The Webmaster's Course Get's Deep.

I was just sitting here rewriting some of the "webmaster course" I offer free to my subscribers. The reason I'm RE-writing is because of the unfortunate death of my computer. Yes, I have a live one now. I'm not going to go into that story right now.

I was writing some website deign tips that I want the webmasters using the course to keep in mind right from the start. I always write everything out on pare before I type it. I'm just ol-fashioned that way. If I just start typing, I don't really get that inspired. Maybe that's why I don't blog like I should.

It's not that I don't have plenty to say, I definitely do. But when I put the pen to the paper, I'm off. I never know where it will take me.

So, I'm going to publish what I ended up writing. It's going to start out as just basic design strategies to keep in mind when building your first business website, in my example, it's an affiliate product site.

I'm a network marketer as well, but there are some really great products that taught me the foundation I needed to get as far as I have so, I still have a website and promote them very subtlety.

What I mean by that is that the sites I made were made with the intention to help people who were new to starting a home based business online. There are some really sleazy folks out there who get their claws in newbies and make them believe all sorts of crap until they realize they aren't making any money, just spending it. Then, they either quit, and never get to experience the excitement of seeing their creativity and persistence pay off.

OR...

They're like me and they get PISSED. I knew that I could make money somehow without pushing stuff that doesn't really work. You know, "the systems."

So, if I can save one newbie internet marketer from the former fate and show them the true way, I'll know that my work was not in vein.

I digress.

Back to the Webmaster's course thing. O.K. Here it is just like it's written in my notebook. I hope you enjoy it. I'll definitely be sending my subscribers links to this post, I think it may just show someone the light.

Enjoy...

Don't Confuse Your Visitors!

We're going to give them good, informative content and then show them possible solution(s) to said problem. If we point them to products that we know are good, this will be cake. More on this a little later.

So, make sure your website instantly portrays what it is.

• Grab your visitor's attention right away. Open with a clear, concise message telling them what you're going to do for them.

Always remember that you made your website for them, not you. You're job is to solve a problem or fulfill a need for them, NO MATTER WHAT YOU SELL OR OFFER.

While a cute little entrance page that says "click here to enter" may seem high tech and neat on the surface, it will only annoy people who are at your site looking for relative information. Don't scare them away with script tricks, keep them there with the content they want!

• Make navigation easy for them. You want to design your website so that your visitors can browse all over your site and not get lost. Even find pages that they want to go back to! What a concept. How many times have you been on a site a navigated so far away from anything you were looking for and just leave? Well, this is what you DON'T want to happen at your site.

If your visitors have to use the back button to get around your site, it'll make your business seem unprofessional and poorly planned. They're not going to stick around and buy something if they think you're just some goofball who just put his website up yesterday. You want to present yourself as a real business.
Take pride in it.

This is why we're making the plan first. I know, it seems like overkill and you just want to get to the part where you build your site, right? Well, trust me, these things are important and if you have some fundamental principles in mind from the start, guess what? You're going to have a much easier and more pleasant design experience.

You might even have fun.

You may want to pick out a template to work with. This just looks nice and makes it easier to keep with the core foundation. You're main navigation links will automatically be in place when you start each page.

There are a lot of great free templates available, just use the search engines. Oh, and remember, I sent you guys a bunch of templates when you subscribed. If you need those again for whatever reason, let me know.

Also, if you have a design in your mind that you can describe to me, I can see what I have in the way of templates for you. Don't worry, I don't sell any templates. If They come from me, they were probably purchased with resale rights or I downloaded them free myself. I only purchase resale rights products to give away to my loyal subscribers, I never sell the stuff.

Wow, I have no idea where that little pat on the back I just gave me came from, sorry about that. But seriously, let me know what you need, I don't bite, you're welcome to contact me anytime.

Back to the course.

As long as you have a neatly planned, visitor friendly website that is made for the benefit of your potential subscribers and/ or customers you'll be fine.

In the design tutorials, we're going to be working with a template, but when you get better with your HTML, you can even make your own templates if you want. You can always change your website as you get more skilled. I've changed mine a few times.

Actually, Lets Start Earning started out as a Plug-In-Profit site. You can't really tell now and I'm not saying anything bad about pips. I just went another direction. I kept the host though all this time because their tech support got me through some of the hardest times in my Internet Marketing career.

There you see, it's about loyalty. That's what I want to see from you guys.

