Why am I not making any sale?

[China Tea]

:oops: i have not made a sale since i opened my store last october 4. what am i not doing right? i read of so many internet success stories and now i am starting to wonder if all of such stories are exaggerated for a purpose.

Please give me some advice on how I can make a sale! my store is located at http://www.sh0pdrops.com.

Thank you.

[DSL Guy]

Hello China Tea,

It's been my experience of doing net business for a couple years that in order to get sales you need to build trust between you and your customers. Offer something that is of service and possibly free to do that. If your products are unique to your site, maybe you can point that out. Or if your products are at the lowest cost compared to x, y, or z site maybe you should point that out.

Also suggest to your visitors to bookmark your site for future ease of returning. I did that and am experiencing many return shoppers. Also do a study on internet best selling products. Where do your products rank on a scale of best selling products. I've gathered stats of sales by phone or face to face of my product. My online sales stats are right there with those percentages. So when I begin to wish I could do better, I remember I'm at a sales ratio equivalent to other marketing techniques.

Check out my site and you tell me if you would purchase there. If you would, why. If not, why not.

Best of Success China Tea

Added 10/25/04 11:24am CST USA

Something else to consider-

Doing business strictly online? Hardly any online business is 100% successful marketing solely on the internet. eBay does TV spots. Priceline.com does too. Many of these top internet retailers place ads in magazines and newspapers. Some even still mail out postcard direct mailers, or News Letters. You also need to diversify the pond you're fishing from. Are you telling your friends, family, or aquaintances about your web site? (Most of us really don't like doing that though ) Referrals will come from doing that.
Compare how you are marketing to how big name marketers of similar products are marketing.

Finally, attempt to establish yourself locally first. You will build credibility fast this way. Put your ad in local school event programs as a local sponsor. Many mothers will see it and if I'm correct women are your target audience.

Have a great day China Tea :wink:

PS- I'm a Minnesotan/Wisconsinite transplanted from Oxnard, California. California born and raised. I miss it a lot. ( not the freeway congestion or long lines in grocery stores or banks )
All of California was my territory before I decided to leave it all behind for the Great White North. I love it up here.

[robinev]

A quick glance at the site you posted with your message doesn't inspire me to buy anything from it. In fact, it's one of the last sites to which I'd submit my credit card number.

It's not really clear what you're selling on the site other than spammer utilities of various kinds. Your "product" seems to have something to do with personalized products of some kind. But when I tried to follow a link to find out what kind, I was (despite using a popup blocker) presented with two pages, one of which filled up my screen completely. When that happens, my response is to close out all open browser screens.

If you really want to sell to anyone other than a fool, I think that the first task would be to get rid of all the spam links.

[DSL Guy]

I would suggest also to use an invisible hit tracker. If you're using StatCounter and I think you are, you should make it invisible so no one really knows how many visitors you have.

By noticing that you have only 1000 plus hits to your site, it tells me you haven't been on the web long. It's better to let people wonder about that.

Also your return policy might just scare people off. I understand that you can't take back certain products and if I were thinking of buying I would change my mind about buying from your site and just go down to Kmart or Walmart.

[Ziploxx]

I must agree with Robinev and DSL Guy...Design is EVERYTHING in a storefront. Sell the products, not the site. I understand where you were going with the design you have, it just needs better pictures of the products and less advertisements for other people's websites.

Someone might look at your site and say, "Oh, there are some nice candles. I'm going to go back there after I look at this other section." Then they see a little link graphic to go to the Animation Factory website and they go play around there for an hour instead of shopping your site. It's nice to feature your artists and employees etc, but they should have a sepperate section quite away from the main store.

Try restructuring your site a bit. On the home page show off a 'Featured Item" of the week. Make the home page your 'base' and all of the shopping categories can be more detailed there, so that people know what you are selling instantly. People, unfortunatly are like sheep, and we have a very short attention span. Umm, what was I saying? (hehee) Think about this...You have been working with your site for months, putting it together, arranging graphics, making links and text etc etc. YOU know by heart everything that is at your site, but your guests have never been there before. Try to make things a little more obvious.

I really like some of the elements you have going though. Keep working with it China Tea. You'll get there.

Good luck.

[Ziploxx]

Addendum: After looking around your site again, I noticed better how things are structured. Seems to be structured by the maker or brand.

Also your hit counter is adding +1 for every page hit, and not for every visitor. I would definitly check your code and make an invisible counter.

[China Tea]

:oops:

Your comments are all well-taken. I will take the necessary steps to undo the elements that are going against my marketing (if you can call it that). You are all so well-informed and awesome and I do feel so embarrassed about the "errors" in strategy. I am grateful that you responded and cared enough to point out the flaws which were obvious to everyone but me . . .

I will certainly redo my home page and other "distracting" links . . . Thank you, everyone!

[DSL Guy]

It's good you can take criticism constructively. Don't feel embarrassed or like you know nothing. I bet most if not all of us here have boobooed a few times. I still do. That's an opportunity for me to learn. And remember always -
" The dumbest question is the one you don't ask".

[Lizanderik]

i think dsl guy is right. the site looks great, but i am wary to buy from an unknown source. i do like the stuff though! don't feel too bad-i haven't sold anything in my cafe press shop either!

[DSL Guy]

Hi China Tea,

I was just visiting your shop. I noticed the statement across the top of the home page indicating how you just opened - "since October 4, 2004".

That's OK.

Have you put together all your meta tags for keywords, website title and description, abstract description? If you don't know ask your webmaster.
These are good when you submit your site to search engines and directories.

I noticed you're getting no page rank from Google. That means Google, if and when it crawls your site, is seeing your home page as of no or low importance because you apparently have more links (A) pointing to another webpage link (B). Each time (A) points to (B) it's a vote for (B). You should study up on this to get better Google page rank. If not you, then your webmaster. I will also later post a program you can try for no cost to you. Must go now. J.O.B. is calling.

[China Tea]

Hello DSL

You're a kind old soul - you should be in the diplomatic service instead! Your critiques always come with a heart! Thanks for the DSLs of the world.

I am my webmaster...can't you tell? Very soon, I will do things better.

China Tea

[DSL Guy]

:o Thanks China Tea. I am having my 47th Birthday this Election Day.

I like sharing what I'm learning to sharpen myself. If I'm incorrect about something somebody will correct that and I get to learn something in the process.

Speaking on learning, here is some info on Page Rank straight from the horses mouth.

Introduction

Google runs on a unique combination of advanced hardware and software. The speed you experience can be attributed in part to the efficiency of our search algorithm and partly to the thousands of low cost PC's we've networked together to create a superfast search engine.

The heart of our software is PageRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.

PageRank Explained

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

Integrity
Google's complex, automated methods make human tampering with our results extremely difficult. And though we do run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a higher PageRank). A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to find high-quality websites with information relevant to your search.

©2004 Google - Home - About

I tend to bet Google won't mind me copying this here for our personal use.

All this goes back to link popularity and link exchanges. How important they are to the search function.

Have a great weekend>>> :)

[for2kids]

So China Tea, how is it going? Any results yet?

[China Tea]

Hello for2kids

:oops: I have made one sale so far . . . :oops: But I am holding on. I am learning a lot from this web retailing business and I think that is a net gain in itself.

Right now, I am trying to improve my site with tips that I get from the real webmasters (I am not!) the likes of the Stats Forum "intelligensia" . I am concentrating on how to be more visible and more attractive to my visitors for them to stay longer and buy something.

Two days my site was crawled by Google. This is not out of the ordinary but I was excited anyway. I now have 61 items (out of 1000 plus) showing on Froogle (even if I did not data feed) and some of my keywords are listed no 1 to 6 in Yahoo, Alta Vista and Google searches. I am studying my keywords and how to use them more effectively.

Bottom line is I am here to stay for a while. I may not be making a sale but I enjoy developing my site and the people I meet everyday in the process.

I love cats... they are all girls - 2 Persians and 1 domestic! So I will be visiting your site regularly!

China Tea

[for2kids]

Hi China Tea,
Well, that's the spirit! NOT giving up and enjoying every step of the way. It may be cheaper to start a business online, but no one can honestly say that it is easier, it requires hard work!

And one sale, that's great, some people have been online longer than you have and have just quit without any sales, so you are on the right track.

