Stella Orange, WORDSMITH Uncommon copywriting & strategy to make your cash register sing

8 Ways Your Website Is Losing Money

Page from the Playbook Dept.

Imagine a hundred dollar bill laying on the sidewalk.

Now picture, as you bend over to pick it up, it gets yanked further away. Like some frustrating, cartoonish farce. (Wheel in the calliope!)

Over and over again. Every time you almost have it between your fingers, the bill flutters a few feet in front of you. You've almost got it... woosh! Out of reach again.

This is exactly what a not-so-hot website does to your business.

If you’re like a lot of service providers, life coaches, and business owners out there, you’re reaching out to pick up those extra Benjamins. With every fiber of your being.

But your website keeps yanking the cash right out from under your petunia-sniffer.

The great promise of websites remains what it has always been: have work done for you as you sleep, eat dinner with your family, and really live a life that’s balanced, meaningful, and well-funded. Quit trading your “hours for dollars.” Help more people. Finally get some traction. Some freedom. Some breathing room.

But if you invest too little in your website – or don’t take the time to understand your reasons for having one in the first place – it’s actually worse than not having a website at all.

(Feel free to read that again. No hurry here.)

See, not having a website won’t help you make money.

But having a slapdash website will actually counteract whatever efforts you ARE making to gain clients, customers, and revenue. It’s like a magnet for the exact OPPOSITE of what you want to have happen.

Catch my drift? Here are the 8 most common ways a website loses you money:

1. It’s so jumbled and confusing, your prospects aren’t clear what you do. Even if it’s someone who might really benefit from working with you, if you don’t impress them the clarity, competence, and confidence of your homepage, you’ve lost them. ("So what is it you do?"... "How exactly do you make your living?"... "So you do macrame and financial planning?!" are all symptoms of trouble on this front.)

2. It doesn’t invite visitors to sign your “guestbook.” The people coming to your site are genuinely interested in your work, and may very well be your ideal client. But if you don’t ask them for their email address, you lose the most important way to continue the conversation. (That is: actually talking with them, via your house mailing list.)

3. It hoards what you know. Following closely on the heels of No. 2… It’s not enough to ask a visitor for their email address. “Join our mailing list” isn’t all that uncommon, racy, or friendly. Be generous with what you know, right off the bat. Offer really juicy, valuable information they can use immediately. And whether it’s a special report, MP3, or other gift, give it a name that really sizzles. Like bacon frying in a skillet.

4. It doesn’t make a dazzling offer. “Ho-hum,” the website yawns, “Just a brochure here. If you want to hire or buy from me, just click the Contact Us tab. Better you lift a finger than me.” In some lines of work, this is entirely appropriate. But if your livelihood relies on engaging or inspiring other people AT ALL, you need to do more to get visitors off their collective duffs and take action. (Because if you leave it up to them, they probably won't). The more uncommon (or even outrageous), the better. (By the way, I’m starting to collect really great offers. If you’ve got one, by all means, toot your own horn in an email.)

5. It doesn’t present your services as interesting, problem-solving packages with catchy names. Coaches: this goes triple for you, darlings. It’s hard for us to get excited about a “6 month program to transform your life.” It’s too vague, and doesn’t tell us much about the one big problem you’ll help us solve (and that’s really worth paying for). The “Happiness Bootcamp” on the other hand…

6. It uses words everybody uses. A lot of business owners have taken copywriting courses, which tend to be really good at teaching you how to follow a formula and pay attention to the emotions behind what you’re writing about. But for a website to make money, it really needs to stand out and be a little theatrical. Even daring, as it breaks with some of those patterns to have a little fun. Or charm. Or simply leave ‘em saying “I never thought of it like THAT before. (I better sign up to get their special report.)”

7. It’s all about you. Oh, honey. We’ve all done this: talked about our credentials, our training, our years in the biz. To some extent, it’s necessary. But really, it’s about your audience. How they’re feeling, what they’re worried about, what they need relief from. If your website doesn’t speak to these points in – this is key-- the language your target audience uses & “gets,” you’ll lose them. And their benjamins.

8. It doesn’t solve for “hot & itchy.” A website that doesn’t solve one burning, hot and itchy problem is not only messing with your bottom line, it’s probably confusing your ideal clients into heading elsewhere (see No. 1). Your message needs to be: if you’ve got the rash, we’ve got the balm. (May none of you need to use this as your tagline in your line of work .)

Stay tuned for next week’s installation: "8 Ways Your Website Will Pay for Itself."