When ever you ask a visitor or web surfer to do something that is called a “Call to Action”.  You know:  Click here, Buy now, Sign-up for Newsletter, Get free e-book, View my listing, Complete loan application or whatever. 

As a Webmaster your job is to increases conversion rates to your “Calls to Actions” along the entire spectrum of consumer contact.  If visitors are not doing what you are requesting them to do, you are not converting visitors to customers.  A website that don’t convert well is a liability.

Let me back-up, what is the purpose of your website?  If your purpose is to show and tell it is expected that it will cost you time and money.  Don’t worry about conversion rates or website metrics or anything like that.  There are some whose sole purpose for having a website is for branding; in such cases you have no need to justify your time or expenses.  On the other hand if you bottom-line conscious as most businesses are and want to effectively market your clients listings and have a lead generation machine, you’ll have to convert visitors or nothing will happen and your ROI will never be meet.

That is the skilled part of developing a website.  That is why professionals charge the prices they do for their services they provide.  I hear Realtors advising homeowners to never negotiate the sale of their real properties with the help and aid of a real estate professional, nor should buyers ever enter purchase contracts without the assistance of a real estate agent.  The same logic holds true for professional web development.  It takes both time and talent to have a website that converts visitors to buyers and you needs continuous site optimization, as well as analysis of the site data to improve your success ratios.

Lot of agents rent sites from companies like Meyers Internet and others.  If you don’t control the server or own the source code, you are rent your site.  Have you noticed how none of these sites deliver on their promise to be effective in gathering leads or delivering quality traffic to the website.   Some look real good on the surface; but results are what count!  Many seminar leaders would lead you to believe that it is easy to get high-quality traffic to your website and how you can do it and expect to be an overnight success.  How much have you made from you website?

Considering all I’ve said, keep on working on your site, become a student of this new medium and its potential.  I hope this shares with you the significance of conversion rate, “Calls to Action” and the success of your projects.  There is a parallel between real estate and website development; Once you think you know it or understand it the rules change.  Good luck to you my Activerain colleagues. Persist until you reach your point of maximum incompetence (The Peter Principle) and only then hire a professional like myself to move your site to the next level.

At that time you will have a great knowledge and sufficient understanding of your needs, wants, desires and where you want to take the site.  This becomes resourceful information to a professional developer and you can use it to better influence the price you pay and timely completion of your project.  A knowledgeable Webmaster whose project has graduated past his ability, talent and skills to complete it is my ideal customer for a professional developer.  He is clear with what he wants and has a realistic expectation of results to be achieved and possibly a keen ideal of the price to be paid for professional services.