I'm not familiar with froggle, all I know it has something to do with google, but for what you're saying you're doing your homework and you're getting results, the rest is just a matter of time!

I belong to a online business exclusive mentoring group and there's one on one coaching to make you work more effectively and that turns into your business bringing you more money. Let me know if you're interested and I'll give you the link, they will help you all the way, starting with your website, keywords, bringing traffic, the best way to make your site sell your products. So much information you would not believe how much you can learn in a few days. I just want to make clear this is NOT a business opportunity or MLM.

Good luck with your venture, and keep up the good work!

[CaribbeanChoice]

I just visited your shop and my first impression was that I wasn't sure what you were selling just by looking at the front page. You might want to see about making it more obvious. Something that sums it up and at one glance I know "oh, this website is about things that will help me have a beautiful life!" If that is what your theme is, then you need to make it more obvious. Having a theme will tie everything together, otherwise you are just another shop selling nik-naks. But then you need to go a step further and make sure they understand the three divisions that you have divided your shop into and what is available in each. Your website looks like a great idea, just the home page needs a bit of focus. (Which is normal, the home page is the hardest page to design well. Our home page sucked for 4 years before I finally came up with one people seem to like and use. And quite honestly, I still am not satisfied with it!)

Also, keep in mind that it takes time to get orders. In business, when they say something is an overnight success, they mean that they were sucessful after a couple of years!!! For example, Google was an overnight success. But how many years where they running before they really got big? Also, it takes people time to find and trust a new store. For example, we started our website back in September 1998, and in June or July 2004 we added travel services to our website. People were not used to us offering travel services and it took at least a month before we had our first order. And this even though we are ranked by Alexa in the top 100,000 websites in the world out of millions! But most of our traffic was for recipes, not travel, so we have to build the travel part of our website now. My point is, keep promoting, keep building, keep refining. Your website will grow. :D

Hi China Tea,

I was just visiting your shop. I noticed the statement across the top of the home page indicating how you just opened - "since October 4, 2004".

That's OK.
I disagree. Credibility is everything. Advertising that you are only a month old would leave most people wary of dealing with you. You don't have to lie about it, but you don't necessarily have to advertise the fact either. I'd remove that and only put that back up after you have been around at least a year.

PageRank Explained
I thought that was PigeonRank (http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html)! :wink:

[China Tea]

Hello Carribean Choice,

Thank you for your visit. And thank you for your observations.

You are so right! My theme is really a blur. It does not go through a well-lit road. I have struggled with it since day 1 and I am still looking for the best way to present it clearly. To tell you the truth, the idea of inspiring a visitor to live a beautiful life from a general merchandise store seems too far-fetched. But I can not come up with an alternative theme that would tie all these products together. (Any ideas?)

I will take out my "serving you since . . .". I will put it back after a year.

I am grateful for the time you invested in my store.

China Tea

[trackerm]

Hi China Tea

These are just my ideas, just to help your ideas :)

Honing your strategy is important in all these things. To be able to say 100 words in 5 words is possible. 5 words convey a clearer message.

In the honing (or editing, cutting, sharpening) look at every word on your main page. There are things written there 3 times! The navigation is done 3 times in 3 different ways leading to 3 different pages (as far as I can see). In the left nav bar there is a list of items. But in the horizontal nav bar, with the little pics, there is a different set of items, including 2 “YOU” (leading to different pages). Then there is a third set of links under the pics with different names. If I look for Zen in the pics, there is a different Zen below.
My thoughts would be to have one navigation system. “You” is too broad. Whats the difference between ‘You” and “NewU”? If NewU means a make-over use that: “Make-overs!”

“What is the BUG? Who is the Bug? Where is the Bug? Catch the bug! Or should you let the bug just get YOU?” You don’t answer your own question. You are not selling an insect, so tell them what you are selling clearly or delete the line.

Why does the pic menu “girl” go to a page with a link? It should go straight to the http://www.shopdrops.com/lagicl.html page. Get rid of the banner ads for other companies as you are not making money from them.

I like the “Your Shopkeepers” page as it tells me a bit about you. I would enjoy seeing a little headshot of each of the people in your team. That way I can see who I am dealing with. I would also put your photo on the main page: “Hi, I’m Cora! I love shopping in small individual stores for unique items. So I’ve made a site so you can come shopping with me!” Something personal like that can make me trust your site more as I feel I can know you, have a personal shopping relationship with you, and my purchasing will be safe.

All the best :)

Mark

[weborg]

I might suggest some longer, more interesting descriptions for your products. Are you on eBay? I mention it because it would give you exposure. You may also want to take a look at your metatags. Your site definitely has the potential for adding so many more keywords that could help with traffic. I may suggest too something more eye-catching for your home page. This page strikes me more as something one would find after they've entered the site. A good place I've found for templates, if just to give you ideas, is www.pixelmill.net. Good luck!

Chris

[China Tea]

Hello Mark and Chris,

Thank you for your suggestions. Mark, you are so right about the insect. I sound as if I was selling an insect. I will de-bug shortly. The reason why I use the same words so many times is because I read somewhere that the search engines will find you easier if your keywords are used more than once. (so, is that just a myth?) Otherwise, I do not like using the same words over and over again on a page. And I know . . . I am not really making money on ads and I do not know why I keep them like a hoarder keeps his junk. Mark, your points are well-taken . . . I will definitely go on a purging sked soon.

Chris, your site is so lovely. . . The images are simply breath-taking. I will recommend your rings to some artists I know. I will try to find the courage to put up my picture on my info page. . . It's just not easy for me to go public. Thank you for your kind interest.

And nice meeting you on the web!

[Arne]

The reason why I use the same words so many times is because I read somewhere that the search engines will find you easier if your keywords are used more than once.

The way you are doing it, the search engines consider it spamming! They are programmed to see things like that and then avoid from indexing the page. From the "view source" I counted your "title" line to a total of 17 lines, and the same lines repeted as "keywords". That I belive is spamming to the search engines. A "title" is as most 256 letters (and spaces included). Not all browsers show all 256 either. Therefore a "title" as long as you is spamming. Considering the same lines also is in "keywords", they probably will be exluded from indexing.

You can of cause repeat the words you consider as "keywords" for your site and business. But do it in the description of your site and business, in description of your products, in a "normal" way to write about it.

[China Tea]

Thanks Arne .

I am learning a lot from you guys. Thanks a lot for spending your time to teach me. I take your observations very seriously.

Now I am more motivated to make a sale!

Maraming salamat po, ("thank you", in Tagalog/Filipino)
China Tea

[DSL Guy]

Just wanted to say hello and hope you and your family are doing well - and beautiful.

I'm going down a route rarely, if ever, traveled by people in my area of marketing China Tea.

Compare other broadband sites to what I did recently. I won't say what I did so you'll have to go there to find out what I'm talking about.

I think I'm ready for the brutal truth so let me have it. 8)

[China Tea]

Nice to hear from you again DSL Guy! How are you doing?

I noticed three things -

There is a picture of a man ---- is that YOU? (You mentioned that you have gone public, so I am guessing that that is you. You look like a foreigner to me! (ha-ha-ha, everybody looks foreign to me, like I look foreign to everybody in America!)

Then, you have a banner indicating that you are a validated site for safe shopping. (does it cost much to have a site validated?)

And you have a new e-mail link.

I may have missed something . . . like your new " add me to your favorites" link?

I think you also re-located your scroll down menu below (it was on the top right-hand side before where the man's picture is right now).

If I missed things, point them out to me! Anyway, your site always looks trustworthy and professional. It does not seem to need any make-over like mine does!

I am ok - considering all the corrections I am doing to my site. . .

Keep in touch!

[China Tea]

Hello DSL Guy?

Long Distance and Communications Products and Services - are these the new areas that you have gone into?

And is this the most obvious addition/change you made?

Do not keep me guessing!

China Tea

[DSL Guy]

I work very late and get up the following day around afternoon. :roll:

Anyway, yes that's me. Yes most people say I appear Middle-Easternish like Lebanese - some say Italian - some say Space Alien. I claim Space Alien, not really even though that's truer than most of us think. :lol:

That was the first change- to give a more personal touch and put a face with my name and URL. :)

The second was to do away with information not relevant to my customer's search for DSL so they don't get :? .

