Do you notice a very important fact about the Greek Parthenon?
It is this: the heavy roof is supported by numerous pillars.
Without those pillars, the roof would collapse. My personal
mentor and friend Jay Abraham calls this The Parthenon
Principle.
The Parthenon Principle, simply explained, is this: Have
multiple pillars generate revenue rather than one or two. Your
business could collapse if it's only supported by one or two
income streams. Too many business owners gamble everything on a
single revenue source. They often get attached to one type of
marketing - and overlook the fact that there are at least a
dozen income streams they could access!
What may not seem obvious is this: the more "pillars" you have,
the larger and heavier the roof that you can support. The more
income-generating methods you have, the larger revenue roof you
will have. Here I'll continue to open your eyes to what the
possibilities are, and what opportunities you might be missing
In the previous article, I introduced you to 13 different
pillars your online business could use to generate additional
revenue streams. In this article I am oing to introduce you to
twelve (12) additional pillars your online business can use to
generate revenue.
As you go through these "pillars" think of the ways that you can
apply them for your business. DO NOT, at first glance, discard
them and say they don't apply to you. Think instead of the
possibilities in how they COULD apply to you.
USP Most websites try to be many things to all people. That's a
mistake. Instead develop a USP (unique selling proposition) that
clearly defines who you are, what you uniquely do, and why your
website is the site of choice to visit. Your website should
convey this USP throughout, stressing the benefit of doing
business with you. Don't be wishy-washy in your approach; be
straightforward and sell. Hard. Clearly convince site visitors
of the benefits you can give them and do so by staying within a
product or service niche. Less confusing, higher margins. Learn
precisely how to create a USP at Jay Abraham's site:
www.abraham.com/articles
Reciprocal links Surf the web and find complementary sites to
yours; send the webmaster an email saying (a) you visited the
website, (b) complementing them on one or two specific things
about the site you liked, (c) and request a reciprocal link to
your website. Keep a page on your site where you put links to
other sites, however make sure that your visitors don't hit that
page too soon in their visit to your website, leaving your
website too soon!
Newsgroups Dejanews [www.dejanews.com] is the primary website
onramp to over 45,000 discussion groups. Now, don't get the idea
that once you find a discussion group, you can begin
aggressively marketing your services. That's considered SPAM and
will make you look really bad. Instead, participate in
discussion groups relevant to your industry and customer
demographics, adding to the discussion in helpful ways, and let
the "signature" at the end of your messages do your marketing
for you. People will gradually get to know and trust you, visit
your site, and do business with you
IRC IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. IRC is a form of chat on
the Internet where you can enter channels (rooms) and have
real-time discussions based on the topic that the channel
generally discusses. You can also create your own channels and
hold text-based conferences with Internet users all over the
world. Use the same policy about IRC as you use for Newsgroups;
be helpful but not overly obsessed with pitching your products.
Over time, other channel members will come to recognize your
expertise and inquire privately about your business. See
www.IRC.net for a more detailed explanation of how IRC works and
how to get in.
Awards Once your site is completed, you've gotten rid of the
Under Construction signs, and the website runs fast, then its
time to consider applying for awards. Most award sites
automatically subscribe entrants into an ezine. Winners are not
only announced at the website, and you are informed by email,
but are also announced in its ezine with a link to your site.
Larger award sites send press releases to a wider audience.
Consider these award programs: Award-It [www.award-it.com]and
Award Sites [www.awardsites.com] and of course, our own program:
www.genesislogic.com/awards.asp
Join parallel affiliate programs As you surf the web discovering
whom your allies and competitors may be, be sure to ally your
website with like- minded websites and join their affiliate
program. Why? Because you can select products that you can offer
your target audience, earn money on the sale of those products,
and gain added value by aligning yourself with expert products
which your website visitors will appreciate. Also check out
www.associateprograms.com and www.associate-it.com
Give something away for free When you can offer something to
visitors on your site for free all of a sudden interest perks
up; the word FREE is irresistible. Make sure that your offering
is related to your services so that the visitors you attract
will be good prospects for your business. Example: 3Com offers
system administrators a free networking benefits analysis
CD/calculator to compute the cost of designing a network. What
does 3Com sell? You guessed it: network cards and network
devices.
Join a webring A Web ring is a group of linked sites with
similar subject matter. A visitor to one site in the ring can
quickly access the rest of the sites in the ring. The largest
collection of web rings today is the www.webring.com, managed by
Yahoo!, which not only allows you to join web rings, but also
create them. Visit their website and see if there is a match in
your topic. If so, join, and link your site to the ring, thereby
driving further targeted traffic to your site.
Share your content If you sell knowledge-based services,
consider writing tips, lessons, hints, secrets, or anything that
would help a particular group of people. Then submit the content
regularly by emailing your fresh work to webmasters and ezine
editors who publish related material. Make sure (a) you insist
your byline be published, and (b) you be notified by email when
it was published. At the same time, solicit content from
webmasters and authors within your industry and publish these on
your website. Doing this will build a resource library your
visitors will appreciate and that in turn, will build brand
awareness and profit.
Log files Log files from your web host will give you: visitor
session statistics, resources accessed, paths through site, top
exit pages, most requested pages, visitor demographics by new
vs. returning, referring URLs, search engines referrals, and
more. The key to generating revenue is to use the logs and
proactively manage your traffic to produce higher quality
results. Remember this keyword: MWR (most-wanted-response). How
can you better direct traffic through your site, based on where
visitors are now going to, to better get them to the response
you desire? Figure that out, build it, and watch your responses
soar.
Good design I almost wish this was obvious but unfortunately
it's not. Bad design prevails in a very large way still, and
surprisingly, on sites that are intended to serve the public and
generate revenue. By good design I mean, make your site (a) easy
to navigate, (b) easy to search within, and (c) logical in the
next steps a visitor should take. Put your company name,
address, phone number, and general email address on every page
so that customers don't have to hunt for your contact info, no
matter what page they came into your website by. Customers will
appreciate the ease of use and friendliness of your website.
Customer service Golden rule: Do unto others as you would have
them do unto you. Treat your customers right and give them a
reason to come back and frequent you with their purchases.
Promptly answer emails and voicemail messages. Companies that
treat customers with respect, and not just as a commodity, will
stand out in this day and age of poor service. Either most
companies today are providing no service, or just enough service
to get by. Don't do it. Invest in service and treating your
customers right and you will stand out and be rewarded.
About the author:
Daniel Ramos is the President of Genesislogic Inc., a New York
City based ebusiness that helps companies massively profit from
the Internet. If you want to learn how to massively profit from
the Internet, vist WWW.GENESISLOGIC.COM and download from an
extensive online library of resources, call us toll-free (800)
590-5155, or send an email to INFO@GENESISLOGIC.COM
