Podcast #2 - Websites andrew edited by Autopilotyourbiz

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: Heather Porter, welcome back to the next edition of Autopilot Your Business.

Heather Porter: Andrew McCauley, so good to be back. Welcome back as well.

Andrew McCauley: Yes, thank you. We are looking forward to today‟s segment because it‟s a segment that we often get asked about a lot and we would like to introduce what we are talking about today.

Heather Porter: Definitely. So, today, we are talking about websites and the reason why we have chosen websites as one of our first topics is it‟s basically the hub of what you are going to be doing on the internet. Think of what we are going to be giving you actually over the next month is a map, is a map on how to navigate through the internet, and you have to start somewhere and right spot in the middle we will start with your website.

How does that sound, Andrew?

Andrew McCauley: That‟s good. It sounds good. One of the things that I often get people that are particularly aren‟t too familiar with internet and then I hear all those hard stories about people charging so much money for websites out there and they are not really getting much return for their money. What are some of the things that we should be mindful of when people are deciding to build a website for their business?

Heather Porter: Well, let‟s just talk about the big eight points I like to call them. There are eight things that you need to consider when you are building a really, really amazing website that‟s going to do its job for you and before I dive into them

Listen to the audio version of this document HERE Get your FREE Online Survival guide at www.autopilotyourbusiness.com © 2013 AutoPilot Your Business. All Rights Reserved. Note: We of course can't promise that all links mentioned in this document will be live, and if you stumble upon any that aren't, we apologise!

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

actually, just briefly why don‟t we talk about the difference between a brochure website and then a website that really actually does something for you and your business.

Andrew McCauley: Okay.

Heather Porter: So, brochure website is something that‟s pretty, that you as the entrepreneur, business owner love that sits there and has a whole bunch of jargonistic words that doesn‟t have form for people to enter their details or maybe it does but no one ever uses it. It‟s literally like taking a brochure, sticking it on the internet and it doesn‟t do anything for you and your business because if a visitor comes to it, they get bored really fast and then they never come back.

Andrew McCauley: So, is that what they call a static website?

Heather Porter: Yeah, a static website, something that never changes. It‟s thrown up on the web and it just stays there and you have seen a lot of them, I am sure, Andrew and we both have, we run into them. They look like they are from the 1980‟s or 1990‟s. They have really, really clunky kind of old feel to them and they are boring. I think they are really boring, not dynamic. So, that‟s what we are not going to show you how to do today. The site that we are going to teach you how to build and how to use is a really exciting dynamic site that the entire outcome of that website is to build a list of warm leads and what do I mean by that – because I don‟t want to get too jargonistic – is build a list of e-mail addresses, these are details that clients are willing to give you when they visit your website because they think your website is so cool that they are literally willing to give you their e-mail address in exchange for something.

Andrew McCauley: Okay, what sort of things do you suggest that they give away? It is expensive to give away a lot of stuff.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: It‟s a really good question actually and you have to think about what would you want as a consumer on the web, what‟s going to excite you when you are looking for something online, when you are researching something that you will give away your e-mail address to get it. So, I often say videos are really good, e-books are used – and by the way, e-books are reports, documents that are turned into PDF with some graphics and some writing. Those are great assests but people aren‟t really using them anymore, the kind of blown out and people are tired of them and they are thinking “Oh my Gosh! More reading, just what I need.” So, it‟s videos, it‟s podcasts like this or audios, something that… I mean, you could use a marketing spin on anything really as long as you are dumping out your knowledge on video or audio and you are putting some cool bullet points down on what the person‟s going to learn from listening or watching it that are really valuable to them in their business and they are going to be willing to enter their details to get it.

Andrew McCauley: Okay. I know some of the clients we have had before have asked about what sort of knowledge do they need to build a website, like do they have to go back to school almost and when and stuff. Is it that hard or what‟s the best way to just start with that?

Heather Porter: So, let‟s jump in. We will jump with the eight points and these eight points chosen for your guys are easy. We are going to keep them as easy as possible and you yourself don‟t even really ever have to do this. You don‟t ever have to set up your own website. So, let‟s start with the top.

1. So, really, #1 – you have got to pick the right platform. There are three really big platforms, I call them the Big 3, and what I mean by platforms are things that exist where you can build a website in them. So, the first one being WordPress and it‟s interesting a lot of people thing “Oh, yeah, WordPress. Isn‟t that a blog?” It was initially but now it‟s actually a program that you can install to create a website like an actual website that‟s not a blog, that looks really amazing and that‟s really, really easy to use.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: How expensive is WordPress?

Heather Porter: Free! Yay! It‟s free! And guess what, there are so many amazing themes. Themes are like the clothes. You think of your website, your URL, your www.whatever.com, that‟s your body, that‟s just your naked body and then you have some clothes you have to throw on to dress it up and the clothes are the themes. So, WordPress has all these themes that are free as well. So, you can find amazing things to dress your website for free and you can get a free website using WordPress. It‟s great and it‟s easy.

Andrew McCauley: There are some pretty creative people out there too, I have seen some really good ones.

Heather Porter: Yeah, great, great ones and you can get customized work done which means you get a graphic artist to take a theme and tweak it to your liking for really inexpensive price and we will go a little bit more into WordPress as we go.

The second thing you might have heard about is – and I will go really fast on these two – there is something called Joomla. Joomla is another free thing that you can install and create a website on. It‟s more sort of… some people think it‟s a little bit more sturdy, so more corporate and bigger companies will use it but you don‟t have to. I mean, it gets harder to use and it takes more knowledge.

The other one outside of that, this is an even more complex thing, it‟s called Drupal.

