Opinions about websites are many; however, a few things are just overwhelmingly important if you intend to produce income through your website. If you don't incorporate the following top ten factors into the development of your website, it is likely to become just another pretty face on the web, instead of an income generating tool…

Factor #1 – Attracting qualified traffic

Qualified traffic consists of visitors from your target market interested in your products or services. There are many internet marketing tactics to attract such traffic, but search engine optimization is the cheapest, most effective way to market your website. Keywords and keyword phrases your target market uses when searching for information, products or services need to be identified and professionally incorporated into your website during the design and development process. Additionally, each webpage has to be submitted to the top search engines following the search engine guidelines. A search engine listing, which is adequately prepared for your target market, is the best way to get qualified traffic to your website.

Factor #2 – Dependability

Most people give little thought to selecting a web host. They usually choose the cheapest or even a free hosting package. Bad decision! Dependability is critical when it comes to an income generating website. Every second your website is offline, you could be losing money. Also, a slow loading or user-unfriendly website is sure to lose customers. Choosing a cheap or free web hosting package may be your worst nightmare, because usually they aren't very dependable. You may experience downtime, slow loading or poor navigation. Even worse, your website may be lost when the servers go down if your web host doesn't maintain backups. It's also good to have total control of your website through a control panel in order to make changes yourself and manage your content. A reliable web host and a sufficient hosting package with control features are essential.

Factor #3 – Functionality

The functionality of your website can make or break you. Your website should load fast, be user-friendly, easy to navigate and above all, it shouldn't have broken links. If it doesn't meet those standards, you are likely wasting your advertising dollars and losing leads from your target market. There is nothing more annoying to website visitors than a website that doesn't work. If they run into glitches, they are likely to leave your site and go straight to your competition.

Factor #4 – Lead generation

If you get someone to your website, they should be considered valid leads and your website should attempt to collect their contact information for follow-up (at least a name and email address). This is usually done through a squeeze page which is designed to collect email addresses for an opt-in email list by offering to send visitors more information. A well-designed squeeze page will leave readers with a sense of urgency and a desire for more information about the topic. When a visitor first visits your website, they may not buy anything. They may just be researching at the time. By getting them to sign up for opt-in email list, you will be building leads for future contacts – lead generation at its finest!

Factor #5 – Following leads while they are hot

If someone signs up for your opt-in list, they have already expressed their interest. It's very important to follow-up right away with desired information. You can subtly market to them later. Autoresponders are the best way to take care of the follow-up and ongoing communications. You just setup the timing and the messages once and the messages will be delivered automatically. Autoresponders can even be personalized with the name of the recipient. It sure beats chasing leads and following up on them individually.

Factor #6 – Establishing credibility

Establishing credibility is fundamental in any business, but in an online business it is much more difficult. Your website has to take on the many roles of representing your business. It has to show your expertise, gain the readers' confidence, overcome any obstacles, and offer customer service, as well as making and closing sales. Offering free, informative, useful articles and newsletters is a great way to display your expertise and gain confidence. By constantly providing how-to articles, email tips and so forth you will add value to your business in the eyes of your prospects and customers.

Factor #7 – Sparking interest

Factors 1 through 6 are the basics an income producing website desperately needs, but they are often neglected. Just paying attention to the sales part will make a website fail in the mission of abundantly producing income. On the sales page, you have to capture interest first. Otherwise, visitors will likely not read the page. Landing pages should contain headlines your target market can relate to and are interested in.

Factor #8 – Creating desire

Landing pages or sales pages should take on the role of a salesperson, which means it has to create desire, conquer objections, build confidence, and a need to purchase your product or service. It should relate to the problems or desires of your target market and offer solutions. Testimonials are great for building confidence and conquering objections. A well-written sales page will make the readers have an “I've got to get this” reaction.

Factor #9 – A call to action and completion of the sale

Even after desire is created, readers are still in an information stage. Your sales page absolutely has to have a call to action. If you don't ask them to buy your product or service, most will just continue to think about it. No matter how creative your web writing is, it is worthless without an effective call to action. Completion of the sale also needs to be accomplished on your site using an ecommerce system, preferably with a shopping cart. If your website completes the sale and processes the payment, you don't have to worry about losing your customer in the mix involved with outsourced services.

Factor #10 – Design

The design of your website is somewhat important, but it isn't necessary to have all the bells and whistles that some designers tout, especially if it will slow down the loading of your site or diminish its effectiveness. Your website design should be created with your target market in mind. Choose a design that they will like and find appealing. It doesn't matter if you like it, it is more important that your target market likes it and that it will cause them to respond!

BONUS Tips…

Tip #1 – How to sell on the internet

When selling on the internet, you don't really want to offer your highest priced product or even provide a list of all of your products. Why? It is just overwhelming to website visitors. Instead, I recommend a funnel system of selling. Ideally, you want to lead people through a series of products or services, with their own benefits and features, which the customer could purchase at a certain price point. Once they purchase you can up-sell to them at another price level. If they cannot afford the next level, then you have met their need at the price point they purchased.

Tip #2 – Systems vs. Websites

To have a real, income generating website which is abundantly successful in producing revenue, you need much more than a website. What you need is one finely tuned system that integrates all of the 10 most important factors which work in harmony with each other to produce revenue.