-•- HomeOfficeDigest.com Newsletter - Issue 136 -•-
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THE HOME OFFICE DIGEST NEWSLETTER
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BE YOUR OWN BOSS
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Bosses generally get perks of some type. What are your perks? If you
aren't taking a day off from time to time, or spending a few bucks
on the things you truly enjoy, then why in the world did you want to
be the boss in the first place? One of the greatest joys of working at
home is the freedom, both financially and with your time, that this
industry affords you. Being the boss is stressful, time consuming,
and just plain tough most of the time so don't forget that being
the boss should afford you the right to a few perks. If you aren't
getting the perks you need you're likely to find yourself a burned
our shell of a person in a relatively short time. Enjoy being the
boss, it's an experience that not too many people get to have
during their lifetime!


FEATURED ARTICLE
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Web hosting is SO retail!
by: Alec Ellis

You have 1 or 2 seconds to make an impression, and 2 or 3
seconds more to make a sale, or forget the web hosting
business!!

Web hosting as a business has taken off in the last 12 months,
with a vengeance.

How many web sites are on the Web today? They all have to be
hosted somewhere, the result being, there are now thousands
of web hosts around the globe today. How do people decide to
choose you?

Potential customers will talk to friends; perhaps ask a local
web design group; or consult their ISP (Internet Service
Provider); but this may result in knowledge of only one or two
hosting companies. There are hosting directories, and review
sites which may be governed by whoever pays for the largest ad
or personal opinions that seem popular. The visitor will still
have to make the final decision.

If these visitors make their own decisions, and there are
thousands of web hosts to choose from, there are very few seconds
to deliver your offer, which must be instantly obvious. What can
you do to turn this streaming traffic into sales?


First View - The look of your web site

Are the design, content and delivery up to customer
expectations? If the presentation has obviously been thought
about; a conscientious effort to delivery and content; then
it is likely the visitor will believe that the hosting company
will also look after their site conscientiously. If the
presentation is poor, then forget it, there are more than enough
web hosts that look good. Of course, to the other extreme, if
the web host's site looks a million dollars, it is likely that
the visitor will be expecting to a pay a 'million' too!


The Initial Offers - What are your best packages?

With the sudden growth of the web, the hosting industry has
had to take a retail approach to content delivery. In the
retail trade the offers are so many, that the customer has
to learn to speed read, or speed view. Visitors to web
hosting sites have not got the time to read all the details
on each of every one of thousands of sites, so speed viewing
is a must; or is it?

Web hosts who have nothing to sell usually hide this fact by
showing columns of text, expecting the visitor to sort out
what is good to them or not. The usual explanation for this
is " The visitor knows what they want and will find it without
our hassling them." The expectation is that with less hassle
the visitor will more likely become a customer. Not true.

Web hosts that have special offers, great deals, or offer
specialized packages for say private, business or corporate
customers; will tell you just that. Think about it, why hide
the fact you have a winner? By taking a retail approach to a
very retail business, the real dealmakers are not 'backward
in coming forward'.

Obviously making everything on the site an 'excellent' offer
is the other extreme. Most web hosts' offer 90% of what their
competition offers, so to point out every good point offered
would be overkill. The likely result would be that you would
show the visitor that you are new to the industry, and less
experienced; not good in times of future support.

By pointing out the great points in the best reasonable
packages, you will catch the eye of the traffic, until previously,
zooming past you. What to do when they have stopped for a visit
is another matter.


Congratulations on getting the traffic to stop and browse -
What next?

Getting the zooming traffic to stop and browse is difficult
enough. The look of your web site can catch that peripheral
vision of theirs; in an instant they can decide, "I will stop
here and have a look". The offers of 3 or 4 of your accounts,
too good to be true, or at least warrant further investigation,
entice a visit.

These 'highway signs' make you stop and pull over. What happens
once the visitors have pulled in? You will have to hold them
there, before they up and leave just as quickly. The 'restees'
have seen the site, they have sampled the best on offer; now
what? You know you have a captured audience, all be it for
another 2 or 3 seconds. Becareful not to send these valuable
potential customers, off, clicking around your site. They
clicked on your special package, the offer on the front page,
so take them directly to it.

The visitor has been enticed to your web site; seen good offers
and one or two of those are just what they are looking for.
Take them direct to the page with the offer; include the price;
include basic details that quantify very quickly the worth of
the package; and, provide an order form. Do not smother these
account pages in common details, or details of other accounts.

There should be only two main pages, the front page and the
account package page, that which the customer clicks to. The
front page is attractive and entices you to stay, the offer
encourages you to spend a few more seconds on the account page
consisting of title, offer, basics, price and order form; all
this should be on a secure page ready to take credit card
information.

No two visitors are the same. There are those that will just
sign up straightaway and those that will 'further investigate'.
Put the remainder of your account packages' details, along
with the 'about' information, the 'help', the 'support' etc,
on other pages, using links on navigation bars for easy access,
keep the offer clean.

You have one or two seconds to sell your product, don't use it
to educate your potential customer, let someone else do that!
Give them what they want, this is now a very retail industry,
if you are stuck for reference material, then visit a supermarket
or local store, retail research has been around for years.

----------------------------------------------------
Written by Alec Ellis
M6.net - for Web Hosting in 2 seconds
http://www.m6.net



DOWNLOAD OF INTEREST
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I can't remember if I've recommended this piece of software before
but with the recent influx of viruses I feel it's worthy of another
mention regardless. If you are on a cable modem, DSL, ADSL, or
ISDN connection you simply have to have some type of personal
firewall software on your system. If your computer is online for
long periods of time and you don't have a firewall protecting you
then you might as well leave out a welcome mat for hackers. Get
yourself some top quality protection for your PC before it's too
late! If you think you can't afford top quality protection you
couldn't be more wrong, ZoneAlarm has got you covered! This
overwhelmingly popular piece of software is available for instant
download at http://www.zonealarm.com and, believe it or not, it's
100% FREE!


WHAT ARE THEY THINKING
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A business associate of mine, someone who also sends solo mailings,
recently had a problem with a customer. In the body of the solo
mailing his client included no website address, no phone number,
and no contact email address, they only included an autoresponder
email address. To make a long story short, this person cancelled
their autoresponder account and then had the audacity to get upset
with this associate of mine for sending the solo mailing with a
bad autoresponder email address! It's obvious that the error was
on the part of the customer, 100% crystal clear, but the customer
didn't want to hear it. Anyway, before I get myself all worked
up I just want to make sure you all remember that there are
legitimate times when the customer is wrong. I know that isn't
what some of you want to hear but it's the truth!


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