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5 Ways to Tell If You Need a New Web Site

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I just recently created my fifth website in ten years. Why? Because it was time. I have changed and needed a new reflection on the internet. A new website gives you the opportunity to rethink, re-choose, reposition and rebrand. Here are some of the signs that it’s time for a new one

You aren’t getting the results you want

 

The first clue that you need a new web site is that you are not getting the results you want. People are coming to your site but not opting in. Your conversion rate is minimal. Not a good sign of success. Look at your cpanel webstats and see the pattern of the past year. Chart your growth. I keep a chart of my web stats and mark on it what marketing strategies I put in place during a particular month so I can see how effective it was or was not as the case may be.

You may need a new opt in, a new design, stronger keywords, and new sales pages— pretty much everything in order to get the results you deserve. A new web site lets you start fresh.

Is your web site getting the conversion rate you want?

Are you attracting the number of visitors to your site that you need to be successful?

Your niche has tightened and needs rebranding

 

This niche-tightening is an on-going process. We start out wanting to serve the world and, after time and sometimes trial and error, we figure out the type of people who need and want our services. As we do, we need to change our copy content and our product offering.

Several years I created a portal web site, which means people coming to my site had to make a choice on which of two websites they wanted to visit. One side was filled with philosophical and inspirational messages and the other was focused on internet marketing which also had some philosophy and inspiration but was definitely targeted for the pro-active internet marketer. You can imagine how different the copy and content was for each of those two sites. It was amazing what that simple change made in how differently I could interact with the visitors to each side. I even had two separate emagazines going. Sometimes a portal site is a great answer and sometimes it simply divides the visitors who come.

However, I recently took a hard look at the productive and not-so-productive areas of my business and saw that even though the philosophical side was an area of service that was true to my heart, it was not at all lucrative. So, I took a deep breath, released the purely philosophical side that wasn’t profitable and designed a new website focused on the pro-active internet entrepreneur. The results were immediate as I focused my business in a much more targeted way.

Does your present web site address your most targeted niche?

Your services and products need repositioning

 

What do you want to offer? What do you no longer want to offer? List your income streams in lucrative order, then look at your web site and see if you are indeed promoting what people are seeking from you. I can’t tell you the number of times I added specialized coaching packages in my previous site and what a relief it was to narrow myself to a more clearly defined niche. My clients helped me reposition myself as The Vision Distiller because that is what they kept asking me to help them do.

I know I learn more every year, which means I organically have more to offer. Creating a new web site gave me time to rethink and re-choose. Once I narrowed my niche and dropped one of my websites, I also dropped some products from service. If I choose to promote them again I know now that I will have a separate website with a new name just for that target market.

What products or services are providing income and which ones are simply taking up space?

How can you promote the ones that are working in a more unique and innovative manner?

You are smarter and wiser now

 

Creating a new web site is about dressing properly for the occasion. You have changed since you designed your last site. What image do you want to project? Is it more professional? More casual? Harder sell? Softer sell?

Every new sales page I write is stronger and clearer than the one before. It’s because I keep learning how to make choices and define my offering. I know more and can put it to work for both me and my clients.

Another benefit of creating a new web site is that you have the opportunity to rethink your navigation, add that media page you are now ready for, change your content strategy and strengthen your copy. You get to re-package and re-position your products and services.

How have you changed since your last web site and what do you need to upgrade, clarify, release, or improve?

You have more to offer

 

As entrepreneurs we continually have great ideas and the more we act on them the more diversified we become. However, stop and see how your business would benefit from having more than one web site. For instance, I coach people in web site content, information product development and internet marketing skills. At the moment they are all on one site. What if I created an entire site only about information product development rather than just devoting one page on my present site? It would have different keywords, more targeted articles, and it would address different needs than people who come to my site for content development and internet marketing. Perhaps you want to think it terms of two websites.
How can you combine or leverage or repositions your existing products and services on a new web site.

Take a long hard look

 

Get your stats out, look over your income streams; look in your heart to see what you love to do and what you are doing because you think you should. Make a list of what people are asking you to provide for them, in service and in products. Notice how your business has changed. Do you need a new shopping cart or opt in offering? How can you bundle your products for great effectiveness. How effective is your affiliate program? Do you even have one?

Then get professional help

 

Invest in some content strategy coaching to help you sort out and focus your site map and offerings. A professional can help you focus your vision into a profitable internet presence. Hire a professional web designer to capture your essence in design. And get a copy writing coach to help you create the most compelling copy you can manage.
Make this next web site the best ever!