Andrew McCauley: It sounds scary.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Drupal – it is scary, Andrew. It‟s scary. The fact is that you actually have to find a bit of a Drupal expert to help you update and manage your websites.

Andrew McCauley: Is that because it is more complex than the others?

Heather Porter: Yeah, you are designing pages in HTML code and it doesn‟t have something… actually, this is the fun piece of jargon, let‟s bring this one up – „The Wysiwug‟.

Andrew McCauley: What‟s the Wysiwug?

Heather Porter: It‟s basically… if you think about if you are creating a document in Word and you have that bullet button, the italic button at the top, you can change the fonts and all that, a Wysiwug editor is something that‟s built into WordPress that basically when you are designing a webpage it is exactly like you are creating a document in Word.

Andrew McCauley: What is it called? Wysiwug.

Heather Porter: I can never remember this one, you got to have to help me. „What You See Is What You Get‟, right?

Andrew McCauley: What you see is what you get – WYSIWYG.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

So, as you said, you design the webpage, you see it as you do it. Yeah, it‟s pretty cool.

Heather Porter: And WordPress is great for that. So, for the rest of the time that you spend with us on this podcast, we are going to be using WordPress, that‟s our platform of choice and we will mention WordPress from now on.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: Okay. So, WordPress over Drupal or Joomla because Drupal and Joomla are not only hard to say but they are also a little bit harder to work out how to use as well. So, for the average person or 99% of the people out there, a WordPress website will suffice for what they are trying to do on the web. Is that right?

Heather Porter:Exactly right, exactly right. Okay. And you know what, I am just thinking now that we are talking about WordPress which we will probably just do a WordPress or a mini-podcast so people know where to go, get themes, how to get people to help them build that out. What do you think? We will cover that one maybe in a future one.

Andrew McCauley: That‟s good, that‟s a good one.

Heather Porter: Cool. So, let‟s move on.

So, we have decided now that you pick the platform of WordPress, it‟s free and you can build really great sites and thereby getting themes that are free to dress them up.

2. Not flash – don‟t have a flashy, flashy website.

Andrew McCauley: No flashy flush.

Heather Porter: No flashy flush, flush. So, a couple of definitions that are really… there is a program called Flash, it‟s basically animation. So, Google, Bing, Yahoo!, all the different search engines cannot stand it and the reason why is when you have

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

a website that‟s built like all an animation, there are no words behind that. It‟s like watching movies. So, search engines have no idea what content is actually in that movie at all. So, somebody types in “how to train my dog” for instance. If you have a website that‟s all in flash, Google is not going to know that your video is about “how to train my dog”.

Andrew McCauley: Let‟s just go back for a second. Why is that important then for Google to know what‟s going on because we are not trying to advertise to Google, are we?

Heather Porter: We have to make sure that the search engines are happy with our website and the reason why is that‟s where pretty much the majority of our traffic‟s going to come into our website. They are going to go on Google, they are going to type in “How do I xyz?” and then the result is going to pull your website up in there and then people will find you that way; but if you just have a flash or an animated website, Google will never ever, ever be able to find your website and therefore won‟t be able to list it in the results for people when they are searching for stuff.

Andrew McCauley: So, my website has to look pretty…

Heather Porter: What it means is that it needs to be clean – not a lot of bells and whistles, moving bits and pieces. It can still graphically be incredible especially if you get graphic artists to really customize your WordPress themes, it can look amazing – and we are not saying “don‟t make it look amazing”; we are just saying “keep away from that flash program where…”

And by the way, a great way to know if you are in a flash website is when you go on to the www.homepage and you see like little box that says “loading” and then suddenly has like a cool video that comes up and then it says “skip intro” and you

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

can skip through the intro, that‟s flash. That means the whole introduction of this website is built in flash.

Andrew McCauley: Right, got it. Okay, cool.

Heather Porter: We don‟t want that. And another thing too – don‟t have lots of blinking stuff on your site – that‟s very 1990s and it‟s not the thing anymore. It only confuses people because their eyes just go to all the blinking stuff and they will leave your site really quickly. So, what I mean by that is you don‟t want to have blinking quotes at the top – “powwow wow”, “cool special going on now” – all those sort of blinking graphics. You stay away from those.

Andrew McCauley: Keep away from blinking graphics, blinking quotes and blinking anything else.

Heather Porter: Blinky blink, yes. Yeah. And you can use animated things only in small doses if you really want to make a point and I will just give one example before we move on and that is on websites if you have you will notice that there will be that box that‟s on the page and says „name‟ and „e-mail address‟ and then a „submit‟ button. A really good little technique you can use is to put a little moving red arrow pointing down to the box where you enter in your e-mail address.

Andrew McCauley: Just to bring attention to it.

Heather Porter: Yeah, exactly and some good internet marketers get really good results using that.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: Cool. Okay, so that‟s the flashy stuff, know what to use. What should we do then? What should be in a good website?

Heather Porter: Clean, clean, clean. So, what you are looking for is nice header of top – header is that graphic that‟s about the top of the page where you put your logo, where you put your tag line, where you put any little marketing, bits and pieces about you. A really good thing to use up top, if you are your own brand, is to put your photo up there to put like “as seen in”, like if you have been in different media channels or radio or different magazines. So, you want to put that up top. Again, you could put your logo as well. If you are just a company, obviously you won‟t have your photo up there but you have your logo and still some credibility like that – “as seen in” or various things that you have done that are impressive. So, that‟s up top.

And then you basically right below that you want to have… it‟s called „above the fold‟ and actually we are going to get into… This is our next topic, so let‟s just jump in. Cool.

Okay, #3.

Andrew McCauley: Let‟s do it.