Back to the course, again. (I'm sorry I get so sidetracked all the time. There's just so much I want to say to all of you before I lose you to some slick talking guru with an "automatic system.")

I've decided that for the screen capture video design tutorial portion of this course, we're going to redesign The Newbie Business Center.

For those of you who've never seen it, it's my little helping hand site. I try to tell it like it is. It does have a few affiliate products on it, but only ones that I've used and actually benefited from them. It will be a great example site for you guys to get ideas from because it's got a lot of different elements that you may want to implement into your own site.

Why are we redesigning my website for this? Well, I love the way Lets Start Earning looks and feels now that it 'has matured,' remember, that was my very first website. But, something about Newbie Business Center just urks me. I think it may be the blue background instead of white, but it's also something else I can't quite put my finger on.

I want to use the affiliate site as the example because I suggest that anyone starting out should create one of these and nurture it, no matter where your business journey takes you.

As you see, Lets start Earning has gotten to be more of an info site about network marketing because that's my main daily business that I run. But, Newbie Business Center is the vision that I've had since the very first time I got ripped off buying a step by step system to make money online.

What the goal is, is that your affiliate site will be great practice to try out different ideas you may come up with, showcase your refreshingly honest reviews, and give you some street cred. I want you to really dig deep into your niche topic and become an expert. Then, you'll give the spectacular information you've come up with in your research away to your subscribers, FREE.

Doesn't it all sound great?

Most of all, I want you to make your site not so much a sales site, but an information hub (w/product suggestions in the background, not in their faces) that allows you to build up your list. When you build a trusting relationship with your list, they'll be more likely to buy a product that you recommend without having to 'hard sell' the. We've got a little bit of a journey ahead of us with our creation we're about to take on, but I promise you that I won't lead you astray.

We'll most likely have some fun along the way as well. I always try to keep my internet business fun because it makes it a lot easier to do the tedious stuff when you have fun too.

Just keep in mind, your potential customers are coming online

• To gather information.
• To compare what is available to solve their problem.
• To make a decision based on their feeling about the information they found.
• Purchase a product that will help them do whatever it is they need done.

They're looking for something anyway, if you can honestly show them the benefits of YOUR product AND they already have a relationship with you via your newsletter or something similar, there you go.

I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself with this it seems, but I want you to have your potential customers and their needs at the forefront of your mind from the start. This will make your website so much easier to perfect.

We want you to have that baby up and running right ASAP!

I know that it took me a lot of trail and error to figure everything out because I got sucked in by some very convincing sales pages in the early days. My goal is that I don't leave anything out so that you have a big head start. I want to give you exactly what I needed when I got started.

Why?

Because as I said, the gurus pissed me off severely. They take a person's hope's and dreams and they feed on them and twist their thinking until they're brainwashed into buying into these ridiculous ideas about Internet Marketing.

If I can save just 1 newbie...

A WORD TO THE WISE

There are a TON of junk products out there that you can promote. They may have a very convincing sales page, BLAH BLAH BLAH...

If it seems hokey, it more than likely is. Feel free to ask me about a product you're thinking about promoting, I probably bought it, joined it, bought the T-shirt. See, after I decided that I was done getting ripped off, I tested out a bunch of stuff out there, just for spite. I know this seems counterproductive, but it really opens your eyes when you realize that it's just all the same crap rephrased a lot of the time. I did this so that I could actually give honest reviews about not only stuff I choose to promote, but stuff I won't and why.

What I want, no challenge, you to do is this...

Promote only EXCEPTIONAL products and services to your list and visitors. Promote what you can learn from yourself. It's not a bad idea to invest in one or two products that you can learn a ton from and then make money promoting them. If you can give a real nitty gritty review, your people will realize that you actually own and use the product.

This makes a HUGE difference in your reviews and in turn your sales. People are not stupid. They can usually tell the difference between a rewording of the sales page and an in-depth look at a product. If you need some ideas, let me know.

You see, when you're doing your marketing, I want YOU to believe every single word your telling THEM.

I know that you've heard that you should push the next "hot" internet marketing product, system, whatever they want to call it. That you'll make a killing, right?

Well, that may be true (although I highly doubt it).

But check this out...

What if you could make that same "killing," maybe it may take a little bit longer to get it really kicking out profits for you...

BUT

Your customers are always happy with your recommendations. Therefore, when you recommend another product that you find useful, they trust you.

Your customers from the initial "killing" are now loyal, repeat customers and guess what?