I added a little link at the bottom to trigger the web page to go back to the top. :arrow:

I added that little search box with the customizable links for enjoyment purposes.(mine I suppose) :P

The telecom site is not new. I've had it for many years as an affiliate agent. I'm coming out of the closet with it though and not masking the fact that I am an agent. 8)

Finally, The Overture Square Trade Seal is displayed on 2 of my sites. It isn't costing me anything thru the Christmas season. ( a special deal I worked out with Jimmy and Sean at Overture) It really is useful though to have them scan my site daily. They detected some very important security issues with my server company that now have been fixed. :D

I'll see how the coming-out-public affects my stats. Maybe it won't change a thing but since I'm strictly internet marketing, at this time, I'm trying a few things. This business truly requires "taking it to the streets"
like the Doobie Brothers sang about :!:

Looks like your thread is really taking off now as opposed to before the elections. Your getting lots of advice and I hope you can glean some wisdom from some of it. Keep up your hard work Chine Tea. Even if you're not successful in the traditional $$ since of the word, you will be a success by not giving up. :D

Did I overdo those little emoticons again :?:

[DSL Guy]

Seemed my Coming-Out didn't do what I wanted it to so I removed that update.

Sorry to disappoint so many statcounter users who have visited recently but that's the way it goes.

[China Tea]

DSL Guy,

Does this mean I should follow suit? :shock: I just got my image out! (like 2 minutes ago . . . ) I placed it out on the "Meet the Shopkeepers" page . . .
(Also links from "We Are Just A Click Away" teaser below logo on the front page!

Shall I leave it for a day and see what happens? :roll:

China Tea

[DSL Guy]

http://www.profitzone.com/pznews/feb02-sell-a-service.html

This is a link to an article written by Corey Rudl, Millionaire internet marketer. Take it with a grain of salt. He does make excellent points and has great suggestions.

The reason I removed my photo is it wasn't professionally done.

The difference between my product and yours is yours is tangible. A shopper can purchase from you a 4oz jar of skin moisturizer but a shopper can't buy any package of DSL or Broadband. I provide a service and that means I really need to sell me.

Leave your photo up and see what your stats look like after a few days or a couple weeks. If you think shoppers are staying longer or buying more often because of it, leave it.

PS- you have a very beautiful smile :)

[JWJ]

If it were me I would definitely go one step further ... I would place that great photo on your home page in place of the vase of flowers.

Your face sums up exactly what people want to see when they step into a neighbourhood shop ... it is welcoming, warm, friendly, attractive and very trustworthy. I would put quotation marks around the block of text to the right of the vase so that it looks like a personal statement from you. (It might even be worth using over large quotation marks to emphasise that this is a personal quote). I would then cement the picture and the quote together by adding your 'real' name to the bottom of the quote.

It is hard to be 'personal' on the world wide web, yet that is what one expects in a neighbourhood store. Your photo can, in my opinion, bridge that gap by giving your visitors a trustworthy and friendly identity they can feel instantly comfortable with.

[China Tea]

Thanks for your comments. It is easier to take a leap and fall when you know that there are people around you who will help you up!

You are great people!

China Tea

[JWJ]

China Tea, I have copied your quote to here in order to keep it on topic. I hope you don't mind.

John,

I have incorporated the suggestions you made for my website.

I hope you don't mind my mentioning your name under my grace notes.

Can I add your site to my friendly links and arts directory (only if it's ok with you.)

China Tea

The change to your homepage hasn't quite worked as I'd expected. Nice picture ... but I think it's too detached from the text for it to be obvious that it is 'you' speaking. Also the use of your web name rather than your real name doesn't give visitors the confidence they need that you are real and accountable. I've cut & pasted an image of what was in my mind which I'll email to you. But this is only my personal opinion and I know nothing about site design so please don't rely too heavily on my comments. Do what you're comfortable with.

Thank you for including me in your grace notes and for your kind words. Yes, I would be very happy about a link. But that brings me on to two other points. Firstly, you might want to consider moving your grace notes away from your front page. They are nice ... but they are 'unnecessary clutter' in your shop window. Also, make every link work for you by making it reciprocal. Search engines like external links to your site so use that to your own advantage. As you know, I am reworking my site, and when I redo my links page I will add a link to shopsdrop (if that's ok :) ).

There's lots of other good advice already been given in this thread especially with regards to advertising that take your visitors away from your site, but any form of link that will take your visitor away should be in 'the back room', not in your window.

Keep up the good work ... it will pay off in the end.

[China Tea]

Hello "Sir" John, (my knight in shining armor),

Thank you for taking the time.

I am not sure if I will keep my picture on the front page permanently . . . I am always afraid people might not like the idea of shopkeepers hanging their pictures on the shop's walls.

But you are right about owning up to one's accountability and giving the impression of trustworthiness especially for a little unknown shop like mine.

As to the links, I do not really mind if I do not get a reciprocal link from YOUR SITE. Your link will do my site a favor by simply gracing it. I do not expect reciprocal links when I link sites I personally like and which I think are compatible to the theme of the store.

I personally think that shopdrops.com (shopping) will not be compatible to your site's theme.

Again, thank you for your time and keep the creative juices pouring . . .

China Tea (is it ok to claim that China Tea is my real name?)

[spirelli]

Ah, so that's you picture at the front!? Well, I'd take it down if I were you , because:

1. Knowbody know that it's you. People will think that is a beautishot od just anybody to enspire them along the theme and for that:
2. It is not a beautiful enough picture (I don't mean you!!). I mean that the picture is blury and just not what I'd understand as a good shot (e.g. backgroung has the same colour as your hair...)

I did not read what other people said, but I would think about a complete redesign of the visual appearance of the site.

You know, all these beautiful words you used "Special" "beauty" "love and serenity" - well, I find your site just does not look like this. The only thing that is good on the front page is the picture of the bag with the flowers. But the rest of the frontpage is just cluttered. It lacks two things: 1. as I said it does not look "beautiful" (at least to me that is), and 2. it does not look like a reputable company.

Some suggestions:
Get rid of this forrest of links in the second half of the page. (Well, I am on a high resolution screen so I get to see the whole of your page at once, it's not too bad on a smaller screen)
Use some colour that gives a sense of beauty, warmth, nature... (also for the links, there must be something better than the default blue!)
Put your "GRACE NOTES" on a seperate page (maybe 'about us')
I would think of not having this long intro text at the start, but maybe have something more visually inspiring, like carefully chosen and meanuingful pictures for your main categories, that reflect the main structure of yur shop.
Also, your sitename at the top does not help. It's big and black and therefore not that nice.

I also feel that the categories don't really say what products they get in them. People will soon loose interest is they see that they can't really comprehent what you sell. Don't expect them to discover- or better, make it easy for them to discover. I just have te feeling when I go through the site that the products are too far away (in whatever way).

Dedicate you site to the stuff you sell. That will make it look more professional and trustworthy. That would mean to leave out the frebies like pop-ub blocker, Javascript kit, statcounter; all that advertising (are they really needed?), google search bars.... All these don't make your shop look "beautiful" at all.

I think the idea with the art prints is quite good. But also make sure that your visitors get to see the products fast! Maybe you should just choose 1 artprint per category and display this larger at the side on all pages of that category.

Maybe look on the internet for sites that you think are 1. really beautiful 2. professional 3. easy and efficient to use 4. sell stuff. Then see how they acheive this.

Hope that helps. Don't be dicouraged. But I think you should sit down (without the computer) and properly design your pages. Make sure that they are best in terms of usability as well as visually appealing. You seem to appreciate beauty and art. So maybe getting away frojm the computer and putting it on paper will help.

[JWJ]

You're very welcome China Tea.

Make whatever changes you're comfortable with and then monitor your stats for a while. You can always do more later.

[China Tea]

Thank you Spirelli and John for the substantial time you gave my site.

I am in the process of de-bugging my site with clutter but I have to go through a lot of pages so I am taking it slow.

You are right Spirelli about that picture --- it is not professionally done - I will take it down in time.

There is so much cleaning up I have to do and sometimes I get overwhelmed by it all. That's why I welcome sites like John's where I can relax and get inspired.

Again thank you for your continuing interest in my plight. It means so much to me that people like you care enough to write.

