How NOT to sell anything online — Ever. (Please, don't do this!)

February 26, 2010

So I was in the market for a new help desk system, and I decided to go with the one that my primary hosting provider uses because it's really great to interact with from the user perspective (in my opinion). I file support tickets with my host all the time to get all kinds of things done, and it's always very straight-forward and easy to do. As I look through the back-end demo on the support software vendor's web site, I see that it does lots of great things that will help my support staff.

Wonderful, I'm ready to buy.

Problem #1: Where's the buy link?

But, wait, how do I buy? I'm looking around on the page describing the various levels of the software I can purchase, but there's no "buy" link next to any of them.

After a few moments of hunting, I finally see it in the upper-right hand corner of the page — masked by its background color. Not easy to see at all.

I click Order Now.

Problem #2: I can't buy without an account.

After clicking Order Now, I'm taken to a screen informing me that I have to create an account or login. What? Why? Why do I need an account to purchase a piece of software?

I'm annoyed, but I start filling out the form. It asks for all kinds of irrelevent information: my address (it's a software download, why do they need my address?), my company name, fax number (does anybody fax anymore?) etc.

At least it doesn't make me verify my email address before logging me in.

Problem #3: I can't buy using the email address I gave them.

After logging into the system using the account I (for some reason) had to create, I have to step through four pages of selections before finally getting to the "make your payment" button (yes, four pages of unnecessary selections).

I click the "make your payment" button — but wait! — I'm informed that I can't purchase using a Gmail email address.

Seriously! They won't take my money because my email address is through Gmail! How ludicrous is that??? On top of that, they inform me of this AFTER I go through four pages of selections and NOT before I create the account!

So after hunting around the account screen, I finally find an 'Account Settings' link where (I assume) I can change my email address to an email address that I never use (since they won't take the one that I use all the time).

Are you sensing what's coming?

I can't change my email address!

Nope, I have to contact their support staff to have my email address changed. Their support staff which is currently offline.

Problem #4: Where's my software?

Rather than going through the process of contacting their support staff, I just logout and create a new account (under an email address that I never use) and walk through the four pages of selections again. I make it to the "make your payment" button again, and, holding my breath — I click it.

It works! I'm taken to WorldPay to checkout. They don't take PayPal (which I prefer to use), but that's okay — I just generate a one-time use credit card number via PayPal and use that instead.

On the checkout page, there's a big box asking for the billing address, and a box below that asking for the zip code. Hmm… do they want my FULL billing address in that box, or just the PO Box number? I don't know, and the help under the Billing Address link doesn't tell me.

I enter in my full billing address and other details and — holding my breath again — click submit.

Yay! It works.

After the payment is made, though, I'm immediately informed that my transaction has to be verified by the vendor before I'll get my software, and that the process will take 24 hours.

What??? Why on earth do you have to verify the transaction? You have my money, where's my download link?

NEVER sell ANYTHING online like this!

The support software these guys sell is stellar, but their sales process is the most painful I've ever had to get through. The ONLY reason I didn't cancel and walk away from it is that I know how good the software is. I actually did walk away for a while before deciding that I had to put up with it in order to get the best software to provide the best support for my customers. Had I even a little less conviction than I do, I would have left them behind (and they would have lost about $300).

I'm telling you about this because you need to know how NOT to sell online. People purchasing online are impatient and easily put off by long and difficult sales processes. The high rate of abandoned orders at major retailers is evidence of this.

When you want people to buy from you, make it work like this:

Show them the product, complete with description and price and a BIG VISIBLE "BUY NOW" BUTTON (or link).
When they click BUY NOW, take them immediately to the checkout process. Don't require them to create an account first, and PLEASE don't prevent them from buying just because they use Gmail.
After the purchase is complete, if it's a digital product, deliver it instantly. Don't wait to "verify" the sale. If your payment processor doesn't support that, GET A DIFFERENT PROCESSOR. There's too many out there that support instant delivery to use one that doesn't.
If you need the person to have some kind of account with you for support purposes, etc., have them create that account after the sale. Send them directly to the account creation process after purchase, and email them a link to create their account in case they fail to do so. Trust me, when they need support, they'll eventually create an account with you!

Whew. Okay, I had to get that out of my system.

Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment on this post.

[Edit]To respond to some of the comments: I'm not giving the name of the software because the purpose of this post is not to bash the vendor. Let me just say that it's a BIG NAME in the help desk market. Also, the software is GREAT, but their sales process is lousy — must be different teams responsible for the two![/Edit]

Posted by Jonathan Leger | Filed Under Internet Marketing, Blog | 165 Comments

Like what you see? Then subscribe to Marketing Insiders and reap big benefits!

