3 Overlooked Profit Opportunities on Your Website

If you’re already selling anything online, this article is going to show you how to add extra revenue you didn’t even know you had “hiding” in your website.

Overlooked Way #1: The Upsell

If you’ve been in marketing for any time, you’ve probably heard of “upsells,” “cross-sells,” or “bumps.” Car dealers are excellent at using this technique. Once you have agreed to buy a car, you go into the finance office – another place where they try to extract as much money as possible from you. Dealer financing, extended warranties, rust coating, a LoJack security system – these additions can represent as much, or more, profit to the dealer as the original sale.

For another good example, consider late-night infomercials. Often, they offer an upsell along with your purchase. For instance, you’ll get a special deal on the third bottle of Super Grime Cleaner if you buy 2 bottles. And, again, this usually brings in more profit than the original sale.

And you can do the same online.

This little “magic trick” can instantly increase your profits – even without getting any additional website visitors. It works great because your prospect is all hot and heavy and ready to buy. He’s got his credit card in his hand and he’s already made the commitment … and then you hit him with the upsell.

Here are a couple of ways that I’ve successfully used upsells on my sites:

1. Put the upsell on an “intermediary” page.

Once prospects click on your order button, they’re taken to a new page (and not to the order form). This page tells them about a special “today only” offer – perhaps a “deluxe” or “gold” version of the package for X dollars more. You can make the upsell a big dollar amount or a small insignificant little “bump.” I do this on www.Instantsalesletters.com and my upsell numbers have been as high as 68 percent using this technique.

Another way of doing this is by “recommending” a product. Any time you buy something from Amazon, that’s exactly what they do. Up comes a page that says, “Customers who bought X also bought Y” – and then you see a slew of additional products for you to purchase.

2. Put the upsell right on the order page.

I’ve done something as simple as putting a check box on my order form. With this technique, we get a 25 percent upsell rate. Right after the customer has filled out his contact information, he can check the box for the upsell: “You can get this special Y for only $X if you order now.”

You have to play fair and let people get the original price and package you offered – but there’s no reason not to add a complementary upsell immediately. This is like the “Would you like fries with that?” strategy. Unless you’re offering “fries,” you’re missing out on tons and tons of profit. You simply need to come up with one or two more compelling bonuses or packages that customers will get for the upgrade.

Overlooked Way #2: Thank-You Pages

After upsells, I’d say “thank-you” pages are one of the most overlooked profit hotspots. Once again, there are several ways to use this technique. First of all, anytime somebody buys a product from you online, you should direct them to some kind of thank-you page where you give them a special deal … or where you at least give them links to your other products or to other people’s products that you make an affiliate commission on.

If you’re selling a digital product, you can put some recommended resources right on the download page.

And don’t forget about the thank-you pages that come up after people sign up for your e-mail list. Of course, where you want to send those people will depend on where they are in your sales process. But why not have a list of recommended resources for them?

Overlooked Way #3: Thank-You E-mails/Confirmations

Finally, there’s the initial e-mail confirmation that you send back to your customers. Most of them are going to read it. So, in addition to the stuff you should always include (like customer service information, credit card billing and shipping information), why not add a simple P.S. to the bottom of the e-mail that offers additional resources (or even a special deal just for customers). That’s what I do.

I guarantee that just putting these 3 overlooked techniques to work on your site will help squeeze out even more profits for you … without adding a single visitor. Give it a try.

“Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.” – Jim Rohn

[Ed Note: Just 32 years old, Yanik Silver is recognized as a leading expert on creating automatic, money-making websites. He has personally sold millions online, and his Internet marketing strategies have helped his students sell millions more in nearly every type of market on the Internet.]