China Tea

[DSL Guy]

Good morning All and have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Hi China Tea:
It's early in the morning hours but quiet enough to do some homework. Everyones sleeping here except me obviously. I do my best study in a quiet place. Anyway, here's what I have, if you haven't used a tool like this already :
Go to this site and locate the free tools in the Search Engine Marketing Section.

http://www.marketleap.com/default.htm

It will give you great insight into what you most likely need to do to increase your exposure: "Link Popularity Check" will show you how many ways you are linked in the major search engines/ "Search Engine Saturation" will show you how many web pages you have indexed on all the major search engines/ "Keyword Verification" will tell you if you are indexed within the first 3 pages of 9 major search engines using the keywords you are targeting.

I've used this tool to give me an idea of how the search engines see my sites. I can locate the pages and info they have indexed and then target submit pages and info they haven't indexed yet. You can also get an idea of how well the keywords you use are working to get you within the first 3 pages of results. Remember that #1 is not the only best place to be. Shoppers may go to #1 but more often will continue on to page 2 or 3 or 4 and possibly higher. I've got one site that is indexed under two different titles but will be found using the same keywords. I don't think I have any sites showing up within the first three pages except on Moodule which is a new search engine. I'm competing against millions of other indexed pages and I would guess you are too. That's one reason why it's good for me to work on "Link Popularity" which means posting in directories, forums, PPC to get indexed on other sites.( I'm indexed on yours now), because your site was crawled since posting the Grace Note to me. Thanks sincerely. However that also means if you search you can find your site come up some place near where mine might come up but not always. You may be in a dslexperts.net result on Yahoo or All the Web or Alta Vista. That's how "Link Popularity" works.

Anyone who is interested in knowing these qualities of their web site and how the search engines see them, and believes these qualities really matter just as much as the aesthetics of what the viewer sees should use this free tool. Besides, how else will viewers see the beauty of your site if your site is buried beneath 10's of thousands of other indexed web sites.
_________________

[JWJ]

As a newbie there's a lot I don't understand, but one thing that is quite clear to me from using these tools is that it's a wonder I ever get ANY visitors to my site :(

Thanks for telling us about this great tool.

[DSL Guy]

Your very welcome JWJ... anything to help you.

using these tools I recently checked my regional urls for common keywords and made changes to cross-over urls. I checked my hit stats and found for keyword on yahoo "carroll county dsl coverage" my dsseller.com in #1 spot and my dslexperts.net site in #7 and #17 position. That put me on page one and two. That's today but maybe not next week unless I get the crawlers to refresh the index by submitting new url info. So now I find I do have sites in the first 3 pages of Yahoo using that phrase and Moodule using others. These are the keywords I need to target to stay with a high rank.

I work with a network of professional internet marketers and whenever I come across free tools like this or better again I'll post the URL.

[China Tea]

Hello DSL Guy,

I just woke up myself (8:30 am, California time, Wednesday) --- made a jar of coffee and opened the mail... and got the advisory from you. Thanks!

I also linked the site of a friend of mine from my front page. Yahoo and Google now brings his site up when mine is (I am stating this in layman's lingo because that's the only way I know how). Google even brings his products (which do not compete with mine) up in Froogle! Incidentally, my front page does not carry active outside links anymore (per Forum's suggestion- I just make plain references to sites) however I still carry your site in my Friendly Links. (JWJ - I will include yours soon! - I am just burn out from editing my site!)

Well, at least I did something good ---- YOU gave this "newbie who cannot learn" a lot of help! It's about time I gave something in return!

Happy thanksgiving to you and JWJ and Christina and Spirelli and Arne and Carribean Choice and Trackerm and for2kids and Proteus and Motorwatcher and oh the so many popular names in this forum amd of course to the STATCOUNTER FORUM's administrators!

I just love your distinct web personalities!!!

China Tea

[China Tea]

Is it because it is the shopping season? :roll:

I have to share with you the excitement :D I got from 8) new orders that I received since Monday. I just got another order this evening from Florida.

Our active forum members have always emphasized the importance of projecting "trustworthiness". I have been working like crazy (I have more than 1000 items for sale) correcting my mistakes. I am not done yet but I re-did my company info, my privacy policy, my returns policy and shipping policy and displayed accessible links to their pages. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do!

I noticed from my "recent visitor activity" report that determined shoppers spend like 15 minutes reading my company info and policies before they actually clicked the shopping bag icon. What I am trying to say is these resolute shoppers do like to know who they are buying from. Of course you know that . . . Well, I took it for granted before I met you guys. :oops:

Thank you for all your comments and critiques. . . I hope I will continue to learn from you.

China Tea 8), finally cool?

[JWJ]

That is just FANTASTIC news .... I am so pleased for you.

I must also say well done for making the effort to use StatCounters terrific statistics to understand what a paying customer is looking at on your site prior to making a purchase. Until you had paying customers you could only guess, but now you've got some, you can study their behaviour and make further tweaks to your site to try and convert even more visits into sales.

I am very excited for you ... keep up the good work :D

[China Tea]

Hello John,

Isn't that good news? What's even better is I can share my excitement with you guys! I know I am getting a bit personal :oops: but being a member here is more than being a student . . . you get to really like the teachers and the classmates and bond with them. :oops:

Yeah, it is important, extremely important that you gain the trust of a customer not just because you need to make a sale, but because you are indeed trustworthy, business-wise!

John, thanks for all the good advice! StatCounter, I am on my way!!!

China Tea

[JWJ]

Yeah, it is important, extremely important that you gain the trust of a customer not just because you need to make a sale, but because you are indeed trustworthy, business-wise!

.... and you need 'em to come back :wink:

[China Tea]

Sorry to revive this old topic . . .

I am just frustrated that I will have to cancel two (2) orders because my supplier/distributor cannot dropship to my customers because the items are out of stock! :x Another good reason for not making a sale.

This is the curse of small retailers who depend on their suppliers for stock. And yet, it is not really wise to stock inventory when sales are not predictable. . .

Woe on me! :cry:

China Tea

[JWJ]

That's bad news ... I'm so sorry. I understand your woe. :cry:

I was thinking of reviving this topic myself by way of enquiring as to whether your level of sales had fallen off now Chistmas is over. My guess is that it should have done, but I'd be interested to know whether your overall sales now are improved on what they were before The Statcounter Team got involved. :wink: Let us know how it's going, ok?

[webado]

That's bad news ... I'm so sorry. I understand your woe. :cry:

I was thinking of reviving this topic myself by way of enquiring as to whether your level of sales had fallen off now Chistmas is over. My guess is that it should have done, but I'd be interested to know whether your overall sales now are improved on what they were before The Statcounter Team got involved. :wink: Let us know how it's going, ok?
He-he! Are you hinting perhaps that the Statcounter Team should be getting a comission? :lol:

PS: Just kidding, China Tea!

[China Tea]

I would give commissions if I could get sales.

Yes, sales have dropped down to cancelled orders. Even my page views dropped drastically. My traffic ranking with Alexa dropped down from 500,000 something back to 600,000 something.

Shall I close shop? :oops: I will be spending about $70.00/month plus a penalty of $15.00 to my card payment processor for not making a miminum sale of $25.00 every month.

I could spend that money on cigarettes and ice cream! :idea:

Shopkeeper, shopkeeper . . . find me a sale!

China Tea

[webado]

Wait, Valentine's coming soon! Stock up on chocolates shaped hearts :lol:

[China Tea]

Yeah, I forgot about Valentine's Day!. :idea:

I will surely wait and see what happens to my sales. Much as I would like to stock on heart-shaped chocolates, however, I don't think I can keep my inventory levels high, because I will be eating all my inventory
myself! :lol:

Seriously, I would like to keep my shop for a while (for as long as I can afford it anyway). I love keeping it afloat . . . maintaining it is like a good hobby (and I guess, some form of addiction). Besides, if I no longer own a site, I will lose the "privilege" of hanging around the webmasters at statforum . . . :wink:

So there. . .

China Tea

[motorwatchercounter]

Shall I close shop? :oops: I will be spending about $70.00/month plus a penalty of $15.00 to my card payment processor for not making a miminum sale of $25.00 every month.

China Tea

It's a lot of money. You could get a years hosting with Christina and accept credit card payments from www.2checkout.com for the money you are spending per month. After the first month it will give you the $85 each month to buy stock.

I wouldn't have a problem shipping stuff from the UK if there is a profit in it for you (Nothing too large so don't think about antique furniture).

