Is your website a garage sale?    Check and see if your website is focused or offers too many unrelated or semi-related products.   By John Bolduan RealWebMarketing.com

I was over at my neighbor's garage sale the other day to see what goodies I could use. I saw a wide variety of things like any garage sale, so many that you can get lost in a selection from kid's toys to auto repair items to clothing. It's great to get rid of your junk and have people pay for it! I always hope that at some garage sale I'm going to find the ultimate bargain, like some worthless painting that was actually painted by Picasso. I think we all dream of finding a deal like that, but the reality is more like finding endless for a nickel each. 

But the thing you like to see at a garage sale is something you shouldn't see on your website. Unless you're an ite, you shouldn't see a sprawl of products that are unrelated to what you really do as a company or organization. Furthermore, you shouldn't see a widening variety of semi-related products that can confuse buyers or potential customers. Think about department stores, they've had the same problem over the years and have had to recreate themselves into to more specialized entities.

Let me clarify what I mean. When selling products online, it makes sense to only sell what you know about in which you are an expert. It seems obvious, but you should never sell air purifiers for the home when you sell upholstery fabric. You could say that they are both products used in a home, but that relationship really isn't close enough. The two types of searchers trying to find you might be confused on what you are. Yes, they may be in the market for both, but as we've seen the "We've got it all" websites don't do as well as a market focused websites. Many companies make the mistake of thinking that they've had success in one area, so they should branch out into other products to expand market share. They've had a successful formula in one area and they think if it works here, it should work there too. It's a recipe for disaster. That new product that you're not an expert in, will drain more time and finances than you can imagine. I once worked for a company that did this amidst employee protests, but alas it helped sink the company financially!  

I'll even go one step further. If you're an expert in one area of product and a semi-related product might become part of the offering to increase profits. It might work, but it might be detrimental to your total company effort. It can siphon off resources that would have been better spent on something that has already proved to be a winner. Line extension can be a dangerous thing and should be looked at carefully before you change your product or service offering. Take for instance the air purifier. If you sold air purifiers online, would it make sense to add a line of rug fresheners or deodorizers as a complimentary line? Once again, it might. It could even be a big seller, but does it detract from your company identity or from your core business? Remember, it's better to be focused on one product and be the expert rather than be a generalist who loses his identity, his special quality.  

Here are a couple of ideas about selling products online.

• Is your product a success? Good, be glad and focus on that product and how to make it even more successful.

• Remove products from your website that are not related to your main offering and consider ditching even semi-related products.

• Maximize the number of products that you do sell in your area of expertise.

Your website is not a garage sale, don't treat it like one. Be focused on the products or services that you're an expert in. Unless you're a clearing house of junk, then don't offer everything, it only confuses people. Let people find your website when they're looking for what you have to sell, not things you don't.