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Contents

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNET...........................................................................

WHY WEBSITES?

If history can be reduced to one overriding principle, it'd be this: every new technology change society forever. The development of ironworking changed military and construction forever, enabling us to wage longer wars, to build taller buildings, and to develop tools to move beyond agriculture for the first time in history. The development of the printing press allowed ideas to be spread to the common man, pushing us toward democracy and putting a market value on ideas. And the development of corporate law allowed industries to develop to the point that ever-higher levels of industrial development and research were possible, completely transforming the world in the space of about 150 years. Today, the new technology is the Internet. And in the fifteen-odd years that the Internet has been available to the masses, it's created nearly as many opportunities for promotion, communication, and business as all the massive technological development throughout history. In this book, we will focus on one of the most profitable opportunities available to the prospective online businessman today--direct response website marketing. We'll talk about just what direct response site design is, and how to design your web pages in order to convert as many visitors as possible into satisfied customers. We will talk about the nuts and bolts of building a website, whether you want to do it yourself or whether you want to hire a professional coder to do it for you. We'll talk about what to include (and what not to include) on your website, and we'll give you the tools you need to write a sales letter for any product you choose to promote. And finally--and most importantly--we'll help you come up with some ideas to promote your website that'll bring in the traffic you need to make your business idea into a proven success.

Sounds good? Then let's get started by talking a little bit more about your chosen medium--the Internet.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNET

Some of the revolutionary technologies we talked about at the start of this chapter--iron refining in particular--had their roots in military applications. It's a strange irony of human life-commented on by several philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche not least among them--that war, the most destructive of human drives, is the one that most often requires people to stretch thin resources far enough in order to develop new, world-altering technologies. And the Internet is far from the least of these military "success stories." The seeds of the Internet were first planted in America in the 1950s, during the height of the Cold War. In response to fears of Soviet domination of two critical technology races--the Space Race and the nuclear arms race--the United States government created ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, to develop countermeasures to the perceived Soviet threat. One of ARPA's first major successes was to develop rules of communication--the ancestors of today's network protocols--that allowed all the United States’ radar systems to be linked together, which would enable them to communicate rapidly and retain infrastructure even in the event of an unexpected nuclear attack. Fortunately, that nuclear attack never came--and equally as fortunately, the scientists at ARPA began to realize the non-military potential for the linking of vast computer systems. The first plans for ARPAnet--the predecessor of the Internet--came about as part of an effort to make it easier for vital research-based computers to communicate with one another, allowing scientists to coordinate their research efforts across vast geographical distances.

Those commercial interests initially did little beyond allowing anyone who wanted to--rather than anyone with military clearance or academic credentials--to access the existing information networks that comprised the Internet. Companies like CompuServe and Prodigy offered anyone who was willing to pay for the privilege to use phone lines to "dial-up" computers connected to the larger Internet, which would then allow users at home to access the same database of information used by the academic computers--or at least a proprietary version of the same information. However, while computer technicians on ARPAnet or computer enthusiasts on the long-running Telnet might have been willing to learn the sometimes-arcane process of accessing information on the Internet, the majority of potential users tended to view the Internet in the same way as a casual library user might view an encyclopaedia--nice to look at sometimes, but ultimately not worth the trouble of owning. That was largely changed by the efforts of the fledgling Netscape company, whose Mosaic web browser (one of the earliest versions of the once-popular Netscape Navigator) made use of a new protocol for accessing information on the Internet: HTML. Before HTML, the process of sending information on the Internet was usually limited to sending large text files (that required a separate program to open) or to using a proprietary form of encoding information--proprietary forms that usually skimped on things like presentation, graphics, or other features that we take for granted on the Internet today. HTML, by contrast, allowed nearly anyone with a basic knowledge of computer programming (or anyone who was willing to learn a few simple formatting instructions, or "tags") to create web pages that looked nice, create images to illustrate product offers or scientific concepts, and to "link" people to other websites. (If you're interested in learning more about HTML, stay tuned--in a later chapter, we'll discuss more about the ins and outs of HTML than you may ever have wanted to know about--and if you don't want to know about it at all, we'll discuss some ways to get your HTML coding done for you.)

The advent of HTML allowed the Internet to grow exponentially. And grow exponentially it did--by the mid-1990s, the Internet had moved beyond a few simple "bulletin boards" and academic research compendia. Now, companies were starting to sell their products online--artists were distributing their work in vastly populated forums--even families were publishing their own "web pages" to announce family events to the world at large. The age of the Internet had truly arrived.

SO WHY THE INTERNET?