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps you distill your vision into a specific and profitable course of action. Her specialty is internet marketing, content strategy, copy writing, and signature product development. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method, Cara offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for the pro-active entrepreneur. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

The Leaf at My Feet

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It lay there as a sign to me—the large green leaf. Larger than any leaf I had seen. “It’s a sign,” I thought. I love signs.

I looked up to find its origin and every tree around me was bare. Not a leaf left. I looked back at my “sign” and asked myself, “What does this mean?”

It’s nearing the end of a year, a time when I look at where I’ve been and where I want to go. I had just journaled the realization that what I needed to do was to shift my consciousness to make my business grow and my life richer. But to what? Always the question.

I think it has to do with my sense of personal value (or lack of it) and my trust that whatever shows up I can do. I get to play with people who are playing much bigger than I am and in the process add value to what they are doing. I get to trust my talent and my skill and believe it when people tell me how good I am at what I do. I get to seek out others and suggest a collaboration. I get to expect more.

“This leaf is telling me to play bigger,” I thought. “This leaf is telling me to drop any fears or apprehension about moving into new venues. This leaf is telling me to have a bigger vision and to believe in it.”

I continued my walk, admiring the leaf in my hand. It was a spring green although I knew it was actually a dying green. And it certainly was big. There was not a tree in sight that could have produced it.

And then I saw them. A half dozen more of these very large green leaves, larger than the one I held in my hand, all scattered in a cluster on the ground. I picked up two of the largest ones and looked around to see where they could have come from. And then I saw it—a tree in the back yard of a neighbor, hidden from view by a tall fence. And I thought, “What tall fence am I hiding behind? If this leaf is a sign of my huge talent, from what have I constructed the fence that hides it from view?”

Fear? Uncertainty? I want to tear down that fence. I want to take my large talents and spread them all over the neighborhood – all over the world, in fact. I want other seekers to find my large green leaf and get the message – everything is possible. We live in a world of infinite possibilities. We are given gifts that only we can give to another. We must get to work. We must play big. We must live our vision.

And so, my friends, this story is my large green leaf to you. In the coming year, let’s both come out from behind the fence and spread our gigantic talents throughout the world.

Have a great Winter Solstice!

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, helps you distill your vision into a specific and profitable course of action. Her specialty is internet marketing, content strategy, and signature product development. Through her Magnetic Marketing Method, Cara offers innovative, inexpensive, and impactful ideas for the pro-active entrepreneur. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

What’s in Your Shopping Cart?

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There are certain things that absolutely must be first class – they are so important to your business that you only want to do them once and have them last a lifetime.

I help entrepreneurs establish a profitable presence on the internet and I know that everything to do with building the foundation of your business requires the best – the best quality – the best service – the best features. You want that foundation to grow with you, to get as big as you ever dream of being. Your shopping cart is one of those foundational building blocks that must do it all right out of the starting gate. And this one will: http://tinyurl.com/cpltx

Taking Money Online

That’s a given, That’s what shopping carts do. This one will calculate shipping, handling recurring payments, figure the tax and send the client to the autoresponder or thank you page of your choice. All shopping carts need a partner to actually process the money and I recommend this one http://tinyurl.com/yy6cg4. They seamlessly work with your shopping cart and deposit the money in your account every evening!

Signing up prospects

If you don’t have an opt in box on your site, you’re dead in the water. The whole point of a web site is to capture names so you can build trust. Besides delivering products automatically online, this is the most valuable use of a high quality shopping cart.

Managing your prospects

However, a good shopping cart does more than “manage” your prospects, it offers you opportunities to build a relationship with them, to build trust, the foundation of all business transactions. That means autoresponders, that wonderful system that lets you automatically send a pre-written email over a period of time to your prospects. Write your autoresponder series once and it begins its greeting the minute a new prospect signs up.

Broadcasting and E-magazines

As you continue to build trust you will be broadcasting e-magazines and special offers. A high quality shopping cart allows you to send to special lists, so you can target your offers.

Digital Delivery

This was key for me since I have so many e-books. All I do is upload my digital product and the cart gives purchasers a key and 24 hours to download.

Ad Tracking

A high quality shopping cart offers you ad tracking, that wonderful technique that allows you to test headlines and copy and see what is working the best.

Affiliate Program

Of course you should have your own affiliate program, and a high quality shopping cart has one built in. You can get help selling your products and services simply by setting up marketing tools within the cart and inviting people to become an affiliate. Then watch for massive passive income!

