I received a few invitations this week to try out some new online products that had been created. One was for a new ad network, one was for an affiliate program and two were to review e-books. All of the promotions didn’t succeed in effectively selling the product to me or holding my attention.

Here’s why:

• The ad network required me to go through the process of creating an account and entering my details before I could see what type of ads could be displayed.

• The affiliate program didn’t tell me anything about it in the e-mail. All it really told me was to “check out this new program with great payouts. Here’s the homepage….“.

• The e-books required me to either enter my details or go through a series of checkpoints and anti-spam codes before I could download them.

The main problem was that the invitations required me to spend a considerable amount of time just to gain access to the product before I would be able to make a decision regarding whether I liked them or not.

However, as my time is rather short, the end result was that as soon as I hit the first “roadblock” I decided that it wasn’t worth my time to go through any sign-up processes and they lost a potential user.

Why are there so many roadblocks for something that is free?

How to get a user

Considering I was already targeted as someone interested in making money online, it would have been in their interest to get the product in front of my face as soon as possible.

• The ad network could have easily created a demo account for prospective users that would enable them to check it how it works quickly. Alternatively, a live demo would have had a similar result.

• The affiliate program could have explained the details to me in the e-mail. They already had my attention through the e-mail and requiring me to click away to another site lost me. They could easily have kept me interested by explaining everything in the e-mail.

• The e-books could have been e-mailed to me directly. It’s not 1997 and a 1mb attachment isn’t going to kill my inbox. If I had been able to read it immediately, I could have devoted more time to it as I wouldn’t have wasted time with a series of verification steps.

Any long sales pages that you see online will have good conversions if it grabs your attention, explains the product benefits and doesn’t give you an opportunity to click away. When you’re introducing a new product, it is essentially a sales letter and the same principles can apply.

How this can help you make money online

As a site owner or blogger, you only have a limited amount of time to grab people’s attention and you should use it effectively.

Instead of e-mailing other members of your niche or writing in forums with “check out my site here…” messages, explaining the site in the message and the benefits of visiting will make it an easier decision and result in increased traffic flowing through.

Furthermore, explaining the benefits of a product immediately and succinctly will put the product in front of a prospective customer before they have a chance to “click away”.

Although most blogs have an “About” page, a visitor should know immediately from your homepage what your site is about and what benefit it has to them. Not every visitor will bother to view your “About” page and that could be a lost visitor.

In essence - just make it easier for someone to find out how great and useful you are!

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