If you're reading this book at all, it's likely that you've already decided to use the Internet as a major distribution tool for your product (if not the exclusive distribution tool for your product.) But for anyone who hasn't yet made that decision--or for anyone who wants to know just why the Internet is so ideal for business purposes--we'll talk briefly about why the Internet is a perfect vehicle for virtually any good or service you might want to sell. As of 2007, over one billion people worldwide use the Internet. However good the offline marketing for your product is, that's too large of a potential market to ignore. More than that: if you promote your product by traditional means, the number of people you can reach is limited by the amount of money you can spend and the number of media outlets you can reasonably contact-meaning, most usually, the media in your city alone. But by using the Internet, you can not only reach people around the world directly--but by making use of business referrals from satisfied online customers, you can reach people outside of your geographic range who'd never even think of using a computer. Additionally, traditional advertising only affords you a limited amount of space to talk about exactly what your product is and why people should buy it from you.

THE BASICS OF

DIRECT RESPONSE

By putting your business on the Internet, you stand to reach a much wider audience than you can through traditional channels, you're able to simplify your business operations considerably, and you can present more information about your product than you can through any other medium. But as good as all that sounds, there's more to online business than simply putting your product out there and waiting for sales. As with any business, you're going to have to put some thought into how you plan to market your business. After all, there are millions of websites out there, and if you don't set your site apart from the rest, you stand a very real chance of vanishing into the crowd--no matter how good your product or service is. And one of the best ways to promote your website online is through direct response website marketing.

WHY DIRECT RESPONSE?

In order to understand what differentiates direct response from other commercial websites, it's helpful to think of the mass communications medium of yesterday-- television. When most of us think of television programming, we tend to think of "shows". Television "shows" have two distinctive features in common:

They focus on providing content to an end user (the viewer). The quality of the content determines the quality of the show. They make their money by convincing other people to invest in the show. Neither of these points determines what the content of the show will be, or what, exactly, will make the investors--whatever form they take--give their money to the producers of the show. The show could be a drama, a comedy, a variety show, a "reality show", a documentary, or any of a hundred other categories. The investors might pay for advertising space on the show, buy tapes or DVDs of old episodes of the show, or even send money directly to the producers in response to solicitations (as with the pledge drives public television uses to raise funds.) Whatever form the show, or the revenue-building strategy takes, however, one key principle holds: content over marketing. If traditional web design can be thought of as "shows", direct response website marketing can be thought of as infomercials. Infomercials have the following two features in common:

• They focus on describing a product to the end user. All content in the show is subordinated to the central goal of describing, promoting, and ultimately selling the product.
• The show makes its money through direct product sales. Again, neither of these points determines absolutely what form the infomercial will take. An infomercial might include a short dramatic sketch, a mock "panel discussion", a comedy act, or simply a straightforward list of features and advantages for a given product. But as the first point states, all these entertaining or informative pieces of content must be subordinated to the central goal of selling products. A "show’s central point is, essentially, to get people to watch the show (and to make their money based on the number of people who watch the show.) Whereas an infomercial's central point is ultimately to get people to stop watching the show and to start ordering the product.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF DIRECT RESPONSE

Just as a few fundamental principles differentiate "shows" from infomercials, there is a parallel set of principles that differentiate traditional websites from direct response sites:

• Traditional websites focus on the website itself. All money made from the website is based on outside advertising, donations to support the site, or sometimes selling products from the site.
• Direct response websites focus on selling a product. Most of the money made from the website should be directly related to product sales. And just as in the television world, the fundamental principles behind a type of program dictates to some extent the form the program will take, your goals for your website will determine what you can and can't do when marketing your product. More fundamental than even these principles, though, are the limitations of the medium itself. In the television world, all programs will have a few common elements: all programs will either be filmed with cameras or generated by computers, all viewers will tune in to all programs by selecting a channel on a TV set, and all programs will be sensitive to time constraints imposed by the TV station's programming schedule. To highlight the differences in approach between these two forms of commerce, let's first look at some of the common elements among all types of website, whatever its purpose:
• All websites are based on HTML code (the analogue of a camera or a computer filmmaking program in the television world.)

• All websites are accessed either through links from other websites or through a customer typing in the URL (web address.)
• Websites are not, as a rule, time sensitive. A viewer can browse a website for as long as he or she wants before leaving or buying a product. We'll talk some more about how to use these common elements of all websites most effectively throughout the rest of this book. But for now--taking into account both these common elements and the fundamental principles that drive each form of web commerce--let's look at some of the specific differences between traditional web design and direct response marketing websites.

Basic Rule #1: No External Links

In traditional web design, your website benefits to some extent from the amount of links you offer--viewers have more of an incentive to visit your site. (This is the logic behind the successful "portal" websites that sometimes offer little beyond a very good and well-organized collection of links.) In direct response web design, your website is harmed by offering viewers external links, or any distractions from buying the product. Therefore, the first basic rule of direct response web design is this: no external links. Once your customers get to your website, they should only leave once they've bought your product (or decided that it isn't for them.)