Heather Porter: Let‟s do it.

3. All the best content on your website must lie above the fold. What is that?

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: What is the fold? What‟s the fold?

Heather Porter: Okay. If you are looking at your smart phone, your computer screen and you have gone to the website, „above the fold‟ is anything that you can see on that screen of your computer before you have to scroll. So, it‟s where you must draw attention to your website – capture the user‟s interest and have all of your most important content.

So, above the fold – we have already jumped into that. You have your header right up top which is your nice graphic and logo and then below that you want to take full advantage of the space.

Andrew, what do you think, just in our experience with clients, what do you think works the best for filling that space?

Andrew McCauley: Well, I guess you want to just make sure that you have got something to capture the details too. So, if it‟s a giveaway that‟s free where they can enter their name and their e-mail address, that often works really well.

Heather Porter: And that works really well in the top right because we as human beings we read from – well, most of us – read from left to right. So, our eyes end up on the right and that‟s where our gaze gets caught. So, that‟s why most people will put their opt-in box right up at the top right below the header.

Andrew McCauley: I had that question asked. One of the clients asked this just a couple of hours ago when they said “Where should I put that box?” and I said “Well, studies showed that people read, their eyes go to the right.” It‟s the same reason why a newspaper ad is more expensive on the right hand page up the top than it is

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

on the left hand side page because people naturally read towards the right. that‟s very true.

So,

Heather Porter: Yeah. So, you want your call to action or what you want your clients, your visitors on your website to do to be right up top right; that‟s where we are telling them what to do and we as web users are trained to do that. Now, we are going to go to a site and we think “If I want to stay in touch with this company or sign up for the newsletter or see what they have to offer, we generally will look straight up top right on the homepage to see what‟s going on.”

Andrew McCauley: Great. Okay. So, let me ask you this thing often asked – are you saying that the information under the fold is cut off and they will never see it or what‟s the story here?

Heather Porter: Great question. Just a couple of things with that. See, people are really less likely to scroll. It‟s the same thing as if you are on Google and you are with your search results, generally you will just click on the top three results that come up in search engines because we want to get straight to the point and scrolling down takes time and that‟s how sad or lazy we have become as a culture.

Andrew McCauley: It is, it is like one click too many.

Heather Porter: Yes. So, less click, less scroll. So, how you lure somebody down the page is you want to make sure that your graphics that you put up the top like for instance if you are using a video and an opt-in box, if you have the opt-in box in the video, just at the end, right above the fold, people may not ever realize that there is something below the video or the opt-in box, it‟s called the false bottom because to them they think “Oh, that‟s the end of the website.” So, you want to make sure you have graphics that are sort of popping in that fold area up above like maybe a really cool headline – “Find Out The Top Five Things About Losing Weight” – here and then

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

an arrow or something. It just brings the users eye down the page. So, that‟s what you want to do to get them down.

The other thing too – we were just talking about the opt-in box; another really good tool I just brought up was video. So, video is really great when above the fold because it can summarize everything that you want the user to see on your website. Up until recently, a lot of websites would have kind of “Who”, “why”, “what if” information on their homepage and it would be long and boring. People want to cut the chase really, really, really fast. So, you are better of summarizing that, putting it in a video, whether you are comfortable in front of the camera or you just do a slideshow and sticking that up top above the fold of your website and then everything that you want the user to know is in a cool little graphic video.

Andrew McCauley: Okay, cool. Alright, so if that‟s above the fold, what else needs to happen then to make it work like do they automatically fill their name and address in or what‟s the story?

Heather Porter: So, above the fold. So, let‟s say you have your video that tells what the site is all about and what the person can learn. Also on that video, it will be important to say “make sure you check out my free video series that can teach you the eight amazing points of losing weight” and I say “losing weight” is really an easy example to use because it‟s such a popular market of course but “check out my free video series on eight amazing tips on how to lose weight by just giving your details here to me on the form on the right.” So, the video can push people over to that form as well but on that form itself, you would actually have a nice little graphic of the videos and then you would have some bullet points there as well. So “Get your eight free video series now and learn the following”. So, you write that about that form as well for people that don‟t want to watch the video because remember, people learn in different ways, they have different ways of processing information. So, some might want to watch the video and some might want to cut straight to the chase and go “Boom! I am in this site. How do I stay in touch with them? Oh, cool! I get 8 free videos, I am just going to sign up right now.”

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: Right. Okay, cool.

Heather Porter: Yeah. So, that‟s about the whole folding. By the way, two below the fold ….basically the sites that are not easily seen without scrolling. That‟s what‟s really great opportunity to write articles and more information about you and what you do because as we just mentioned with Google and search engines, they like websites with words on them because then they can see what your website is all about. So, if you have a nice mix of video for the human visitor and then texts and articles for the robot visitor from Google, the search engines, then you are doing a good job.

Andrew McCauley: Okay. So, this is all on their homepage. Is that right?

Heather Porter: Yes, it should be all on the homepage.

Andrew McCauley: Okay. So, homepage is what? people land on when they type in your website address?

Essentially the page that

Heather Porter: That‟s exactly right, yes.

Andrew McCauley: Great, excellent. So, is the above the fold important then on other pages of your website?

Heather Porter: It is as well because again people, they are less likely to scroll. If they have clicked into another page on your website, they are already interested in

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

what you have to say, which is great but still you want to keep them entertained and really concise information. So, there is a whole way of writing for the web and it‟s basically bullet points list. Always, less is more. So, if you can fill majority of your content above the fold on each page, you are doing a great job.

Andrew McCauley: Cool. Alright, I think we have got the „above the fold‟ idea What‟s the next point that‟s important about a website?