[webado]

:roll: :shock: :? :?:

I didn't say nuttin' myself :oops:

[motorwatchercounter]

Sad to say this but on Sky at the moment on Reality TV is about the RCMP (Serve & Protect). That Quebec looks a rough area. :wink:

[China Tea]

Christina,

We talked about this before. . . Will the transfer be smooth?


Motorwatcher,

credit card payment processing rates from www.2checkout.com are good.

But again, what does Christina think? She knows about my Yahoo account.

China

[motorwatchercounter]

Christina,

credit card payment processing rates from www.2checkout.com are good.
But again, what does Christina think? She knows about my Yahoo account.
China

That is only one option but has more credibility than paypal. Also once you have signed up you only pay if you sell. I have an account set up with them.

They provide a free shopping cart if needed and very easy to set up. Not too technical.

At worst you save $85 a month and still have a site and can take cards.

[webado]

Christina,

We talked about this before. . . Will the transfer be smooth?


Motorwatcher,

credit card payment processing rates from www.2checkout.com are good.

But again, what does Christina think? She knows about my Yahoo account.

China
China, I don't know how easy it is to duplicate the yahoo templates you're using. I don't have any tools similar to what you get at yahoo for building and maintaining your site in that manner.

While my webhosting terms are very affordable, I just don't have tools for that.

don't know if your site can be migrated all that easily. The commerce part may be a bigger problem. And if you want to modify it, you'll have to learn weblish real fast yourself.

[China Tea]

I wonder if they will be compatible with Yahoo! Merchant Solutions payment processor - FDMS.

I guess I can ask . . .

So, What does Christina think about me transfering my account to her?

China

[motorwatchercounter]

China, I don't know how easy it is to duplicate the yahoo templates you're using. I don't have any tools similar to what you get at yahoo for building and maintaining your site in that manner.

While my webhosting terms are very affordable, I just don't have tools for that.

don't know if your site can be migrated all that easily. The commerce part may be a bigger problem. And if you want to modify it, you'll have to learn weblish real fast yourself.

DW can replicate the site if you want to keep the format. The commerce part is easy. You add the product onto their database. They produce the code. You cut and paste to create the button. This links the product and the details go onto their secure server. they take the card details, shipping address and send you an email telling you what has been brought and where to ship it too.

Very easy. No need to set up a IPN or worry about dumping details into a cgi bin as shipping will only happen when the email confirmation comes through.

Year one total costs $85 for the hosting and card set up (+ commision on sales only). Year 2 just the years hosting so half of that.

[China Tea]

Now I am confused . . .

Who is DW?

I am so ignorant of everything that nothing is easy fo me. I am interested in the visa processing however . . .

BTW, I forgot to tell you that I have more than 1000 pages . . . and I really do not have enough time to redo my site . . . Will that be a problem?


China

[webado]

Sure, DW can do that or something like that. But it's not Yahoo Site Builder or whatever they offer, that's all. China Tea would have to get and learn other tools. There's a learning curve involved, keep that in mind.

I'm sure the commerce part is relatively easy. Not looked into it, I might one of these days, for my own enlightment. It won't look and feel exactly as the curent one, but I've not looked at that either.

China Tea, I'll need to discuss some details with you privately if you're at all interested in this, no strings, no promises. Maybe we can meet in Chat or on MSN eventually.

[webado]

DW is short for dreamweaver - a web design program. Sort of like Frontpage.

1000 pages? that's quite a lot. I wonder if that's just that it seems to be a page per item or what?

[motorwatchercounter]

I understand how it works. At the moment you use the shop front but don't own or see any of the products as they come direct from the drop shop company's. I won't go into costs or profit margins on the open forum. But this is costing you.

There are 4 real options.
1) Do nothing. The costs and everything else remains the same.
2) Close the site.
3) Get other drop shop companys to supply goods to advertise on you site or change card processing companys or both.
4) Buy you own products and advertise them.

The real question is, is it making you any money or is it an expense as it is? At the moment you are advertising other peoples products and you are paying for that privilige (???)

[China Tea]

Well, I have more than 1609 items in my catalog manager listing, thus about that much in pages if not more.

If the transfer is possible, we can seriously talk about it. However, I would not want to spend too much time (because I do not have enough)re-doing my site all over again if it can be avoided.

I certainly welcome the economics, however, so . . .

What do you think?

China

[motorwatchercounter]

I have to crash soon (4:15am here)

Are you tied to use Yahoo? In other works can you drop shop buy the products without using Yahoo or your current card provider?

[China Tea]

I could but that would mean I will have to come up with a new website. I am not tied to them like in a binding contract. I can drop them with one phone call but my website goes too.

[motorwatchercounter]

If you dropped them could you still get the products?

[webado]

Hmmmm... I don't know, I'd have to see the actual contents of the web site hosting account in terms of actual files and how that translates to what we see on the web. I am not very good at guessing.

I don't think you have 1600 or whatever pages. I think you may have a few distinct pages, one of them being a shell, a sort of template for the display of products coming from a database of sorts. The database being probably Yahoo's own thing. if you cancel yahoo hosting, you indeed cancel the access to this database.

Well, at least this is how I perceive it. I may be totally off. So somebody put me straight then.

--- Later ---

Errr.. I just looked at the explanation of Yahoo stores. The basic package includes 100 email accounts? 10GB of disk space? 200GB of monthly bandwidth? No way would I have that! I can't even imagine what kind of monster site that would be!

[motorwatchercounter]

I don't think you have 1600 or whatever pages. I think you may have a few distinct pages, one of them being a shell, a sort of template for the display of products coming from a database of sorts.

Errr.. I just looked at the explanation of Yahoo stores. The basic package includes 100 email accounts? 10GB of disk space? 200GB of monthly bandwidth? No way would I have that! I can't even imagine what kind of monster site that would be!

It looks like a simple, central database with a unique account number as the referer.

Why would you need 100 emails, 10Gb disk space and 200Gb bandwidth? It is impressive but I would guess that no-one even comes close to that.

[China Tea]

Motorwatcher wrote

Why would you need 100 emails, 10Gb disk space and 200Gb bandwidth? It is impressive but I would guess that no-one even comes close to that.

Because my account which is the "starter" account, thus the least expensive in the merchant accounts category, came with it. Here are the perks of my merchant account.

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant/c1.php

I forgot to mention that when I went live, I paid to submit my site to search engines as part of the promotions. . . something like $280.00/annum.

If I migrate out of Yahoo, will the searh engines find me again? (and have the same:roll: "popularity" that my site now enjoys?)

China Tea

[motorwatchercounter]

Hi China Tea,

You would have to start from scratch. You need think carefully about this. Work out the maths on what it costs and what you have earned.

If it is costing you then anything is cheaper. If you are earning then you need to consentrate on marketing it better.

:lol:

[webado]

If the domain name stays the same (no reason why not) it will have the same rank for all but any keywords related to Yahoo shopping. Perhaps this is the most important part in your case, I don't know. The same goes for product pages. If their addresses don't change and their keywords don't change, there's no problem. I suspect however a lot depends on the Yahoo shopping bit right now. Thus no guarantees.

[China Tea]

Hmmm

It sounds scary . . . i am more scared redoing everything from scratch. I will however ask around for a cheaper visa processing service that would be compatible with Yahoo's FDMS (First Data Merchant Service).

Thanks for brainstorming with me.

China Tea

[Proteus]

Hmmm

It sounds scary . . . i am more scared redoing everything from scratch. I will however ask around for a cheaper visa processing service that would be compatible with Yahoo's FDMS (First Data Merchant Service).

Thanks for brainstorming with me.

China Tea

Hi, I'm late in this post, and nobody asked my opinion, but here I go anyways..

I believe it's better to sit and plan carefully what is better, as MWC said, think in your options and make the numbers. How much will you pay every year for the whole thing if you keep going like that?...

In other hostings you may not have the "easy" stuff like in Yahoo (geez, I wonder why I hate those websites that say:'not HTML needed') but you will ending pay a lot less (I pay 10 dolars monthly) for, say 1000 MB and a lot more decent tools.

