And while you're at it, make sure that anything labeled "Coming Soon" will be actually coming soon. If it's not going to be ready within a week, take it down.

I'd also highly recommend that you go through your web site on a computer other than your own. It's amazing what you'll learn. That image that looks so great on your computer may actually be broken when viewed on someone else's! Make sure you take note of how long content and images are taking to come up.

If it takes more than 10 seconds for image of your product to appear, you're probably losing customers by truckload!

The idea here is to make your visitors comfortable enough to make a purchase from you. There is a direct correlation between how comfortable people are and how likely they are to make a purchase. And a web site where everything works is a comfortable place to be.

3) Check Out Free Content Providers

In a word: YES! Believe it or not, there are actually a number of places to find content on just about every topic imaginable that you can post on your site at no cost. Of course, quality of this content varies tremendously, so be sure to choose carefully.

You should be aware that some free content providers will try to take visitors away from your site. You may find, for example, that news headlines you've posted on your site whisk visitors away as soon as they click on them. Obviously, this is not what you want.

If you want to look into free content for your site, here are a few good places to start:

http://www.allnetarticles.com http://www.ultimateprofits.com

4) Never Throw Anything Away

Want to know an almost effortless way to make your site 50% more useful to your visitors? Archive your content. A study by online usability guru Jakob Nielsen showed that an archive of past content increases a site's usefulness by about 50%.

And since you've already produced content, it's no hassle to simply index all of those articles in an archive. And, believe me, your customers will be glad you did.

As your archive grows, you'll add credibility to your business, because your customers will be able to see how long you've been around. With all those extra pages, your customers should be hanging out at your site a little longer -- making them more comfortable and more likely to buy.

Having fresh content isn't about having today's news headlines scrolling across top of your homepage. As always, keep your eye on bottom line and ask yourself, "Is this content helping my sales"? If answer is YES, you know you're on right track.

Keep your site current and your content relevant, and I guarantee that your visitors will start spending more time there. And longer they stay, more dramatic impact will be on your profits!

© 2003 by Jean Lam

------------------------------------------------------------------- Jean Lam is webmaster of http://www.zineguru.com - Your Web Marketing Power House. He is also editor and publisher of a twice monthly FREE ezine "Zine Guru". To subscribe, for cutting-edge internet marketing tips, tricks and techniques, send a blank email to mailto:zinegurunews@getresponse.com and receive 4 valuable ebooks.

Response But No Results

If you run an ezine ad, banner ad, etc., and get responses without making any sales, most probable theory is that your supporting ad copy or offer is not doing its job. Ezine ads, banner ads, and like will never make a sale on their own. The customer is almost always going to be directed to click back to your Web site. If copy/design of your ad is working, but no sales are being made, take a good look at copy or design of your site. Chances are that *it* could be costing you sales.

Again, testing is key. Change a headline, add links that direct to "more information" pages, and so on. Run ad again, and see if your results improve.

You’ll notice that in either case, testing is recommended course of action. So many small business owners get in a hurry and neglect to test their ads. While it may seem costly to run an ad, change an ad, and run it again - truth is that running unproven ads all across ‘Net without gaining any return on investment (ROI) is a huge waste of money.

Yes, it does take a good deal of time. Yes, it can cost additional money. However, once you’ve taken time to test an ad, and copy on supporting Web site that customers will be directed to, you’ll be in a much better position to ensure consistent sales from your campaigns.

Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com