You'll have them forever as long as you always maintain your level of honesty and keep helping them. You won't have to rebuild your list every time they figure out you're full of %&$%. and unsubscribe.

I am dead serious about this you guys, I really want you to keep this your number one goal. There are literally millions of websites out there. So many products to choose from, so many affiliates promoting in this way or that way.

You get my point? If you really want to make it online, you have to do something different then what every other sleazy sales pitch website does.

You must think like YOU'RE the customer.

What would you want? What standards do you expect when you buy something?

You want it to do what it claims to do, right?

PLEASE, don't get into the trap of promoting every "hot" e book that comes down the pike. The ones that are usually hot claim to be:

• "Step-By-Step" Systems To Make Easy Money Online.
• "Automated" systems that allow you to get rich without working at all.

There is no "end all" Internet Marketing system that guarantees success online. There is definitely work involved. You must be committed and you cannot treat you new online business like a hobby or just something you'll check out and see if it works.

You are the key to making it work.

I'm not saying you have to quit your job and work your business online full-time in order to make it. I'm just saying that you must be prepared for a commitment and it will not happen overnight.

Don't get discouraged by this news, it's actually good news. Think about the pride you'll have when you watch the business that YOU built grow and grow all the time. If you can come to terms with the news that your business won't run itself and you need to put in a bit of effort (don't worry, it's not that it's hard work), you're in for an amazing journey my friend.

You are about to find talents and strengths within you that you never knew existed.

It's quite amazing to create something so detailed and technical as your online business, especially if you take the time and learn to do it yourself instead of paying someone else to do it. Then, you get to publish it (your business site and it's 'branches') and watch it come to life.

It's going to seem really slow at first but if you keep putting your site out there, they'll see it. Little by little your list will grow. The very first subscriber you get is one of the coolest things ever. I still talk to mine, we've even talked on the phone because he trusted me and when I got involved with my network marketing business, he wanted to hear all about it. He's thinking about coming on board when he retires in the near future.

I thought that was an inspiring story that you might like. You will most definitely build some friendships along the way. Just stay on the right path. If it feels like you're doing your target market wrong, don't do it. They are your lifeblood and you must respect them.

I promise that if you're trying to get online to rip people off, you will not last long. The work at home niche is huge. Apparently a lot of people dream of the financial freedom and time freedom that having a home based business allows.

But guess what...

The work at home niche is not dumb. They are savvy and they do their home work. If you are out to rip them off, they will know. So, you might as well do it the right way, huh? We all benefit and live in harmony. Nice.

With Web 2.0, I think that it's going to be an even less-friendly place for scamsters. What will they do when they can no longer hide behind the fancy website because everyone wants to see the videos of real people talking about real things.

There are ups and there are downs in this business, just like any other. But I PROMISE you, if you do your due diligence and stay with it you will be rewarded over and over again, not just monetary rewards. The kind of reward you get when you realize that you may have had a part in the story of the single mom who was finally able to stop bartending to pay the bills. Now, she is home to tuck in her little guy every single night. That sounds like my story, huh? Well, I know I'm not the only one. There are stories out there yet to be told. If you are sincere and truly want to give back to your fellow human beings, you can be a part of it too.

You ready to be the next story?

Treat your prospects and customers like you would expect to be treated, and above that. There are enough scammers out there, this is where you'll shine.

I might sound corny to some of you, but I truly believe what I'm telling you. When I first started, all I wanted to do was make my first sale online. I even stooped to the safelist level because that's what I was told to do. NOTHING happened for me until I said screw this, there must be a better way. I found better ways and I spread the word.

Someone in my travels had said somewhere that once you start helping and stop selling people, it will all come together. So simple, yet so true.

So let's build the site that is a helping hand to someone who needs one. Let's build another site that provides good information. Profit from you recommendations because of the non-salesy way you offer a potential answer to a problem.

Wouldn't that be refreshing to you? Definitely.

So, pretend you're trying to market a product or opportunity to yourself. How would you like that product to be presented to you?

OK, we're finally at the end, I swear.

MY SOLEMN PROMISE TO YOU:

I you concentrate on helping people in your target market BEFORE they ever pay a dime for any product you promote, you'll end up making out much better than the sleaze ball making enemies up and down the Internet.

Build yourself a LOYAL list instead of a GIANT list of people who couldn't care less and you'll be just as successful, if not more.

Phew, that was a lot of typing.

So, there's a special edition of the webmaster's course for all the world to see.