Yes indeed, that`s all you`ve got, 30 seconds to make your website visitors decide to stick around...The internet has changed how we think about the customer, the product and the competition. I`m going to take you on a journey through these new ideas and show you what has changed and how you now can approach your marketing.

You have to put yourself in the customer`s shoes and talk directly to her about how she benefits from your products. She wants product information and lots of it, but in due time. No more hard sell focused on the product. And the word competition is useful only to identify the people we need to observe and emulate, but no longer are we out to destroy them, we`re out to partner with them. Confused? Good! That means there`s learning on the way!

We`re going to concentrate on your homepage, because you don`t have long to capture your customer`s interest. She has 3 main questions and you have thirty seconds at most to lure her to continue reading, clicking and finally clicking for the sale.

First you need to do your homework. You need to know who your customer is in terms of demographics, needs, desires, and dreams.

Now think about how she behaves on the internet. If she`s like me, she has a huge list of things she has done and would like to do. Today she may be paying bills, looking for a new bank, planning a vacation, researching cold remedies, looking for recipes, researching books to take out of the library, reading the news and looking for a home business she can do in her spare time. All in one day. How much of her time is she willing to give you to convince her you`re worth reading...worth bookmarking...that your opportunity or your product is The One for her? Not much...30 seconds...

Now you need to identify your competition. Where may your imaginary customer already be buying the products you offer? Where else may she be considering a home business opportunity? Why is she looking or buying there? What does she like about that site? What do you or your product have to offer that is missing there?

By now you`re starting to identify your advantage, your edge, that relates to what this customer needs and wants. Staying focused on your customer, turn your edge into a sentence or sentences starting with "You", directed at how the customer will feel or be.

We`ve already dealt with the customer`s first question, "So what? What`s in it for me?" Now the second and third: "Why should I trust you or take a risk on your product?" and, "What do I do next?"

So, with your customer (not YOU, not the PRODUCT) in your mind`s eye, you have 30 seconds to grab her interest or her curiosity enough to make her want to read more, click and get more info, or click and buy.

Remember that old song that went something like this?: "If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life, Better make a pretty woman your wife. Or for my personal point of view, Get an ugly girl to marry you."

Then if I remember correctly, the singer goes on to explain the circumstances that made him an expert ;) in this area.

What`s in it for the listener? All the right buttons were pushed: happiness forever, marriage, advice from an expert, and curiosity about the rest of the song. Maybe he could have thrown in some financial security and a home, but pretty much all the bases were covered.

So hit your customer with what pretty much everyone wants: happiness, security, health, family, freedom...whatever fits. But don`t just talk about happiness and security, talk about feeling happy and secure. It may seem like semantics, but it`s really a huge difference.

You`ve nailed your customer`s needs and emotions, so now just write copy that flows from needs and dreams to information to the click that will sell or sign her up. If you lead her to a product information page, lead her to the final click. If it`s testimonials, or all about you, lead her to the click. When she`s ready to leave, ask her to complete a survey, sign up for a newsletter, sign a guestbook, and offer her a free ebook as a way of thanks for stopping by.

And if this ebook was written by your competition, now you`re starting to see how "drown the opponent" has been replaced by what some call "fusion marketing": in essence, partnerships for a win-win situation. His ebook gets out there, with his branded links inside; you benefit from his expertise and reputation and the ability to give your visitors a quality gift.

This relationship continues with reciprocal linking, contests with prizes, testimonials, co-authoring ebooks or co-writing a course or seminar, and any number of other collaborative possibilities, only limited by your imagination.

And, as you can see, you don`t have to be a novelist; we`re talking about writing for 30 seconds of reading for starters, then a bit more. Welcome to the New Paradigms of Marketing, compliments of the Internet.