3 Overlooked Profit Opportunities on Your Site
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This is an article written by Yanik Silver that I felt would be valuable to anyone selling online. We asked Yanik for permission to post this article here. Enjoy!
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3 Overlooked Profit Opportunities on Your Site
By Yanik Silver
If you're already selling anything online this article is going to show you how to add extra revenue you didn't even know you had "hiding" in your site without getting any more visitors.
* Overlooked Way #1 - An Upsell:
If you've been in marketing for any time you've probably heard of "upsells" or "bumps". Car dealers are excellent at using this technique. Once you have agreed to buy a car you then go into the finance office. This finance guy is really another place where they try to extract as much money as possible from you; dealer financing, extended warranties, rust coating, a low-jack security system, etc. These additions will normally add as much, or more, profit to the dealer as the original sale. These are upsells or cross- sells.
Another great example is if you've ever called a late night infomercial you will be given an upsell. They will offer you a special deal on the third bottle of super grime cleaner if you buy 2 bottles. These upsells usually end up bringing more profit than the original item people intended to purchase.
Why not do the same online?
This little "magic trick" can instantly increase your profits 20-66% even without getting any additional business or website visitors. It works great because your prospect is all hot and heavy and ready to buy. They've got their credit card in their hand and they've already made the commitment. (If you read Robert Cialdini's book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" you'll see commitment and consistency is a key psychological trigger.)
There are a couple ways I've successfully used upsells on my sites:
First you can use an "intermediary" page. Once prospects click on the order buttons they're taken to a new page (and not the order form). This page tells people about a special offer that is for today only and that they can get a 'deluxe' or 'gold' version of the package for X dollars more. You can make the upsell a big dollar amount or a small insignificant little 'bump'. I do this on Instantsalesletters.com and my numbers have been quite good using this technique - as high as 68% some days. So think about my additional profit margins just by inserting this one extra page. Awesome!
Another way of doing this is by "recommending" a product. Anytime you buy something from Amazon - that's exactly what they do. Up comes a page that "Customers who bought __ also bought__" and then they have a slew of products.
Next, you can also have the upsell right on the Order page. I've even used something as simple as putting a check box on my order form on InstantInternetProfits.com. It could be that simple. On this we get a 25% upsell rate. Take a look at what appears at the bottom after the customer has already filled out their info to buy the course
You have to play fair and let people get the original price and package you offered but there's no reason you shouldn't add a complimentary upsell immediately. The upsell is one of the easiest (and most profitable) techniques you can start implementing tomorrow. This is like the "would you like fries" strategy. Unless you're offering "fries" you're missing out on tons and tons of profit. You simply need to come up with a couple more compelling bonuses, packages or up-sells that people will get for the upgrade.
* Overlooked Way #2 - Thank You Pages:
After upsells, I'd say 'thank you' pages are one of the most overlooked profit hot-spots. Once again, there are several ways I've used this technique. First of all, anytime somebody buys a product from you online - they are taken to some kind of thank you page. Most people will simply put "Thank you for your order" and that's it. They leave the customer with their credit card in their hands to go off to some other website and give them money. Why not give people a special deal on the thank you page or at least give them links to your other products or other people's products that you make an affiliate commission on?
Now if it's a digital product - then they need to get their download but you can also put some recommended resources right on the download page. At the bottom of the digital download page for PublicDomainRiches.com we have a recommendation for the new Public Domain Gold Mine package.
Those aren't the only thank you pages. Many people totally forget about the 'thank you' pages that come up after someone signs up for your list. Now where you want to send them will depend on where they are in the sales process - but you can have a list of recommended resources that comes up AFTER people subscribe to your email list. Why not? If that's the last action you were expecting - you should look for ways to profit from this.
* Overlooked Way #3 - Thank You Emails/Confirmations:
Don't forget the initial email confirmation you send back to your customers. Last technique we talked about making offers on the thank you page but your 'thank you' email is one of the most read emails. In addition to the 'typical' stuff you should include like customer service information, who will bill their credit card, etc why not add a simple P.S. to the bottom of the email like I do offering additional resources (or even a special deal just for customers).
I guarantee just putting these 3 easy overlooked ways to work on your site will help squeeze out even more profits for you & without adding a single visitor. Give it a try.
Copyright 2005 - Yanik Silver
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Just 31-years old, Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on creating automatic, moneymaking web sites...and he's only been online full time since February 2000! Yanik is a highly sought after speaker and attendees regularly pay up to $4,995.00 per person to hear his secrets.
He is the author, co-author or publisher of several best- selling online marketing books and tools, which can be found at www.SurefireMarketing.com
