So you have a product or service that you want to sell?

Great! Let me outline a time proven process for you that will enable you to sell whatever you want, as often as you want, to whoever you want, all from a simple web site. Time proven? - well I've been using it since around 1995 on the web, to great success and used it in other mediums as well. If you study most successful web sites, i.e. those that produce regular, substantial profits, you'll find they use it too. Curiously, look at most unsuccessful sites, and you'll probably find that they don't.

This is not about 'Get Rich Quick' - if you ever find one of those that works, please let me know! Nor does it require you to be a great salesperson - in fact you'll never ever need to talk to a single customer unless you want to. It's all about using the web to find people who could use your product (or service), and then inviting them to visit your simple web site.

Now I should point out at this stage that it really doesn't matter if you or your company or product are completely unknown, or household names, the process outlined for you here will work very well.

The process is to use a marketing model called the funnel, it so happens that the web is uniquely perfect as a medium for this model. The funnel is so called because the process looks like one. If you imagine the sort of funnel you may have in your kitchen or garage, wide at the top to catch whatever you are pouring in, leading to a narrow opening at the bottom that allows you to transfer the input to a bottle, jug or some other receptacle, that's exactly how this works.

In the wide mouth of your marketing funnel, you 'pour in' visitors from a variety of sources. The mouth of your funnel is actually your main web page where people land. Through a variety of processes, some of the visitors will make it right through your funnel, to the very narrow mouth at the bottom and drop out into your bottle - the order page on your site where the sale occurs. Others will drop out of the little holes that you provide in the side of your funnel, as they cannot do business with you.

That 'bottle' of customers is then available to you to pour back into other funnels in your business to sell them other products or services to increase your profits.

So, the funnel process is (put very simply) this;

1. Describe your target customer in words. Who are they, where are they, what are the problems they have that your product or service solves. - you'll use this information later to go and find out where they go on the web

2. Create (or have made for you) an attractive web site that talks directly to your target customer and leaves them in no doubt at all, why they need what you sell - once you've cracked this, you can take the time to learn how to make them WANT what you have. This is a much more powerful sales trigger than simply needing it.

3. Once they've decided they need what you sell, use the web site to make the process of ordering and getting it as 'click click' simple as possible.

4. Have a plan B - if they don't order, get them to leave their email and name so you can keep in touch. The average web buyer has around 7 contacts before they purchase, so if they visit and leave without buying, you've wasted your effort. You need to build a list of 'customers who haven't yet bought' these can be worked on separately and converted later.

5. Whilst the web site is being finished, go back to the description of your customer from step 1 and find out where they are. Are they searching on Google - do they hang out at other web sites and forums - In the profile, can you identify other common interests that they share? Are there Ezines they subscribe to - do they read articles. What magazines, news papers etc do they read. Once you have this information that will tell you where to put your advertising, articles, keyword campaigns

It's actually all a lot easier than it may sound!

Martin Gateshill is the founder of Uk Web House. Please visit www.ukwebhouse.com/resellers.html If you would like to learn more about getting traffic to your site. Look for the Thankyou Gift at the bottom of the page