internet marketing articles
News & Gossip
Understanding the Big Picture - 5 Steps to Selling Online
Selling online may not be as simple as you think. You may have a fantastic product or service but if you don't understand and monitor the basic metrics to online success, you may be at more risk then you think!
Five Steps to Selling Online
- Step 1 – Pick a good market and research it very well
- Step 2 – Determine your site’s basic strategy. What will you offer?
- Step 3 – Be sure your site is collecting emails from large % of visitors (10%+)
- Step 4 – Be sure your site is profitably converting visitors to sales (visitor value $1.00+)
- Step 5 – Once steps 3 & 4 accomplished then and only then pour on as much qualified traffic as you can get at affordable prices
Possible goals of your web site:
- 1. Collect emails
- 2. Make sales
- 3. Make you look good to the media, potential clients & others
- 4. Attract lots of search engine traffic
To maximize individual results, in long run consider having separate sites.
Math you need to understand:
Opt-in Rate -- % of unique visitors who give you their email
address
Example: 100 people visit and 15 give email = 15% opt-in
rate
Conversion Rate -- % of people who buy your initial offering
Example: 100 people visit and 1 buys = 1% conversion rate
Value Per Visitor – What’s it worth to get a qualified
visitor to your site?
Example: 100 people visit and 1 buys product on which you
make $50.00
That means $50 x .01 = 50 cents value per visitor
Lifetime value of a customer – When somebody becomes a
customer how much are they
ultimately worth to you over the length of the relationship?
100 people buy your $50 profit product. Of those, on average 10 will pay you at least $1,000 for consulting each year for an average of three years each.
Thus if we multiply $1,000 x .10 x 3 years = $300 average consulting revenue
Then add the $50 initial profit and we have a lifetime value of $350
An example of a successful money making web site:
- You can get 5,000 visitors a month at 50 cents each
- 20% of the web visitors opt-in to your email list
- On average each visitor is worth $2 within 30 days
- That means you spend $2,500/month on advertising, but generate gross profits of $10,000/month, net $7,500/month and your email list is growing at 1,000 names/month.