Ah, the glorious lifestyle of the Internet!
After all, where ELSE can you boldly seize torrents of hungry customers desperately flinging their laden wallets dripping with 100 dollar bills at your portable ATM try to make your own fortune online today…without leaving the comfort of your own home?
Exactly.
BUT! The path from here:
Jeepers! I'm going to run a business online!
to HERE:
We're in the mon-ney! La la la la!
WITHOUT encountering:
"I've spent thousands but made one sale of a $7 product! Woohoo!"
can be fraught with dastardly peril indeed.
However, like all good perils, said dastardly peril, like a 2 year old child about to throw a tantrum worthy of Donald Trump, will almost always give you gentle shy warning signs like the following. Ignore at your own peril!
1.) When you tweet about new products you've just released, you hear THIS sound.
That sound is truly a lovely thing unless it's applied to how your audience reacts to your latest offerings!
Think about it.
When your audience gets excited that you have a brand spankin' NEW product or service…that energy gets communicated (ie, other people will retweet the information, share it on Facebook and the like).
Right?
If you experience The Sound of Silence when you add new goodies to your store….your business site might be one step closer to whirling off a cliff.
The Fix: Build up your social networking and social marketing. The more people view you as part of your network…the more chances your information will be freely retweeted. Need help with social marketing? Expert Groundwork will help you there!
2.) Your customers buy only ONCE from you.
And why did they buy only ONCE from you?
Perhaps they were unhappy.
Perhaps you didn't follow up with a great customer care experience.
Whatever the reason, oh, sure, they might not contact you with their unhappiness, but the fact is – someone who has bought from you once is far more likely to buy from you again….unless you make their customer experience so miserable they'd prefer to enjoy a root canal without anesthesia…done by a hyperactive toddler…with an affinity for sharp pointy objects.
If Once Was Quite Enough for being a customer of yours….your business site might be one step closer to whirling off a cliff.
The Fix: Make sure to create a stellar customer care followup sequence for each of your products. That way, people know how to contact you in case of problems, you have yet another opportunity to offer free goodies and suggestions and the like.
3.) Your New Customers Are Non-existent.
Sure, it could be a slow time during the week. Or month.
But a slow YEAR? No new customers in over 365 days or 8,760 hours?
Even with a lousy economy…it's a blazingly ferocious sign that your business is doing something (and probably 392 things) wrong.
The Fix: Don't sell what you THINK your customers want…sell instead what they're screaming for NOW.
Post at forums, see what fellow business folk are successfully selling in your niche and the like. Don't try to reinvent the wheel – simply make it run smoother.
4.) Your Site Is Infected With Malware And You Don't Know It
Alas, this happens far more often than one could want! I remember 3 months ago, I was searching for a Martial Arts cane, and came across the fantastic site Wooden Steel. Alas, that site had a malware injection that kept trying to consume my computer with an fervor Barney the Dinosaur exhibits whenever new children are spied in the distance.
Being the Good Samaritan that I am, I contacted the website owner and webmaster and eventually the site was fixed (the webmaster thanked me, but most interestingly, the site owner never responded to my emails at all).
But here's the weirdness of it…..
I'm sure I wasn't the first person to notice the site was ickyized, but I was the first person to alert them. I learned that in the vast majority of cases, people would just surf away and not drop the site owner a line. 🙁
The Fix: One way to prevent this from happening to you is to set up an alert from Watch That Page – whenever the code in your site changes, you receive a notification. It can be a great tool to help you react quickly if your site gets compromised.
5.) Your Copy Is Duller Than A Barren Desert
Be honest with yourself. When a customer reads your copy, do they start to yearn for the gentle sounds of fingernails scraping across a chalkboard?
If so, we're not only talking about Danger Will Robinson…we're talking :
But I digress.
Boring copy is the bane of 99.8493% online business owners across approximately 98.314159% of the Internet during 99.98% of the Greenwich Mean Time.
Really.
The Fix: Read read and read everything you can find at CopyBlogger.com ….you can start with Content Marketing and then go to Copywriting 101. Then progress to James at MenWithPens, and fling yourself deep into the art of promoting all the benefits your products offer.
When you make the transition from "boring copy" to "I wanna read MORE! copy", your business should adroitly avoid the aforementioned whirly cliff.
6.) Your Copy Makes People Think Of Lovely Used Car Salesmen
Quick! Is your copy so outrageously false that it scares off intelligent customers?
Perhaps you have something like:
These methods give you so much of an unfair advantage over your competitors, it can down right kill their businesses!
Once you see the power of this system you’ll understand why.
You’ll be the top dog and steal your competitions money!
Anyone can follow this simple, step-by-step system and be making money in a matter of just a few hours… Even if you’re super lazy like me you can see results within 24 to 48 hours.
Nope, I'm not going to share the site this garbage was on.
But suffice it to say, sure, it will attract the newbies and the dreamers and the eager folk who live for such hype.
But…will they buy?
Or will they finally wise up as to the smoke and mirrors such sites exude? Does visiting your site make your visitors crave to wash off the lies from their body?
The Fix: Powerful emotional copy can work wonders. Downright lies and 1/8th truths….damage your credibility so people never want to return.
Focus instead on compelling your visitors to WANT to become your customers…not run away in hysterics from outlandish claims. Ditch the crud and set out to win the hearts.
7.) Your Exit Popup Really Pisses People Off
Now, I can understand how exit popups can truly benefit sites if they give the visitor something want.
If the visitor clicks to leave, and YOU AGGRESSIVELY PREVENT THAT….you're skating over thin ice indeed.
The Fix: Alert your customer to a fantastic benefit but don't shove it in their faces. I just implemented this myself over at my niche marketing tools site, Weekly Expert Sales. Visit 21 Steps to Putting Your Business Online…in Less Than 24 Hours and look up the right hand corner.
So far, the reaction has been great – what do you think?
And there you have it – 7 possible warning signs that your business is fast approaching ZombieLand.
But not to fear – smart folk like you can fix the problems right away! All it requires is dedication. And after all…you're worth that and 'way 'way more.
Enjoy,
Barbara Ling
Get Started Here
You’ll love what you learn… Promise!