Webmaster Papers








What ROI You Should Expect From Your Web Site


Is Your Web Site an Expense or an Investment?

Why don't you think of your web site as of an investment rather than of an expense? Having a web site is very similar to having an investment property.

Let me show you why.

When you are buying an investment property, you have to invest a certain amount of money at the first place and then pay trivial ongoing fees (property management, rates, maintenance, etc.).

From time to time you would spend some money on improvements and renovations.

You are receiving firm rental income and are enjoying the natural increase in property value.

The very same arrangement applies to your web site. At first you are paying for web design and search engine optimisation and then carrying out some ongoing expenses (web promotion, maintenance, support, monitoring, fine-tuning, etc.).

And from time to time you spend some money on enhancements and new marketing initiatives.

Your site is getting sound web traffic and your business is benefiting from new and returned clients and ultimately from more sales.

So far both, your investment property and your web site look very much alike, don't they?

There is a big difference though. Your rental income is limited by numerous factors that are beyond your control, for instance, area vacancy rate and market rental value.

Internet, on the other hand, has no limits. Everyday, search engines alone average over 300 million searches conducted by people looking for information, products, and services.

Imagine if you could get ranked well in major search engines. The shear volume of "ready to buy" visitors coming to your web site would skyrocket your sales and profits.

How to achieve 200% Return On Investment from Your Web Site

Now let's get back to your investment property. The market is growing and you have achieved an excellent ROI of 9%. Can it be better? Sure it can. With little luck it can be 13 or even 15%. But can your investment property acquire the ROI of 200%? It's highly unlikely.

But being applied to your web site, a ROI of 200% (and much higher) becomes very visible. And it's easy to calculate.

Pretend that you've spent $20,000 on setting-up and are paying $1,000 a month for maintenance resulting in an annual expenditure of $32,000. You want to not only get a 200% ROI but to also cover all your initial costs within the first year of online presence.

To achieve that you need to sell $96,000 worth of products online. If your average price per item is $100, then you need to sell 960 items in 12 months.

Let's be conservative and assume that your online purchasers will only buy one item at the time. So you need 960 buyers (80 buyers a month).

Many studies show that an average online conversion rate is between 1% and 5%.

Because since we are conservative, we expect our conversion rate would be 3%, meaning that you need to attract 32,000 visitors to your site during the year. This is just 88 visitors a day.

A typical well-optimised online store would have much greater traffic. In fact, one of our own clients gets 800+ visitors every day.

Now let's do some math.

32,000 visitors x 3% conversion rate x $100 average sale price = $96,000 in revenue and 200% ROI.

But there is more.

You Can Do Better! Is 1,000% ROI a Myth or a Reality?

Let's assume that every web page of your site, including online catalogue is optimised for a unique key phrase giving you an additional entry point for search engines.

In other words, if someone is looking for a particular product name listed in your online catalogue, the web page displaying this product will be highly ranked in search engines' results.

The more products you have to showcase, the more entry points you provide for search engines resulting in more online visitors.

With a comprehensive online catalogue of 2,000+ products you could easily double your estimated traffic and have not 88 but 176 visitors a day (64,000 a year). (Remember, we are very conservative.)

If we take into account that your market is a niche market and you can effectively reach your target audience, then we can expect that your conversion rate would be greater then average and you could convert 6% of your visitors into purchasers.

You've been innovative and have developed a pursuing after-sales strategy including multiple purchasing, special deals for more purchasing within a certain time frame, newsletters offering great discounts, etc. As a result your average sale price has increased by 10% and is now $110 per purchase.

Now our math looks quite differently.

64,000 x 6% x $110 = $422,400 in revenue and ... take a breath ... 1,320% ROI.

Over time your online performance can only be better simply because mature sites are ranked better in search engines, your online catalogue is getting bigger, your web traffic is growing and you have a steady income stream from returned customers.

Although the above scenario may not suit all business models, your web site can (and should) deliver outstanding return on investment.

So, if you like the picture and if you never thought of your web site as of an investment, think again.

Joseph Zaritski is a Founder of Pro Internet Marketing (Australia) - a Melbourne based Internet marketing company with main focus on "search engines-friendly" web design, Internet copywriting, search engine optimisation and positioning and web marketing.

