 | For those who have been following me for a while, you know that I am a big fan of testing. There are two requirements for testing the success of a product online: you need to do it with as little money as possible and you need to launch it quickly. |
Step 1: Register a Domain Name
I know, you can use a free blog and you wouldn’t have to spend $10 for domain and hosting. But people don’t usually buy from blogs or free domains with ads everywhere. Besides, if you don’t want to invest $10, you shouldn’t be running a business.
Step 2: Create a Landing Page
Do this yourself. Don’t spend money in professional web designers yet. This is the only page your website will have at the moment. Some tips about creating a successful landing page:
- Write a great headline. Your headline has to grab your reader’s attention and make them want to read your whole copy.
- Be prompt to say what you offer.
- Show your readers why they will be better off with your widget than without it. This is the most important element of successful copy.
- Show the advantages of buying that widget from you as opposed to getting it from the competition.
- Include as much information as you think a buyer needs to make her decision. Nobody makes a buying decision if they have unanswered questions.
- Offer one single product.
- Ask for the order (make it easy and offer a money-back guarantee).
Step 3: Create a Separate Page to Display Pricing Information and the Buy Now Button
By doing this you can test your offer and your price point separately. If not many people click to see your price, your offer is not interesting enough. If they do click to see your price but they don’t click on the Buy Now button, your price might be too high (or too low). You will need to install Google Analytics, which is an amazing free tracking tool, and configure a goal funnel.
Step 4: Get Paid Traffic For Free
Sign up with Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing using one of their coupons that give you anywhere from $50 to $100 to get started. These coupon codes are all over the Internet. Most of them are expired or have been redeemed but finding one that works shouldn’t be too hard. We do it all the time for our clients.
Step 5: Measure Results
Get at least 100 visits and then pause the campaigns. Measure results. How many sales did you make? If you had to paid for those clicks, would you have lost or made money? If the test campaign was successful, it’s time to invest money. Get a professional website built, add more products, and invest more money and time driving traffic to your new site. I can promise you, it feels a lot better to invest money in something that is proven to work than in something you are uncertain about.
