Does Your Salespage Suck?

If there is one thread I tend to stay out of in the SBI forums, it's the ones that ask for a review of their sales page. I may post a few brief comments, but generally, I stay clear.
Why?
If I gave a 30 point bulleted list of why the page is set up to fail, would that be seen as negative? Yep, Im sure it would, even though that wouldn't be my intention. I want your page to succeed! But This Isn't The SBI Forums
That's right, I can be a bit more forthright here, and tell you why your page sucks.

"Just Who The Hell Does He Think He Is"?

Well, if your totally happy with your sales results....if you are making a living from it like I am, then by all means, get offended. But this isn't a "feel good" session where we all stand around and say how wonderful we are. I'm going to tell you exactly why your page sucks, and why you're not making any sales.

And in case you think Im just hot air....here is a screen shot of the past week, from one of my income streams. I have others. I'm not a big shot marketer by any means, not do I have the ambition to be. But I DO make a full time living from it, and have a lifestyle that makes me happy. Can you say the same thing??

Before You Write An Ebook, Think On This.

Don't do what many people do, learn from the mistakes you see others making all the time. They decide an ebook is a quick and easy way to make a residual income. And then wonder why they have no sales after 6 months.

Answer these 3 questions before you even start.

Do people actually want this ebook?

This isn't as straightforward as it sounds. If you have a subject close to your heart, it's very hard to be objective. Many people approach the subject of their ebook from the wrong side. They write the book, then try and find the market for it. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Find what people actually want first....keep your eyes and ears open. "find what people want, and give it to them" dont try doing it the other way round. You may get lucky doing that, but chances are, you'll fail.

Are You Qualified To Write The Book?

Would you buy an ebook on internet marketing from someone who had no results themselves? Would you buy an ebook on learning to fly an airplane, from someone who wasn't a pilot?

Unlikely, so make sure you give customers a good reason to trust you. Sometimes, all you need to do is approach things from a different angle. Take the example I gave of internet marketing.

Suppose you approached it like this.... "The Life And Times Of A Struggling Internet Marketer" People like to read about success stories. But this approach could show your "human" side...demonstrate the mistakes that you made, the money you lost. People would identify with you. The first step to gaining trust (and sales). So think outside the square.

Finally, How Will You Market It?

You think that putting a sales page on your website is enough? Well, maybe on a high traffic site it might be. But even then, you're not doing all you can to make it successful.

Read this post of mine on the SBI forums, to get some ideas as to marketing your ebook.

So Let's Get Started ...Top 10 Reasons For Poor sales Conversions

These are the most common mistakes I see. Nobody makes all of them, but nobody avoids all of them either (including me). Recognize yourself by any chance?

1.Your navbar is on the page

Why exactly do you want to give distractions on a sales page? Do you really want a prospective customer seeing an interesting link and clicking on it? Or would you rather make a sale? Even worse, I've seen people put Google Adsense on their sales page. Good thinking 99.....swap a $39 sale for a 10c ad click.

2.Where's The Guarantee?

I'm always dubious about purchasing something, if I don't see a way to get refunded. Is this ebook/product right for me? And if not, can I get a refund? It's surprising how many of you leave this out. That will kill most of your potential sales right there. Always let it be known that the purchase is risk free..... "Satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back. What have you got to lose?"

3.What About Testamonials?

Who else has bought this product, and how did they use it? Was it helpful to them? I think many people just don't realize the power of testamonials. And if they include a headshot picture, so much the better. Here's something you might not know. A slightly imperfect headshot will generally increase sales, over a professionally posed studio shot.

4.Why Are Your Paragraphs So Long?

5 lines per paragraph is quite enough. The SBI template is set up so that you don't exceed the maximum comfortable line length (50-60 characters). But if you upload your own, pay attention to this. Bear in mind, most people are skim readers. They will flick thru the page, picking out items of interest.

Bury important information within a long paragraph, then chances are no-one will see it.

5.Bullet Lists

People LIKE bullet lists, it make it easy to see main points in an easy to read summary. But don't overdo it. I've seen bullet lists with 30+ points in them!

Do you really think people are going to read them? Sorry, but put important information in a long list like that, and 99% of your readers will never read it. Keep bullet lists to perhaps 5-6 points at most. Better to have 4 or 5 lists like that, scattered throughout the page, than one big long list.

6.You Put Clickbank AND Paypal On The Page

What the $%$#@*??? Now why exactly would you do this? Yet some of you have. Im assuming you do in fact want a clickbank afilliate to promote your product? If not, then go ahead and do this, and drive them away in droves.

• Affiliate promotes your product
• Visitor arrives from their site, and buys your product
• Payment is made using Paypal
• Affiliate gets no comission

If you want both payment options then try this. Have 2 identical pages. Set up the Clickbank one with a nofollow tag, and a robots.txt file. It's only for clickbank afilliates, no need for being indexed.

Then have the original page on your navbar, with both payment options. This is the page that you will hopefully get spidered and ranked in the search engines.

7.Poor e-book Graphic

Don't undo all your hard work with a poor quality image. It reflects badly on the product, and on YOU as well. I've seen an ebook go from several sale per month, to several per day, simply by replacing the amaturish cover graphic. That's exceptional results, but it does go to show the power of graphics.

8.Bad Font Choices

There is no need to use the same font and size on a sales page, as you use on the main site. An increase in size makes the page easier to read. But that's not really what I'm talking about.

It's all the pargraphs that have been changed to every color of the rainbow! reds, greens, yellow highlighting, etc. Here's a question for you. Why is highlighter generally yellow? Nowadays, highlighters come in all colors, but the original was always yellow. Why??

There is evidence to suggest that yellow may help with memory retention. So a small amount of yellow text on a dark background may be remembered more easily. Dark text on a yellow background may be the next best thing.

But if you overdo it, then it loses it's effectivness. So just use it for a catch phrase that you want to stick in people's minds. This will stick in your memory. But be aware that yellow is the hardest of all colors on the eyes. So "less is better", generally.

9.You Tried To Sell To Me On The Homepage

This doesn't stictly fit in with a sales page, but it is still a common mistake. We haven't even been introduced yet, but you're asking me to get out my wallet. No way! Once I know who you are, what you can offer, and have given me some reason to trust you, then I might consider it. Take this approach, and you will never make a sale with me. It hints at money grabbing....don't do it. EVER!

10.The Biggest Mistake Of All

If you read nothing else on this page.....if you decide it's not worth your time, then at least read this. Because it's the one thing that will make a difference to your sales.

1. I don't care how pretty your page looks.
2. I dont give a toss how many catchy sales slogans you use
3. I don't even care how good your product is

If you understand this concept, then you are way ahead of most "wannabe" marketers.

If you found this, or any other pages to be useful to you, why not let me know? Also, anything else you would like to see, let me know that too.