RELATED ARTICLES


Developing A Login System With PHP And MySQL
Most interactive websites nowadays would require a user to log in into the website's system in order to provide a customized experience for the user. Once the user has logged in, the website will be able to provide a presentation that is tailored to the user's preferences.
How to Get a Better Web Site ROI
Better Web Site ROI
Creating Websites that Cater to Exam Preparations
One of the things that Internet excels is disseminating information and knowledge across many brains and continents. In this global economy the aspirations of the younger generation is not bounded by countries or continents. They aspire to join the best universities or train to be part of great global business entities. The demand for these has become so high that aspirations are just the start but a lot of planning and taking courses is involved. For folks whose aspirations are quenched by local universities it is relatively easy as they can easily form study groups or circles. For the rest whose aspirations don't suit the popular trend in their current physical locality they don't have access to study circles. For these folks Internet is the main and sometimes the only tool available. There are many great Internet companies that cater to the needs of the folks. But this market is nascent and is evolving. This article provides a snapshot of what is offered by some of the popular online websites which would be really helpful for new comers who want to help for the countless dedicated niche areas.
What Your Customers Say About YOUR Site! Part 1
The following is a list of patterns that many visitors follow, and you can use these suggestions to better your site.
6 Steps To Your Own Website
A lot of people these days are interested in getting their own place on the world wide web. Whether itīs a personal site like a blog, or a business site, they all need to have a decent plan before they get started.
PHP & Account Activation
When a user signs up at your website, you may want to verify their email address so you aren't getting bogus accounts in your database. A few lines of code can send an email to the address specified, containing a welcome greeting and link to activate their account. PHP is the best way to both send the emails and do the activation process.
What Business Owners MUST Know BEFORE They Commit To Having A Web Site
Q1.Why would I need a web site? A1.
Selling Your Site: Outsource or Homemade?
To the starting internet entrepreneur, there is nothing more discouraging then the erroneous realization that your dream for a self sufficient business cannot be realized without a heavy investment. This may be why so many people shy away from the internet; seeing all the flashy sites, many of which are $50 templates, people are afraid to enter the world of internet sales and marketing.
Growing Your Meetings In CyberSpace
As increasing numbers of people search for information on the Internet, it becomes more imperative to have a compelling Website to promote and support your meetings.
Make Your Web Site Stand Out
When visitors add your web site to their Favorites or bookmark your site, what shows up in their list of sites? There are at least two things you can do to make sure your site stands out on anyone's list of Favorites, including a great idea that very few sites use. If you have a webmaster, he or she should be able to make these changes quickly, and those who maintain their own sites can easily handle these simple tasks.
How to Make Your Own Website For Free
If you like the Internet and surfing through the billions of web pages on it then you might be thinking that you also would like to have your very own web page. Well, fortunately you can create your own web page for free and have it online so the whole world can surf the web and see what your web page is all about. If you want to learn more about building your very own website for free, simply follow the steps below and in a short period of time you will have your very own web page!
How To Get Profits From Your 404 Page Not Found File
"'Page Not Found' on this Server. Check the URL and try again. Or Refresh the page..."
Three Things Every Website Should Do
When I started my company in 2002, I knew I needed to have a website. Why? To provide credibility! How can a company be "real" in this day and age if it doesn't have a website? So, like many companies, I published an informational website that explained "here's who we are, and here's what we do".
Five Reasons You Have to Stop Your Web Site
That's right. Your method, behavior and strategy you are now using to manage your website may be justifiable reasons to stop it as soon as possible.
Nonsense! Why Do I Need a Website?
"I don't sell anything online, I don't advertise online, in fact I don't really even know how to use a computer... why should I pay for a website?"
How to Promote Your Law Firm Website On the Internet for Maximum Profit
Making maximum profit from your law firm website is important, but as a lawyer you might not have any clue about search engine optimization and Internet marketing for your legal site. However, it is not so difficult to poise your website to be successful online even if you are not experienced with Internet marketing and driving website traffic. All you have to do is review the following tips and include them in your website marketing plan. Before you know it you will notice that your website counter is recording more hits per day and telling you that your directories, keywords, and links are working.
Database Driven Web Site - Do You Need It?
Many of site owners still don't realize all advantages of database driven web sites and don't use all abilities they give. So when do you need a database driven web site and how it will make your web-life better?
The Power Of CPanel
cPanel is a control panel for your website and allows you to set up and manage your web account through a graphical interface instead of having to use command line. This means that you can make changes to your website without having to learn to use a command line environment. There are a variety of control panels out there, most offering a graphical interface and granting access to email management, FTP, subdomain administration, website statistics, etc. With a control panel, you can add/remove email accounts or view disk usage and statistics for your site by clicking on a shortcut and entering the appropriate information.
Traffic for Webmasters
"If you build it, they will come"; is an age old phenomenon for webmasters that they develop the website and visitors themselves would visit that. This may be true for only a handful of websites but the most important and crucial topic for any webmaster today is to how to get targeted traffic to his website.
Earning From Your Website
Before you start building your site, ask yourself "WHY?". Why did you decide to build your own web site. How are you going to earn money? Creating simple homepage will not get you any money at all nor you receive lots of visitors. Your website must be the part of your business. It also must be the part of your business plan.