After days of searching online, I found a website that I thought sold the item I needed. Excited, I scoured the website for the price of the product and the payment. Unfortunately, I never found the information. After ten minutes of searching, I gave up.
No matter how many visitors you are able to attract to your website, there are still ways to lose them before making a sale. Below are the top 10 ways to lose a paying customer.
1. Navigation – One of the easiest ways to turn off a website visitor is create a complicated website. If a customer struggles to find their a product, they will more than likely get frustrated and leave the website before they buy.
When I first designed my website I had no idea about design. Looking back, I’m not
sure I accomplished pretty and I did not create an easy website to navigate. Much like
the one I mentioned earlier, my website was frustrating to visitors.
2. Busyness – The wrong type of website can turn off visitors and repel sales. Create a website designed for your target audience. For example, if you’re selling aromatherapy products, you’ll want a relaxing environment. However, if you’re a life coach you want to pump people up. Your website should be full of life and activity.
3. Sizing – Many websites make the mistake of sizing their design to fit their screen. Unfortunately, the standard resolution that most monitors are sized to (800 x 600) does not always match. When this happens, visitors must scroll not only up and down the page, but left and right as well. To eliminate this frustration, set you width to no more than 800 pixels.
4. Point of Contact – When visitors to your website have a question they want to be able to easily find your contact information. Many websites display their email address, phone number, or a link to their contact information either in their menu or at the top/bottom of their website, which makes it easy to find.
5. Hidden Pricing – Customers want to have all of the necessary information before they make a purchase. Make sure your prices are available up front. When customers have to dig for pricing information, there’s a good chance that they will get frustrated, give up and leave your website.
6. Customer Service – You can set your business apart from all the rest by offering fast, friendly and helpful service to your customers. Try to respond to emails and phone calls within twenty-fours hours. Smile while you type or talk on the phone because your customers will hear the lilt in your voice and respond.
7. Follow-up – If your customer asks a question about a product or service, follow up within 48 hours to see if they have further questions. Many times this follow-up can lead to a sale. Neglecting follow-up can lose you customers.
8. Spam – If you offer a newsletter or other type of mailing list, be careful with what you send to your subscribers. Avoid mailings that look like spam. Choose a template that works for you and that will be recognizable to your readers.
9. Professional Conduct – In the business world it’s important that you’re professional, especially when dealing with difficult clients. It’s imperative to be kind, courteous and take care of business. Refrain from any type of name calling or blame placing. Stand up for your business in a professional manner and treat your customers with respect at all times. Remember the old adage — the customer is always right.
10. Payment Options/Security – Customers want to know that they can trust you with their financial information. Choose a payment provider that offers a secure way to transit orders and credit card information. If possible, offer more than one payment option to give your customers the ability to choose how they will pay.
Creating a website that is customer-friendly isn’t as simple as one might think. There are many aspects to consider and the designer must choose carefully or risk losing sales. Avoid these ten no-no’s and make your website into a successful business venture.

About the Author:
Jill Hart is the founder of Christian Work at Home Moms, CWAHM.com. Jill and her husband, Allen of CWAHD.com reside in Nebraska with their two children.


5 Points to Consider When Starting a Work at Home Business
When the opportunity arises to start a work at home business there are several points to consider before beginning. These points can make a work at home business run more smoothly, save money and bring success. Planning is very important when starting a work at home business.
The first thing to consider is what kind of business to start. What kind of products or services will likely be sold? Is it a product you’re selling for someone else or is it your own invention? Is it a service you will perform yourself or are there others that will do this? Will it be an online program? Finding the right niche is very important and everything will revolve around this.
Second, where will this business be located? It is important to have a space for this purpose and only this purpose. Preferably a separate room with a door that can be closed for quiet and privacy. There needs to be enough room for a desk and any other furniture you desire. Also, if there are products that must be kept in your office, make sure you have the room to store them. If you make your own product, make sure you have a space for this purpose so everything can be organized and streamlined. The worst thing is being unorganized. It wastes time and time is money.
Third is budget. What kind of budget can you work with? With every business, whether it be online or brick and mortar, there comes cost. Cost to make the product, advertising, any kind of monthly fee for programs you are involved with, even the internet connection. Consider any kind of furniture or office supplies that are needed. A monthly budget must be laid out so over spending can be avoided. Do not take on more than can be afforded.
Fourth is advertising. Consider the type of advertising you like. Some may like running ads in newspapers and others may prefer solo ads in online ezines. Whatever you decide, make an advertising plan and stick to it. Make sure it is within the budget you set up though.
Time is the fifth point to consider. If a job is still held outside the home until the home business becomes successful, make sure there is sufficient time to work on the home business. Balancing work, home and children is hard enough. Trying to build a home business on top of all that may be challenging. Set a schedule that is realistic and follow it. Don’t forget to schedule some down time too. You’ll need to relax and spend time with family.
After considering these points you can create a plan and start building your own successful work at home business.
Tara Martindale specializes in helping people find the best work at home business opportunities available. Visit Tara's Work at Home Business Opportunities site for details.


