Ethical approach to make money from your website

In recent years, new businesses have emerged that are based purely on the Internet. All over the world, net speed has increased and smartphones have become common. Especially in India, after the advent of Reliance Jio, assembling of mobile phones locally, and increase in education levels. It’s a common sight even in villages to see the not-so-rich consuming entertainment from YouTube and information from Google. The time is ripe for young entrepreneurs to take an early advantage, by building web based products for audience that is mostly relying on the net to do business and gain knowledge.

Getting a website up isn’t difficult – you can do it yourself or outsource to a web development company. The real deal is ROI. Sample this: Mr A spends ₹35,000 (US$500) on website of his hospital by outsourcing to someone who builds a website cheaper than others but it doesn’t benefit his business at all as it neither brings new visitors nor does it open properly on smartphones. On the other hand, Mr B spends ₹3.5 Lakhs (US$5000) on a mobile responsive dynamic website, SEO, social media marketing and blogs for his hospital; he ends up earning 15+ lakhs additional income as compared to previous year. Both Mr A and Mr B got a website made; difference is while one considered a website to be a mere formality, the other realised the true worth of availing streams of endless traffic from the Internet.

The example I quoted isn’t hypothetical- some people have actually made it possible by being at the right place at the right time. This post is about following a step-by-step process to build Internet presence – what to do after you’ve got your website developed, so that you generate income out of it.

1. Make sure your website is useful. Creating a website isn’t enough, it must convey your USP’s effectively. It can have colours of conversion (so that visitors feel happy seeing your website), be easy to operate for newcomers and also open quickly from all popular smartphones. The home page should have information on who you are, what you do, accolades, important links and contact info. First impression matters a lot, for a website conveys far more than a traditional newspaper advertisement. And the data is entirely yours. When people contact you via third-party listing sites then you’re at risk sharing your leads’ data with those websites. There are some websites who even sell leads to others without properly informing the source. Don’t let someone else have your data. Don’t let others take advantage. Keep your assets to yourself.

2. Get free traffic from Google. A website is of little use if it does not rank on Google search. Youth of today search as many things on Google as they can, ranging from hospitals, plumbers, electricians, etc. and then base their decision on whoever they see on top of google search. If your website doesn’t appear in Google then some other site can take advantage (more than 85% users don’t navigate to second page of Google search). This is called SEO (search engine optimisation), which means trying to get your website to appear on top of Google search for relevant keywords, through on page optimisation, off page optimisation and backlinking. I recently advised an entrepreneur to go for SEO as his company’s website wasn’t ranking on google. His company makes products that have more than 30 thousand monthly searches on google. It means these many people are searching for those words every month on google. If his website comes on top of google search, it’ll be seen by 30 thousand people, from which even if 10% visitors drop a query, and further 10% get converted, then they’ll stand to gain 300 new customers every month. SEO is useful even if you don’t make products as you can always make money from ads on your website or YouTube videos. You can get insights on which keywords to be put by using tools like Uber Suggest and Google Adwords. If you want then you can outsource this entire process to an SEO agency, but make sure you get regular monthly or bi-weekly reports on the campaign progress.

3. Engage your audience. A website is not just a one-time creation. It’s your space to interact with people. Talk to them about things that can help them. You don’t need to change website every time for this – just make sure you have a blog which you can manage using an interactive web panel (therefore prefer dynamic websites for your business). You can do text or video blogs in a simple language that even a layman should be able to understand. For instance, say you’re running a chocolate shop. On Friendship Day you can talk about gifting ideas centred around your exclusive gift packs, on Rakhi you can have story of a brother who gave wedding gift of mint chocolates to his sister, etc. Most of us like to read engaging stories. You can also do listicles, say you are a builder in Bangalore selling apartments then you can have posts on Best locations to invest in Bangalore, Home decoration tips for a 3BHK flat, etc. Doesn’t matter if the reader buys from you or not – just provide useful info to them with all your might, at the end of post you may plug in your product. Make sure your website homepage or footer displays the recent blog posts prominently. Need another reason why do it? We don’t like it when a salesman knocks on the door and tries to sell something, however we all like to buy something that interests us. So talk about things to people, which as a reader you yourself will like to read as well. And as they say in Hindi, जो दिखता है वो बिकता है , so remain in the eyes of people for a good reason. Not only that, Google ranks those websites higher that have a constant flow of new content coming in regularly.

4. Stay in touch with users. Make good use of your database of customers. Send them regular emails and text messages, with option to unsubscribe anytime. Keep your audience updated on products, recent happenings, happy events and festive wishes. Have a form on website to capture email address of user for newsletter, especially near end of blog posts, which they’ll sign up if they are deriving value from your content. You can also make use of social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram to publish value-based content regularly. Make sure links to these pages are adequately placed on your website. Most youngsters and even elders these days spent hours on social media apps. Newspaper and television viewers might be declining, but Internet users are increasing. Some people regularly browse Facebook or Instagram before start of work or after a hard day at work. Publishing info on social media platforms will allow you to be in constant contact with the pulse of your customers.

5. Accept payments online. You don’t need any other middleman for selling directly to your customers. With increasing traffic on roads, more people are preferring to get services at home. There’s a career consultant in a small Indian town who first accepts payment and then gives consultation online. If you’re clueless on planning vacations abroad then you can get personalised services from travel hackers. Some ladies in Gujarat don’t make huge amounts of Khakras and stock in inventory – they prepare fresh stock as and when a customer places order on their website. If you have a WordPress website then it doesn’t take a lot to put Woocommerce plugin and link it to a payment gateway. You can accept payments into your account via PayPal or PayTM as well, make sure these numbers are adequately mentioned on your website. And once you have received the payment then you can provide services to your clients. That way you’ll do business only with those wiling to pay your rates.

By following the above steps, you’ll have the following advantages:

1. Better market penetration. Because now more people will be getting to know about your business. They’ll be discovering it via platforms like Google and Facebook that are used by millions of people every day.

2. Enhanced ROI. You’ll be making optimal use of your website, it just won’t be a one-time investment; rather it’ll be the place to open your avenues of doing business from people all over the world.

3. Clients will see your USP’s better. Because now they’ll know that yours is a brand that can be relied on. Sometimes, people do business with someone simply if they see them on their timeline and consider them to be useful.

4. Give useful information to people. Leave people better than where they were before, even if they don’t do business with you. If you have the knowledge, why not share it with the world? It’ll also free up your mental space and open up avenues to learn newer things.

Remember

⁃ Clients don’t want to simply see what all you provide.

⁃ They also want to have a trustworthy feeling from someone who’s an authority.

⁃ So try to revamp your presence on the Internet.

⁃ Ensure your Website has relevant info and opens quickly on phones.

⁃ Put a blog with useful material for potential customers.

⁃ Make yourself active on social media platforms focusing on high user engagement.

⁃ Pitch your product well without trying to sell it directly to consumers.

⁃ Focus your energy on adding value to people.

⁃ Do this consistently and you’ll gain in more ways than one.