Heather Porter: Aha! Okay, so …

4. You must be able to tell your visitors what you want them to do.

Andrew McCauley: What I want them to do – “You are going to buy my stuff.” What else I want them to do?

Heather Porter: Yeah, exactly right. If you have a website up there… we talked about the brochure site which is a no-no and the whole idea is getting new leads, new clients and returning clients, doing stuff on your website and nowadays we just want to be told what to do. So, whether it‟s “click this button to buy” or “go here to get a free report”, literally, you cannot assume that people will know what they are doing on your website. So, really clear call to actions.

Andrew McCauley: Cool. Okay.

Heather Porter: That‟s a short one.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: That‟s a short one. I love it, I love it. So, if you tell them exactly what you want them to do, then why do you think they would do that? What do they know about you to say “Okay, I will do what you tell me to do.”

Heather Porter: So, that‟s a brilliant segway into our next point which is #5. And…

5. Building credibility and trust on your website because you are exactly right, they are not going to do anything unless they trust you and they like you. There are some ways of building credibility and making your site look trustworthy so therefore people will take action with you. First one is use testimonials. So, Andrew, in your opinion what‟s a good testimonial? What does that look like?

Andrew McCauley: Well, I guess the best testimonials are the ones that obviously state who they are but what has that person achieved by using you, your products, your services and what sort of results have they got by doing that so that you can extend your credibility to other people that‟s necessarily working for you or anything like that. So, outside influences that have used your services and they are getting some great results from what it is that you have taught them, shown them or given them.

Heather Porter: Exactly and the more specific, the better. So, numbers are great. So, for instance, “I was 10,000 dollars in debt and now after using your product, I am now a billionaire.” So, that type of stuff is really good. There is actually a testimonial formula that works really well and it‟s handful of questions that you can ask your client to answer. Therefore, they don‟t have to think about what they are going to say; they just answer questions. It‟s a great little formula actually. What we will do, we will put that on our website. What do you think?

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, let‟s do that. Yeah, let‟s do that. That‟s good.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: So, www.AutopilotYourBusiness.com/podcast and we will have that up there as a free little PDF that you can download so you know how to elicit really good testimonials.

Well, testimonials – what else, where do you place them? You want them in a couple of places. Ideally, if you have a full page on your website that would say… you can call it “Client‟s Stories”, it could be “Testimonials”, it could be “Case Studies”, any of those. You want to have them all listed there but also it‟s down the right hand side of your website, it‟s called a right sidebar, it‟s down the right hand side, down somewhere below that opt-in form that we have been talking about where the users enter their details. Have rotating testimonials, just have same testimonials on your other page but just have them consistently on the sidebar on every other page of your website as well. That‟s where we put them – video and written work, video and written.

Andrew McCauley: And is there any other place that a testimonial could go? For example, a sales page?

Heather Porter: Yes, yes, yeah actually and we haven‟t even go into the other amazing websites like sales pages and squeeze pages but yes, as you build a library of testimonials, you can be using them across the internet and all sorts of places and all of your other websites which we will cover with sales pages and landing pages later as well because that‟s a whole other can of worms.

Andrew McCauley: Okay. What about guarantees?

Heather Porter: Ah, so you want to limit the risk. So, somebody is new to your site, they don‟t know you yet. So, how do you limit their risk? – You include a

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

guarantee. So, if you are, say, selling coaching session, you can say “First session is free” or if you are selling a membership site, like a membership into your website, you could say “The first two weeks is for 1 dollar or free”. So, something like that. “30-day money back guarantee” – we will see that as well. Guarantees are also great to include in graphics because they stand out. I know that everyone who is listening has seen these graphics before – a big star burst that says “30-day money back guarantee”. Those types of things are great to put in your website and on any page where you are asking somebody to do something, especially if it‟s to buy something from you.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, right. Okay. So, those graphics are easy to get?

Heather Porter: Yeah. I love getting them on Google. Google.com, type in “guarantee graphic” or “guarantee icon” and then right up at the top left you will see, when you are in Google, if you switch over to images so you are not in the web area and you will see a whole bunch of images there with all those little seals and then you can right click, save as, and now suddenly you have yourself a graphic.

Andrew McCauley: Cool. As long as you make sure that it‟s not copyrighted, you will be alright.

Heather Porter: Absolutely and those types of things too. If you see a hundred of the same looking graphic on one page, it‟s pretty much guaranteed that it‟s free to make.

Andrew McCauley: Cool. So, the next question I get a lot is about websites…, do I really need to put my phone number on it?

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Such a good question and yes is the answer because, again, think about how do you build trust? – You want to show somebody you are real, you are not fly-by-night or you are not going to run out the door tomorrow with your money. So, if you have a phone number and address is another really cool thing to include, those are great little touch points to say “Here I am, I am in a real business I want you to meet and you can call me and contact me.” Now, really, we have touched so many of our clients and if they use the phone number, chances are that it‟s actually going to get used as 1%, 1% of visitors will actually even use that phone number but it‟s just there as a trust factor thing.

Andrew McCauley: So, it‟s more like, it‟s almost like a guarantee or a testimonial sort of thing that just says “Hey, we are real and we are not fake and we are not going to steal your money.

Heather Porter: You got it and you can stick that up in the header as well, that‟s a great place to put it, right up top on every single page and of course in the „Contact Us‟ page too.

Andrew McCauley: Speaking of trust factors, I notice this comes up in social media circles which we will get on to in another webinar, including pictures of people that work there or photos of yourself and that sort of thing, highly important?

