Business Empire Magazine provides how to's and articles for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs

Despite what many website designers would have us believe, the websites that actually get clients aren't necessarily the ones that look like glossy brochures. Sure, it's important to have a good-looking website to engage the initial interest of your visitors.

But ultimately, they're not going to roll over, panting at the gorgeousness of your website imagery, and gasp 'Coach me, coach me!' are they? Let's face it.

It is, in fact, incredibly rare for website visitors to convert into coaching clients right there on the virtual spot. Actually... what potential new clients who visit your website want is to get a feel for whether you and your services are a fit with what they're looking for. If they're interested enough, the next thing they want to do is to enter into a relatively anonymous relationship with you. They want to find out more without having to pick up the phone and talk.

* It's all about information capture

This is why you MUST ask visitors to your website for their name and email contact details. Because once you start to collect contact details, you have a chance to be in touch with your potential new clients - people who have expressed an interest in what you have to offer - and you can start building that relationship with them.

If you don't offer them a way to be in contact with you without having to sign up for coaching with you there and then, they will most probably surf on by and you'll never even know they were there, let alone that they were interested. Now that's the kind of opportunity it would be foolish to pass up on, don't you think?

* The value of a mailing list

By collecting contact details, you're in the process of building your mailing list. And a mailing list is the best way to cultivate new clients online. Of course, you do have to mail out to your mailing list to build and maintain that relationship with them. And some will take longer to convert into clients than others. Some never will. But it's easily the most effective way to get clients from your website.

As your mailing list grows, so does its worth. I've heard various estimates put on the value of each email address on your list, but the most frequently quoted is $1 per contact. Not that I'd advise you ever to put your mailing list up for sale... if you don't have a decent privacy statement next to the sign-up box on your website (a 'we will never pass your details to third parties' message), your sign-up numbers will drop anyway.

The true financial value of your list, though, is in potential it contains to convert interested enquirers into real-life, fee-paying clients. As your list grows, so does the number of future new clients it holds. It's a numbers game. The more names you have on your list, the more clients they will convert into. Although don't forget that to be valuable your list must contain the contact details of genuinely interested parties.

* No more hit and miss

What makes a website effective (or not) can so often seem a mystery. Use your website to capture visitor information and build a mailing list, though, and you have something considerably less mysterious on your hands. In fact you have a financially valuable asset that will carry your business success into the future.