Leading eCommerce Consultant Admits You Should Only Listen to One Real Expert! (And its not him!)

Let me share with you a secret that most marketing experts and consultants don't want you to know? (many of them don't even understand this secret themselves.)

The secret is? There is only one true expert who can show you how to drastically improve the effectiveness of your website and your marketing. With dozens of so-called guru's, consultants and experts ready and willing to give you (or charge you for) their advice, there is actually only one person you should listen to on a regular basis. Only one! And his name is Eric Graham? No, no? just kidding?

The only "experts" that you should listen to and trust are your visitors. The visitors that come to your website or view your ads are the only true experts. They will share their expert opinions with you by the actions they take while on your website.

Not sure what headline to use at the top of your page? You have a couple of options:

Pay an "expert" consultant like me to look it over for you and give you copywriting recommendations, for a few hundred dollars an hour.

Or?

"Ask" your visitors which one is best, by split testing each element of your headlines and letting your visitors vote with their credit cards? The one that converts to sales best wins!

Trying to figure out how much to charge for you new ebook? You can hire an expert? I can talk to you all day about advanced pricing theory and explain to you how prices with a "7" in them (such as $17, $97, $777) usually convert better. I can walk you through an analysis of the price points of competing/similar products?

Or?

Simply test 3 or 4 different prices to see which one is most profitable. Often the greater perceived value of a higher price actually converts better than a lower price. But you won't know if that's true for your product and your visitors until you test it. Again your visitors will teach you more about pricing than any consultant ever could. You just need to "ask" these experts by testing.

If done properly, the questions you can get your "visitor experts" to answer about your website by simply testing, is endless.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you should never hire a consultant or expert -- after all my clients happily pay me a lot of money to help them improve their conversion rates. And I am worth every penny! ;-)

But what you need to understand here is that the best experts, became experts by studying and testing, testing and testing different elements over and over until they developed a set of "best practices". So, by hiring someone who has been in the trenches you can save time and money in the long run.

However, every website, business, product and visitor demographic is different. Just because something works at one website, doesn't automatically mean it will work at yours. The best consultants will tell you that you still need to test everything. So in the end it's still your visitor who's the true expert.

Just imagine the results you could achieve over the next year, if you took the time to test only one new element every week. Even if half of the tests were failures and didn't produce improvements in your conversion rates, you would still discover 26 ways to improve your sales. Even if each improvement only boosts your conversion rate by 1/10th of 1%, you would have improved your conversion rate by over 2.6% (and probably much more!)

Look over your current sales statistics, and ask yourself, "How much more profit would I be making if my conversion rate jumped by 2.6%?"

With most sites currently converting at an appalling 1% to 2%, a 2.6% improvement could triple your sales?

Let me ask you a question: Imagine you have a website selling information on how to learn to play the guitar, getting 1,000 visitors per day. And I came to you and showed you how I can change a few things about your page, improve your search engine positioning and triple your traffic? Would you be excited? Sure.

Then, why not get equally excited about optimizing your website for maximum conversion rates?

Many online businesses will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars optimizing their sites for the search engines. But then they waste 99 out of every 100 visitors that they spent so much time and effort getting, simply because they failed to invest in "asking the experts" (their visitors) first. Had they taken the time to optimize their site for conversion rate, before driving the traffic their results would be 10x more profitable.

The great news for you is, so few online businesses are currently testing anything! This means that you are in a position to absolutely dominate your competition by simply listening to the true experts? Your visitors!

Copyright 2004 Eric Graham

About The Author

Want to improve your conversion rates? Eric Graham is the CEO of several successful online companies. A top authority on eCommerce & Internet Marketing, he's an in-demand speaker & consultant. Visit www.web-site-evaluations.com today for an in-depth evaluation to boost YOUR websites conversion rate!

