Viperfish is the personal site of Joomla!™ Developer, John Pitchers. As co-owner of JoomStore.com.au, John specialises in development of Joomla based websites, custom extensions and provides consultation on Joomla implementation.

Every day, over 20000 people launch websites. Recent statistics state that if you're not in that group, you are missing out on 250 million people who are probably buying stuff directly on the internet, or basing their decisions on what they will buy online. These 250 million people are your business.

The Business of Websites

... article courtesy of www.free2code.net

The following article is taken from www.free2code.net. It has been included here for it's informational value for people considering building a website and should not be interpreted as or quoted as the words of John Pitchers. This article was written by the author of www.free2code.net. The original article can be found here.

Introduction

Every day, over 20000 people launch websites. The mere fact that you're reading this means either you have an interest in websites and coding, and you're trying to expand that interest on the F2C Tutorials forums, or you're planning to create a website soon. Recent statistics state that if you're not in that group, you are missing out on 250 million people who are probably buying stuff directly on the internet, or basing their decisions on what they will buy online. These 250 million people are your business.

That was the situation. Here's the problem:

99% of the sites today are awkward in defining the very reason why they exist. Coca Cola's last Chief Marketing Officer states that marketing's goal is simple: it is "to sell more stuff to more people more often for more money". That same goal applies to websites. Generally, the goal of a site is to get more people to visit your site as often as possible, and get them to buy as often as possible.

This tutorial is for those happy amateurs, (like me), webmasters and designers who think this way about the function of a website. It's not for those who are selling directly to the public online, but anyone wishing to draw out direct responses. Convincing your audience to look into the idea of your company will lead to eventual sales. The guide is meant as a practical guide, not an academic lecture. It is structured on my observation of the web since 2000 and the experiences (good, as well as bad) I've felt communicating and selling using the web. I'll try to be as specific as reasonably possible in the tips without wasting time on the boring stuff. This is not an answer to every challenge you see in making your website appealing or successful.

Most people (or at least the people I have met) think the first priority is to drive traffic to a website and then to worry about selling stuff after that. That's right in some ways, and wrong in others. I believe there's no such thing as a 'selling-machine', and at the same time, what good is a heap of traffic that if you don't have the resources or appeal to convert it all to your side? From what little experience I have, I'll try to extract what I know of converting your visitors, and then move onto traffic. There is some good stuff though, embracing common misunderstandings of search engines and techniques to get sites found.

Planning versus Failure.

If you can't see the reason for your site to exist, I can be positive that your visitor surely won't know what you're all about either. Is your site there to get them to make a purchase on impulse? Is it there to make them download your special solution? Is it there to make them visit your physical store or shop? Perhaps the reason for your sites existence is a combination of these. Don't be satisfied with the reason: "It is to inform my customers.". We live in an age where there is 'too much information'. Your job is not to inform but to sell. It's nice to build a descriptive website.. You'd be saving a lot of money you'd otherwise have to spend in producing paper or sign advertisements, which have a tendency to go out of date as soon as you print them. Be aware that your site can do much more than simply 'inform'.

You should be able to define the objective of your website to cause an action by your visit, whether it be to buy your stuff, download your creations, make enquiries or leave contact details. Be clear from your point of contact (your front page, really) what your objective is.

After you know what your goals are, it's about time to lay out every single page before you do anything. It's not a secret, but some of the most effective techniques are the simplest. You've probably done this at one point in your life (I suspect, most likely in lower high-school years when one learns about distributing information and planning:

Violently seize a stack of A4, and start putting them down on a board or even better your floor. Imagine that each bit of violently seized paper represents a webpage. Notate on each page your idea of its content, graphics, layout, and most importantly the goals you want to achieve with that page.

Be strict with your goals or objectives. It is not OK to say that your goal is to 'describe the products'. It should outline what you want your visitor to think. Is your goal to make your visitor move to the more detailed product description, or perhaps to get them thinking about your order form? Maybe you want your visitors ultimately to fill out a poll or some similar survey. I've found that doing this helps one to be disciplined in creating a site that is designed to evoke actions, rather than purely transmit information.

Each of your pages ought to answer these questions:

• What do I want my traffic to learn from this page?
• What feelings do I need to induce from the traffic?
• What actions do I want my traffic to take when they've finished reading?
• Where do I want to send traffic after this page?

One principle I learned to apply fairly early in the planning stage is to see how many clicks it takes for a visitor to move to my main focus or objective of the site. It doesn't matter where the 'index' or 'homepage' is; it shouldn't take more than three easy clicks for a visitor to reach that goal. For example, if visitors come to your site through a referral (from another site or a search engine), they must be able to see your navigation bar and move straight to the categories they're interested in. The three-clicks rule won't always be possible, but if it's taking well more than four page-changes or clicks to get somewhere, it's a good idea to reconsider how your pages are organised.

If you can do this before you build your pages, it will help you to greatly shorten the time needed to develop the site, and will definitely help you to stay focused on making your website action/objective oriented.

Clean Navigation.

You can never really control where a visitor enters your site. The internet is a 'web' and things are deliberately hyperlinked all over the place. It's actually quite a tangled web, and this is the beauty of the internet. You want to channel traffic towards your intended goal or action. It's all very nice that visitors have come in the first place by clicking a link located on another site. Now that they're here, you want them to enter the channel. Of course, make sure that visitors know where they are all the time. If a visitor enters through a page low-down in the chain (or tree, rather), they should be able to grab a bearing without having to click things, including the navigation menu. A hint is to always hove your main goal as a part of the navigation menu.

