7 Set It And Forget It Ways To Make Money From Your Website

Making more money with your website doesn’t necessarily require making a big change or taking on some monumental task. Sometimes, all you need to do is spend a few minutes creating another opportunity for your prospects to join your list or buy something from you. Check out these seven ideas for doing exactly that…

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1. Direct Visitors to Your Lead Page

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1. Opt-in forms on your website.

2. Calls to action to visit your lead pages.

In short, you want to give your visitors more opportunities to join your list. Because if people leave your site without joining your list (or buying something), there’s a good chance they’ll forget about you.

So how do you put more of these opt-in opportunities on your site? Like this:

• Insert a call to action at the end or even within your blog articles. Ideally, the lead magnet you’re offering should be closely related to the particular article the visitor is reading. In other words, create multiple lead magnets so that you can embed targeted lead magnet offers within your content.

• Embed opt-in forms in your blog sidebar. Be sure to let visitors know the top benefits they’ll receive if they claim your lead magnet and join your newsletter.

• Place calls to action in multi-media. If you distribute podcasts and video content on your website, don’t forget to include calls to action within this content (along with a link or opt-in form next to the multi-media so that people can take immediate action).

• Test a lightbox popup. Most of us aren’t thrilled when we see popups on a website, especially if it obstructs our access to the content. However, a well-placed exit popup with an enticing offer can certainly get more people scrambling to join your list. The best way to find out if it works for you is by testing it.

Next up…

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2. Insert More Product Offers

Many times marketers create a new product, announce the new product over several posts on the blog, and then don’t do a whole lot of promotion after that. However, you can make more money with your website simply by inserting more product offers across your website.

Here are three ways to get more sales:

• Insert product offers in your blog sidebar. You can even create a “featured product” section, where you feature a new product each week. Or you can set up a plugin that rotates several products, so that visitors see a range of offers.

• Place offers on your subscriber confirmation page. At this point, you have a prospect who is interested enough in what you offer to join your newsletter. Now is a good time to put an offer in front of them. For best results, place an offer that’s directly related to the lead magnet the prospect just requested.

• Put offers on webinar registration pages. Do you offer live webinars? If so, you can place an offer on the registration page. Try something like this: “Get up to speed before the webinar by watching this video…”

Next up…

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3. Offer an Upsell or Cross-Sell

If you’re selling something on your website, then every order form should include an upsell or cross-sell. What’s the difference? Take a look:

A cross-sell is when you offer something related to the main purchase. This extra offer should enhance the enjoyment or benefits of the main products. The classic example here is when a fast-food clerk asks if you want fries with your burger.

No matter what you’re selling, you can do something similar to this. For example, if someone orders a dieting book from you, you can offer a cross-sell for a related item such as a low-calorie cookbook or even a meal-planning app.

An upsell is when you offer something that expands the order. The classic example at the fast food restaurant is when the clerk asks if you want to “biggy size” an order (which means you get a bigger fries and a bigger drink). You’re not adding any new products to the order, you’re just expanding what you’ve already ordered.

Again, you can do this in your business too. For example, if someone orders a video from you, you might offer the transcripts of the video as an upsell. Or if someone orders three months of coaching from you, then you might offer an additional month at a really good rate.

Here’s the next set it and forget it way to make more money with your website…

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4. Embed Offers Directly Into Blog Content

If you have a blog, then you probably put offers in your sidebar, header, footer and maybe even at the end of each article. Those are all good ideas. But be sure to embed offers directly into the content.

This doesn’t mean you need to do a hard sell within the content, although occasionally you can do that too with direct-response ads, product reviews and product comparisons. Instead, what it means is that you recommend related products directly from within the content.

For example, let’s suppose you’re writing an article about how to set up a mailing list. You can drop an affiliate link to your favorite email service provider, along with the benefits of that ESP and the reasons why you personally recommend it.

Here’s the next idea…

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5. Create Easily Shareable Viral Content

Every piece of content you place on your website should have a specific goal. These goals might include creating sales, establishing you as an expert in the field, or even generating traffic.