I don't use shopping carts, so I can't advise about it, in my case I only use Paypal buttons, and they work way more than perfect, if I don't sell anything, I don't pay anything, simple like that. As I say, this is in my case.

submit my site to search engines as part of the promotions. . . something like $280.00/annum

Wow! If you would tell me before, you just keep half of it and I do what I can to place you high in SE :wink: Seriously, you don't need to use more search engines than Google, Yahoo and MSN, other will come by themselves, anyways, what your statcounters reports tell you about SE referrers?...(hint: click on keyword analysis)

But one of the best thing is start learning a little bit of HTML, also learn what products sell more and focus on them to start, 1000+ is way too many, overall, focus in bringing visitors and keep them inside your website with useful info, find what kind of info thay are most interested in and place it in your pages, work in gaining their confidence, finally they will buy by themselves and you don't even have to 'push' them. It works for me, why will not work for you?...

[China Tea]

Senor Proteus,

Thanks for joining in . . .

Well the fee on SE I paid before joining the forum and saw a tunnel of light other than Yahoo. And yes, that is only a one time fee with the option to renew (which I am not going to, knowing what I know now).
Yahoo does allow html but majority of the fields on a page template does not accept html.

Problem is I already have gone this far . . . . 1,600 items/pages and it is not so easy to extricate myself without starting from ground zero. And then, like Chris said, I have to have at least some sitebuilding knowhow - - - to build a site from scratch . . . We both know I do not have that!

I am considering paypal or other visa payment services though, but I still need to inquire from Yahoo if these will be compatible with their merchant software.

For as long as Mr. & Mrs. Brock (the owners of the site) are willing to shoulder the costs, I will have to study (with you) all possible alternatives, meanwhile.

Anybody with other ideas/similar experiences . . . please let me learn from you.

China Tea

[hdtvtechno]

You should check out the meta tags in your html, i see some mistakes

http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/webtools/meta-check.cgi?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopdrops.com

[JWJ]

China Tea,

I have been following this thread with some interest, and here is my two-penneth for what it's worth.

I, with my limited knowledge of web site design, construction and maintenance, would NOT want to undertake learning all that one needs to know in one giant step. It is too much. I dare say, in the long term, that you will be better off building your own site, but learning all of the skills necessary in a 'live' environment is not adviseable. You will make mistakes and get things wrong ... anyone will ... and you will be showing your mistakes and inexperience to your customers. That MUST have an effect on your credibility. Your first project should not be your business platform.

I think you should firstly examine your costs and see what you are stuck with, and what you can reduce without giving up your existing site. I agree with Proteus that you should review your product range so generally try and rationalise your business ... trimming out the bad, and enhancing the good. Work on improving the level of traffic to your site and basically continue to do what you can to make more sales and minimise your losses.

Also, look around and see what other schemes like your present one are available. It may well be you can find something more suitable that you could switch to, and I would consider that a much better option than building your own site from scratch.

There is no reason why you shouldn't learn more about building your own site, but do so in a small, unimportant way, and completely detached from your business.

There is, in my opinion, a vast difference between creating a few web pages, and running an online business. Let's face it ... if it was easy to throw together a few pages and collect the cash, we'd all be doing it ... right?

Hey, I guess all I'm saying is keep doing what you've been doing .... asking, learning, listenning, tweaking ... evolving. :) just be careful about taking to large a step all in one go. :D

[China Tea]

You are so right John. . . In fact I am even scared to edit my site because I am so ignorant of web site building . . . The little I learn everyday, the more I get confused!

I think I will concentrate on marketing and bettering my products and thinking of ways of lowering my monthly costs like you suggested. Thank you. Do you want to adopt me, John? I know, I know, I am too old to be adopted.... :roll:

hdtvtechno wrote

You should check out the meta tags in your html, i see some mistakes

http://www.scrubtheweb.com/cgi-bin/webtools/meta-check.cgi?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopdrops.com

Thanks hdtvtechno . . . i will definitely go and check that site . . . I know I will be having problems understanding though . . . but I am sure statforum and YOU will help me. . . :wink:

China Tea :)

[trackerm]

Whenever I load or reload this particular page I get a MSN login page.

Has anyone else experienced it in the last day or 2????


Mark

[webado]

Whenever I load or reload this particular page I get a MSN login page.

Has anyone else experienced it in the last day or 2????


Mark
LOL! it's China Tea's image in her sig which is linked to her MSN email where she got it - that of course is not accessible to anybody but herself when she's logged into her msn email account.

[trackerm]

Thanks christina,

its driving me nutty. And it tried to get me to download Net Passport. :(

[JWJ]

I have pm'd her and suggested she drop the link as soon as possible, but no idea when she'll read it.

[China Tea]

Okey, okey :roll:

I did not understand that I had to take out that msn thing from my previous posts . . . :lol:

I will take out the other links from the other threads, ok?

Sorry trackerm . . . Needed to bug you a little bit. :wink:

Thanks John and Christina for screaming out loud . . . :shock: (just kidding) Wuv you both.

China Tea

[trackerm]

Thanks John and Christina ... Wuv you both.

What about me? :(

Thanks China :)


Mark

[China Tea]

But I have always wuved you, trackerm . . . if only from a afar . . .
8)

China Tea

[trackerm]

*Blush*

:)

[webado]

Well, well, well ..... :roll: :?: :idea: :twisted: :shock:

[China Tea]

Another would have been Hallmark Moment disrupted . . . :roll:
:lol: :lol: :lol:

We are just playing, Christina.

China T

[webado]

Another would have been Hallmark Moment disrupted . . . :roll:
:lol: :lol: :lol:

We are just playing, Christina.

China T
Yeah, but in about 4 different threads at last count, what a web you're all spinning :lol:

[China Tea]

I think this is now the no. 1 reason for me not making a sale. . .

The inability of my suppliers to supply me with items. :cry:

I have another order for a plastic terrarium (round, 3 gal). I cannot get hold of my supplier.

I also received an inquiry for quantity price breaks for terrarium units (the same specs as above). I can't even respond to that because I cannot get hold of my supplier via his 2 phone numbers.

Can anybody out there supply with me terrariums on a dropship basis? I am so frustrated. :x

China T

[China Tea]

Wanted dropshippers of terrariums (round, 3 gal, plastic or glass).

Please contact me asap.

China T

[JWJ]

Forgive me if I'm off the mark here ... I know nothing about the dropshop facility you are using ... but it strikes me that your contract is probably with Yahoo, and if so, your 'throwing in the towel' and/or any bad press brought about as a result of poor supplies will ultimately reflect on them and their scheme. Have you therefore complained like merry hell at Yahoo and demanded that they use only suppliers who will meet their obligations? Surely they must be able to apply some pressure on the supplier, or am I being too naive?

[China Tea]

Yahoo only hosts my site . . .

I am responsible for the sourcing of my vendors/suppliers . . . You can actually label a supplier as "good" after you have experienced their service. Before that, you really do not know much about them except what they publish on their website and what they tell you offline.
:(

Mea Culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa . . .

China T

PS Thanks, John . . .

[JWJ]

Oh ... I thought they did a bit more than just host it. There's no mileage there then :(

[andrew3]

ya its kind of hard to sell things. i got a bus were i sell birds like scarlets fo like $950.00 to my broker i got some pic of then at the web site blow take a look.

http://www.freewebs.com/cooldude0700/maxing%20out.htm this is wha they look like after like 1 moth or so. kind of ugly lol :!:

[tonyholley]

Took a look a your site. Looks good! Few suggestions 1. increase the image size of the products or pop-up window. Most people would like to see what they are purchasing. 2. Full detail of the product size -color sample and so forth will improve closing the sale. :)

[China Tea]

Hello Andrew3

Thank you for your post! Misery loves company and I am sort of relieved it is not only me finding selling a tough job!

You wrote:

ya its kind of hard to sell things. i got a bus were i sell birds like scarlets fo like $950.00 to my broker i got some pic of then at the web site blow take a look.

I did took a quick look at . . .

http://www.freewebs.com/cooldude0700/maxing%20out.htm

this is wha they look like after like 1 moth or so. kind of ugly lol

I agree with you . . . They're kind of bizarre-looking and alien-like. But they look so helpless and somehow sweet and cute . . . :)

Is that the only page you have on these birds?


Hello Tonyholley,

Thank you for the visit. And thanks all the more for your advice.

increase the image size of the products or pop-up window. Most people would like to see what they are purchasing

I would like to do that but I do not know how to increase the images' s sizes (which I got from my suppliers). Other images can be enlarged but others cannot be enlarged. I do not know if there is a way to enlarge these images. Do you know how?

