Face it ... Anyone can throw away money to pay per click search engines and get a whole of traffic beatings to their websites. But if it does not necessarily translate into sales, so what is the point in paying for traffic then?

Remember that every time you double your conversion, you double your sales. So, if you make 100K a year at 1% conversion, then doubling of the conversion to 2% gives you 200K per year ... and who doesn’t want a pay increase like that?

I want you to look at your own site and apply some of these techniques to your pages. If you do that, can double or triple your sales in the next month and forever after that.

The rules:

1) Repeat after me, "The Internet is not an ATM (automated machine like the banks use)." It does not have to be a cold, hard, technological place. The most missing element on the web is the human factor.

Show people your web site and write as if you had a friend. Cut through the hype and the corporate jargon ... you would not speak this way to a friend.

2) There are no such things as B to B (business to business) or B to C (business to consumer), there are only P to P (person to person) transactions.

Even if you think it is a sight to do with another corporation, it's really a person, the decision maker with purchasing power, which has a personal relationship with another person who is able to accelerate a supplier of the goods. In other words, two people who want to deal with each other.

3) Determine the outcome you want your customer experience. No, it's not your product or service; its how your product or service makes the customer feel. It must be about them, not you. Focus on the emotion you want at the end.

4) Building trust by meeting and passing the emotional "safety" checklist that all people have. Set up a phone number on your site so you can help people with their purchase decision. Put your credit card logos, company logos, logos secure server, other builders’ credibility as BBB and chambers of commerce you belong.

Take web pages for the warranty; guarantee the return merchandise and information. Do not forget to mention how long you're in business if it is more than a few years. Finally, be sure to include your postal address. It will help with local searches.

5) Show and tell always works better than just telling. If your product requires assembly, a manual or multiple processes ... Tell them how to do this, and then show how to do so. You can do this with freeze frames, screen captures, slide shows or even videos. Show step 1, step 2, step 3, etc, in a very simple, easy way to understand.

6) Guide in the eye with headlines that is what they are designed to do. Look at any newspaper. The headlines tell you about the following paragraphs. Your Web site should do the same.

After the opening headline, help the user room your page, and let them decide where and when they want to start reading your page. Put that with headlines that clearly benefits to owning and using your product, followed by an extensive section.

7) Use different "calls to action." The customer may be presold by other advertising methods, word of mouth, and a review; or whatever ... people want a ordering link at the top of the page. Some people will not decide until the end of the page.

The moral of the story ... pepper the link between every few paragraphs. And if you want to know which call for action led to the sale, give each 'Buy Now' link a separate tracking.

8) Point of unique features, such as patents - if you have them - than the benefits. But do not do it immediately. If there is something unique about your product, the usual desire to slide them in the face of the customer. Oh, look we're different because ... used to work, but doesn’t any more.

Once you have them in the story, and you have shown a number of advantages to the possession of your product ... hit them with the biggie, the whopper advantage, one reason why your product is the best, fastest and most unique ... but do it more like an "Oh yes, I almost forget" sort of statement. That will be the cherry on the sundae, the bakers dozen, the advantage of an overt sends them over the top.

9) Free delivery is mandatory, not an option. It may be for orders over a certain amount in dollars, certain geographical areas, or very basic as ground shipping alone. Then if the customer wants premium or express shipping, it's extra. Love it or not, it's part of the mental checklist customers ... as the other boys have free shipping and you do not ... guess where they are going to buy.

10) The opening headline should be on the customer, not your product. It should be about the customer, the star of the show. But don’t talk about you or your company in the opening, unless the headline is the solution to their problem.

Use a clearly defined benefit or two, so when the customer reads the headline they think: "Hey, that's what I want ... this is what I've been looking for ... this site is all about me!"

One of the most powerful opening headlines that you can use, starting with a proven formula as the "if you then ...” If you want this and this, then here's how this (our product) will do, or solve that problem for you.

11) Please provide an overview and a complete examination at the end of the sales letter. Most sites fail to wrap up the deal and reinstate the full package. Very often, this summary justifies the emotional purchase decision with logic.

Do not forget that the logical brains will always find a way to justify an emotional purchase. When you do a summary at the end of the deal, always add distinctive product advantages, warranty, free shipping and merge and any other bonuses. Once they see how much is at the plate ... how can the logical mind resist buying?

12) Add a personal message. This may be in the form of an audio recording, a message from the president, or just the writing itself. Throw away the mission statement and show a face. Choose someone and let him or her to be the spokesman and actually talk to the people. Put their photo or your photo on the line. Make a personal statement of guaranteed customer satisfaction.

13) Always try to get a testimony from satisfied customers. People want to hear what "third parties" are saying instead of what "you’’ have to say. Amazon allows its customers to rate each product by writing reviews. More and more people base their purchasing decisions based on these reviews. Why not let your customers do the same?

Take the best evidence and weave them into the contents of your page. For the best results add the testimonies in courier font in a html table with a different background than the rest of your page (yellow works best).

If you spend a lot of time getting plenty of testimonials, put them on a separate page so people can read them if they want. Just tell them you have a page with 101 testimonies will be more than enough to convince them.

14) Get several friends - or better yet ... strangers - to sit in the front of your website and see how they use it. If they have questions or problems with navigation and cannot find something or cannot figure out how to do something ... guess what? So will thousands of other visitors. Remember that your site designer does not intend to be there looking over their shoulder to tell them where to click.

It is impossible to see your own work, because you far too familiar with it. It is very important to be impartial third parties for testing the usability and friendliness of your site before you start.

Watch their expressions of negative emotions or any signs of problems. Take note of everything they say. Ask them if they would shop there ... if yes or no ... and why? Strengthening the yes, establishment of the no.

Conclusion

Ok, that it is now ... It is time for a good hard look at your site. If you do not convert at least 3 to 5% of your traffic, it is time for a site overhaul. Go back and reread the 14 rules again and think about how you can start applying these techniques to the sale of your Web sites. Remember that every time you double your conversion rate, you double your income. And who does not want a pay increase of that kind? Apply these 14 simple rules and you WILL get results.