Copyright (c) 2006 Christopher T Robinson

How a website will help my business:

Capturing leads: This will apply to any business you start. Pre selling-Affiliate programs Sellingyour own product or service.

Capturing leads: You will need to set up your website to capture leads. This is important for any business. There are a few ways you can do this:

? Free email course
? Free report
? Free newsletter

A free email course is good in that you have 5-7 days, depending on the length of your course, to write to the prospective lead with your information.

Here's how you will do this. Write a step-by-step instructional article, on an interesting subject in your industry. Then at the bottom you will put a small ad for your service, or product, that relates to the e-course. This will be like a signature file. Just 2-3 lines are enough to make the lead curious enough to click through to your sales page. This can be used either for your own product or your sponsor's sales page.

A free report: This will need to be at least 6-10 pages long and have plenty of meat in it. You can include a couple of relevant links as good resources but do not overdo this. You can also grant readers full reprint rights and allow your report to be given away. This will capture your lead and serve as a viral marketing tool, allowing you to gain more leads as the report gets circulated.

You will set it up in the same way as your e-course accept that it will be in one mailing not split-up. You will simply expand an article and instead of your little ad have just 1-2 links within the report, plus your email signature file at the bottom of your email when sending the report download to your lead.

A free newsletter: This is your ultimate tactic for capturing leads and ultimately customers. When you publish a quality informative newsletter you will be building a long lasting relationship with your subscribers and will be able to convert many of them into your life long loyal customers. This will not happen overnight but gradually over time your subscribers will develop trust in you and try some of your products. They may even advertise in your newsletter.

Be consistent with your newsletter. Have a template that you will always use and try to keep the same layout. Readers like this as they can navigate your newsletter easily. You will also brand your business through your newsletter. You can use a simple layout like the one we have. Do not make your newsletter too long unless it is a monthly one as subscribers do not have too much time to read a lengthy newsletter.

Beware of too many ads. Just keep 1-2 ads for your affiliate programs or 3rd party advertisers. Do not send out to many Solo ads. This is a sure fire way to lose subscribers.

Pre selling-Affiliate programs: Even if you are just selling affiliate products you can still make use of the above tactics. . One of the best ways of utilizing your website for affiliate programs is to pre sell your leads. Do not try to sell the product that is your sponsor's job. Your job is to create curiosity and compel your leads to click through to your sponsor's sales page. One of the best ways to do this is to write product reviews and have interesting content about the product.

Sellingyour own product or service: this requires a well-written compelling sales page, without this you cannot sell your products or service. This is a fairy tricky thing to do and is critical for your business. You can get sales pages done professionally at freelance contractors like http://elance.com and http://guru.com

These are just a few ways to utilize your website. you can probably think of many more. The main thing is to have a clear idea of what you want from your visitors and build your website around this concept.