I guess there are more “How to Get Rich” websites then there are websites actually selling a product.

The reason for this is most people do not know how to make money online so instead of building a website that sells a real product or service (something they are unable to do) they build websites that sell information on how to make money online.

If I said that 98% of all websites online are not making money, I’d feel like that number was too low.

The sad truth is that there a more people designing websites then there are people making money with their websites. Most Web designers use call centers, newspaper ads, yellow page ads, and other means of off-line advertising to drum up customers.

I am telling you this because I want you to understand that making a living online is not something easily done. It takes hard work and dedication or lots of money.
There are certain steps needed to make a living online and none of the step are more important than the next.

The first of course is the website design.

The purpose of the website design is to get the attention of the web visitor. When someone lands on the site you have 3 seconds to get their attention and keep them interested.

The website design does not need to be flashy, fancy or show off the talent of a Web designer however it does need to be clean, easy to navigate, easy-to-understand, quick to load and have a call to action that will guide the web visitor in the direction you want them to go.

It sounds like we are taking all the hard work out of the Web design by removing the fancy flashy look but that is far from the truth.

The color of the cart button, the background color, the placement of the call to action, the size of the logo, colors used on the site, text size, text color, font, phone number placement, content, and so much more will affect the reaction of the web visitor when they are on the site.

Other words, a truly affective website is an art unto itself.

Every day more and more people try their hand at affiliate marketing but the sad truth is that 98% of them will never sell a single product. And while we can blame it on others, as this seems to be the American way, the fault does lie with the affiliate marketer.

It’s not the same as the offline world. You are not hired, told what to do and when to report.

There is no training and no one to hold your hand for days, weeks or sometimes even months. No one is going to look over your shoulder.

In the online world, you fill out an affiliate registration form and are given an affiliate link. It’s then up to you as to rather you will or will not become a successful affiliate marketer. It’s a lot like deciding to sale your own product.

Your success depends on your being smart enough to read study and understand what it takes to market a product online. There are millions of free sources where you can study and learn different methods of marketing online.

But the problem with online marketing is that it is an ever changing filed. You are never finished learning because what works today very well may be considered spam tomorrow.

There are forums all over the internet where marketing professionals are constantly debating and arguing what works and what does not work when it comes to marketing online. If the professionals can’t agree on what works and what does not work what chance does someone new to the world of online marketing have?

Actually a very good chance if they are willing to continue the fight, test different methods and push through no matter how bad things appear to be.

IT’S ALL ABOUT NEVER GIVING UP ! !

I was reading a post today about how ranking on page two or three in the major search engines will convert better than a page one ranking.

This may be true as long as all your competitions websites suck.

However, if the competition has a powerful and emotional website that is able to show the website visitor that his or her life would be more complete better, easier and more productive, more profitable and happier, if they owned what it is that site is selling, chance are they will never make it to the second search result, much less the next page.

Rankings are good, but your website has to be able to convert or the site visitor will be off the site and on to the next one.

People focus on ranking more than website conversion and it’s the only reason someone would have to go to page three in the search results before making the purchase.

I read somewhere that 98% percent of all sites online are not turning a profit. The only reason those numbers are that high is people do not fully understand how to make a website convert.

And the sad truth is that I see more web designers pointing out really cool flash sites, then I see web designers pointing out websites that convert. The web design industry needs to spend more time educating their clients and less time trying to add the next cool thing to a web design.