Lay a strong foundation

I know that I am using the most powerful shopping cart possible. I know that however big my business grows it can handle it. I know that the face I present to my prospects through my shopping cart is the highest quality and thoroughly professional. My foundation is in good hands. To explore this marvel of a shopping cart go to http://tinyurl.com/cpltx

Cara Lumen, MA, The Vision Distiller, helps you explore your infinite possibilities for success and take your vision to the world. Her specialty is internet marketing and signature product development. Using her Magnetic Marketing Method she  helps you create a profitable presence on the internet with a minimum investment by using time, energy, information, and imagination. Learn how you can become a Success Magnet at www.caralumen.com

Detail

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It fell before me on the ground,
The delicate white ruffled blossom,
Finished with its major work
Its edges beginning to brown.

It lay contentedly in my palm
As I took in the dainty dark red lines
Springing from small maroon dots in its center.
Two ochre accents glowed near the base.
Three petals surrounded the miniature cup.
It was a masterful piece of detail.

I look up for its origin.
It came from a cluster of intricate blossoms.
Which one exactly I did not know for
duplicate clusters nestled happily everywhere
Almost hidden by the giant heart-shaped leaves
on a huge tree spread out overhead.
The tree was full of white, ruffled pockets
of beautiful detail.

The blossom in my hand spoke to me:
“If God in her infinite wisdom has given
so much thought to me, a small blossom
among many,
Then KNOW as much care has gone into the
detail of YOU.”

I reflected on this.

I have a place in The Plan as does the blossom.
I think perhaps the blossom is more accepting of
that place than I am.
It simply “is”.
It allows itself to be guided by an Unseen Hand
Trusting the outcome will be exactly right.
Trusting and being.
Trusting and being.

When I feel alone or unsure or unloved
I will remember the Little Blossom.
For I too am part of a cluster,
A cluster of humanity nestled
In the branches of the Universe.
And I am as beautiful and intricate
And as loved
As the blossom before me.

© 1990 Cara Lumen

Cara Lumen, The Vision Distiller, is a philosopher who helps other discover their infinite possibilities. www.caralumen.com

Have You Left Out The Most Important Thing?

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by Cara Lumen

I’ve been working on my Magnetic Marketing Method series which is a collection of individually packaged marketing techniques that allows you pick the one you want to learn when you want to learn it. But I found one concept that has to be included in every marketing strategy we use that I think is easy to lose sight of as we immerse ourselves in the details.

Why are you in business?

No, it’s not about making a living. It’s not about making something, or selling something, or doing something. Those are surface things. What is underneath? What is driving you? What is the passion, the core need you must express that is being satisfied by your work? What makes your life better because you are doing it?

Kahlil Gibran says, “When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.”

It takes the involvement of your heart to create your business. Gibran suggests, “It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.”

Wow! I’m not certain I do that as well as I might.

Passion is your foundation

Why do you want to be in the business you are in? What do you love about it? How will your life change once you shape it the way you envision?

Sometimes it takes time for our true passion to become visible. Although I think that everything happens for a reason, it feels like I sort of fell into being an internet marketing coach. I kept studying and learning wonderful things about marketing myself on the internet and one day I thought, “Hey, I sure know a lot about this. I can help others understand it too.” So my business shifted into that niche. And I love it.

But I also love to learn. And then I get excited about sharing it with others. That makes me a teacher at my core. That is the passion that drives all I do. Can you see how simple designing your business becomes when you can identify your core passion?

Keep building on your passion

If you are like me, you have many things you love to do and you are good at them. So how do you choose? How do you keep building your business on your true passion?

By comparison. As each new idea presents itself, hold it up to your core passion. Is this as close to living my passion as I can get?  How can I change this idea to get even closer? For instance, I write. I love to write. And it is the most satisfying when I can use that writing skill to teach. Yes, I use it to write web content and sales pages, but my whole being is engaged when I create something that helps others learn. So now, one of the facets of my coaching is that people learn why they are making certain decisions and they can then go repeat what they have learned in other circumstances. I’m a teaching coach. I’ve brought my passion into my business.

List three reasons you are in business

Write down at least three reasons you are in business. Ignore the physical plane results. Go deep within. Look for the heart of your passion. That’s why you are in business. That’s why the hours you spend at work are like play. As Gibran says, “Work is love made visible.”

You passion is the power behind the success of your business. It’s what attracts people to you. Don’t leave it out. Make its presence known in every aspect of your business.

©2007 Cara Lumen