Muse Homepage Strategy

[hydrogonian]

Hi,

I've been hard at work on my muse since april. i'm writing a real estate investing book thats based on a specific strategy that I use to acquire homes. My partner left me in april and took all the money with him, hence my motivation. He was my best friend since the age of 14, and so I didn't have legal fail safes in place to prevent him from screwing me. Wholly at his insistence. So, I have a great business plan, lots of experience, but no cash. i could find another partner based on my skill set, but frankly I have a sour taste in my mouth right now and would like a break and to try the "4 hour lifestyle".


My dilemma is how to approach my homepage design and marketing strategy. My book and accompanying legal contracts cd will be priced between $200-300. Although, i may test even lower pricing to see what gets me the best return. Fulfillment costs are $10-13 per unit plus shipping and CC processing.

I have an ace web designer ready to do what i need. Do I stick with the long form sales page, or should I make an article index directly on the homepage to engage my customers further? I have a bunch of real estate articles written that have to do with general investing topics. They will be great for credibility for the people that they do engage. My problem is that they are really in depth. I tend to write on a professional level, as i believe in giving unique information that is actually useful in the real world. I actually am working on simplifying them as much as possible without sacrificing content. Should i make these articles harder to find or put them on my landing page?

Im not sure what it will take to sell a $200-300 product in the volume that i hope (1 per day on average). I don't want to start a forum if I can help it, as administrating it is something that I do not wish to do.

what do you think?

Thanks for reading,

Chris

[ergest79]

I have found this report to be very helpful especially when it comes to information products. Eben Pagan is truly a amrketing genius!!


The Marketing Voodoo Report (http://www.gurumastermindvideoblog.com/2008/05/voodoo.php)

[badhank]

too long, didn't read;
from noted manyissues, please re-write them all in point form:
eg;
1) parner left, need $
2) may b writing too technically for audience
3) point in third paragraph badhank didn't read

the advantage is that if your problems are in different areas, the resident experts in each field can help you. gl

[kamakiri]

Your muse isn't going to make enough money initially to be worth it. It will be an uphill battle, and it will evolve. Dump the idea of a partner. I can tell you right now that they don't work when doing muses. They never will.

Do what the book tells you and pay a team from Elance $275. That is what it cost me. Ace designer friends usually tend to be complete hacks. I will bet that he is another 'buddy' who will work for cheap right? I can tell you here that you get what you pay for. Outsource it and pay the price now, or pay even more for it later. It is not worth the time and hassle involved to cut corners here.

[Lachlan]

Chris,

I would place extracts of the articles on ezinearticles and goarticles to drive traffic to your site. You can then have visitors sign up for a newsletter on your sales page which can offer the full articles. This will also help you build a list of potential customers you can advertise to.

[hydrogonian]

Hey thanks for the responses. I don't know why i wrote such a long post, as it wasn't necessary, too much coffee i guess.

I'm not looking for a muse partner, my real estate business partner left is what i said.

About elance, I posted a job there and didn't like any of the designers that responded. My 'ace' web designer is an outsourced firm from India, that I found on my own. I found elance quality to be highly eratic. The really good ones were way overpriced.

The technique I used was to find a website that showcased the some of the best designers from India, then i emailed each designer i liked a proposal. Picked the most competent one as determined by their portfolio and tech skillset. i highly recommend this technique. the only downside is you have to trust them a bit more with the payment. So, kamakiri was wrong in his/her buddy hypothesis. sorry.

I'm not cutting corners on the website, you are right in that it will cause later issues. Gauging by elance quotes and my current quote, it takes between $750-$1200 usd to do a professional looking website, with well done graphic design, cms, and a shopping cart. Some will dispute me on this, I'm sure.

ergest79, that was an awesome report. Thank you very much. It filled the exact gap in copywriting theory that I 'knew' but was not acknowledging with my actions. The other copywriting resource that has really helped me is the newsletters at
www.makepeacetotalpackage.com
in case anyone is interested.

I've spent the last month writing article content for my website, as I hope that great content will help build a solid foundation for site traffic. Novel, heh?

Thanks again