Heather Porter: Look, they are great. Photos of you, your team, your office all those things show that you are real people. So, you are real business and that you have real office as well. You don‟t have to do the office unless… like, we have a client, she is a chiropractor and she has great photos of her office all over her website because it‟s part of her brand and people will feel comfortable the second they walk into the office because they have seen it before but in the case of, say, entrepreneurs and experts, coaches, speakers, that market, you might not necessarily need to have photos of course of your office but of yourself and of

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

yourself engaging with clients would be great. So, more photos that you sort of sprinkle throughout the website of yourself really helps with building credibility.

Andrew McCauley: Cool, alright. What else can help build rapport and trust?

Heather Porter: Logos actually, other people‟s logos.

Andrew McCauley: Other people‟s logos, not yours.

Heather Porter: Yeah, I know. What I mean by that is that if you put “Our Clients Include” or “Partners That We Have Worked With” – a great place to put this, by the way, is on the homepage, down below that video, somewhere lower on the page where you just list the logos of the clients you have worked with. Again, it‟s just showing “these are the amazing people that we have worked with and yes, we have been around for a while and we have partnerships and we are legitimate” and it‟s really cool for the other business as well because you can actually link to their websites from there, again, building even more credibility because it shows that you are not afraid that the other company knows that the logos are there to begin with.

Andrew McCauley: Okay. And what about… I see a lot of websites and I am still trying to… sometimes I get a lot of questions about this too. People have interviews, they might do interviews on radio or TV and that sort of stuff. Should they put those interviews on their websites or should they at least tell people that they have been on those particular TV stations. Is that bragging or what do you think about that?

Heather Porter: Such a good thing. I know it feels like bragging but it‟s not. It‟s basically, again, it‟s building that credibility and trust. It‟s saying “Here is who I am. You can sample what else I am doing out there before you buy.” So, yes, you want

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

to put that stuff on your website. You can give it . If it‟s really valuable, you can give that away as your free report. So, right up at the top by that video, top right. You can say “Get my series of radio interviews for free by entering your details” or you can just put them on your site, you can just put like a media area in your menu and then just list them there for people to load. So, like I said, a really important thing to do is to include these things and also list where you have been seen. So, if you have been on a TV show or if you have been on a radio, you want to put that on your website. Earlier before, I mentioned to stick that up in the header, below your logo or your photo, you say “As seen on…” and you can list the actual places that you have appeared right up top so there is no doubt that you are well known and that you are doing good stuff in your field.

Andrew McCauley: Cool. Okay. Alright, so these are half a dozen credibility and trust ways to establish yourself on your website. What else is important on your website do you think for the people who are getting started particularly?

Heather Porter: Well, let‟s see. We are getting down to sort of the other end of this. Now, we are going to bullet point #6 and this one, I love this one.

6. Keep it simple. I cannot tell you how many times we have worked with clients that love to hear their voice and their jargon, the jargon for the industry, and I will say “Well, what do you do?” and they will come back to me with this incredibly impressive sounding 30-minute spiel and I have no idea after that spiel what they do, still.

Andrew McCauley: And it often happens, isn‟t it? And they often send those business cards that have great titles and great information on it but still doesn‟t tell me exactly what they do.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Exactly. So, you want to think about it like this – you want to talk to a child, like a 10-year-old child and you want them to be able to walk away, like that old game called „Operator‟ where you tell somebody something and you want them to be able to pass that information on. So, you want to be so easy to understand that that 10-year-old child can just go to another person and say “Oh, see that lady over there? This is what she does” and if you can‟t pass a 10-year-old child „Operator‟ test, then you have not…

Andrew McCauley: That‟s a great… I loved it.

Heather Porter: Yeah.

Andrew McCauley: I think you should use this more often in life in general.

Heather Porter: Isn‟t it true? We all work really hard to become experts in certain fields and part of that is the vocabulary and the skill sets that come with it but we forget because it has taken us so long to get to that level that everyone else has no idea what‟s involved. So, think about that – whenever you are writing something on your website, think this question – “Will the 10-year-old child understand this word?” and if they will not, replace it with another word and also part of communicating on your website, it‟s not a blog, it‟s not a place for your to rant and rave, you can have that of course in another area but it‟s a place for you to very clearly communicate what you do; and if people come on to your site and they have a doubt in their mind what you do, then they are just going to take off because they are completely overwhelmed. One other point in that actually – this has to do with what you are putting on your menu up at the top. If you try and cram in too many things up top, again, it just creates confusion, it‟s kind of like that “Look at all the stuff that I can do” sort of syndrome. Really, „products‟, „services‟, „contact us‟, „media‟ if you have some media coverage about. You don‟t need much, you really don‟t need much. You should be able to communicate what you do in these few pages.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: Okay. So, keeping it simple. Now, we have got some clients and we have had some clients in the past that have been very pedantic I guess on what they want to achieve on their website and they will go all shades of colors to make sure it‟s perfect. Apart from being painful, how important is it to have your website perfect really?

Heather Porter: You can never have perfection on the internet and you should never ever strive to have perfection on the internet.

Andrew McCauley: Why can‟t you have perfection, like surely you can have a perfect website, don‟t you?

Heather Porter: Of course, not. Of course, not. It‟s a good point though you brought up. The reason I say that is because the internet moves way too fast and by the moment that you have think you have got it perfect, there‟s going to be another thing to add to your website, another trend on the internet, another area or more information that people want to see that you don‟t yet have on your website. So, it‟s constantly organic, it‟s constantly growing and the other thing… what is that saying about entrepreneurs like falling in love with their business like it‟s a baby and thinking that it‟s the most beautiful baby in the world where it‟s not… I can‟t remember, I am not doing it justice…

It‟s basically like that “Don‟t fall in love so much with the concept of having a website that you get so caught up on the concept that it never ever goes anywhere for you. Just do it and just do it now and let the market…”

Andrew McCauley: Right. There is a saying that I love; it goes something like “Imperfect action will beat perfect inaction every time.”