7 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Article
Frank Tello
www.Home-Biz-For-You.Com
Article writing has become, in the last few years one of the most effective ways to get qualified visitors to your web site. The article though, must be able to grab the readers attention and be informative enough to leave the reader with a feeling of having learned something. There are 7 mistakes that you can make which will actually kill your article. Along with not grabbing the readers attention and not being informative, spelling and grammar mistakes, the use of keywords, Plagiarizing, self promotion, and miss use of the resource box will all kill an article. In this article I will explain these mistakes in some detail and ways to avoid them.
First of all you need a title that will grab the readers attention. You want the reader to want to read through your article. Most people are so busy these days that they just skim through to see if there is anything worth reading. Nice catchy titles that start with for example "The 5 Reasons You Should...", "10 Ways To Improve Your...". You get the idea. Once You get them interested with the title, you then want to give them some informative content. something they can take away from the article.
Secondly, the content of your article must have something of value for the reader to stay interested. The content must be informative and educational, give the reader something they didn't know before they read the article. You do not have to be an expert just, Know what you are writing about and do not make the topic to broad, the reader will lose interest quickly. You should also include some well placed key words in your content.
The third mistake is the miss use of key words. You want to use a key word density of 1-3%. You do not want to saturate your article with key words. Search engines will not frown on you if you stay with in the 1-3 % density. It is when you go well beyond the 1-3% that the search engines start to see your article as being auto written. You don't want to have them give you a bad reputation so it's wise to stay within the percentages.
The fourth mistake is a self promoting article. An article that is full of hype and self promotion is transparent and a big turn off to experienced marketers. Those types of articles never get read and surely never get downloaded to other peoples sites, newsletters and e-zines. Self promoting should be left for your personal website or your ads. Stay away from self promoting in your articles. Any kind of promoting of your site or product should be in your resource box.
The fifth mistake is plagiarizing, using someone else's original article as your own. In writing articles original content is the best way to go. If you do not know too much about the subject you want to write about than do some research and take notes. From your notes you can format your article and expand from there. If you like someone's article that you see in a directory you can use it as long as you include the resource box at the end of the article and keep in tact. You must give the original author credit when ever you use their articles.
Number six naturally is resource boxes. These must be used wisely. Do not put too much in this box. This is where you let the reader know who you are, what you do, and where your website is located. You do not want to get to crazy with this because too much can turn a person off. And the whole point of the article is to get the reader interested in who you are so that they can go to your resource box and click on the link to your website. Make sure though that your spelling is correct. You do not want to go through all the trouble of writing a good article and than misspell your website address.
The seventh and probably the most important mistake that is made is that article writers do not use that handy little button on their tool bar that says "SPELL CHECK". It does not matter how good you are at writing. You should always use the spell checker. A Well written article with no spelling or grammar mistakes will show the readers that you are a professional and you care about the product that you put out. After all an article that you write is a product that you put out.
Articles are fun to write and they do bring quality visitors to your website if they are done correctly. Making sure that you do not commit any of these seven mistakes will insure that you write a good quality article that people will want to read. Have fun and may your article writing be a success.
Frank
There Is Nothing That You Cannot Be, Do, or Have.
Frank is a very successful Internet Marketer with various Affiliate programs. Visit Franks website at www.Home-Biz-For-You.com
You can Pick up Franks Free Home Business Newsletter atwww.Home-Biz-For-You.Com/Newsletter.html