Of course, there are many ways to generate traffic to your website, metrics to calculate your conversion rate, etc. But that's not what I want to talk about. We are talking about the personal touch ? yes, even in internet marketing.

Believe it or not, traffic is not that difficult to generate and there are all kinds of e-books and articles on generating traffic. But conversion is more important than traffic.

And conversion is more likely to happen with a ?personal touch.? A personal touch means YOU directly interact with the prospect; you create a relationship built on trust, the same as in offline marketing. This can be through a free (and valuable) report or e-book, an e-mail, a phone call or whatever you can think of.

Trust requires time, not just immediately attempting to make a sale, which isn't the most effective way to convert anyway. It requires offering something of value. Customers are not stupid or ignorant. They look for value, even online. With so much hype online, we risk losing sales of true value, as the customer finds it harder (again, they're not stupid) to distinguish between someone enthusiastically demonstrating the benefits of a product/service, and someone ?selling hype.?

Here are some ways to gauge whether you have the personal touch versus ?selling hype?:

1. Would you be comfortable telling someone about your product offline? You should be enthusiastic about your business but not on the border of exaggeration.

2. Could you look a customer in the eye and tell them about your product? Would they believe you?

3. Would you feel comfortable talking to your customer AFTER making the sale? Or would they feel tricked? The best way to make repeat sales is to build a relationship, sell valuable products and follow up with additional contacts with customers.

4. Would customers buy your product if it was on the shelf in a store? If so, would they come back for more? Would they tell their friends about it? Would it be competitive against other products?

A valuable product/service is fundamental. A relationship built on trust will allow for future sales. When customers believe you ? and you are genuine and sincere ? the traffic will come, and the money will follow.

Make it happen!!