Ronald Kennedy
Publish date: June 8, 2021
You Can Build A Site Easily
Today, it is easier than ever to create a website. Anyone can do it. And if you go online, it seems as if almost everyone has: more than a billion websites occupy the internet today. But how many of those billion-plus sites actually make money directly? A small minority.
For instance, Forbes reports that there are only 102,728 ecommerce retailers in the U.S. generating sales of $12,000 a year or more each – a tiny fraction of the total online retail sites. So you see how choosing your online business model helps elevate your success regarding business growth.
As for non-ecommerce websites, an astounding number of these marketers don’t even know how much or whether their site is contributing to the bottom line.
A big reason why so many sites just sit there on a server instead of making money is that most businesses have not figured out how to monetize the web, meaning use their site to make more sales.
This article was primarily written regarding how to turn your website from a mere online presence into a profit center that can make thousands or even millions for you and your family & company.
Central vs. Hub-and-Spoke Model
Information marketer Fred Gleeck once said, “If you want to make $500,000 a year online, its easier to have 10 sites producing $50,000 each, or 50 sites generating $10,000 each, than to build one site and build its revenue to the half-million-dollar mark.”
So one decision is whether you want to build one central high profit site, such as Amazon, or build your digital marketing presence with the hub-and-spoke model of a group of microsites, as both Fred Gleeck and other marketer’s do.
As a ‘rule of thumb,’ larger businesses tend to gravitate toward ‘central model’ because they have the resources to create and manage them.
For a small operator on a limited budget, the hub-and-spoke model is easier to start and build.
Also, merchandise and service businesses favor the central site model, while information marketers gravitate toward a hub-and-spoke model.
Most businesses that have microsites also have a central site from which all microsites can be reached via hyperlinks. The central site is the hub, and the microsites are the spokes.
If you choose the ‘hub-and-spoke model’, use a hosting service that hosts an unlimited number of sites for a fixed monthly fee.
For example, if you operate a hundred microsites and pay $49 a month for hosting, which hosting is free in Wealthy Affiliate, your cost is less than half a dollar per site a month. (*Note: If you can average $10,000 a week from your collection of microsites, that comes out to gross revenues of half a million dollars in sales a year.)
For the microsites’ domain names, you can either make them an extension of your main domain or create a unique domain for each. Keep in mind, that dedicated domains for microsites should be short and easy to remember. That way, when you are speaking to someone and want to send them to your microsite, you can easily remember the domain.
Is having many separate domains expensive? NO! It’s cheap. It cost about $13 or $15 a year for the domain name fee and a separate fee a month for hosting. (I can’t quote prices on hosting. I get mine for free! See Wealthy Affiliate)
A domain and site constitute the real estate of the internet, and its a lot less expensive than physical real estate. Yet it can make you as much or more money.
Traditional Central Site
The central sites for thousands of traditional companies, from small and medium-size to Fortune 500, use a traditional website layout and design.
These conventionally designed websites have a homepage, which is the page you come to when you click on the site URL, and secondary pages each devoted to a different topic; e.g., a specific product, a single service, overview of capabilities, applications, company history, and whatever additional topics the market wants to cover and the website visitors are interested in.
These single-topic secondary pages are reached by clicking buttons in the menus displayed in the top, side, and bottom margins of the main homepage – see the sections B, D, and E.
The button has a description or name of the page (e.g.About us) and a hyperlink to that page.
This example may be a little out dated, but its only just to give you an idea of what a website page layout looks like.
The homepage should immediately and on its own tell visitors what is being sold, who it is for, and why they should be interested.
The secondary pages taken together should cover two things: 1) what the marketer wants visitors to know and 2) what visitors coming to the site want to know and are looking for.
Ecommerce Central Site
Bigger online retailers use central sites that are traditional ecommerce online stores. “The writing on the wall is clear.” says Ryan Deiss, CEO of DigitalMarketer. “If you sell products to consumers, you need a high-converting ecommerce store.”
Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla that is considered ‘top dog,’ among the online ecommerce giants. (Ebay is a close follower.)
Amazon sells around 350 million different products online, making it a giant web department store of sorts, the equivalent of a digital Walmartor Target.
More common than the big multi product ecommerce sites are smaller ecommerce stores selling single line of products.
Some single line products specializes in diamond jewelry, or flowers.
The mission of this specialty website – to help the consumer shop for and buy a diamond or other jewelry online – is crystal clear.
The entire site is designed to make the transaction as easy and painless as possible.
Most of the hyperlinks on the homepage go to specific products, so you can see what stones and jewelry are available.
In Conclusion
So remember that when it comes to selling on an ecommerce website, your main goal are sales. One way to increase orders from this type of site is to offer a strong money – back guarantee gives you time to make sure your purchase is perfect. Your policy should read: “Our 30-day money – back guarantee gives you time to make sure your purchase is perfect. If for any reason, we’ll happily provide you with an exchange or full refund.”
