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A little while ago, I came across a new product called 404 Secrets that shows how to monetize what's usually referred to as "deal real-estate" on a website. What's more - it's free. So does a free product actually do something useful for you or give you valuable information?
Have you ever visited a website, but typed in the wrong web address after the domain name? What did you see?
Chances are you saw a generic page that said something like, "The page cannot be displayed," or "Not Found," or "The requested URL was not found on this server."
This is what is commonly known as the 404 Error Page. It's the page that shows up by default when someone accidentally types in the wrong address of a page they're looking for on your site. Different web hosting services will show variations in text. The smarter ones will display ads for other services or products they offer. Essentially, they're making money off your website without you even knowing it.
Now, in many cases, people do reach the 404 Error page purely by mistake. However, in some instances, visitors end up on this page because they are snooping around, trying to find your download page or thank you pages without having to pay for your products or opt-in to a mailing list (if you're offering something free for signing up). It's a kind of low-down, mean and shady thing to do, but people do it.
Why not capitalize on it whether people are getting to that page by accident or on purpose? 404 Secrets tells you how exactly to go about doing this. If you have your own website and it gets traffic, some of your visitors are ending up on that 404 Error page. Now, if all they are seeing is the generic message that their browser shows them when it happens, then you are not making good use of that page. The page is what's known as "dead real-estate".
Every page of your website can put money in your pocket. Even your 404 error page. That page can be customized just like any other page on your website. And that's where 404 Secrets comes in.
Some ideas to think about putting on that page include:
Making an special offer at a discounted price
Turning it into a squeeze page (i.e. one that asks visitor to sign up to a mailing list)
Making it an Adsense page
Redirecting it to a related affiliate product
Those are just a few of the many different, yet profitable methods you can use to make better use of your 404 Error page.
It won't make you rich, but it definitely will put some extra money in your pocket. That money could maybe help you pay one of your bills, or you can just reinvest it into your business.
Either way, if you don't customize this page, you will be leaving money on the table (or, worse, giving it to someone else). Having something of interest for your visitors to see when they land on that page is far more beneficial to you than having it burp out the generic error message.
When I checked all my websites to see what happened when I typed in a bad URL, all but one redirected to a 404 Error page. My sites are hosted with a few different companies and two of them had advertisements for their own services on the 404 Error pages.
404 Secrets gives you some simple cut-and-paste templates to use for your own 404 Error pages and videos take you through the fairly simple process of setting up the 404 Error page to do what you want.
What's more, 404 Secrets is free. And the information it provides is invaluable. Already I've made some money (not a lot I have to confess) from hits to those 404 Error pages. But it's money for nothing. And that's never a bad thing!
Overall Rating: 5 / 5 stars (
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