Hi Everybody, I really need your feedback! I have two websites http://www.buddhadecor.com and http://www.mumontherun.biz (I am in the middle of having this changed to a dot com url) that have been live for almost one year. I had these sites professionally designed for me and they are supposed to be marketed as well. About 5 days a week I spend my time, updating my site, adding stuff to my squidoo lenses, posting on forums, blogs, facebook, myspace, twitter, and about 15 different social bookmarking sites. (I've already spent a fortune and don't have any more to spend that is why I'm not doing any ppc, etc...) I have checked my prices against my competitors and I believe they are all within the ballpark for products that are the same or roughly equivilant. I have done test purchases of my products and it seems like my shopping cart and paypal are working. My web designers/marketers say that my keywords are ranked really well. And yet for all of this I have been only ever having one or two sales total per month! Now I know the economy is bad etc... but there are still people making sales on websites, right? And it's not like I was doing great and then the sales dried up - I've just never really had any to start with! And while I know that marketing takes time, it has been almost a year, and everything I read indicates that there are those out there that seem to be able to make things happen almost "overnight". So what am I doing wrong? Help! I am open to any and all suggestions. Critique me like crazy! I can't figure it out, and neither can my "expert" web designers/marketers. Thanks everyone for your support and words of wisdom. I am desperate and it's appreciated. A.
I would say, rather than promoting your main site in forums etc, it is better to come out with a promotion plan like mid year sales or something around that. Offers that when people read, they will get attracted and wanted to buy. Offers like 50% discount on every wednesday 10pm. Also, put a newletter or autoresponder. People might sign up hoping to get news on promotions, discounts etc. Lastly, PPC is better than those forum posting, signatures, myspace etc. Wish you luck!
I am saddened by this story. I know how you feel. I would suggest cutting back on the money spending and focus on earning credibility by doing link exchanges with similar non competing sites etc. Do as much free marketing as possible. I intend to market my site for free with no money at all.
I don't know a whole lot about marketing, but from a design point of view (and this is just my personal opinion many might disagree) but your sites and very busy! There is soooo much text and no white space. Do people usually stay on your site for long? I think if you make your sites more appealing to look at using less text (who likes reading on the screen?), larger images, people might stay longer and be more likely to buy. I also agree with the sales ideas about discounts. Have a look at: http://shanmclean.redbubble.com/ to see what I mean about space. This is a Redbubble site so not my own but I think it shows what I mean... Good luck!!!
Did you do market research? If people do buy from your site do you maintain contact with them? How about a blog?
Just promote your site at the appropriate market or related site. You may have billions of hits, but if it comes from a different "world" in terms of relevancy, then they're useless. Unless your site is using Adsense, but it's not. You're on sales and with that, you have to target your audience. There are various of ways to do so. Adwords may help you. They're great in looking for great places to advertise. Good luck!
Its a very simple mistake that you have made your site is great and you have seemed to have missed the most obvious point. SEO and targeting you buyers.. have you forgot about or spent so much time on making your site perfect and not actually put it out to your customers? well from my view it looks like you have. ok suggestion: ebay store? do you have one? amazon store? do you have one? if NO. why not! PM i will help you
Use Google AdWords to promote your site instantly. Your website traffic is not so high.Your Alexa rank is 5,388,625Try to make it below 1,000,00