“I’m looking at the home page of your website. Elizabeth … what exactly do you do?”

And therein was the problem.

It was February 2010, a late Friday night video skype meeting with my then-consultant, now-COO Ken Moorhead, going over my product lines and website and figuring out how to take this stuff that I do and make it into a real business.

(Yes, turning something into a real business is part of what I do with my clients. But, of course, I can’t do that for myself.)

And as I looked at my website/blog through Ken’s eyes, I started rolling with laughter as I realized some horrible & hilarious truths:

• It was impossible to buy anything from me.
• There were 60+ links off the homepage, including 17 blog posts.
• I never explained what I meant by Live Your Truth.
• There was no picture of me ‘above the fold’ on any page.
• The site was full of clutter, distractions, confusion, and tons of places for people to leave my site.
• No one could look at the site and know what in the world I did there.
• It functioned like a personal blog. Not like a real business.

And that was the bottom line. This site had originally been designed as my personal blog, back in 2006 when my business was on a separate website. But as my personal brand developed, and I dropped my business website/name to put everything under the Elizabeth Potts Weinstein umbrella, I never changed the site.

I only made money in spite of myself.

And now, with my business finally profitable & growing & aligned with me & my tribe & what I’m stepping into … the site needed to be blown up.

And replaced with a real business website.

Yes, a business website that is still me. Still fun and real and full of truth and personality and casualness.

But a website that’s designed to actually make money. Because, dude, this is not a freaking non-profit.

So here’s what I kept in mind with this website redesign:

I have two entry points into my site: the home page and single posts. Everything was designed with those two entry points in mind – making sure that the most important pieces of information & calls to action were prominent regardless of how someone came into the site.

There is one primary call to action: sign up for the EPW Newsletter. Everywhere on the site, this is the #1 thing we want people to do – give me their name & email & permission to send them my weekly raw truth. It’s in the top right side bar of every page. Featured in the slider on the home page. And I drafted the copy to be simple & straightforward & easy to understand.

I make it easy for you to give me money to solve your problems. On the home page, on every page on the site (the sidebar graphics), on the Product/Events page … you can learn about how you can buy stuff that I sell. Imagine that – actually selling on my website! Shocking!

I answer the question: what do you mean by Live Your Truth? Now, this is pretty profound stuff, because when Ken asked me that question back in February I didn’t have an answer. Well, besides “living your truth is like pornography, you know it when you see it.” Um, yeah. Not exactly good marketing copy. So he yanked the answer to that question out of me that night. And now that most important question is answered on every page.

My picture is in the header. I used to hate the idea of my face on my website – seemed weird and egotistical. Then, even when I started branding myself as the business, I still felt weird about putting my picture up in the header, like the website shouldn’t be about me, it should be about you (um, even though it’s my name on the site?). Yeah. I got over that. You need to know who in the heck is EPW. And with the photo montage put together by CouchSurfingOri, now you know me.

Let’s take advantage of what I have going on. I’m not quite sure how this happened, but starting back in November, I get a lot of comments. Sometimes just a dozen, a few times up to 100. That fact is an inherent, powerful testimonial for the cohesiveness and responsiveness of my tribe. So we highlight comments both as per each post (on the homepage, the blog page, individual post pages) as well as using the Recent Comments widget in the sidebar of all pages & posts.

Simplify everything. No clutter. Only a few menu choices. Only 3 blog posts on the home page. No unnecessarily widgets. No unnecessarily plugins. Nothing to bog down the site. Only a few options to click away. No confusion or distractions. Every single thing, every option, every widget, every menu, every plugin, every section has a specific purpose necessarily to the site.

So I ask you, when was the last time you looked at your site though the eyes of an outsider?

Do you make it possible for people to buy from you?

Does everything on your site have a reason?

Can anyone tell what in the world it is that you do?

And … what do you think of my new website? I’d love to hear from you!

Thank you so much for your comments, questions, feedback. Thank you so much for your help in passing this site onto your followers, friends, and subscribers. I am so honored that you chose to give some of your attention to me and this work. You are freaking awesometastic. That is all.

Related posts:

1. Sucking, Simplicity, & Selling: The Truth Behind the Relaunch of EPW
2. I’m Not Sorry About Selling.
3. Behind the Launch of Build Your Tribe

I get *tons* of people sending me emails, Twitter DMs, and Facebook messages pitching me to buy their stuff, speak at their event, check over their blog, do a joint venture together, etc. It would be impossible for me to work with everyone … but a select few get my immediate response.

So how do you get attention? You need to seduce me.

(this is also how I develop relationships w/ players in our industry!)

Related posts:

1. The Real Secret to Get 12K Followers on Twitter
2. #SXSWi pt 1: Unconsummated Fangirl Stalking of @gapingvoid

For those of you who are on my list, you know that I do one or two free teleclasses each month, on various topics, like How to Avoid the Top 10 Mistakes Business Owners Make with Chartiable Giving (this Wednesday 7/11/07), or How to Avoid Business Owners Top 10 Money Mistakes (next Tuesday 7/17/07). 

Free teleclasses are a great way to build your list, and develop a great relationship with people already on your list.  Why? 

1. You get contact information, including addresses.  There’s always a possibility that email will not work as a cheap marketing tool in the future.  If you have a free teleclass and have your people sign up through your shopping cart, you capture their mailing address as well as their email.  Then, you can send them old-fashioned snail mail — thus diversifying your promotion efforts, and decreasing your reliance on just one form of communication.
2. You can advertise in seminar listings and calendars.  Most of my free teleclasses are listed in online and print class and calendar directories, which are either low cost (under $10) or free — and a great way to pull in new people.
3. Giving away info for free builds goodwill.  By giving away a little bit of your wisdom, your list moves from being just readers to being converts.
4. Others will promote free stuff for you.  Typically, you can get J/V’s and other list owners to promote your free stuff to their lists, without having to give them anything — just as a good value-added service to their list.
5. Free teleclasses are cheap and easy.  No need to rent out space, order food, or send out paper mailings.  Just get a free bridge line and a low cost ($20/mo) autoresponder service and go.
6. They force you to create content.  These people are showing up to hear you talk, so you must put together something to say. 
7. You have a special report at the end.  Just record your call and pay to have it transcribed ($50-$100), spend a few minutes creating headings (or have your VA do that), and you have your Special Report.
8. You get your list used to "buying" from you.  Yes, it’s free, but "buying" a free teleclass is the first step in your leads paying you money.
9. Your list learns more about you.  It’s hard to get to know someone just by reading their writing.  By listening to you speak for an hour, your list gets to know your personality and decide if you are a right match for their needs.
10. You create need in your list for your solutions.  If you have a product or service to promote, you can have a teleclass that helps your list feel the need for the solution that you are offering to them.  Then, at the end of the call, if they have the need, they immediately want to buy your solution.
11. You get feedback from your list.  Teleclasses are a great test.  Whether no one signs up, you get 20% of your list to sign up, no one asks questions, everyone is confused, people thank you for the information, no one buys what you promote … it’s all great feedback for next time.

Related posts:

1. The EPW Bucket List: Who Wants to Join Me?