Welcome to the forum guys!

China Tea




China Tea

[China Tea]

but, again I find myself in the same predicament some 1 1/2 years later . . . that's sad . . .

However, I learned a few things -

once i wrote:

I would like to do that but I do not know how to increase the images' s sizes (which I got from my suppliers). Other images can be enlarged but others cannot be enlarged. I do not know if there is a way to enlarge these images. Do you know how?

Isn't that nice that I finally learned how to do that?

[howardgreens]

When did your sales drop off?

Have you gone through your site and checked that your check-out script is working? If that's got a bug in it, it could be a real problem...?

[China Tea]

lise wrote

Have you gone through your site and checked that your check-out script is working? If that's got a bug in it, it could be a real problem...?

Check out is ok - it's just the sales have really gone low . . . it's funny that I am again in the same situation as I was almost two years ago. Sales dropped dramatically two months ago . . . june was a real low . . . sales won't be enough to pay my Yahoo bills.:confused:

I am still waiting for things to go back where they were early January . . . In the meantime, I am looking for new products to sell . . . maybe my products are no longer that "hot" . . .

Thanks Lise . . .

[jonra01]

Sales typically fall quite a bit during the summer. If you think about the fact that 50% of all sales here in the States fall during the holiday season then it's easy to see how low sales could be during the slowest period.

One way for you to counter this is to build the traffic to your warm season pages, like gardening. You could find some gardening directories where you could post your garden home page link. Join some gardening forums, put your link in your sig, and then contribute a little. You know all this... :)

[China Tea]

thanks jonra . . .

i just started putting blog links on gardening on my bottom pages . . . i hope it will make more google friendly . . . i will look for gardening and home forums to join . . .

[travelswcharlie]

Hi China,

I'm so glad you posted again, as it made this thread appear in "New Posts" and brought it to my attention, so I read it for the first time.

There is so much good information there for newbies like me.

I'm not trying to sell anything at all at the moment, but I want to learn all I can about it and move in that direction after I have a worthy site and traffic.

Do you have a "Yahoo Store" or are you just using Yahoo hosting and find your own products, just as you would with any other hosting service?

How do you find the products you sell? Do you use a drop shipping service or do you go looking for products you like and make arrangements with them... or what???

I once considered a Yahoo Store, but backed off after reading a "Marketing Experiments" study on them. They were looking at major operations, and it was a couple of years ago, but if you haven't seen it, and want to, I'll find it for you.

[China Tea]

Hello travelswcharlie,

I'm so glad you posted again, as it made this thread appear in "New Posts" and brought it to my attention, so I read it for the first time.

There is so much good information there for newbies like me.

Thank you. There's a lot of ribbing too. :-D

You should have seen how bad my site was the first time I came to Statforum . . .:-) Not that it is super validated now . . . It is a lot better though.

Do you have a "Yahoo Store" or are you just using Yahoo hosting and find your own products, just as you would with any other hosting service?

It is a Yahoo store in the sense that Yahoo is hosting my site but I have not registered under any of their marketing programs. Yahoo already collects a small percentage of whatever I sell on top of what I pay them every month for "rent" (hosting).

All Yahoo stores take care of their own inventory. Yahoo does not have their inventory in other words. It just "appears" like Yahoo has the inventory because if you pay to be in their "mall", then your products get to be prominently exposed/displayed with other mall stores' products.

How do you find the products you sell? Do you use a drop shipping service or do you go looking for products you like and make arrangements with them... or what???

I only establish dropshipping accounts with all my suppliers. I would not want to maintain a space for inventory - besides i can't afford to buy a lot of different products - stock them - and not be able to sell them. I think that unless you manufacture your products yourself, it is more convenient (finance wise) for a small online store to just establish dropship accounts as opposed to buying wholesale).

I once considered a Yahoo Store, but backed off after reading a "Marketing Experiments" study on them. They were looking at major operations, and it was a couple of years ago, but if you haven't seen it, and want to, I'll find it for you.

Yes, if it is no trouble to you, I'd like to read that too. I am staying with Yahoo because I have done some 1869 items/pages excluding sectional pages . . . Unless, another company can transfer everything, I really cannot move.

The only reason I went for Yahoo is because I was clueless about site building --- I still am but have learned some basics since then. With Yahoo, I was able to build my store with just templates usiing the built-in Yahoo Store Editor. The Yahoo Store editor is for dummies - it even spoon feeds me with autofills of htmls for head tags (behind the scenes).

I wish I used the SiteBuilder (was an option) when I first started - but I wanted instant gratification then, not having a clue on how to use it. I was too impatient and eager to have a site up.

Thanks travelswcharlie.

[travelswcharlie]

Hi China,

Here is the link:

http://www.marketingexperiments.com

When you first sign on, there is a search box right there.

A search for "Yahoo Stores" gets 53 hits of various studies they've done that concerned Yahoo stores in one way or another.

Scroll down to item 46, to see the Yahoo Store study. They set up their own stores with various options and operated them and studied then for several months to see what worked and what didn't.

There's a lot of other good information here... be sure to look around.

Thanks for the further info about your store.

[Teresa7307]

Hi China,

I love this topic. After all, sales are the reason most of us have sites.

I read somewhere that if we try to market to everyone, we actually end up marketing to no one. -- well, unless you're Walmart.

Is there a particular product or type of product you're selling in which you have special interest or knowledge? If you have interest, but don't know that much about the subject, it's just a matter of picking up a couple of books.

Take for example your bird baths. You could dedicate your site to just bird baths -- or maybe bird baths and water gardens -- or maybe bird baths and bird watching. Put lots and lots of content on your site how to attract birds, the types of birds that would be attracted and which parts of the country/world they live. Start a discussion board where novices can exchange ideas/problems or report certain bird specie sightings. Discussion boards are great because your visitors create content for you. Also, your visitors build trust in you as they get to know you on the board.

I really believe the secret is to be very focused and have lots of free information. And, I also think it should be a product or topic that excites you. Otherwise, you'll get bored with it.

You have the all techy skills I wish I had -- I love your animated watch kitty!

Just some thoughts -- just don't give up!

[China Tea]

cj who travels w. charlie wrote:
A search for "Yahoo Stores" gets 53 hits of various studies they've done that concerned Yahoo stores in one way or another.

Scroll down to item 46, to see the Yahoo Store study. They set up their own stores with various options and operated them and studied then for several months to see what worked and what didn't

Thanks for the link, cj. I will read up and see what's really going on behind Yahoo stores

Teresa wrote:

if we try to market to everyone, we actually end up marketing to no one. -- well, unless you're Walmart.

I really believe the secret is to be very focused and have lots of free information. And, I also think it should be a product or topic that excites you. Otherwise, you'll get bored with it.

That's an eye opener, Teresa. I have been toying with that perspective for quite some time now . . . I just have not crossed the line yet - simply because I still do not know what goods to place beyond the line.

Besides, I really am a master of none, when it comes to the products I have on my site. I display so many products that it has become a full time job to maintain them - price change, manufacturer inventory levels and/or availabilty, discontinued items, ship weights, etc.

Maybe I should start trimming down to products that sell and ultimately, products that interest me the most . . . ( an inner voice of course screams - BUT I LOVE THEM ALL -- and all the time and effort I put in to get them web-viewable wouldf have been wasted !!NOOOO).

But YES, you are right . . . I must admit it's becoming a real burden maintaining all my products - not to mention maintaining/correcting/tweaking/validating/optimizing the site's content for Google . . .

Yep, I think I need a change . . . can't put a finger to it yet but change has to happen . . .

Thanks a lot Teresa --- Appreciate your time and review of my "situation". Maybe you should be Dr. Phil for site owners?:-)

[Sharron]

hmmmmmmmmm, narrowing down your products does not necessarily mean you would have to narrow down what you offer. That makes no sence does it.

Well there is nothing stopping you from have more then one online store, with each store concentrating on one "theme". You need to anyalize what "theme" sells the most.

You could have a say, a small store and site that is about gardening. Use suggestions already given for that, personalize it for sure.

A store geared to the childrens furniture etc.

Hmmmmmmmmm, watched a news story the other day about "Mens" skin care etc. That that trend is really on the rise. An online store just geared toward the ruff and rugged world of being a man who likes to be "pampered" at home.

