Top 5 Elements of a Money-Making Website

Would it be amazing if you had a sales team that was working for you 24/7 and you didn’t have to pay them? Well, that is what your website could and should be. But, how do you create an effective website that takes your customer on a journey once they hit the homepage? Here are my top 5 elements to a money-making website.

Michelle Gifford Podcast · Ep 162 The 5 elements of a Money Making website

A website is one of the things that can convert clients, even when you’re not awake, even when you’re not paying attention, and even without an email or anything else. Having an effective money-making website is such a game-changer. Are you ready to learn how to create your very own? Let’s jump in.

But, just before we do…

Have you been following along on my Money Maker Method series? This post about having a money-making website is level 3 of the method, which is all about establishing your ecosystem. Your website is your ecosystem because it’s where your customers come to buy your products.

You can scroll to the bottom of this post to see a list of the previous posts in this series, and each one is me sharing my best secrets to making money for your business!

If you want to follow along with the rest of the series and get all the updates (and notes of encouragement from me on your business journey) text “money maker” to 951-309-7885.

OK, now let’s jump into the top 5 elements of a money-making website.

everything you need to know to get started on your business website. www.iammichellegifford.com

Top 5 Elements to a Money-Making Website

Your website is a really powerful tool when it comes to growing your audience and establishing your brand and ecosystem. If people hear about you, they are going to check you out on your website. Now, I’m not going to pretend that people don’t look on Instagram to check you out. However, I want you to remember that Instagram–and social media in general–is just the handshake.

When your audience is ready to book with you or buy your products they go to your website because that’s where your purchase power is. Because of that, it’s really important to have a website that is clear and easy to use.

Money-Making Website Element #1: Speak directly to the person you want to serve.

This element refers back to my post on making your mark and the 4 P’s of a powerful marketing message. The 4 P’s are person, problem, product, and promise of transformation. Using this same approach for your website will help you know what words to use throughout your website in order for it to really speak to the type of person you want to serve.

One of the biggest problems I see on people’s websites today is that they are talking about too many things and trying to solve too many problems. Instead, you need to be very, very focused and only have one message talking to one specific person who has a specific type of problem. Your product will solve that problem, and then you’ll be able to show your promise of transformation.

Remember, you are not trying to speak to everyone. If you speak to everyone, no one listens because they don’t think you understand them. So, when you speak directly to the person you want to serve you will get a much better response from those who visit your website.

Money-Making Website Element #2: Create an easy way for your customer to buy your products.

Do you have a call to action button on your website? This could be a button where it says something like “Sign up now”, or “Join now”, etc. Having a clear call to action button creates an easy way for your customer to buy your products.

You may think it’s presumptuous to assume that someone is going to buy your products when they visit your website, but it’s your responsibility as a business owner to make it as easy as possible for your potential client or customer to buy your product.

If your customer is left to figure out how to buy your product and where to go on your website, they are going to leave. If a purchase process takes longer than 30 seconds then it’s a high probability that the customer will leave and go find a product somewhere else.

That’s why I love having the call to action button. It makes it completely clear and is easily understood how you can serve your customer and what you want them to do when they get to your website.

I recommend having your call to action button in the menu header at the top of every webpage. Think about the call to action you’re focusing on for your business right now. Maybe it’s joining your email list, so your button could say, “Hey get my [freebie] here.” Replace the word freebie with whatever your actual freebie is and then include how your freebie solves a problem.

do these 5 things to improve your business website. www.iammichellegifford.com

Money-Making Website Element #3: Figure out your customer website journey.

We recently talked about having a customer journey map for your business, and now you can apply this same concept to your website. Look at your website and think about how someone got there and where you want them to go next.

There’s a couple of different traffic sources for a website. One is an organic search where someone found you through Google or Pinterest. Another source is a direct link where you may have posted it on your social media or sent it to someone. There are a couple of other ways as well, but these are the two that are most common and the ones I want to focus on.

If someone found you on Pinterest or Google that means they probably found one of your blog posts. So, if a blog post is the very first webpage of your website that someone sees, how can you make it clear what you want them to do next?

I always end my blog posts with a few calls to action like joining my email and/or text list, reading another blog post, and following me on Instagram. Any one of these is a great option for you to use on your blog posts too. Just make sure it is very clear, so it’s easy for your audience to know what to do next.

If someone found you through a direct link, say through one of your Instagram stories, make sure the pages you’re linking to have a great call to action button at the top of the page. I recommend checking every webpage throughout your website and making sure each one is built in a way that sends people where you want them to go next.

Money-Making Website Element #4: Have consistent and cohesive branding.

Every single thing needs to be consistent and cohesive throughout your website. This includes your actual content along with your colors, designs, etc. In other words, both your brand messaging and visual brand need to be legit.

We’ve touched on how to have a clear and effective brand message on the first element, so let’s focus on the visual brand. Make sure all of your stock images match and flow nicely together. I use Haute Stock for all of my stock images and they are always really clean and professional looking.

It’d be worth it to invest in some really good pictures of yourself, especially if you are a personal brand. If you have really good pictures, it will be easy to create a nice, cohesive brand throughout your website. Finish it off with your fonts and colors, and you’ll be good to go.

tips and tricks to creating a professional and effective website for your business. www.iammichellegifford.com

Money-Making Website Element #5: Simplify everything.

One of the biggest mistakes I see with people’s websites is that they’re cramming too much information into the website. They’re trying to tell everyone all the story all at once. And it’s too much.

Simplify everything. Edit things out if you need to. You don’t need to explain everything about your life on your landing page. If you got 100 percent of Michelle you’d be like, “Woah, woah, woah, Michelle. Chill out.” Haha.

Remember, your website is not about you, it’s about how you serve your people–and how you can serve them in a greater way through your products.

You can even simplify how many tabs you have in your menu bar. Should you really have more than 10 options? Probably not. The ones you should for sure have are:

Landing page
About me
Buy now page (products)
Blog
Contact me

BONUS Tips for your Money-Making Website

I wanted to give a few recommendations for blog sites before I end this post! I’ve talked about this before, but I have to talk about them again because they are that amazing.

I recommend using WordPress for your blog site. If you want to show up on Google and/or Pinterest, WordPress does an incredible job at helping you get seen on those search engines.

If you’re selling physical products that you ship out, I recommend Shopify for your blog and website. It doesn’t have all the plugins that I love on WordPress, but it does work better for businesses with physical products.

When it comes to website design, I recommend Showit. I absolutely love Showit. You can create your website to look completely beautiful and feel like you without you needing any website design experience. It’s literally dragging and dropping what you want on your website–and their customer support team is amazing!

If you’re wanting a website up and running pretty quickly and don’t want to even think about going through a website design process (which I totally get), you can check out my Showit templates here. They are designed to lead your customer exactly where you want them to go!