Don't pay a dime for any ebook, marketing course or
software program until you've read this groundbreaking
document... Get everything you need to make money online
including over 30 time-saving, profit-producing,
influence-expanding tools and software programs absolutely
*FREE*... HERE
When it comes to selling online, one thing is
certain: a small focused website that features just
one lead product will far outsell a big website that
features lots of products and links.
By focusing on just one product, you avoid distracting
your visitors or forcing them to make decisions. That
way, they'll take the time to study your product and
the chances of making a sale are vastly increased.
I can see the evidence for this in my own business.
While the main company website continues to bring
in a steady stream of sales, it's actually the individual
websites for each of my ebooks that are responsible
for the lion's share of orders.
The problem, however, with having one website for every
single product is that it adds a lot of extra overheads.
In general you're looking at minimum $100 for any kind of
webhosting and somewhere between $8 and $35 for a
domain name.
These are not huge figures, but let's face it, costs are
costs and if you're in business you want to keep them as
low as possible.
That's why I felt it was worth sharing with you my little
'trick' for setting up brand new websites for just the
price of a domain name.
This week I launched a new website for my ebook
publishing guide. The TOTAL cost to set up this new
website was just $8.97!
So how did I manage that?
Well, the first step I took was to set up a new folder
(directory) in my existing webhosting account that
would be the 'home' for my new website.
----------------NOTE---------------------
This method can also be applied effectively to many
free hosting services. Just ask your domain name
registrar if they'll be able to redirect to your free
hosting service address before you buy the domain
name.
-------------------------------------------
Next I designed the website, and published it to
the folder I'd just created.
Then, I went along to the domain name registrar and
bought the domain name I wanted for $8.97. The domain
registrar I used offers a whole range of domain name
services completely free (domain parking, URL re-direction,
e-mail re-direction, etc.). If you shop around, you'll find
that there are lots of low-cost registrars that offer such
services for free.
Once I had the domain name, it took me just a couple of
minutes (via the domain registrar's website) to set up the
new domain name to point (or re-direct) to the folder I'd
just created.
I'm even able to 'cloak' the address shown on the browser's
address bar, so that, even though people are surfing on my
sub-folder, what shows up on the address bar is the proper
domain name I'd just purchased.
Finally, the domain name registrar even re-directs my e-mails
for free. This enables me to create new addresses and have
any messages that are sent to these addresses re-directed
to my regular e-mail address inbox.
And that's it! A brand new website -- hosted and all --
for less than $10.
Now there's no excuse not to create sales-focused
mini-websites for ALL your products!
--------Additional Info Added May 17th 2003--------
I've received quite a few questions regarding how to set up the 'cloaking'
and 're-direction' ideas mentioned in this article. To help clarify things,
here's a copy of a typical reply (in all its un-edited glory) that I've sent
in relation to these questions.
NOTE TO EDITORS: If you wish to re-publish this article in your publication,
you are not required to reproduce this note - although you can if you want.
"I'm delighted you like the hosting article. Having just re-read it
for the first time in months, I can see that there's a need to add some
extra information. The cloaking is something that is taken care of
by the domain name registrar (they call it 'framing'). At the time of
writing I was using DNBuy.com, but now I use NameCheap.com
for all my domain names. Both these services include 'Framing' as
a free extra when you buy your domain name - once you have
the domain name you can set it up via your admin control panel.
There are probably other ways to do this using JavaScripts or
such-like (if you already have your domain name and your registrar
doesn't offer 'framing'), but I'm afraid I don't have specific info on
this off the top of my head.
Likewise, both these registrars (and, doubtless, many others) offer
re-direction as part of the package. Again, this can be set up via
the admin control panel once you've bought the domain name.
If you're in doubt, as to whether a given registrar will be able to
provide you with the necessary services to set yourself up, just
contact them and ask them these questions...
- Can I have my domain name re-direct to another URL
of my choice?
- Can I 'cloak' or 'mask' the real URL in the address bar
so that my new domain name shows up instead.
- Can I create email addresses with my new domain
name and then have those emails forwarded to my regular
email inbox?
(The first two are the most important. The third point is useful
but not 100% necessary).
Another point worth noting (and that I need to add to the article)
is that you should make a slight adjustment to the order links (if
you have any) that you place on the page.
On my website http://www.create-pdf-files.com which uses
this cloaking method, I noticed a problem. When someone clicked
the order link and were taken to ClickBank's payment window,
there were two problems. Firstly, the URL address in the address
bar still stays the same which may make a potential customer feel
uneasy - after all they would expect a ClickBank URL. Secondly,
the browser didn't recognize that it was entering a secure page and
didn't display the padlock towards the bottom of the screen. Again,
this would have a negative effect on customer confidence.
Fortunately, it's quite easy get around this problem. For the order
links you should include target = 'parent' to the link. This will break
you out of cloaking and allow the user to continue payment in the
environment he/she expects. Here's how the URL for the order link
would look in HTML...
a href=http://www.YOUR_ORDER_LINK.com" target="_parent"
I hope this helps. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of any
further help with anything."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Hopkins is owner of BizzyDays Ebook Publications.
Visit now to download original ebooks for free click here
No comments:
Post a Comment