Get Your Site Ready For The Holiday Rush Using These 9
Easy-To-Implement Profit Boosting Tips

OK! Winter has officially arrived, and now it's all about the holiday rush. I just checked my calendar, and I can't believe that there are just over 2 weeks left before Christmas! And that means now is NOT the time to start trying to do things like set up an affiliate program or optimize your search engine rankings. There simply isn't enough time to roll out these big strategies before the holidays.

Instead, what many online businesses need RIGHT NOW are some quick and easy ways to get their site ready for the holidays. I'm talking about tips and tactics that will take you only a few hours to implement, but will still dramatically boost your sales!

So, because the clock is ticking, I've put together a list of 10 dynamite tips that will help you get your site on track for the holidays, optimize sales and profits, and avoid what I call the "Holiday Hangover."

Quick Tip #1: Add A Benefit To Your Headline

If the headline at your web site isn't grabbing your visitors' attention as soon as they read it, you're losing sales. That's a fact. And nothing grabs a visitor's attention like a compelling headline with a clear benefit.

Here's a great example from our SecretsToTheirSuccess.com archive: Leslie Lyons' site, www.BirthdayPartyGamesLady.com, sells complete theme party packages that parents can use to
put together a memorable party for their children.

In the past, when visitors first arrived at her site, they saw a headline that read:

Childrens Birthday Party Games Packages -
the EASY and FUN answer to your Party Needs

Now, that's not a bad headline, but it wasn't really grabbing her visitors' attention either. So we did an in-depth site analysis for Leslie, and one of the first suggestions we made was that she change her headline to:

Four Cheap, No-Hassle Birthday Party Games
That Kids Love, and Take Just Minutes to Put Together!

You'll notice that this headline clearly states a couple of the main benefits of the product. Try jotting down a few key benefits that YOUR product or service offers, and then working those benefits into an eye-catching headline.

NOTE: A message placed at the top of your page that reads something like "Welcome to Mysite.com" is NOT a headline. Your headline MUST emphasize a clear benefit of your product. If you don't have a headline at your site, make this your holiday gift to yourself! A well-written headline has the power to literally double -- or even triple -- your sales overnight!

Quick Tip #2: Feature Seasonal Specials In The First Fold Of Your Homepage

There is never a better time of year for special offers than around the holidays. Not only are people actually surfing around actively looking for products to buy, they are also very receptive to discounts and specials. After all, everyone knows it's tough to find good deals at this time of year!

It's important that your special be featured on the first fold of your homepage. (The first fold is the first screen of your homepage that is visible without scrolling.) Remember, you want to make it EASY for your visitors to find and buy your products. The best way to do this is by making sure that every single visitor to your site sees your featured specials.

And be sure to chose a product for your seasonal special that is a proven best-seller. Now is NOT the time to be trying to unload products that you haven't been able to sell during the past 10 months. Feature products that have been generating solid profits for you all year long.

Quick Tip #3: Send Out A Holiday E-Mail Promotion

Remember: The clock is ticking! You really don't have time to go out and acquire a bunch of new traffic in time for the busy holiday rush. The good news is that you don't need to. If you have a list of customers and/or subscribers, you've already got an incredibly powerful database of people who are just waiting to make purchases from you!

The reason they can't wait to buy from you? It's the 80/20 Rule: 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customers. People who have already bought from you are much more likely than anyone else to buy from you again, because you've already earned their trust.

Whenever possible, you'll want to send out two different promotions -- one to your existing customers and one to your subscribers. This allows you to approach each group from a slightly different angle. Here's what I mean:

Your existing customers, who have already bought from you, will want to be rewarded for their loyalty. What better way to thank them than by giving them a great deal on one of your most popular products? They'll appreciate the fact that your offer is being sent to them and them alone because we all like to feel special!

If you sell a product that people need to buy only once, you can give your customers the opportunity to purchase your product as a gift. Remind them how your product has benefited them, and then explain why it would make a wonderful gift for their friends or family.

Of course, if you sell a product that people probably wouldn't give as a gift (lawn fertilizer, for example), you'll need to take a slightly different approach. Try something like this: "We know money can be tight around the holidays, so we've decided to offer our customers a generous discount on lawn fertilizer until the beginning of the New Year!"

Your subscribers should be sent a slightly different offer. Tell them that this is a special promotion being offered only to your newsletter subscribers. Again, you'll want to make sure that you're offering a special on one of your proven best-sellers.

This little touch of personalization can go a really long way. It's been proven over and over that people like to be offered a deal that they don't think other people are going to get. By making your customers and subscribers feel special, you can dramatically increase the number of sales that your e-mail promotions generate.

Quick Tip #4: Consider Replacing Third-Party Ads

Take a moment and think about whether or not your site is using the first fold of your web site effectively, especially if you're hosting advertising for other companies.

Figure out approximately how much money you'll receive from hosting third-party advertising over the holiday season. Include all revenue from any banners ads, skyscraper ads, text ads, etc., that are located within the first fold of your site.

Now, ask yourself whether you could make more by replacing these third-party ads with ads for your OWN products. For many businesses, even one sale would be worth more money than their banner ads generate for them in a whole month!

If it turns out that you could make more money advertising your own products in place of the paid advertising, drop those banner ads NOW and replace them with ads for your own products or services. This way, visitors who click on them will be taken to a product page somewhere on YOUR site, not someone else's!

Quick Tip #5: Offer Fast, Flexible Shipping

By all estimations, 2003 will be the busiest holiday season ever for online retailers. Forrester Research predicts online holiday sales will increase 42 percent to $12.2 billion this year.

But there's still one thing that continues to scare people about buying online for the holidays: late delivery. There's nothing that drives customers offline and out to the shopping mall faster than the idea that their kids' Christmas presents won't arrive until the 28th of December.

If you use a major nationwide delivery service, such as UPS or FedEx, you'll want to feature this information prominently on your web site and ordering pages. People will feel much more comfortable ordering from a site that uses one of these services than one that ships through the mail.

Also, be sure to tell your customers that they MUST order by a certain date in order for you to guarantee delivery by Christmas. This will save you a lot of headaches when disgruntled customers call you on Christmas morning wondering why the products they ordered on the 23rd haven't arrived yet!

Quick Tip #6: Offer To Ship Gifts Directly To Recipients

If possible, offer to ship your customers' purchase directly to the gift recipient. This saves your customer the hassle of waiting to receive the package from you, and then sending it out to someone else. This is a great way to add value to your service without any additional cost to you!

If you do offer to ship gifts directly to the recipient, I can guarantee you will have people ask if you offer gift wrapping. This is another way to give your customers a little extra attention without much additional cost to you. Of course, if you are expecting thousands of orders and you work by yourself, this may not be a practical option!

You can also offer your customers the option of adding a holiday card to the package that you send out. Simply ask them what they want written in the card, and then include it with the package. You can charge an additional fee for this or offer it as a free service.