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

Grow your Business with Emarketplace - Part III

Increase Company ProductivityAfter years of hard work, finally your business started to pick up. You are selling more products then ever! You have lined up a good... Read More

Implications Of E-Commerce For Tax Legislation

As e-commerce develops ambiguities in the current tax code in which it may be exposed. It would not be regarded as too early to take premature steps... Read More

Managing Project Risks and Issues

Inherent (or Business) RiskInherent Risk is the risk that exists in the environment around your portal project. It will tend to be unique to your organisation; it's... Read More

Getting Started in ECommerce - Part One

In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors of men vs. women. They found that women spend more time in their searches and at specific... Read More

Using Drop Shipping for E-commerce

Thanks to the ubiquity of the internet, online virtual businesses have become very popular business opportunities. Online retail stores are gradually playing a more important role in... Read More

The Secret Science Of Online Shopping

In theory you could create a retail web site with a limitless selection; an online store where every kind of merchandise known to man could be sold.... Read More

Distinguishing Features of E-Commerce

E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in the sales/distribution chain. The mark-ups that occur between manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and consumers can add the... Read More

Increasing E-commerce Website Sales

With consumers purchasing billions of dollars of merchandise online each and every year, the Internet has become the key to financial security. The e-commerce business has consistently... Read More

Coupons & Rebates

Yes, it's true, coupons are not just for newspapers anymore. Not to be a downer, but I personally hate the things. I can't imagine ever voluntarily wasting... Read More

Ecommerce Marketing Plan

Concept of ServiceThe current work deals with marketing offer of e-commerce service. It highlights the essential steps of marketing of a brand-new firm offering services of website... Read More

Google to Compete with PayPal?

PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment industry, at least for now.Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed... Read More

The Rise of Multinational Virtual Corporations

The virtual corporation is the emerging organisational form, which best combines, a fluid ability to adapt to rapidly changing markets and is able to leverage its skills... Read More

Shopping Cart Features to Consider

Often the simplest Web stores have the most success. But shoppers like special features depending upon the type of store you have, how you market and use... Read More

Is ECommerce Right for Our Business?

If your business features products or services for sale, undoubtedly the topic of eCommerce has come up. What is eCommerce? Literally defined as "the conduct of financial... Read More

7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider

Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with disastrous results. I made the mistake of taking information at face value and relying on the ecommerce... Read More

What You Must Know About Selling Online to Europe

The European market is a multi-billion $ sector which you can not afford to ignore. If you are based within Europe, American or Canada you must be... Read More

Selling From Your Website

Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How do sell from your website?" and no doubt you want to know as well. Over the next... Read More

How Merchant Accounts Can Save You Money

We all know that accepting credit cards is the key to online sales. Unfortunately, most merchants are unaware that acquiring a merchant account can actually save them... Read More

Choosing the Right Online Shopping Cart

Are you a website owner or a web designer/developer? If either applies, I would venture to say that eventually you'll need an online shopping cart for one... Read More

Keep Your Customers Happy by Organizing Your Payment Options

Anyone using a slow, or an awkward payment processor had better wake up!There are some very slick ways to transfer money around the globe, in todays, lightning... Read More

How To Prevent Your 3rd Party Merchant Account From Suspension

What would you do if you were sent an email from your online credit card processor telling you that your account has been suspended or frozen? How... Read More

Government Buying and Selling on the Internet

Global Insight, a leading economic and financial forecasting company, (formerly DRI-WEFA), states that all levels of government (federal, state, and local) should see steady increases in the... Read More

Internet Merchant Accounts For Innocents Abroad

If you want to sell on the internet, your need to accept credit cards. To accept credit cards, you need a merchant account, or access to one.... Read More

How To Accept Credit Cards Online

Anyone with an online business, whether for auctions, services, or virtually any type of product, has asked the same question at some time during their quest to... Read More

Accepting Credit Card Payments Online

Being able to accept credit cards and other online payments is crucial to the success of your business and profits. Your customers are more likely to buy... Read More

The Origins of E-Commerce

What is the Internet?In order to provide a discussion on the Internet it is essential to provide a short description on what the Internet actually is. Put... Read More