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Yes.

Andrew McCauley: It‟s like they get caught up about waiting for the right color, waiting for the right font, waiting for the right words to come out that they are sitting there waiting while someone who doesn‟t really put all that emphasis on the perfection side of it is moving ahead and getting sales and doing what they are going to do and capturing their market. So, I just love that saying. It‟s a very apt saying in this particular industry.

Heather Porter: It‟s so true. Whoever is listening to this, if you don‟t have a website, then all you need to do is just find somebody that can help you get a WordPress site up, get a video on there, get a free thing to give away, just start, just get something up there and then you can build on it as you go. You mentioned the perfect blue as well. I hate to break it to you, guys, but we are now in a digital era and that it has nothing to do with print. Back in the good old days with lots of print, it was very important that you had the same color blue across the board and all of your media. However, now, because everyone has a different screen, different resolution, different sort of tint, whatever your blue is you choose, it will never look the same no matter how hard you want it to on your visitor‟s computer.

Andrew McCauley: It‟s a very great point actually because a lot of people… it‟s almost like looking through different colored glasses now because it‟s changing the way we see things physically too. So, it‟s important.

Heather Porter: Yeah and people are going to scan over your website really fast. They are going to think “Oh, this looks professional” and they are going to think nothing more about it. They are just going to be there for the content and what you have to teach them, not for the beautiful graphics unless you are photographer or something like that.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: So, if you get started and you are going along, you are not worried about being perfect and stuff, how do you know if it‟s the right thing to do anyway though?

Heather Porter: Well, I mean, with us, with our roadmap, no… How do you know if it‟s right? Look, there are some really cool keys that you can use around this. The first one is your friend‟s test or just a stranger test. It sounds funny but what you can do is the next time you have kind of a casual gathering of people around, pull up your website and just say to them “What do I sell?” and then say to them “You know, do you have any confusion on where you are supposed to go on this website?” Just have people give you some advice and feedback, those that are in your circle. That‟s the easy way. The more advanced way as you go forward is you can do surveys. So, as you start to get a list of people that have come to your website and given you their e-mail address, you can send them a survey, you can go to www.PollDaddy.com or www.SurveyMonkey.com and you can get a free poll, so easy to set up, you have a little link that you just send out to your database and your users and you basically say “Hey, we would love a 3 minutes of your time or 30 seconds of your time”, ask them three questions – “What can I improve on my website?”, “What do you like about my website?” because you want to know that there are good things that you want to keep, you want to know those are but you also want to know about improvements and then maybe another question like “What direction would you like to see me go?” or “What would you like more of?”, something like that and then let them tell you. That‟s an easy way of really starting to do some general market research.

Andrew McCauley: I had a fairly good tool recently and I am just trying to find the website now, I can‟t find it. If I find it before the end of the podcast, I will let you know but you can actually pay – it‟s not very much, 20 or 30 dollars or something like that – pay a group of 10 people to come back and give you feedback on your website.

Heather Porter: Love it.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: And they can tell you what‟s missing or what should be needed or what they think as a completely random viewer. They have a set of criteria which they go through and they say “Is it easy to follow? Is it easy to navigate? Do I understand what you are trying to sell? Do I understand the message?” and they give you all this feedback and you do what you want with it of course but it‟s a great way to find out exactly what your website is doing. I will dig up this website and if I find that, I will put on the resource guide about podcast; but yes, it‟s a really cool tool.

Heather Porter: Yeah, that‟s great and that‟s quite easily attainable, these types of tests or surveys. There is something which is even more advanced which is something that you want to consider if you have been in business for a while and that‟s something called Split Testing and what that means is you basically have different versions of your website and there are ways of actually having it randomly display the different versions of your website to the visitors to your website. So, visitor A might see version A, visitor B might see version B and you can actually test and track what they are doing on those different versions of your website, which website‟s attracting people to actually opt in and give you their e-mail addresses, which website‟s getting more video views. So, there are really amazing advanced strategies that you can use to test what people want and then you know exactly what they want because they are telling you with the statistics.

That‟s a great, great tool. We won‟t go too much into that one but that‟s something that anybody that has a website, is in business for a while, that‟s something that they are going to want to consider down the track.

Andrew McCauley: Alright. So, let‟s move on to point #8, the final point.

Heather Porter: Yay! I love this point. Let‟s enter into a little human psychology, shall we?

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: Okay, I am game.

Heather Porter: Okay, good. These is really great book and it‟s called Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. Now, in his book, he covers six different points about influence – what can you do to influence people to do what you want them to and I don‟t mean that in evil, „take over the world‟ sort of way but in a very productive way and how can you get users to navigate through your website in the way you want them to.

So, point #1 is reciprocation – Reciprocation is if you give something away for free, the other person will feel compelled to do something in return. So, what I mean by that is – again, we will come back to that opt-in form and giving away the eight free videos or some sort of free audio – if you are giving something away for free, then people are going to be more likely to listen to your e-mails that you send out in the future to them about things that you have going on because they have gotten something from you for free and not only that but they are interested in you obviously if they have requested it but at that time they are actually going to say “Okay, this person‟s cool, they have given me something. So, I‟ll listen to what they have to say.” So, make sure to over time give away really cool things for free on your website.

Andrew McCauley: So, cool things but they‟ve got to be relevant to what the target market is, right?

Heather Porter: Absolutely, yeah.

