Keep Your Dream Simple (Part 2)
It’s very easy to confuse even a good thing by making it too complicated. In the last post I told you all about how I over-complicated my online dream. I thought I could do a lot of things and hoped one of them stuck.
One of the main points in my book is “take the first steps.” I talk about putting your toe in the water of your dream and started small and simple. After the 100 different things I tried, I had to go back to the beginning and focus on one at a time.
This series is meant to prep you for 2014 and give you a few tools to get ready to make your dream a reality by the end of 2014. In the last post we talked about clearly knowing your target audience and keeping your website clear, simple and distraction free.
The basics of a good website
So, I’ve said to keep it simple but what else? The most important thing on your website is your about page. After your homepage, your about page will be the most visited page on your website.
About page
Your about page should be personal, it should be in the first person. People are smart enough to realize that you wrote the description, so when it’s in the third person, people get a little turned off. People come to your website to really connect with you, not some mystical, far off person.
To make your about page even more personal and entertaining, throw a video on it. A lot of people really enjoy clicking on a short video and really getting to know you. Plus, by hosting that video through YouTube, you can build upon another platform.
Your about page should be fresh and current, I would say update it at least every six months. Things change, maybe even directions change, so keep that page up to date with what’s going on in your life and dream. Try not to make this page a novel, keep it straight to the point.
If you’ve done your job and your target audience is reading, put the cherry on top of the cake by adding an email sign up box at the end of your info. If they’ve read all the way through, they’re a hot lead, so have your email sign up there. You can get even slicker and have one right in the middle of your about page, it really increases the sign ups. Here’s one of mine:
Keep in mind we’re keeping it simple and building something, one person at a time.
Email sign up
After your about page, your email sign up should be a super high priority. It’s a little frustrating to get emails these days, so when someone does sign up to get updates from your website, they’re interested and could be more someday.
Your email sign up should be front and center, one of the first things people see. Let them know exactly what they’ll get from your website. One of the best ways to get sign ups and add value to your audience is to offer something free. A free report, a PDF of the top 10 things…., a free video, something that’s relevant to your target audience. This is the first thing you see when you come to my website:
Notice the email sign up? Notice the two free gifts? I have a short video and if my target audience is digging the message, my email sign up is right there with two FREE gifts. Since switching my website at the beginning of this year, I’ve had over 5,000 email sign ups this year versus 297 last year. The results will speak for themselves!
Your goal should be to make your free stuff better than most people’s paid stuff. To get the most bang for your buck, sign up with and email service provider: MailChimp, Aweber, Infusionsoft among others. I won’t get into too much of this now, we’ll get into what you can do with an email service provider later.
If you want your dream to support you, the money will be in the list. Those who sign up are your most interested audience members, so when you do have something to sell, as long as it’s relevant, they’ll be the most likely to buy it.
Your homework
I want to keep it simple, so I’ll end it here. Your homework is to look through your about page, make sure it’s relevant, up to date, straight to the point and has at least one email sign up. If you’re not signed up for email service provider, you should definitely think about getting one.
Also, is your email sign up front and center on your website? Do you offer a free sign up gift? If you’ve done all of this already, make sure all your stuff is relevant to your target audience.
Have you made any money from your online dream? If yes, what is generating income for you?
