Why Is My Website Not Making Me Any $$$?!

Here's the scenario: you've just invested $5K in developing your brand new small business brochure website. It looks breathtakingly beautiful. The branding is impeccable. It's got the trendy icons linking to your Facebook fan page, your Twitter account, your LinkedIn. It's all so streamlined, so catchy; all of your friends and colleagues get emotional when they see it. You're beaming, sighing a big breath of relief because the five grand you dropped on it came out of little Sammie's college savings fund.

Now, it's time to take it to market, put it to the test, start raking in the money, the phone calls, the hot leads, the..... Eh, is the site visible to anybody besides my computer? Why isn't anybody calling? The only email I got was from my mate, the one who said, "I'm proud of you, honey. So is Sammie."

Gulp. Why is this site not making me money?!

Let's run a simple list of tests to see if something wasn't left out of the strategy (cough) meetings with the "web guy" who lives in your neighbor's basement:

1. Can Sammie or any other eight year old navigate your site?
2. Can Sammie tell you succinctly what your site is all about?
3. Can your grandmother navigate the site?
4. Can your grandmother tell you succinctly what this site sells?
5. Have you enhanced your visitors' lives at all?
6. Have you provided visitors a place to voice their opinions?
7. Tell 10 of your Baby Boomer friends to visit your site and make a purchase (create a 10-cent product if necessary). What percentage completed that task without a four-letter word?
8. Do you have a guarantee policy?
9. Do you have a support number or email prominently displayed for questions regarding your product/service?
10. Can your potential buyers learn about previous buyers' experiences via testimonials or ratings?

These are the simple tests. I can guarantee you the answers to these questions will give you some idea why Sammie's savings fund isn't getting instant ROI.

We'll look deeper into these topics as part of the ongoing series here on TherapyInTransition.org's Web Development, Web Strategy and SEO expert blog!