Andrew McCauley: No point giving out cool things for free that you think is cool and they think it‟s rubbish.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Yeah, exactly. So, you want to make sure it‟s something they are interested in. It‟s got to be specific to your business and what your business offers. Again, if you are a coach and you do weight loss like a personal trainer and you do weight loss, then think about a plan of sort of what you do with the client. If it‟s eight sort of psychology lessons or trainings that you do to get your client to lose weight, then think of eight free things that you can give away at each of those eight levels because not only does it introduce what you do to your client but it also can be some of the cool free stuff that you already have in your mind during your practice that you can just package up and give away.

Andrew McCauley: Okay. So, that‟s reciprocation rule?

Heather Porter: Yeah, reciprocation.

The other one is commitment and consistency. People don‟t do business with flakes, plain and simple – a flake as in somebody that‟s “I stick up a webpage and then I don‟t do anything with it” or that would be like the person in your life that is constantly making plans and constantly cancelling them with you. So, you want to know that the person you are about to do business with on the internet has a commitment to you, is consistent and follows through and has been around for a while. There is a very easy way of doing this and showing this on your website and that is to have a blog area of your website. A lot of people are now saying „latest news‟. So, if you go to website, you see „latest news‟, that‟s often time a blog. A blog is just simply an area of the website that‟s updated on an ongoing consistent basis with great news and updates about the business and what they are doing and often times freebies and things are introduced within this post as well. So, blogging is very important. It shows your audience that you are around, that you are doing stuff, you are innovating, you are keeping your business fresh and you are continuing to deliver value and it also shows freshness as well. So, it‟s a multibenefits sort of thing because then Google says “Oo, this website‟s great because they are constantly updating with information that‟s in the industry, using the key

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

words of how people are finding this website.” So, then they will actually list your website up higher in the search results.

Andrew McCauley: It‟s like continuing to be fresh.

Heather Porter: Fresh, keep it fresh.

Andrew McCauley: Fresh. Okay, cool. Well, what else?

Heather Porter: Social proof – Social proof is huge. Social proof is testimonials and we have also covered that. Social proof nowadays is also social media. So, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and now there are these things called social media plug-ins and I know that sounds crazy, jargonistic again, but really it‟s simple. What it is is on every page of your website, you have a little button that says „like this‟ that‟s branded from Facebook, you have one that says „tweet this‟ that‟s from Twitter and then you have maybe link to your YouTube channel. So, it‟s just putting these links all over your website so people can go check you out on your different social media accounts but also they can like your page and talk about you on their social media accounts.

Andrew McCauley: Right. Cool. So, social medial plug-ins are the ways of talking about people and about you via your website.

Heather Porter: Yeah, without you eliciting it. So, it‟s not like you are asking for testimonial. These people are going out there, talking about you without you even asking about and it‟s the best kind of social proof you can get.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: And, I think, personally I get a lot of traffic from people who re-tweet by tweets or my blog post that they may read just because I have got the social media buttons on my website. So, very important and well, well worth it.

Heather Porter: Very powerful, yeah.

Let‟s see. Next point is “be likeable” and I know it‟s kind of a vague one but be likeable. I mean, would you do business with somebody you don‟t like? Would you? Would you, Andrew?

Andrew McCauley: I mean, it‟s the age old theory that people do business with people they know, like and trust; and if you don‟t know, you don‟t like, or you don‟t trust them, there is a fair chance you are not going to be doing business with them. So, be likeable. Don‟t be fake in trying to be likeable. Just be genuine and be yourself and I think you will find that people will like you for being who you are.

Heather Porter: Exactly and an easy way to do that is again video. So, get yourself in front of a video, use your iPhone, there are cool little videos around in video players and recorders that you can use and just have a chat with your use on your website, just tell them who you are, what you do, give them free updates via video. Another thing is your blog and your writing. When you are doing your updates, keep it simple. Again, don‟t use the jargon because people will just be turned off by that and you wanting to hear your own voice. Yeah, if you just have a nice chat with your use and your visitor on your website, then they are going to like you. Just be yourself. Everyone likes a certain type of teacher. So, you don‟t want to try to be everything to everybody anyway. You want to be yourself on your website and then you will attract people that want to do business with you for who you are.

Andrew McCauley: What else we got left? Show authority, tell your story…

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Yes, the story. It‟s important to tell people where you have come from and why you are where you are because again that makes you real and that makes you likeable. So, some really good stories, use of stories… there is a site called www.HomeBizChicks.com and it‟s run by a woman named Sue Papadoulis and she has a whole story on there about how it came to be. It‟s basically for moms that are at home that want to start a home-based business because that was her story, that was where she came from. Therefore, her target market are moms who want to start business and they immediately trust her because that‟s exactly where she came from. Now, if she didn‟t tell that part of the story in her „about us‟ page and her videos, if she didn‟t talk about that, then these moms coming to her site wouldn‟t trust her as much. Same with weight loss coaching – you might have somebody that says “Look, I have been there, I have been there where you are. I have been there 15 kilos overweight. This is how I got to where I am today, fit and happy.”

So, the story is such an important part of getting the client to trust you and if you can demonstrate that you have been in a rough spot and that you have gone to where you are using the tools that you are going to teach, then straight away you have that intimacy that happens between client and teacher.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, okay. Alright, so last one on the list.

Heather Porter: Alright, scarcity.

Andrew McCauley: Scarcity, what does that mean?

