What do you want your website to do? Make sales? Get more ezine subscribers? Increase your credibility? All of the above?

Whatever your goals, we'll make sure YOUR site is accomplishing them *in just SIX EASY STEPS.* Use this formula over and over again to supercharge your site's sales and maximize your profit.

1. Define your main goal.

What do you want your site to DO? It can do several things at once (i.e. build your ezine's readership, increase credibility, get the sale, etc.), but there should be ONE thing you want it to do above all else.

What is that one thing?

It's perfectly fine for your site to have several goals, but make sure you identify its PRIMARY GOAL before moving on to this next step.

2. Make sure the top left corner of your home page is ONLY used to achieve that goal.

Your job now is to be sure that, not only is your entire website streamlined to accomplish your primary goal, but more importantly THE UPPER LEFT-HAND CORNER OF THE FIRST FOLD OF YOUR HOME PAGE. (The 'first fold' is the uppermost part of a Web page that your visitor sees before doing any vertical scrolling.)

You should NOT have a massive logo taking up this space -- unless your site is designed for branding purposes.

HINT: Most small business sites don't have the budget to drive people to a site primarily to build a brand name.

You should NOT have a huge portrait of yourself taking up that space -- unless your site's main goal is to show the world how beautiful you are, or again, for branding purposes.

HINT: Posting your picture on a business site CAN be a good thing! You simply don't want the pic to be the MAIN focus of your site OR its home page, unless this scheme falls in line with your primary goal. More on that later.

3. Review examples of exceptional sales sites.

Learn by example. A few sites I've come across that have their goals clearly-defined on the first page are:

(a) Bizpromo Internet Marketing Center: http://bizpromo.com

The first fold of this site, by Terry Dean, is ONLY filled with subscription info. His site's primary goal is to recruit new readers to his ezine.

The more opt-in prospects he has to contact with his weekly ezine, the more sales he'll make by default. Terry is using his ezine list as his own personal sales machine, as subscribers are the prospects most likely to later become customers than prospects from ANY OTHER SOURCE.

If you can afford to put your immediate profit on the back burner and focus instead on long-term profit by building your own list with your main business site, I definitely recommend you do so.

(b) BizWeb2000: http://www.bizweb2000.com

The first fold of this site, by Jim Daniels, is focused on establishing Jim as an expert in the field, getting visitors to feel comfortable with him and his expertise, and to show that there IS a real-live person behind the site who built his business from nothing ... who can show YOU how to do the same.

In summary, each of the three things above are actually only ONE goal -- building rapport and credibility with the visitor, which of course, ties into something bigger -- getting sales.

Jim's readers and visitors really love his personal approach, which is highly effective in getting prospects to trust you enough to secure the sale.

HINT: If you don't really like interacting with people or aren't a "people person", I *DO NOT* recommend this approach. It'll come across as phony (which of course it will be), putting prospects off, and ultimately HARMING your sales.

"Okay, how about you show one that's NOT by an Internet marketing guru," you ask? Glad you mentioned that...

(c) e-Business Moms: http://e-businessmoms.com

The first fold of this site, by Bina Omar, is designed primarily to build her ezine subscriptions. Notice the mini subscribe form on the left-hand side of the page and a more detailed description of it in the middle. This is excellent, excellent use of the first fold, as she was able to fit the entire subscribe form in that area.

It looks like Bina's secondary goal is to increase subscribers to her Website Workshop (membership site) from the banner at the top of the page.

All in all, eBusinessMoms.com is, and has consistently remained for years, a smartly-designed website structured for profit gain.

4. Don't be afraid to break from the norm.

The important thing here is to get to KNOW the rules and WHY they work for creating profitable sites before you go tryin' ta break 'em.

For instance, most visitors are used to seeing the navigational system on the left side of a page. But is that really the best place for it? Does it HAVE to be there? Would you achieve better results with that list on another part of your page? It depends on YOUR website's main goal and how your navigational column is structured.

There's no reason to conform to "the norm" unless the standard method of design is helping YOU achieve your site's main goal. Unless you want navigation to be your visitors' first thoughts, you could move it to the RIGHT, or even the top and bottom of your site.

HINT: Careful with this one. You could make your visitors leave your site prematurely, or decrease their interest in wanting to stick around to see what you have to offer.

5. Get help making your site achieve that primary goal.

I've done enough talking about it. Now is the time to SHOW you how to create an effective business site of your own. (Keep in mind that the possibilities are endless! This is just to give you a jumpstart.)

What do you want your site to do?

(a) Increase credibility and perception of your website and YOU.

In this case, it IS a good idea to post your picture on the left-hand side of your home page. NOT a huge picture (because you'll need that first fold for other important things), but a small, pleasant head shot will do the trick.

Then, you could have a blurb about how either you and/or your site will help your visitors accomplish what they came to do.

(b) Get more subscribers.

If this is the main goal of your website, you want to have an enticing description for your ezine(s) and a subscribe form in the top left part of your home page.

I used to have three ezines, and did this for all of them on one of my sites. If you only have one ezine, you have an advantage. You can use a much smaller subscription form, and use the rest of the left side of the first fold to introduce free subscription bonus(es), like a bulleted list of benefits for a free e-book.

(c) Get the sale on the first visit.

Granted, getting your visitors to buy on the first visit can be difficult. But that isn't to say you shouldn't do all you can to increase the likelihood of getting the sale!

For example, check out the Online Marketing Letter website at http://www.cyberwavemedia.com/news/?12380. You'll notice that this site doesn't even HAVE a navigational system. Why? The owners want you to go in only ONE direction -- to the order form.

You'll also notice that most sales sites don't really have a dominant left-hand corner. Instead, the entire first fold is the most important part of the page, and is used to draw visitors further into the site.

They do this by having powerful headlines and summary bullet points to introduce the product. For info on writing headlines that sell, go to  http://BizProfitBuilder.com/headlines.html and get "Great Headlines Instantly," by Robert Boduch. AWESOME!

6. Use the right-hand side of the first fold to enforce your secondary goal.

Remember -- your website can have several goals. Use the left side of the first fold of your home page to enforce your primary goal. Then use the right side of the first fold on your home page to enforce your secondary goal.

Now ... JUST DO IT!

Few of the millions of small business websites actually generate a *consistent* profit. One statistic suggested that only 5% do.

5 out of 100 websites!? Ouch.

And the questions and feedback I get from marketers suggests that even a measly 5% is generous.

There's one critical thing that all profitable websites have in common ... and it's how they use their upper left-hand corner. The spot your visitors are paying the most attention to -- both those that stay AND those that leave within just a few seconds.

Are you using YOUR left-hand side correctly?

If you haven't been, use this article as a guide, and to make a few changes, so YOUR site can generate a more consistent profit.

TIP: Feel free to visit the forum for help applying the concepts in this article to YOUR site. Just remember to TELL US WHAT YOUR SITE'S PRIMARY GOAL IS when you post: http://HarmonyMajor.com/forum/

Good luck! Now go out there and milk that left-hand side.