I just took my 2002 Prius to the local Toyota dealer here in North Carolina for its 100,000-mile servicing .

Now I’m used to service stations and dealers in New Jersey, where standard operating procedure is to make customers guess where to park, what line to wait i n, and what those stains are on the back of their computer monitor, walls, floor, and, eventually, your credit card. So it was a nice surprise to see how the system works at this dealership .

And it got me to thinking about how what they’re doing right can be applied to Web landing pages.

Lesson #1: Show visitors exactly what to do.

As I drove up to the dealership, there was a sign that told me exactly where to go for service. It pointed to a row of four large, clearly marked parking spaces.

Have you clearly marked on your landing page what you want your visitors to do? Is your sign – up box prominent? Is the “buy” button plainly visible?

Lesson #2: Immediately create a feeling of safety.

When I dropped off the car, I couldn’t help but notice rolls of paper and plastic right next to the service lanes. They were obviously being used to keep customers’ cars clean while they were being worked on.

Does your landing page immediately make the visitor feel safe? Do you have instant credibility boosters? Does your site design communicate “fly by night” or “here to stay”?

Lesson #3: Show why/how you’re better/different.

While I was paying, an employee opened the door behind me marked “Authorized Personnel Only” and ushered in a prospective customer for a tour. I heard him talking about the facility’s cleanliness, its capacity, and how quickly repairs get done.

Does your landing page offer a glimpse into your expertise, process, or some other important differentiator? Or at least a link that says something like “Why buy from us?”

Lesson #4: Leave them wanting more.

After I paid, I went outside to look around for my car. Based on past experience, I expected to find it jammed into some pseudo parking spot. But before I had time to start searching, I saw my little baby driving up right next to me .

I don’t care how “sticky” your website is. At some point, every one of your prospects will have to leave. So what’s your “temporary exit strategy”? How do you leave them wanting more?

Whenever I offer a download or an opt-in, I always take the time to create a thank you page. The reason I do that is to make the prospect’s last contact with my site (for the time being) a positive experience. Leave them happy, and leave them wanting more.

[Ed. Note: Internet marketing expert Howie Jacobson's advice can help you keep your Web visitors happy. But before you can make them happy, you need to attract them to your site. Now, Howie has come up with a comprehensive guide to getting massive traffic to your site in the first place. Discover how you can skyrocket your traffic by 1,200% and make five times the cash with the quickest, easiest, most effective traffic attractor available online.

And be sure to pick up Howie's complimentary AdWords ER Report "Why Most AdWords Campaigns Fail - and How to Make Yours Succeed" at www.AskHowie.com.]

Here’s something I discovered shortly after launching my business in 2001: Up to a point, customers don’t really mind when something goes wrong.

What drives them batty is when they complain and nobody cares. And when you make it clear to everyone in your organization that listening to customers is the Number One job of your business, you can turn the inevitable screw-ups into opportunities to build loyal customers and passionate fans.

Luckily for me, I made lots of mistakes when I was starting out. That gave me constant opportunities to provide great “I’m really sorry” customer service and improve my business – the marketing, products, fulfillment, and more – rapidly.

What about your business?

Do the customer service folks on the front lines really feel remorse when your business screws up, or are they just punching the clock? Do your employees feel empowered to admit mistakes, their own and yours? Do your customers feel respected and heard?

If not, you have your marching orders.

[Ed. Note: Howie Jacobson (www.askhowie.com) is an Internet marketing expert specializing in pay-per-click advertising. In fact, he literally wrote the book on the subject: AdWords for Dummies.

Find out how Howie increased his income by five times - by accident - and how his unintentional good fortune can make YOU rich right here.]

If you’re getting 20 leads a week now from AdWords, it’s hard to imagine what 200 leads a week would look like. From your current perspective, it would probably look just like 20, except 10 times more.

But when volume and velocity and quality of traffic increase, lots of things change. Big time.

You can get much pickier about the leads you accept as clients. You can create hurdles to prescreen and prequalify, and to give you the power and authority in the relationship. You can create waiting lists to generate the perception of great demand. You can raise your prices. If you sell products, you can start to source them at a cheaper rate. You can negotiate deals with your suppliers. You can increase your profit margins.

What all this means is that you make more money while expending less of your life energy (time and emotional angst) to get it.

When you understand your prospects, and what keywords they search for, and what they want when they’re searching, and how to engage them in your ads and landing pages – you start a process that can end with you being the biggest player in your market.

[Ed. Note: Howie Jacobson is the expert on Google AdWords and driving traffic to your website. Get his complimentary AdWords ER Report "Why Most AdWords Campaigns Fail - and How to Make Yours Succeed" atwww.AskHowie.com.

Pay-per-click ads are just one of the many elements of a successful online business. For a complete, step-by-step guide to starting and growing your own profitable Internet venture, check out the Internet Money Club: Independent Learner Edition.]

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Your website visitors will convert – to buyers or subscribers – when they’re ready, willing, and able. And the usability testing and feedback gathering you do should give you an idea of which of those three factors will make the biggest difference.

Ready: Are your visitors ready to take the action you want them to take? Do they have enough information? Enough trust in you? If not, what do you need to add to your site flow to make offers congruent with your visitors’ current state of readiness?

Willing: Do they want to take the action you want them to take? Have you explained the benefits? Have you done the cost-benefit analysis for them? Have you made it clear how you’re different and better than their other options?

Able: Can they take that action on your site? Can they find the right links and buttons? Does everything work? Do pages load quickly enough to keep their attention? Is it easy to navigate your site, or do you need to offer a training course to users?

Then Test: Start with simple curiosity. For example, ask yourself “Where should the BUY button go, here or there?” Then create two versions of the page. Use Google’s website optimizer to run the test. (It’s free – and really easy.)

Send some traffic to each version, and you’ll discover one of two things:

1. One version is clearly superior to the other.

2. There’s not much difference – which means that the element you were testing doesn’t matter very much, or that the differences were too small to affect visitor behavior.

Either way, you’ve learned something. Wash, rinse, and repeat, and soon you’ll have a landing page that contributes mightily to your bottom line.

[Ed. Note: Find out how Internet marketing expert and pay-per-click specialist Howie Jacobson (www.askhowie.com) increased his income by five times - by accident - and how his unintentional good fortune can make YOU rich right here.]

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