By subscribing to my free Marketing Insiders email list, you will regularly receive special member-only insider information, discounts and freebies. You will also be notified when new articles are posted here at the blog.

It's absolutely free to subscribe, and you can leave the list at any time.

For subscribing today, I will give you a valuable free gift as well!

Google is god (and other nonsense)

February 11, 2010

I apologize in advance if you find the title of this post offensive, but I can't think of a better way to describe the way some folks seem to view Google these days. This post is to dispel the sheer nonsense of what these people are posting all over the web and to give you a more realistic view of the number one search engine in the world.

First, some background: when I launched The Best Spinner February 1st, I got a few people at the forum who were not customers posting nonsensical drivel that read (basically) like this:

"Spinning your content to make it unique won't work because Google knows everything, sees everything and has prepared for everything. They are smarter than you. You can't possible make a living online by writing and spinning articles because they are too brilliant for you to ever do that."

(Okay, so I exaggerated it a little — but not as much as you might be thinking I did!)

Now, after posting this hogwash, the posters did not offer some alternative method for succeeding in driving traffic to their own sites. They didn't post any information about their own success with any other method, and certainly gave zero evidence that anything they were saying was true or factual.

In fact, many of my Best Spinner customers and active forum members are very successful article marketers. Clearly what they are doing with spinning and article marketing works well.

I see this all the time.

Internet Marketing forums are littered with worthless drivel from failures and wannabes who for some reason are determined to try and drag everyone else down. They assume that because they have failed at some endeavor, no one else could possibly succeed, and so they go around bashing everyone who offers any information in regards to anything that's working for them.

Now for a more realistic view of Google.

1. Google is run by human beings, not divine entities.

This will come as a shock to the above-mentioned wannabes, but Google is just a piece of software written by lowly human beings. Smart and skilled lowly human beings, but human beings just the same.

That means it has flaws. The fact that it is an incredibly complex piece of software means it contains a very large number of flaws.

Is it good at what it does? Absolutely! Can it read the minds of the people who created the content which it indexes? Um, no.

2. Google boils down to simple equation: content + links = traffic

To rank well in Google, you need two things: Content for it to index and links to make Google think your content is more important than everybody else's. The more links you have to your content, the more important Google thinks your content is and the higher it will rank your content over the competition.

That's a simplistic way of putting it, but that's the basic gist of how Google works. It has always worked that way, and at least for the foreseeable future will continue to work that way.

That's because links are the only external factor that really gives a good indication of the popularity of a web page for any given set of keywords. It's not perfect, and so Google's results are not perfect, but it works generally well most of the time.

3. "If you work to get links to your site you're a fraud and a scammer." (Wrong!)

I've read this a lot. Folks who claim that the only "white hat" (pure) method for getting links is to let other people find your content and link to it on their own.

Okay, here's a question: if you never actively recruit links to your site, how is anyone else ever going to see it in order to add their own links to it? Um, they won't, and your site full of top-notch wonderful "white hat" content will never get indexed or ranked in Google.

Meanwhile, those of us who actively get links to our sites from other sites will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Is it somehow deceptive or wrong to build links in order to rank well? Think about it this way:

Let's say a businessperson creates a stellar product (we'll call it The Perfect Widget). They set up shop down a dirt road off a major highway and never do one ounce of advertising.

Let's say another businessperson creates a pretty good product (we'll call it The Good Widget). The Good Widget is not even close to being as awesome as The Perfect Widget, but the creators of The Good Widget set up shop right off the major highway and put up a massive sign to draw in customers who are traveling down the highway.

The Perfect Widget goes bankrupt and closes down, crying foul at The Good Widget and saying that The Good Widget somehow did something underhanded or wrong because it dared to take active steps to advertise its inferior product — whereas The Perfect Widget did nothing.

Would you agree with the owners of The Perfect Widget? Of course not. You'd say, "Get off your backside and do some advertising if you want to succeed!"

So to all of the nay-sayers who think that acquiring links to get traffic from the major highway that is Google, I say, "Get off your backside and do some advertising if you want to succeed!"

In Conclusion

Don't listen to the nay-sayers. Don't let losers and wannabes drag you down. Work at your business, work hard, and when you find a little bit of success, explore that method and improve on it. In time you will get where you need to be.

Good rule of thumb: if somebody bashes some method of traffic generation or business building but offers you no alternative, they're a loser or a wannabe. Ignore them.

However, if somebody speaks against one method while offering proof of their point of view and proof that an alternative method works better, pay attention.

Please post your thoughts and questions in a comment below.

Posted by Jonathan Leger | Filed Under Search Engine Optimization, Blog | 192 Comments