You know like a specialty catalog................

I could be wrong but you could set up these smallish specialty sites as subdomains under shop drops. That could have some pit falls though others would have to think on that and advise.

But the benefit could be you would not have to purchase domain names. or I would not think change your yahoo store set up? I don't know.

If you keep the mini sites small, if they prove not to be working, then you can easily change the "scope or theme" to another. Not to mention, much easier to work on and validate!:-)

[China Tea]

Thanks for the input, Sharron . . .

But isn't that what my store is right now?

I have different sections, i.e.

Beauty Matters
People Matters
Home Matters
Garden Matters
Pet Matters


Maybe I should change the section titles to "Stores", e.g. Beauty Store?

[trackerm]

Beauty Matters

People Matters
Home Matters
Garden Matters
Pet MattersMaybe I should change the section titles to "Stores", e.g. Beauty Store?

The titles should be your key words for each. ie the words people type into google to find you. NOT the words YOU want, but the words THEY use! :)

No one is going to type in Pet matters. they might put in "Pet supplies" or "Pet Store" or Pet shop. But it may be more specific Dog supplies, etc. You have to work out what they think :)

[China Tea]

Mark wrote:

The titles should be your key words for each. ie the words people type into google to find you. NOT the words YOU want, but the words THEY use

And that's exactly what I am guilty of . . . I have been using words to please my my ears (or is it sight) . . . almost like making words rhyme regardless of how little relevance they have to each other . . .

Okay, I will go and get the English dictionary . . .:)

And before Christina would notice that I am out to flatter you again, I will just stop here and keep my mouth shut . . .:-D

Can I at least say thanks a lot, good lookin'?:oops:

[webado]

Can I at least say thanks a lot, good lookin'?:oops:
Nicolle wouldn't mind, would she? ;)

[trackerm]

And before Christina would notice that I am out to flatter you again, I will just stop here and keep my mouth shut . . .:-D

Can I at least say thanks a lot, good lookin'?:oops:

keep it till next week. we got a big award last week so my head is still pretty big. but I will be down to earth in a few days so I will need flattery again then :)

seriously though, one mistake thats common in business is selling what we we want to sell, not what the customer wants to buy. Its very hard in some industries to work out what they want and how to market ourselves to them. :)

Mark

[Sharron]

Thanks for the input, Sharron . . .

But isn't that what my store is right now?

I have different sections, i.e.

Beauty Matters
People Matters
Home Matters
Garden Matters
Pet Matters
Maybe I should change the section titles to "Stores", e.g. Beauty Store?

Well yes that is sort of true, but what I meant was different. lol, bear with me. Do you receive any specialty catalogs in the mail? Particularly clothing or bedding? That is what I am talking about. Small sites or subdomains limited in products. Limited in links.
Small separate sites that won't over whelm a shopper with too many things.

After all there is a hugh difference in the Sears catalog and a catalog limited to just gardening, or pampering products for men or even clothing for over sized woman.

I'm talking about narrowing the scope of access, but broadening your saleability.

Does that make sense?

[Sharron]

and think about this, beside key words, phrases can also be used in the meta tag for key words. But you must also use those same phrases in the text of your page.

So after you have built a page, go through it and pick out a few key phrases, copy and paste them into the keywords meta tag, DO NOT USE COMMAS BETWEEN KEY PHRASES, JUST BEFORE THEY START AND RIGHT AFTER THEY END.

[webado]

keep it till next week. we got a big award last week so my head is still pretty big. but I will be down to earth in a few days so I will need flattery again then :)

seriously though, one mistake thats common in business is selling what we we want to sell, not what the customer wants to buy. Its very hard in some industries to work out what they want and how to market ourselves to them. :)

Mark
Amen!

Don't I know it!

I've been assigned to work on a new project which I was hoping to be fun and relatively simple (the internal client wants something simple and fast) - and now doing vrey pre-pre-preliminary analysis. I already hate it.

We have to follow the methodology given by these gurus whom my employers have adopted as the second coming: http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/consulting/method/macroscope/

Read it an weep ... for me :cry:

I'll probably get to retirement age before anything actually starts happening on that.

Early retirement sounds good just about now.

[rotarysteve]

Hi China,

I figure you have had the site up for a long time. I've been studying your site a lil' bit from home, but my durn dial-up. Sure need some high speed action at home.

My being on dial-up should not be considered a reason for any trends you are experiencing. I was hoping to see about validating your home page, but the page is pretty large and my dial-up times out. A re-fresh or two and I can get the whole page. So many images. Notepad won't even load it properly on my pc, could be my pc of course.

Beautiful site.....

[Brisguy52]

..........................................

Read it an weep ... for me :cry:

..............................................

They look like the last of the great gee-wizz buzz word(phrase) cowboys :rolleyes:

[China Tea]

Honestly? Not yet . . . I hope it will in a bit . . . I need to digest it, chew it, taste it, turn it over and over in my mouth, I mean my head . . .

I need to think how I can execute that with what I have, right now . . .

Thanks, Sharon . . .

[China Tea]

Rotarian wrote:

but the page is pretty large and my dial-up times out. A re-fresh or two and I can get the whole page. So many images.

I know plus I have a lot if links to my products . . . Do you think I should take out the Directory of Products at the bottom page? Does it harm my home page, do you think?

[rotarysteve]

Rotarian wrote:



I know plus I have a lot if links to my products . . . Do you think I should take out the Directory of Products at the bottom page? Does it harm my home page, do you think?

I dunno, wouldn't think so though, not the directory. The directory loads fine... I'm on the dial-up at home, so.... but the images take such a long time to load for me. I would have to see if I can see what size your images really are. I figure sales are part of a trend as opposed to a dial-up user.

The directory is a big part of the code, "size" of the page, but that probably only affects if I can load it in notepad and not if I can load it in my browser.

[trackerm]

Read it an weep ... for me :cry:



Give them the flick right now. It will be too much pain.

People who advertise to synergize your businesses functional desires
Are just hiding behind bull-twaddle.

And they will never change.

[travelswcharlie]

And that's exactly what I am guilty of . . . I have been using words to please my my ears (or is it sight) . . . almost like making words rhyme regardless of how little relevance they have to each other . . .
China,

Do you use a "keyword research" tool to decide on your keywords and titles?

Did you also use some kind of tool (maybe the same one?) to determine the popularity of -- and the competition for -- product items you chose to sell?

[China Tea]

Hello CJ,

Yes---------- like Overture Keyword Tool, and some other keyword popularity checker . . . . thank you.

But, I have not been very consistent . . . Like when my sales number is up, I lag in SEO and when my number is down, like right now, I panic and go gaga and blame the SEs.:???:

The thing is --- I have a lot of products/pages . . . because I read somewhere that the more products you have the more chances you have of getting hits from potential shoppers. . . . So editing my pages is like Americans say a RPIA :-) (and Canadians, too --- I think Christina said something like that)

I just don't know which way to go anymore . . .:-D

Thanks for your suggestion. Appreciate it in these trying times.:-)

[travelswcharlie]

But, I have not been very consistent . . . Like when my sales number is up, I lag in SEO and when my number is down, like right now, I panic and go gaga and blame the SEs.:???:

Panic not appropriate; you are in learning mode. This is just part of the process.

The thing is --- I have a lot of products/pages . . . because I read somewhere that the more products you have the more chances you have of getting hits from potential shoppers.

That would be true if yours was the only website out there.

Since it isn't, I think you need to concentrate on a few really special things to grab the visitor's attention.

So editing my pages is like Americans say a RPIA :-) (and Canadians, too --- I think Christina said something like that)
I just don't know which way to go anymore . . .:-D

So don't edit all of them... delete a whole bunch of them (save to a backup so you can bring them out again later) and put all your efforts toward just the best ones.

I'm not an expert, but I agree with the several others here who think that you are just trying to cover too many products.

I fully understand how it is that you don't want to give up on something you've worked so hard on... but the time wasn't wasted because you learned a great deal.

It's now time, I think, to just accept that you learned some valuable lessons, and surge ahead.

[China Tea]

CJ wrote:

It's now time, I think, to just accept that you learned some valuable lessons, and surge ahead

Thank you . . . I hope I have learned enough to be able to stay afloat . . . tee hee:-)

I will take a long look at my site and hopefully come up with a "diet plan" . . . and stick to it.