I have recently started a forum on a subject close to my heart: reading and writing (with a little marketing thrown in too, of course!) I have found it to be a great way to boost my search engine rankings, build my list, meet prospects and boost my own excitement.
You are invited to visit my BookWise Forum!
The key to beginning your own forum is to decide on just the right topic. This topic is what will bring the visitors to your forum. If you have too many topics and unrelated sub-topics, then the people looking forward to a discussion of a favorite subject will be turned off and leave. They want to see focus; know that the subject that interests them will also be of interest to the other people in the forum. This is also the best way for search engines to pick you out. Many people think that the more topics the more people they will attract, so it is important to remember that this is exactly the opposite of how it works.
It is important to get the right software to use for your forum. One reason is ease of use, but another deals with appearance. Your regulars will get used to you using a particular script and do not want to see major changes. Fortunately if, as you learn, you want to make some changes there are software tools that can make the alterations painless and nearly unnoticeable. People get set in what they are doing and sometimes a big change can turn your contributors off. Do your best to investigate what is out there before choosing your software.
After you have chosen your topic and picked your software, it is time to find the best ways to attract visitors to your forum. With the number of options open to people on the internet you need to give them a reason to choose your forum over others. First get your internet friends to come and have a look. Use the forums that you were first involved in to drum up some interest in what you are working on. If they allow you to its okay to advertise your forum, if not simply put the link under your signature when you post. Another way to get interest is to send around an announcement to everyone you know about the opening of your forum. This will bring curious friends to have a look and if they like what they see they will encourage others to do the same. The key to attracting traffic is to have interesting things to say. Do not miss a day’s posting, keep it fresh and interesting and others will join in. No posts and there will be no traffic.
The key question with websites that are trying to sell a product or service is to figure out how to convert site visitors into buyers. The first step is to have a website that grabs the attention of the person browsing. That means on the front page you need to have the right images and sales pitch to make the browser looking at your site want to take the next step and enter your site, hopefully with the intent to make a purchase. One other thing that will ensure this is to make sure that the front page shows your best selling products, or services, and that the site operates fast and cleanly. Slow sites get left behind.
You must be certain that your website is set up so that it is aimed at pleasing your prospective client/customer. You need to think how to convert site visitors into buyers and transfer that thought into the way you set up your website. Your visitors want to be able to access the necessary information on the product or service that you are offering quickly, clearly and without unanswered questions. That is only way that a purchase will be made. Consumers will not buy anything if they have any uncertainty.
Trust is one of the keys when you are trying to learn how to convert site visitors into buyers. Consumers want to be certain of not only the product quality but that the website guards their privacy when they make a purchase. They want to know they will not wind up having their personal information sold. This can be done by joining some of the regulatory groups that promote the protecting the privacy of their internet customers. Another thing that makes buyers more comfortable is the number of contact points they have with the company. So, include the company’s fax number, email address, postal mail address and all phone numbers. Show your customer that you are a good seller with a good reputation and that the quality of the product you are selling is equal to the quality of your company.
So, you have a problem where you have plenty of people visiting your site–but you’re not getting any buyers. This is a major problem that most web site owners have to deal with at some point or another. You know that your search engine ranking is good because your page scores highly with the likes of Google and Yahoo! You know that all of your links are working properly. The only problem you have left is your sales copy.
When you already have lots and lots of visitors flowing into your web page but you aren’t getting the number of sales you would like, chances are the problem is that you are trying to sell items with boring web copy. Maybe your copy is too bland. Perhaps it is too technical. Or it may not be any good at all. Whatever the problem is, if you want to increase the conversion rates on your sales pages, you need to make sure that your copy is top notch.
One of the best ways to improve your sales copy is to hire a professional. There are tons of them out there, so look around to see what you can find. However, if you cannot afford a professional copywriter, you will need to do the work yourself.
The first step is to completely revise your copy and throw out anything that does not engage the reader. You want your sales page to be fun and interesting to read while still providing enough information to make the sale. This is a fine line you have to balance to be sure that plenty of people will purchase from your site.
Also, a great idea is to break up your paragraphs. Sales pages are not academic essays, so make sure that you limit your paragraphs to only a couple of sentences each to make them easier to read on the screen. Follow these tips and you will see your conversion rates increase multiple times over.
Aside from selecting an actual topic for your website, perhaps the most important part of any web design process is to actually create a way for people to find your website. And there is no better way to ensure that your website gets visited than by selecting the proper keywords for your web page. It can be a much more difficult task than you think, but what you will end up with is a flourishing site with the possibility of tens of thousands of visitors each and every day.
The first step to selecting a proper set of keywords for your site is to really sit down and think hard about what your site is about. Ask yourself some questions about your site and which audience you want to find. What is my site selling? What kinds of people would benefit from the information or products I have on my site? Is my niche crowded with similar sites offering similar products?
Once you have an answer to these questions, it’s time for you to start thinking about which keywords you want to focus your site around. Try to aim for keywords that are both specific to your niche and general enough that they will allow your site to place well when people search for something more general. A good mix of those two areas will yield you higher results in search engines.
Here is an example to get you started. Say you are selling unlocked cell phones on your website. Now, there are quite a few other sites out there that are also selling unlocked cell phones, and because your page is new, you need to work twice as hard to make sure that search engines recognize it for what it is. So, think about keywords like: “unlocking, unlocked cell phones, cellular phone, cheap cell phone” as general keywords, then go into more detail with other keywords like: “Sony Ericsson unlocked cell phone, unlocked Apple iPhone, low cost RAZR2 unlocking” and so on.
Building a forum on your site is, without a doubt, the most deceptively difficult thing you can do to try and attract visitors to your site. Many people fall into the trap where they think that they can simply throw a forum onto the site and visitors will flock to it. This couldn’t be more untrue. Forums require a lot of tender love and care, possibly more than your website itself does. For a forum to be successful, it requires a constant effort to maintain. But if you’re willing to undertake this challenge, a forums is a great way to boost readership and conversion rates on your main website.
The first step in attracting visitors to a forum is to choose what forum software you want to use. There are a variety of options out there, so read through them and see which would be best for your site. Once that’s done, create some topics and get to work on getting your forum out there to to the world.
One of the best ways to attract visitors to your forum is to announce that your forum has been created. Place a prominent link to it on your main website, post about it on social networking and social news sites, and email all of your friends and family to get them to join. The goal is to get as many early users to your forums as possible.
Even if you only get one or two people signing up, start posting to them. Get to know the people on your forum and make them feel at home. They will reward you by spreading the word about your forum to their friends who will eventually do the same. Even when you have hundreds or thousands of visitors, be sure that you continue you keep the discussion going on your forums, as good conversations and a friendly environment are the keys to having a forum that will continue to attract people day after day.
