Even in you keep the sales copy exactly the same, trying a slightly different page
layout can result in a tremendous increase in profitability.
For example, when I first started the SEO Book site, I only promoted this e-book
off to the side. I switched to promoting this e-book on every page right below the
page content posts and overnight the sales more than tripled.
Another good example of how page layout can really make a difference in a web
campaign is Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. During Howard Dean’s 2004
presidential campaign, they used their blog to cast a vote on whether or not their
campaign should accept matching funds. After people voted, they were sent to a
landing page. The first day saw 100,000 voters and raised $248,000.
They looked at the vote return landing page and noticed that the donate button
was at the bottom of the page. They moved it to the top of the page. On the
second day, another 100,000 people voted, but they raised $4,500,000.

Make it Flow

Small sentences and paragraphs with common words make writing flow easily. In
addition, you can make the text easy on the eyes by setting a line height (the area of
a line of text and the space above or below it) to at least 120% of the text height,
and by using the maximum contrast between your text and background.
Since you have no sales person on your site, the text is the sales person. It needs to
answer questions and arouse appeal toward your products.

Sell Upward

McDonald’s asks, “would you like fries with that?” Most major corporations know
it is easier to sell again to a person than it is to find a new prospect. After a person
contacts you or orders something, send them to a thank you page.
Give them small free gifts, strengthen their bond with you, make them feel good
about their decision, or try to sell them something else. It does not need to bring in
money to be a gain. If they subscribe to your mailing list, you have increased your
exposure FREE. Consider giving them options to read other journals that cross
promote you.
Or, you could reference affiliated companies. These links can hold discounts that
appear as gifts, when in actuality, they make you money. I recently purchased ink
cartridges and got 5% off for adding their site to my favorites list. It is much
cheaper to give me 5% off than to try to find me again later. The possibilities are
endless.

Focus on the User

The user focus must be on benefits offered to them. Writing the word you instead
of we is a must. The simpler and easier it is for users to see benefits from an
action, the better off they are and the more conversions you make.
Some techies might like features, but to general audiences it is usually best to rank
your priorities in the following manner:
1. Audience
2. Benefits
3. Features (if you are selling to a techie audience they may want the
features before the benefits).

Make it a Conversation

All the above tips pale in comparison to the following tip:
• Write in a conversational tone, as a person, not a company.
Fake fluffery does not go well on the web. People can smell it a mile away. Since
the Web started as a non-commercial entity, there are certain etiquettes (or
netiquettes) that dictate how we should act. When we go outside these basic ideas,
we not only avoid conversion, but also are likely to offend our readers.
Many of the people who have bought this e-book told me they bought it because I
sounded honest and real. Some of my blog posts are somewhat random, personal,
or humorous, and some people like that.

Rapid Feedback Loops

Blogs and websites such as Epinions and Planet Feedback make it easy for
customers to see what others have to say about you. Google Groups, Yahoo!
Groups, and MSN Groups are additional havens for complaints. A large portion
of the value of the Amazon experience is user reviews and the “X people
recommended blah instead of this” area. People have told me they have bought
my book due to it being mentioned on book lists on Amazon.
Just be honest. If you are not the best, work to improve! Work from your
strengths and focus on something you are the best at. You should also occasionally
look and see what others have to say about your service by checking search results.
If you solve problems and turn complainers into happy customers, you lower your
marketing costs.
Customer interaction should be personal, not corporate-speak driven. Sometimes
you will fall short (as I have many times), but honesty goes a long way. If you find
your way into the conversation and are human about it, you curb the rants and may
even spur on a few people who believe in you. An amazing book on how markets
are conversations is called The ClueTrain Manifesto by Christopher Locke, Rick
Levine, Doc Searls, David Weinberger (ClueTrain is available free online).