Jed Wylie - Make Your Website Sell

For Julie, Elise, Aaron and Theo

Copyright 2012 Jed Wylie

Published by Marshall Cavendish Business
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

PO Box 65829
London EC1P 1NY
United Kingdom

and

1 New Industrial Road
Singapore 536196
www.marshallcavendish.com/genref

Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited

Other Marshall Cavendish offices:
Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196 Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 105919001, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd, 253 Asoke, 12th Floor, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

The right of Jed Wylie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the publisher.

The authors and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and disclaim liability arising directly and indirectly from the use and application of this book. All reasonable efforts have been made to obtain necessary copyright permissions. Any omissions or errors are unintentional and will, if brought to the attention of the publisher, be corrected in future printings.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN 9789814382601

Cover design by Matt McArdle
Author photograph by Edward Moss

Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ International

THE STRATEGY

Youve come to the decision to invest in improving your website at exactly the right time. You have, quite rightly, recognised that the Internet is a very complex selling space, and in order to be effective, to outsmart your competition and to take your business to the next level, you need to find out what works and what doesnt. And that is exactly how this book will help you.

Together we are going to unlock the potential in your website so your business can achieve rapid and sustained growth for the months and years ahead, no matter what the economic weather.

For over a decade I have been at the coalface of web design and marketing as the managing director of a web design company. Ive also spent the last five years intensively researching and testing the very best online techniques used by the top-performing companies.

I have taken all that knowledge and combined it into this book, along with a healthy measure of research and creativity. Plus Ive packed in as many strategies, approaches, ideas, tips, and step-by-step guides as possible in order to give you the most powerful and practical advice available to turn your website into a financial success story.

However, whether you are building your website or growing an existing one, having a strategy will be fundamental to your success. In fact, you simply cannot expect to be successful without it.

Why?

Well, many web owners struggle; and struggle is a very clear message. Its the message that something is wrong. After years some even dump their entire site in the hope that their web designers will wave magic wands to make them millionaires overnight. Then they wonder why their website never really gets top-flight success.

Often this is down to the hope that by doing something different (anything different) their website will perform better. However, without a strategy an overview of the sequential (and sometimes simultaneous) steps that need to be taken most web owners are left floundering on the rocks.

My aim is to give you the strategy to make your online business flourish. Its not complicated, and its not technical, so please enjoy the sense of relief that you may feel that the route to success is easier than most believe. (You are welcome to get a bit excited at this point.)

Now as soon as most people mention strategy, I get nervous, as its usually succeeded by endless business plans, policies and meetings. That is not the kind of strategy I mean. In fact, this strategy is incredibly simple because it relates to a process which, taken step by step, will build your success.

Owning a website is more like owning another business, with all the complexities and work that entails. In fact there are so many elements to it you could easily be overwhelmed with stuff to do; many web owners end up suffering from information overload to the point they are debilitated into inaction. Knowing how to run and develop your website is more about how you think than simply doing things on a list, so its important for you to get your mindset right from the outset. Think of this as the same mental exercise an athlete might do before running a race your mindset sets the foundation stones for your future.

Finding a good web designer can be as hard as finding your life partner. Your web designer will need to mesh with you, your business, your websites needs and even your values and principles. They will have to get inside your business and your head in order to connect with what you want. And you have to do likewise. After all, if they are about to help you represent your company online, youll want to be sure they are right for the task.

Having got the right web design partner, its time to build your online empire. But get it wrong here and the repercussions will be expensive and time-consuming. Thats why you need to break down your web project into manageable chunks. It begins with the specification, which is where you do all of your groundwork thinking and where the website takes shape on paper. Next, those plans are fashioned into a design you can see, then turned into a working website, and finally tested and put live on the Internet.

It sounds simple but it isnt! Its a complex and detailed process, and one which typically takes a lot longer than you think. The biggest risk to you is believing that your web designers will do it for you. In reality they can only provide you with the framework for your site; its organisation, content, sales capability, testing and marketing are all down to you. Your designers may be able to guide you, but they certainly cant do it all for you.

Getting your website live is only half the battle. The other half is getting visitors and conversions. This is where having a keen understanding of Internet marketing will make the difference between your website just being another unproductive corporate website and one that sparkles in Internet space.