness to the expediential of infinity!!!!

Good blogging is hands down THE cheapest way to get raving fans and become the mega-uberstar guru of you industry.

I’ve recently been studying a bunch of blogging tips so I can use blogging as one of my key strategies. I’ve seen people zoom to the top sellers and all they did was blog well and frequently. In my search for the best ways to blog I found these super useful tips that you can use on your blog.

I see blogging as a great free way to build a following, give useful information for free that people will directly be able to use in their business. As they get to know you as the guru of your industry, they will develop a trust that is invaluable in your relationship.

Here’s what I learned:

ONE:

Search engines LOVE blogs because they are constantly being updated with fresh content. I’ve seeWwordpress websites and blog sites I’ve built be in Google in less than 48 hours! Miracle it may seem, but true it is! *She says in Yoda speak *

TWO:

Blogging is the most cost effective way to build your business and create raving fans – period.

THREE:

The more you blog the better you do – If you can’t find time, just blog 2-3 times a week. it will still help you. If you’re really serious about your business though, find the time to blog every day. Take 1 hour a week and write 7 short simple blog posts and set the date to show one a day.

FOUR:

Get a little “Blog Ideas” notebook - and carry it around in your bag. I promise once you get in the flow or blogging there seems to be ideas everywhere you look! I struggled the first week or two but now i just can’t stop – I’m addicted!!  Make sure you keep it by your bedside and even maybe one in your shower or bathroom – where all the best ideas come!

FIVE:

Be yourself – when you are blogging talk like your telling you best mate something. Be yourself, talk naturally. People will feel like they’re your friend and you’re talking to them personally – which you are really! They’ll love it more if you are yourself. I yawn at poncy too-businessy blogs… You want it to be a conversation so talk like you would normally.

SIX:

Good blog titles with strong keywords rule! Use your keyword/phrase in the title and in the first sentence. Then again in the content once or twice. Use it in your tags too.  This will juice you up in the search engines Go to Google Keyword tool to see what keywords people are searching. You’ll find it on my other blog post here. Use numbers in your post title too. They pull more of a crowd.

SEVEN:

Automate your blog – there are many ways to have your blog posts automatically sent out to the world. I went to put them here but there are so many that I have made it the next blog post – “3 ways to automatically tell the world about your new blog posts”. Before you read it go make sure you have an account set up at Twitter, Facebook and Ping.fm

Hope that’s not too much to take in. If it freaks you out please comment below and I will simplify whatever you need and give more detail

Over and out

Jodz - The Webchik