Basic Rule #2: Small User Base, High Conversion Rate

Traditional web design's aim is to attract and retain a consistent user base. If a traditional website's hit count is high, the website is more attractive to potential

This is exactly what you don't want your customers to think at any point while they're using your website. If your website is built on flashy but hard-to-use menus, if your ordering information is buried under a maze of links and supplementary pages full of product details, and if your ordering procedure is complicated and full of bugs, your customers are going to be too frustrated with your website to order your product--and worse, they might start to think of your products and your business as equally customer-unfriendly. Computer scientists have an acronym to combat this possible problem: KISS, or "Keep It Simple, Stupid." If your website is easy to navigate, if the information about your product is clearly presented on as few pages as possible, and if your ordering procedure is bug-free, then viewers won't be scared off by your website-- which leads to a much higher conversion rate, and thus a successful direct response marketing strategy. We've talked about what direct response website marketing is, why it's an excellent strategy for your business, and above all a few basic principles of its implementation. And if you like what you've read so far, then you've got everything you need to start thinking in practical terms at last--and it's time to start designing your direct response website, which we'll talk about in the next chapter.

DIRECT RESPONSE

SITE DESIGN

So, we've talked about the Internet in general, and we've talked about some of the key rules of direct response site design to keep in mind when you're actually building and publishing your website. As a reminder, here are those rules again:

• No external links
• A small user base and a high conversion rate
• Keep it simple, stupid If you have your product ready and a good amount of marketing material related to it, then it's finally time to start building your direct response site--and it won't be long before you'll start raking in the profits!

THE FIRST STEP: SITE MAP AND DESIGN

To return to our tried-and-true television metaphor: imagine this. You're a young producer for NBC, and you've been given the task of creating a new half-hour drama program for prime time. You're alone in your office, all set to make your first crucial notes that will become the finished program. So, before you even think of some basic structural components--what's the concept behind the show? What characters will I feature? How will I fill thirty minutes every week, and keep viewers coming back? --you take out a blank piece of paper and start doodling costume designs for your Christmas special. You create a great design, throw some story and characters around it, and start filming your first episode. On the appointed day, the viewers tune in, hang around for two minutes, and then tune out. Your costume designs are just as great as you intended, yes--but by choosing the wrong starting point, you couldn’t control every aspect of the viewer's experience of your show--and they respond by leaving your network, never to return. This kind of approach is problematic for any kind of creative work, but with enough work put into a project from any starting point, you can achieve some success. But when you're talking about a programming project--and all websites are, essentially, programming projects--choosing the wrong starting point is

Site mapping may seem like an unnecessary step in the design process, especially with the simple sites that direct response marketing demands. But without a fully-detailed site map, you run the risk of increasing your costs beyond your original budget when you find out that the page you've designed doesn't work properly, or that you need some additional content or images but aren't sure where to put it. At best, this leads to costly revisions (in terms of time if you're doing your own coding, and in terms of money if you're hiring a coder), and at worst it can mean paying for a complete overhaul of your website. Think of your site map as your business plan: write it first, then stick to it unless you have a very good reason to change it once the site goes live.

SITE DESIGN AND THE THREE CLICKS RULE

Before you finalize your site map, let's think in more detail about how a good direct response website should be organized. Our first rule forbids the use of external links. Therefore, you can eliminate any links pages, sidebars with site affiliates, advertising banners, or such things from your site map. Although selling advertising space on your website may seem like a good idea for building revenue, it distracts your viewers from your central goal: selling the product. So, keep it simple, and leave the advertising off. Our second rule dictates that content on your site should be limited to only that which is essential for persuading people to buy your product. The policy that goes along with this rule is to consolidate most of your site's information onto as few pages as possible. This reduces the chance that viewers will come to your page, click a link that takes them to another page on your site about your product's features, and then forget to come back to your main page to actually buy the product. Of course, there are situations where you'll want to divide your content among several smaller web pages on your site as opposed to putting

everything in one massive index page--if you have a wide variety of technical data about your product, as well as photos and testimonials, you run the risk of boring your viewer long before he gets to the crucial "Buy" link. So, follow this guideline: if your viewers don't have to scroll down more than one or two times in order to read all of your product information, put everything on a single index page. If you have to scroll down too often to read all of your site content, then split the content into separate pages--but make use of pop-up windows in order to keep your main page open, or make sure that there's a link to your actual "Buy" page in a prominent place on every one of your sub-pages. Above all, remember our third rule: keep it simple, stupid. One easy guideline for doing this is to follow the three-clicks rule:

• Upon arriving at your site, your viewers should never have to click more than three links in order to buy your product. One way to implement the three-clicks rule might be this: your viewers start at an index page that describes the product information. They then click a "next" link to take them to a page about prices and ordering information. They then click a link to start ordering the product. That's two clicks in total. Another way to implement the three-clicks rule: your viewers start at an index page that talks in general terms about the product. They click on one of your subpages (features, testimonials, pricing, etc.-whatever best suits your specific product) to learn more about the product. They then click on a "Buy Now" button to learn about pricing, and then they click on a button to begin ordering the product. Three clicks. There are any number of other possible configurations--experiment with your site map until you come up with something that gets across all your information while maintaining this same simplicity. Your customers will thank you-and you'll thank yourself when you see the sales figures.