I have an interesting situation with my sister's website. She runs www.thistledownnightgowns.com, and the domain www.thistledown.on.ca domain points to it as well. In Google and MSN, the .on.ca domain is achieving #1, 2, and 3 rankings for searches such as nightgowns, cotton nightgowns, and victorian nightgowns. She's receiving thousands of visitors per month, but like a .3% conversion rate. Do you think it has anything to do with the .on.ca domain, and people's perception that it's too localized? Should I make an effort to phase it out, switch to the .com domain alone? I'm worried about this damaging the rankings.
You have #1s... do not change the domain. You should concentrate more on selling on the landing page. When I clicked through cotton nightgowns, there was no call to action-- it looked more like an informational site. Also consider that not everyone searching for cotton nightgowns wants something from the Victorian Era. I realize that is her niche, but you could certainly increase conversions by offering more mainstream alternatives (either in store or through affiliate links).
wow, that's really good advice. What you think would be a good call to action? A special (10% off or something), or just a sales pitch?
Honestly, the landing page is not selling me on anything at all. Even if I wanted something Victorian, the landing page does not tell me to buy or even encourage it. It offers one link through to the category listing of cotton nightgowns which then leads into a more expected sort of store. If I had #1 on G for "nightgowns" I would totally re-do that landing without disrupting the basic structure of the page. Heck, you could add sales pitches and affiliate ads in all images so that you don't change how Google now sees the page. I'm not suggesting making it look spammy-- but there is a lot more money to be made with those kind of rankings. Look at #2 through 10 and see what they are selling-- can you sell the same thing as well as the Victorian garb? At the least, I would list out some of the actual nightgowns on the home page and put some "Add to Cart" buttons nearby rather than waiting for the user to click the small text link to see more.
any ideas of good affiliate programs? Should i look directly for an appropriate vendor, or an affiliate system like LinkShare?
By the way, I modified the home page, how does it look now? www.thistledownnightgowns.com For March we'll be running a special, I'll put the details on the home page
A quick search of CJ showed a number of vendors offering between 6 and 10%. I would put 3 or 4 of the best selling items on the front landing page-- 2 Victorian and 2 other styles from affiliates. Make sure to use direct product links and not just generic banner ads. Hope that helps monetize the traffic!
Good start on the changes. For each item, I would add: - a graphical "buy" or "add to cart" button.. users expect it - an original retail price and - a current sale price (optional: % savings) - a link for more info and photos
btw, your domain names seem separate-- do you intend to run two sites with two names? I would be careful of duplicating your content exactly.. otherwise you should be OK.
the reason for the multiple domain names is that when we first did the website (7 years ago) we registered the .on.ca domain since then we've added thistledownnightgowns.com, but I've been trying to promote it more. They both point to the same server, but only the .on.ca domain is listed in Google and Yahoo
Commission Junction Personally, I prefer the .on.ca domain. The new one looks like you're trying to get the keywords in there though you don't really need them. The old domain looks like a mom and pop type of personal service store.
In addition to the above, I would also consider bumping up the font size a notch. Especially in the testimonial area, I believe it is small for the intended audience of Victorian Nightgown wearers.
For the kickstart, it's better .com, cause it seems like has been natural for ppl, when finding any services on the net, they will refer to the .com, but if your brand is actually .on.ca that remains in ppl heads, keep it, otherwise you will lost.
Any update Frankcow? I actually started a blog based on the idea of monetizing sites. I'd love to know if this has translated into any improvement for your sister. I did notice she dropped the #1 ranking for a few days but it is back now.
nice blog post! So far she's only sold one nightgown since the change, but this is typically the slowest part of the year (I guess people christmas debt catches up with them right about now) By the way, if you want to see what the site really was when it was getting .3% conversion, here's the url to the old homepage: http://thistledownnightgowns.com/archivefeb2406/ no sales yet from the affiliate links, but a decent # of clicks
Maybe I was watching her rankings more closely since I did the post -- she dropped to #12 for about a week. That would certainly explain the slowdown in sales. It appeared to be across all datacentres as well. I was hoping the changes you made didn't disrupt her rankings... but she appears back at #1 today. Hopefully the sales will pickup as well! And with the affiliates, hopefully they have a 30-day cookie as sometimes it takes a few days or weeks for the sales to actually convert. I like the integration of the affiliate products so far; the more you can make it look like a part of your store, the better. Also, I would look for smaller more specialized retailers of nightgowns if they are out there and they have affiliate programs. Often the biggest stores like shop.com offer the worst commissions and are the most infested with cookie erasing parasites.
well it looks like the changes may be starting to have an effect. Today there were two orders (one for the special, so two nightgowns). We've been doing some serious directory submission as well, and I took one step out of the ordering process
I think your order form and checkout process look pretty good. I like the one page and submit type. One thing that did strike me though was the seemingly high cost of shipping. $17 UPS seems exorbitant for shipping of a product that should be quite light. Does it automatically assume the person is ordering from the US? Maybe start it out with some sort of cheaper shipping charge and let the person select a more expensive one if they want.