Everyone knows this: the longer your visitors stay on your web
page
, the more likely they are to buy something. The longer
they stay, the more trust they develop in your business, the
more relaxed
they will become ordering from you.
So, how can you keep them on your page
longer? Well, there are
the wicked ways (opening the pop-up windows every 5 seconds or
placing a dirty picture, which might keep the visitors longer
but not very likely will build them trust you). And there are
the nice and smart ways to achieve the longer-staying visitors.
1) Articles
People LOVE getting free of cost stuff. Free articles are even better,
because they are helpful and tell more about the human
who
wrote them. Every article brings your visitors closer to you
personally, while making available
them with helpful acquired skill
.
When using other peoples articles, always write a brief forward
or your opinion about the topic - this will ensure that you
agree with the author and are endorsing this article.
2) Stories
Stories may be funny, sad, philosophical, or simply about how
you got started in your business. They will not only keep
your visitors longer, but will bring more people by a
word-of-mouth method. When I came across http://www.timroot.com,
I couldnt help but telling everyone I understand
about how funny his
site is! If you are up for a nice
laugh, visit Tim and click on
"About Tim" hyperlink.
3) Forum
A message board filled with interesting and informative posts is
a terrific magnet for your visitors! Sometimes I might spend a
whole hour on an online forum, if the messages are of interest to
me. A efficient and busy forum will also create a strong sense of
community on your website and will contruct
a lot of repeat
visitors. Adding a forum is as simple as signing up with
http://www.Network54.com and inserting a few lines of code into
your web page.
5) Poll or Survey
My husband is not exactly savvy on the Internet. He only reads
the news and sometimes does the research for his college papers.
But every time there is a poll on a page
, he will post his
opinion and read what others are proverb
about the topic. People
always want to know what others consider a subject that
interests them. Come up with a few interesting polls and add a
new one to your internet site
every week. Use the free of cost accomadation
from http://www.Bravenet.com or http://www.Pollit.com
6) Submit Your Site
If its appropriate for your internet page
, allow your visitors to
submit their web sites to your directory. It will not only
keep your visitors longer, but will build them come back to
check out theirs and their competitors listings. Make sure
that the sites submitted are relevant to the overall theme of
your web site, so not to build its not just another "dump" of
links.
7) Audio Greeting
A grand way to entertain your visitors is an audio greeting.
It might
be a welcome communication
, or a site tour. Simply download
the free Real Producer from http://www.realnetworks.com and
record your voice. Remind your visitors that they have to have
the Real Player (http://www.real.com) to listen to your audio
message.
8) Flash Movie
Animated movies are a terrific way of pulling your visitors
into your website
. And now with CoffeeCups Firestarter, you
can generate your own Flash animation in minutes! Just go to
http://www.coffeecup.com and download their free version.
Open the script, enter some text, add a few animation effects
and create a web page - all wont take you more than 20 minutes.
9) Take a quiz
A quiz is a fun and informative way of keeping your visitors
on your web site. Creating a quiz is elegant - just come up with
10-20 questions related to the theme of your internet site
. Then
go to the free web tools such as
http://www.alxnet.com/services/quiz and sign up for their
quiz services. When they give you the HTML code, insert it
into your web page. Thats it! You may find more web sites
that offer costless quiz tool by searching Google.com for "quiz
for a web page
".
10) Staff Introduction
I always like reading about all the people behind a internet page
. Some
stories are so funny and ridiculous, that its impossible to
stop reading. Have a photograph and a fun story about everyone
who is a part of your web business. And if you are a
one-human
business, tell a funny and creative story about
yourself. Pretend you are on a stage and every sentence you
say has to generate your audience laugh. Well, at least that
always works for me :-)