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Scarcity means that… well, let‟s think about… in the States, it would be called Black Friday, that‟s after Thanksgiving and in Australia it would be Boxing Day sales which would be after Christmas. It‟s where you have a day of sales in the shops, it‟s only on for that day so much to the point where people will literally stampede each other to get at the doors or camp out overnight. That is a perfect example of scarcity because they know that that sale is only on for that day. So, if you can use scarcity on your website – a great way for this, again we go back to one of our client‟s who is a chiropractor, she will do monthly scarcity bonuses. So, she will say “for the month of July, you can have 50% off of your treatment.” She will even do them daily on her Facebook account. So, she will say first 10 people that call this number get a free whatever. So, using little things, scarcity can be up top in the opt-in form where you are just giving away a free thing for a certain number of people and then you say “after a hundred people, this forms comes down.” It could be in your blog where you write an article saying “for this month, you get 50% off”. So, weaving little scarcity things in your site – as human beings we want to feel like we are getting a deal and also scarcity creates the whole thing of “Oh my Gosh! If other people are getting, it must be good.”

Andrew McCauley: So, one of the traps that I see if you are a new player at this is that they put those little “only 10 left” or “only 20 left” sort of things; what they are doing is then not honoring that and their integrity gets shot to pieces because people come back and go “Well, you said that yesterday and surely you have sold 10 by now” or “You said it would be only available for the first week and three weeks later you still have the same offer going on”. So, you want to make sure with scarcity you are being very…

Heather Porter: Being authentic…

Andrew McCauley: And you are also operating through integrity because people will soon see you are just trying to do it as a marketing scam or whether you are generally being real. So, one of the traps for the young new players is don‟t fall into the trap of not living up to what you are promising.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Heather Porter: Yeah, exactly and on that point, I guess, it‟s a good time to recap what we have talked about and that is one of the biggest most important things you can do on your website is to be likeable and to be yourself and to not try to be something else, some other business that you are not. Using these tips we have talked about today, making sure that these are what you are already doing on your website or what you will do on your website if you are growing one now is really important and, again, people can see through you even on the internet, even on a webpage. So, just be yourself, use simple language, just tell the user of your site exactly what you want them to do, where you want them to go with a short sweet little directions – “click here”, “do this”, “Buy this” type of things – be credible, start to put all the amazing things that you have done in your career, in your life, in your story, put that on your website, put the testimonials up, make sure that you have your social media linked up so people can talk about you online without you even having asked them to.

Andrew McCauley: Yeah, certainly.

Heather Porter: What else? What are some other little things that you think are important, Andrew?

Andrew McCauley: Well, you want to make sure that you are keeping it simple, don‟t make it over complex. Make it so that the general public can read it. Unless you are specifically going for target market who are very into that particular topic and it does require a lot of jargon, do it; but if you are looking for new people as a generic base, make sure that you are keeping it simple.

Heather Porter: Yeah.

Andrew McCauley: We touched on perfection. Don‟t get hung up on being perfect? It‟s not going to be perfect because it‟s going to change and if we know

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

anything, the internet changes every single day. We spend a lot of time keeping up with what‟s going on so that clients can have the latest and greatest. It changes all the time. What we think is great this week will not be great in three weeks‟ time. So, don‟t get put up on it but at the same time don‟t get afraid of it and think “Well, why do I put all this effort, anyway it‟s going to change?” Just know that it‟s going to change and if you can keep up relatively good with the changes that you can be way ahead of most people anyway.

Heather Porter: Exactly, exactly and don‟t let any of this that we talked about today overwhelm you or confuse you because in the future we will go into more detail about and specifically we will do a whole podcast on WordPress and what you need to know about it and where do you go to get people who can do it for you really inexpensively. We will talk about sales pages and landing pages separately. So, those are individual pages that sell something. We briefly touched on them earlier. We will also talk about other things that you need to actually look for as you build your website. Use this as your map, use this as your big picture understanding of what you must have across the board on all your websites moving forward.

Andrew McCauley: So, where can people go and get some more resources about from this podcast? What‟s the best place to get all this stuff.

Heather Porter: To our site, to www.AutopilotYourBusiness.com/Podcast and we will have some show notes on there, so transcriptions of this. Andrew‟s going to share with you guys where you can get the market test on your website.

Andrew McCauley: I am going to dig that up and stick it on there so you can get that.

Heather Porter: Perfect. And any other little resources that we come across that we think would help you as part of this podcast, we will have there as well.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Andrew McCauley: Yes. Alright, so that‟s another show. I think we covered a fair bit.

Heather Porter: We did.

Andrew McCauley: The next show is going to be a full show again. What are we talking about next show? Any ideas or is it a surprise?

Heather Porter: It might be surprise. Actually, you know what I am thinking? I am thinking because there is so much in here we could have gone a little bit deeper with, why don‟t we just stick with WordPress as the next one because this will be a perfect tie-in and lead into how do you actually use WordPress? What do you think?

Andrew McCauley: Okay. So, how to use WordPress, the things you need to do, tips and tricks, plug-ins and widgets and all that sort of stuff.

Heather Porter: Yeah, exactly.

Andrew McCauley: Alright. Let‟s tackle WordPress then next time. That will be cool.

Heather Porter: Sounds good.

Podcast – How to Layout Websites to Get More Clients Autopilot Your Business Podcast Transcription

Alright. Wherever you guys are in the world, thanks so much for joining us again. And Andrew, thank you.

Andrew McCauley: Thank you, Heather. Thank you for your wealth of knowledge.

Heather Porter: And your fantastic questioning skills.

Andrew McCauley: It was practicing, wasn‟t it?

Alright, well, good luck and make sure you visit the website, let people know, share this stuff on Facebook and Twitter when you can. If you don‟t know how to do that, we are going to teach that to you in a call as well. So, that‟s coming up. Good luck and we will see you next time.

Heather Porter: Bye everybody.

**End of Audio**