Alex Mandossian teaches that you should also "teach your prospect to consume product." You can do this with follow-up emails that point out how to get most out of software, or some type of training. If customer is using and benefiting from your product, he is going to keep it!

Use testimonials. Having someone else say how great your product is adds tremendous credibility. Having someone "just like your prospect" saying how great your product is shows your prospect that he too can benefit from it. Use testimonials from someone your prospect can relate to as well as testimonials from recognized experts or authorities.

Make it incredibly easy for your prospect to place his order. This means giving them as many options as practical. Don't force them to jump through hoops to place an order, because they want. Instead, accept as many forms of payment as possible, and give them as many different ways of submitting order as possible.

A big pet peeve of mine is hidden price. I believe that you should put price right on front page. My testing indicates that hiding price or making customers click through to order form to locate price decreases conversions.

Issue a clear call to action. Tell customer exactly how to order. For example, if you want him to click on link and use your secure order form tell him that. If you want him to print out order form, fill it in, sign it, and fax it to you, tell him that. Don't make them guess what they need to do. People like to be told/reassured that they are doing it correctly.

The other thing you seldom see discussed is "the offer." You literally want to make customer an offer that he would be crazy to refuse. This is a delicate balance though. If you make offer too good, then customer wonders why it's so good. For example, if you offer too many bonuses, that conveys to many customers that basic product must not have much merit on its own. If you offer too many bonuses, it also sometimes conveys that bonuses must be junk. Otherwise, why would you be "giving away" so many valuable items? So, use good judgment in crafting your offer.

We've just touched upon a few things that you need to consider in revising your web copy. If your website is getting traffic every day but nobody is buying, then obviously copy needs some work. If you don't work on your copy, your results aren't going to improve. Yes, it is work, but not it hard work. It's just practice and testing. After while it even becomes fun to see if you can improve on your "control."

Bob Serling, one of greatest copywriters I have studied has an excellent course on web copywriting. It's one of few that I have studied that is devoted exclusively to web copywriting. Most copywriting course I have taken are written for people in offline, direct marketing industry. Bob's book focuses on what works on web. I use it in writing copy for all of new sites I create and for sites I revise. Get Bob Serling's Book, "Power Copywriting For The Internet" at: http://PowerCopywritingForTheInternetByBobSerling.Com

Practicing your copywriting is undoubtedly greatest investment you can make in your web business. Until your site is set up to convert visitors into buyers, it's somewhat futile to spend a lot of time driving traffic to it. Spend some time this week practicing your copywriting. It's what I will be doing :-)

Price factors into brand identity too. Without looking at price tags, we know that a certain item sold at Neiman Marcus costs more than comparable item at Kmart. Buyers reason in opposite direction too. If they're not familiar with a brand and perceive price as absurdly low, they'll create a bargain-basement image for brand, while if they perceive price as expensive, they'll imagine what they would get on buying as luxurious, aristocratic or masterful.

After you invest in creating a brand for your company, don't be quick to change it. Chances are, you'll tire of it years before public does. Repetition and consistency imprint your company identity and image in minds of potential and actual customers. Imagine how disturbing it would be to run across a yellow-and-red IBM sign in a childlike logo, or a flowery, garden-themed ad for perfume Opium! With a coherent, stable brand identity, you'll enjoy more repeat business, greater customer loyalty, easier word of mouth and eventually lower marketing expenses.

You'll know your brand is worth something when you start seeing poachers, imitators and other unscrupulous types trying to trade off investment in your brand. It's worth hiring a lawyer to shoot off a cease and desist letter, where that's legally warranted. After all, our fourteenth state isn't allowing folks manufacturing in Indonesia to claim a Vermont connection. You should be only ones presenting themselves to public as you.