Write for attention... a bit...

There are three important sections you should split your site into:

• Introduction
• Description & Proposition
• Actions

Getting your traffic's attention is what your index/homepage, your introduction, is for. It should be succinct (short and concise) and tell your visitor what's in the site for them. The proposition that sets up your visitors with what you're achieving should also be direct. Finally, you want something to get your visitors to become customers. In my view, customers aren't just people who 'buy stuff', but visitors who establish a relationship with a site where they return to the site. A person who submits his email address to become part of a community is in my eyes a customer.

You can also divide each individual page in a similar way. Think about this during planning and initial development of the site. Your opening must be an attention grabber at the top of each page. A sentence or that page's headline is enough. Within a few seconds, your visitor already has a motive to keep reading your page! Be aware that your description is building the knowledge of your visitor. Once he or she has taken the time to finish reading, it's a very good idea to make sure you provide the right calls to take him/her to your next target.

Building Communities and Networks.

Give your visitors a reason to leave their email addresses

If you achieve what you want to achieve on a visitors first viewing, that's great! Note that most people, however, do not purchase products or completely explore a site in a single visit, especially their first. Most visitors delay decisions for one reason or another, and are likely to look around, especially if they were referred to your site by a search engine. The good news is most people limit their 'shopping around' to just a few sites. The time spent by a visitor to find a bargain is significant, and usually short. Reasonable collect visitors' contact details (typically email), and obtain permission to send them emails.

If your pricing, features and appeal are the same as your competitors, why will a visitor return to your site rather than any other site? What can you do to increase your chance against your competitors (or fellows bearing similar content). Define what's in it for your visitors. Give those who submit their email access to special content. Are you selling something? Can you be an expert in an area that your visitor (on a personal basis) will find valuable? Once you have returning visitors, a 'nice' thing you can do is create an unbiased guide (like the one I'm writing now) that relates to what you're trying to achieve and what your traffic wants.

These are lengthy activities. Some less time-demanding tactics may be something as easy as offering to send special discounts, or special content (as mentioned above), or a newsletter which has tips and something special (even new content before it's released). Whatever your plans, give your visitors a reason to leave their email address with you. Doing this gives you a chance to contact your audience via email, costing you practically nothing. Even if the visitors have left your site long ago, you still have direct contact to them via email, and I bet your competitors are sitting around waiting for the visitors to come back.

Trust.

If you have the trust of your visitors, you usually have their attention as well. The first thing that stops the growth of your network (yes, 'community') is the concern for legitimacy of websites and privacy issues. Visitors often think "How do if I know if you are who you say you are?". Ironically, all you need to do is "Show them you are who you say you are". Here's how:

Good-looking sites work better.

Lots of people judge a book by its cover. The look of your website is half the battle. Don't underestimate the power of your first impression. There are some basic 'look and feel' elements that seem to put confidence in visitors:

• Your body text should be an Arial or Times New Roman font, generally not too big.
• Dark, typically black text on a white background is good.
• Use navigation styles that people are familiar with:
• Bars across the top of your page
• Vertical menus down the left of your page
• Don't use dodgy or poor-quality graphics
• Utilize 'white space'. (White space is empty space.)
• Use a mild colour scheme. (I like blue, but red and green pastels are good too.)

If you're applying a couple of the points above, you are moving ahead of more than half the sites on the internet. (There are billions of web pages out there that really suck.)

I love Google! Google.com's design is not overly simple, and not complex. People like it for its usability and what content there is. It is fast, relevant and gets to the point without distraction. Thanks to the strength of Google's content, it is one of the most visited places on the web. Simple designs similar to that of Google are acceptable!

Privacy Policies - Getting People to Take You Seriously.

'Statistics' show that 64% of online orders are abandoned before completion. There are some people who, no matter what you show them, simply will not let you get their email address. Concern for people's privacy hinders visitors who could otherwise follow 'the channel (the funnel to get people to your objective)'. It's so easy to make this concern go away if you give a clear privacy policy. If you don't already have a policy, you should develop one. http://www.privacy.org.au/ may be of some assistance if you need help creating a privacy statement.

Having a privacy policy in existence is not your aim. No doubt, you want to makes sure that your traffic knows about it. Advertise it. It can be on the bottom of every page. Any place where you request personal details, you can should link to your privacy policy. Make sure you have a policy against sharing personal information with third-party organisations!

I've found that if you want people to see you from a serious perspective, it is essential that your website lives under your own choice of name. Possessing "www.yoursite.thissite.com" is probably a prerequisite in establishing your credibility. You won't generate networks and visitors by asking them to send emails to yournickname@yourwebprovider.com. Telling people to go to www.yourwebhost.com/yourname will not generate communities nor traffic. In August 2003, more than 25 million "dot com" domains have been registered. Getting a good domain these days is difficult, but there are plenty of alternatives if you can't find the right name. New 'top-level' domains have been made available recently. It's possible to register domains in .biz and .info suffixes, (extensions?), expanding all the potential names you can have. All you need is a creative list of words that are of some association with your site or solution. Do try to avoid names and initials if possible. Repetition is occasionally useful, or you can make up words, for example "Google(.com)" or "Sedocity".

Find a decent host. The effort you put into planning and building a site is for nothing if you can't (or don't) find a reliable webhost. As opposed to personal sites, business-sites and communities need to be online 100% of the time. If your site 'goes down', the harm is not just a loss in exposure during that time. Your credibility goes down the drain. It's important to find a secure webhost. Insist on something you can maintain all the time. (Viperfish members have access to their FTP 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).