Читать книгу Do the Web Write - Dan Furman - Страница 11

The principles I discuss here will help any viable business website. However, this does not mean that every website or business idea is viable. I get asked almost every week to do work for some fringe idea. Most offers I turn down because they have no shot at making it; I don’t care how much you market, a cat-washing service isn’t going to fly (although the cat might). See my book Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business for more of my feelings on this.

Also, not every type of website will benefit from this book. I am writing this book for REAL business websites that want to take visitors and convert them into customers/clients/contacts (this is almost all business websites). In other words, I am not writing this book for a company that wants to offer nothing but online games as a promotion, or a company making a “fake” site for a movie tie-in (however, I will say that many of the techniques I discuss here will help even these types of sites … it’s just that I am not writing the book with them in mind).

While I’m on that fact, I find that my advice benefits service and unique product websites the most. This accounts for most business websites out there. Most sell a service (accounting, consulting, software development, writing, web design, web hosting, marketing, PR, plumbing, auto repair, jewelry repair, and the like), or they sell a specific, unique product line (custom software, custom-crafted golf clubs, handmade jewelry, etc.) So if that’s you and your company, this book is almost guaranteed to help you. And if you’re one of the few that wants to compete with Amazon, this book will probably help you as well, but again, I am not writing with those types of sites in mind.

Another thing: I am going to assume that you have a sufficient budget and/or a plan to deliver traffic. There’s no way around it. Your website will not work if nobody visits. You don’t need a million bucks, but you are going to need some advertising to drive traffic, and that probably includes a decent amount of pay-per-click (PPC) ads. I do go over targeted traffic in Chapter 1, and then SEO later on, but it is in a more overall sense — this is a website conversion/website writing book, not a “here’s exactly how you get traffic” book. So please, don’t be shocked when I talk about banner advertisements, and then leave you to figure out the nuances of them yourself.

I also specialize in succinct writing, and getting to the point quickly (heck, my website isn’t called Clear-Writing for nothing)! If something I am talking about sounds overly simple, well, that’s because it probably is. I’m very good at taking a topic and going over the whole thing in a few paragraphs; this is good, because I won’t bore you. I’ve seen 50-page e-books trying to explain what website conversion is — I can do it in maybe five pages. I’m looking to make my point, get you to understand it, and then move on.