Let me start with a foundation of things I believe. These few
points are not debatable from where I sit. So unless you get to this point, you will likely not
understand nor accept anything else I have to say.
1. Getting a GREAT domain name is/was a "Unique opportunity in
time."
2. No other commodity in the history of mankind has ever gone
up in value faster than a GREAT domain name. No stock, no diamond, no gold, no land.
3. Just like land may have "Mineral rights" such as oil, a GREAT domain may
also have mineral rights in the form of "Type in Traffic" from folks typing in
your domain name directly into the navigation bar. If someone types in
CubicZirconia.com and spells it right do you think they are not qualified? Not targeted? Is that visitor not valuable? Maybe even more valuable
than most traffic because of the closing ratios they achieve? I'll talk more
about closing ratios in a moment.
4. Fuel runs an automobile, TRAFFIC is what fuels the net. You
can have a million dollar auto but without fuel it won't be going anywhere on
it's own power. Same with a website. You can spend millions in development but
until you add targeted visitors and can CLOSE A SALE you really have nothing. It just sits like the
car with no gas.
5. Nothing on this planet happens until a sale is made. Nobody
goes to work, not a truck rolls, not a plane takes off not a factory opens not a
thing happens. Nothing happens until a sale is made and then you don't actually
EAT until you turn a PROFIT. So you don't have to be a genius to sell hundred
dollar bills for $79.95.
6. If you sell a product or service on the net via your website and your
CLOSING RATIO is not your guiding light, not on the tip of your tongue, not on
your radar.....Then you are lost. It is what I believe to be the single most important
piece of data no matter what you are selling and less than 1% of all folks that
run a site can answer that question. They are lost and are like a captain with no
map, no compass, no plan. Your ratio is how many visitors do you need on your site for you
to close ONE sale and then repeating those sales? Many sites are incapable of closing any sales. It may be for
many reasons or even a single simple one....like the visitor can't find the
checkout button.
If you have 10,000 visitors and you only sold one order I
would ask why you did not close TWO out of 10,000 or FOUR or FIFTY? Or more? I
would ask what you did with those other 9999 customers? I would ask "Is the
traffic no good or is it the website that is no good?" You MUST isolate and
figure out both sides. You absolutely MUST! But almost nobody does. They are
working in the blind and building without a plan.
TEST, TEST, TEST. Tweak, Tweak, Tweak, experiment, experiment,
experiment. And when the result is worse, go back to what worked better and find
out WHY it worked better and build on that.
I can go on all day long talking about #6. But that is for
another day and you may be asking what the hell does a domain owner know about
this? All I can tell you as I know how to close sales on the net and back in
1996 and 1997 and 1998 I made a name for myself by increasing the bottom line of
websites by 15% in just FIVE MINUTES! There are certain NAVIGATIONAL MISTAKES
that almost everyone makes. Fix those, change the font, change the color, change
the location and sales can go up dramatically.
7. All the dead guys that built the corporations so many work for today are rolling in their graves because those in position of power and leadership largely missed the greatest opportunity of their lifetime, their fathers lifetime and their fathers before them!
8. Not all traffic is created equal
9. SHIT traffic and TARGETED traffic likely costs the
SAME
10. If you don't know the SOURCE of you're traffic you better
find out and re-read #6 until you are blue in the face. Imagine what it would do
to your business if your site (Your MOUSETRAP) could only close ONE sale in
10,000 visitors while your competitor is closing 50 sales with the same amount
of visitors. He is EATING your lunch and you better start paying attention
before you head to Monster.com and look for a new job.
So here we are......
This may sound pretty basic to domain owners and developers, however it is GREEK to those outside the industry. They will doubt these beliefs. What they don't know is we are armed with stats to back up what we say. So my target audience is those outside the industry that still have a misconception of what GREAT domain names represent.
Note: This article was supposed to just run yesterday, but the interest level is high and the subject matter so important that I will leave it up a little longer
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
