One of the biggest mistakes I see with a webiste is lack of identity, something that the visitor can recognize as your brand whether it is a definable logo; tag line; or color theme; be sure to carry that identifier through the whole sales process.
Let me explain, to many times I’ve seen an optin page (the page a visitor comes to on first visit to give name and email) that either was pretty basic or had one look and feel and then after the visitor opted in have yet another look and feel, only to be followed up by the shopping cart or order page that yet was a total disconnect from the previous two pages.
I know in some cases it is hard to customize your shopping cart page to look exactly like your web site but in most cases you can upload or use a secure link for your logo. You can also customize some or all of the color settings to make those match you’r optin, sales and thank you pages.
Be sure to be consistant with your tag line or catch phrase as well as the email address you send out for communications with your visitors, this too is all part of the branding.
While cleaning out my in box recently I sorted the email on the “From” field and I received so many emails from the same marketers that are not conistent with their “from” line or even their email address.
Please understand that I’m not pointing fingers at all marketers just stating the fact that I think some forget this rule. It is so hard enough to get emails delivered consistently why make it more difficult by changing the way your name is formated or the email address you use to send it from? There needs to be a certain identity carried through the whole process from the web site and back to the web site for follow ups.
If you visit any of my web sites you will see some type of carry through to all of my sites. Most will have my “That One” logo somewhere on the page and will either be Orange with Blue accent or Blue with Orange accent. And most if not all will have in the copyright section either “That One Corporation” or “That One Web Guy”. Also when sending out email, autoresponders, newsletters or promotions all of my email comes from Frank – That One Web Guy! Unless it is from one of my Joint ventures with a partner and we generally have a set email we use for communications for that partnership such as a support address or an info address.
Look around you, you will see branding all around you there are certain companies you will imediately recognise either because of the color, font or logo and you immediately are reassured that is the company that you’ve learned to know like and trust over your relationship with that company.
You should follow the lead of the corporate giants even on a small scale this can be done. Think about your brand ability and stick with it.
All the best and much success in everything you do!
Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
This website mistake has been an issue for a long time but with some of the technologies that have been introduced it has only gotten easier to achieve this mistate.
What I’m talking about is hyper links a hyperlink is a section of text that has been given some code instruction to go to a different location, either on the page or to a different website all together.
The biggest problem I see is that many web site owners or web masters try to change the appearnce of a hyperlink either to make it “blend” with the site or to even hide the fact it is a link at all.
The best anology I can think of to best describe why this is important is this. “If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it must be a duck!”
Think about this if it looks like a hyperlink, responds like a hyperlink then it must be a hyperlink. To many times people have added styles to the link to make it appear a different color or added coding to make the underline dissapear. Plus add a lot of underlined text in the copy confusing people where the links actually are.
Remember a confused shopper rarely buys; they just stay confused and then leave. A hyperlink should always remain blue and underlined. If you are going to add ANY programming to a hyperlink it would be to enable a rollover action.
What a rollover does is when the web site visitor places their mouse over the link it changes color. I generally like to use red for this action because it catches the visitor’s eye. By adding this rollover or hover action it lets them know something is about to happen and verifies the fact that it is actually a link and not just underlined text.
Some conversion specialist that I’ve talked to will even tell you, you’ll get even more conversions by leaving the link blue, adding the rollover or hover over action AND applying some code to change the cursor to the pointer finger.
The ONLY place where I might disable the apperance of a hyper link is in spots where I really don’t want them to click but need to have the link on the page. I know you’re wondering why I would even include such a link on the page.
It is always a good idea to have footer navigation on the page for things like your earnings disclaimer; privacy policy; support links and even a link to a site map for search engine spidering. Obviously these are needed but you really don’t want the vistor to click on these, you only want them to click on the order links. So for this section you can add a style to set decoration = to none. That will remove the underline but I would ONLY use that tip as I said for the footer section.
The final thing about hyperlinks is that many website owners don’t include enough buy links on their page. I’ve seen way to many sites where you have to hunt for the link to buy the product. Remember you generally have less than 10 seconds to get the visitors attention. And if they have to hunt for your order links they will move on and hunt for another site that will take their money for that product.
You want to be sure to have anywhere from 9 to 12 links on the page asking for the sale and not just, “click here to order now”. Be a little creative; add keywords or actions words like, “Click here to learn about using Hyperlinks”
All the best and much success in everything you do!
Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
Ok maybe this one isn’t a mistake but a missed opportunity!
If you’ve ever done any training what so ever or maybe provide examples of how to do something to your friends or coaching group maybe you’ve made this mistake.
Lets say you’re explaining how to do something with an email address, like setting up a mail account or filling out a form on your membership group or something and you use an email address as an example.
and obviously you don’t want to use your own email address so you make up one! THAT is the missed opportunity.
Instead of displaying some made up email address or an email address you have no control over create one that forwards to an auto responder.
Personally I use me@that1domain.com I own the domain that1domain.com so I simply created a forwarder in my control panel that points to a subscribe by mail autoresponder. You can do this with ANY autoresponder company and it gives you yet another way to capture a lead and or get a marketing message to a client.
For more tips like this one be sure to sign up to my newsletter in the box above or visit 50biggestwebsitemistakes.com OR WebPageSecretsRevealed.com where I’ll be covering topics like this and more!
Also you can send an email to me@that1domain.com to see my example 
All the best and much success in everything you do!
Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
I’ve recently returned from Vegas from Armand Morin’s PersuasionX and AM 2.0 Platinum Retreat (more on that in my next blog post). While there, my good friend Eric Graham was also in attendance at both events.
He let me know about a free webinar that he is giving this week on website conversion, so I thought I would let you know about it.
http://www.UltimateConversionBooster.com/frank
I’ve seen this presentation and I’ll be logging in to watch it again just to make sure I didn’t miss any notes.
There are few people I know that tests and tracks web sites like my friend Eric. He knows what gets web site visitors to convert into sales.
I highly recommend you login and watch this presentation as well and be sure to have plenty of paper ready because you will be writing A LOT!
http://www.UltimateConversionBooster.com/frank
A few months ago Eric and I led a training session on website conversion and direct response techniques as they go hand in hand, and I can honestly say Eric really knows his stuff and you will see that for your self when you register for this webinar at no cost at all.
http://www.UltimateConversionBooster.com/frank
I’ll be on listening and I highly suggest you are too.
All the best and much success…
Frank Deardurff III – That One Web Guy!
All the best and much success in everything you do!
Frank Deardurff III - That One Web Guy!