When it comes to that last point, one of the very best sources of traffic to tap into is your existing visitor base. That’s why you’ll want to create viral content that’s easily shareable.

So what makes content go viral? Well, it is not an exact science, otherwise those who create it for a living would hit a homerun every time. However, here are five characteristics of the most-shared viral campaigns:

• The content is unique. Did you know our brains actually light up in a rewarding way whenever we encounter something unique? If you can flip on this reward switch in your prospect’s brain, you can bet she’s going to share the content. That’s why you should seek to share something novel, even if it’s just a new twist on an old strategy.

• The content is positive. While sometimes it seems like people share the most horrific things online, one study suggests that the most-shared content tended to be positive. This is content that makes people laugh (think of all those cute cat videos online), inspires them, makes them say “aww,” or just makes them feel good. If you can create these warm emotions in people, your content has a better chance of going viral.

• The content is in an easily consumed format. People don’t have time to read huge ebooks, watch 30-minute videos and so on. And even if they do, they’re less likely to pass it along to friends. That’s why viral content tends to be short: a blog post, an infographic, a three-minute video.

• The content is easy to share. In other words, don’t put hoops between your prospects and the content. Make it instantly accessible through a link, and then make this link easy-to-share by putting social media buttons on your website.

• The content includes a call to action. If you really want to increase the number of people who share your content, then tell them specifically what to do next. For example: “Click here to share this content on Facebook and give your friends a laugh!”

Next…

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6. Setup An Autoresponder

We’ve been talking about pointing people to your lead pages so you can build your list. Now here’s another key: when people join your list, they should be entered into an autoresponder sequence of at least five to seven emails.

For example, “Five Surefire Ways to Boost Your Conversion Rates,” or “The Seven Steps To Selling Your Home.”

Here are three tips for creating a successful follow-up sequence:

• Focus on selling one product or service in the sequence. If you bombard your new prospects with a variety of offers, they probably won’t buy anything at all. So focus on your email sequence around one offer.

• Create emails that are part content, part pitch. The content will solve part of your prospects’ problem, while at the same time establishing you as a trustworthy expert. The pitch is for a product or service that solves the rest of your prospect’s problem. In other words, the content should naturally lead to the paid solution.

• Be purposeful with your email sequence. Each email can offer a new step, tip or secret for the content part of the email. However, each email should also work on closing the sale in one or more of these ways:

o Focus on the benefits of the product or service. Let your prospects know why they should want this product.

o Offering proof of your claims, such as testimonials, case studies or other forms of proof. Stick to your strongest forms of proof, such as the testimonials that talk about actual results.

o Overcoming objections. Your guarantee and testimonials will help overcome many objections. However, if you’re aware that your audience has a specific objection, then you need to raise and handle this objection in your email. For example, if you’re charging a premium price, then you need to justify the price.

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7. Put Up Exit Traffic Offers

When people leave your site without joining your list or buying something, there’s a good chance they won’t be back. Even those with good intentions tend to forget about you. That’s why it’s so important to get visitors on a list or get them to make a purchase before they leave. So here’s one way to do it…

Place an absolutely irresistible offer in front of them as soon as they hit the back button or otherwise try to leave your site.

You see, just because they’re leaving your site doesn’t mean they’re not interested in what you’re offering – it just means you haven’t put the exact right offer in front of them yet. And now that they’re about to go out the door, you have one last chance to do it.

This might come in the form of:

• An absolutely irresistible lead magnet, preferably something directly related to the last page they were viewing.

• A deep discount or other special offer on your most popular product.
  
  

• A “tripwire” offer (e.g., a high value product at a no-brainer price).

In other words, now isn’t the time to put a mediocre offer in front of your prospects. Put your best offer out there, because this may be the last chance you have to turn this browser into a subscriber or even a buyer.

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Conclusion

So there you have it: seven set it and forget it ways to make more money with your website.

As you’ve seen, many of these ways don’t even take very long to set it up. You can start working on these ways right now, and have several put into place before you call it a day. Do that, and maybe you’ll already see good results when you get up tomorrow morning. So why not put these methods to work for you starting right away? You’ll be glad you did.