Hone Your Website's Purpose... Or Risk Losing Business

The Birth of an Idea

In November of last year, I was brimming with excitement over a new idea. I planned to create a website that would be a treasure trove of articles, links, and resources on a wide array of topics. The idea was simple: no matter who stumbled upon my site or why they clicked on it, they would find something of interest and I would make money.

I spent countless hours curating and writing articles on health, beauty, business, finance, insurance, parenting, and computers. I joined a multitude of affiliate programs for each topic and finally launched my website, HelpingFoot.com.

The Reality Check

Three months later, my income from the site was a big, fat zero! Seeking advice, I reached out to several e-zine publishers. Their feedback was unanimous: my website was overwhelming. Visitors didn't know where to start or what direction to take.

I was skeptical. Surely, with such a vast array of articles and resources, visitors would find something to engage with, right? I was wrong, and I'm glad I realized it before wasting more time. I needed to make this site profitable, but how?

The Transformation

I decided to overhaul HelpingFoot.com, but first, I needed to define what I wanted my visitors to do. Did I want them to order my products? Sign up for my newsletter? Read articles? Visit my web forum?

Understanding your desired visitor action is crucial to designing an effective website. Since I already had two other websites dedicated to direct selling, I decided to use HelpingFoot.com to build an opt-in mailing list by capturing visitors' emails.

Here's what I did:

• I removed all links to irrelevant articles and focused the entire site on web design for beginners.
• The old articles remained (they generated a lot of general traffic from search engines), but were not linked from the homepage.
• I created a small pop-up window to collect visitors' emails.
• I placed a sign-up form on my homepage and linked to a "free newsletter" page for visitors coming from other pages.
• I designed an appealing, cartoonish logo for my newsletter.
• Every past issue of my newsletter included a sign-up form at the bottom, allowing people to subscribe immediately after reading.

The Result

The number of people signing up for my newsletter tripled! I went from 20 subscriptions a week to 60 in just a few days. This means that every month my list would grow by approximately 240 people! Every successful marketer knows the value of a growing list for announcing new products and offers, testing marketing strategies, and developing a close relationship with subscribers.

If I had wanted to make my web design forum the main focus of HelpingFoot.com, I would have highlighted it on the homepage with graphics, links, and incentives.

So, ask yourself: what is your "Most Wanted Response"? Make sure your entire website is centered around this goal. With the right amount of quality traffic, I guarantee you will accomplish that goal.