About a year ago I got married and at the time the experience of organising a wedding led me naturally to the internet for advice and to find wedding suppliers I quickly realised the wedding industry is huge and it was very hard to find real wedding supplier reviews After the wedding I had the idea to come up with a site (www.thewedding.uk.com) review site for wedding suppliers. The premise of the site would be free for people to be listed, free to review - but where It would make money is on listing upgrades e.g. being "featured" in their category or on the front page of the site. I really thought it was going to take off big time - (haven't we all felt like that about a new idea) So I went about trying to find a platform - I found jReviews($300 ish) and Joomla to be exactly what I was looking for. The software was very feature rich. I quickly found to make a community I needed jomSocial($100) with Facebook login I'm only going to list a few of the features that came with the software, because there is simply to many to list all Claiming listings Moderation of content Supplier comments on reviews Paid listing upgrades Facebook login with a community element Geo Search of wedding supplier I have exhausted my knowledge of the web and feel I have tried everything to make this business take off. Here is a list of the things I have tried -Paid someone to find listings for the site and enter them -Set up a blog with useful information and articles to link to the site -Optimised the speed of the site -SEO optimized the hundreds of pages -Emailed wedding suppliers to let them know they were listed (well over 1000 emails and only 1 link back) - this was strange - the main feedback was good, people were happy we were advertising their business for free - but some simply wanted to be removed -Created a mobile version of the site m.thewedding.uk.com -Tried contacting wedding blogs to see if they would feature us -Attended Wedding fairs to promote the site (hand out business cards) -Contacted suppliers through twitter/facebook -Emailed wedding magazines for a feature I guess I'm asking "what am I doing wrong" - We have been going since July 16 2011 - and are getting roughly 1500 unique hits a month (but haven't made a penny) I think the site looks good, navigates well. I would have thought wedding suppliers would be flocking to get on a site like this? I guess our traffic isn't enough yet to really warrant the upgrade fees Are my expectations to great ? I am having this review, as the license fee for jReviews is looming and I'm wondering If this is something I should cut my losses on or plough on? I hope I'm missing something glaringly obvious - I have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into this venture for very little return. I would appreciate any advice or feedback you might have (however brutal it might be) Thanks Rob
It has not been a year yet, so it is quite natural for things to go slow initially. Even successful sites like facebook didn't spring up overnight. Keep promoting it, continue to build up a membership base. There are no miracles to advertising. It's just a continuous "war" until you saturated every avenue and got a solid reputation on the web. You also may want to try what I am suggesting here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2435880 (it works for me).
As far as your website template. You really can and should improve it. It lacks color and images. Check out some free templates here: http://www.freecsstemplates.org/css-templates/ there are some really attractive looking ones there. To me a wedding-related site should look bright and elegant. I am sure you know what I mean.
First thing I noticed was that it took forever for your site to load, but not sure why I do not see anything that would hold it up. Next I notice you only have 1 adsense Ad on each page and they are not targeted. I got ads for marketing and seo, I think your tags maybe are not correct for the website, maybe there are some built into your template that you can update to wedding keywords so you get the correct Ads. If you are going to leave just 1 Adsense Ad then I would definately try to Sell some of your Ads space in those other blocks to people here on Digital point you can make a little cash that way. Maybe look for some people with Travel sites, that can Advertise for Honeymoons..
Yes the struggle of the internet can get a little frustrating and the cost can get up there sometimes. There are a few suggestions that I am going to give you. First off make sure your keywords are targeting the right demographic so you are getting the right people to your site. You are looking to drive people that are looking to get married and potential listing leads. So you have to split your marketing efforts into different categories one targeting married to be, and one targeting listing clients. If you are looking to make a bit more money with your site instead of just from listing payments through upgrades you need to do a little more monitization. You should get a few google adsence ads up there as well as niche related product banner ads that you are an affiliate for. Do not overload your site with ads, but just ad a few. You may not generate the money you want by selling ad spots, monitize those spots with affiliate offers related to your niche. Also start building a email list from your site so you can do some follow up marketing and keep in contact with the visitors from your site. You can email them listing up dates, related content that soft sell related products or services, and much more with an email list. My biggest suggestion is to leverage what you have with list building and more site monitization. Cheers -- Will Skinner
Rob, first congratulations on taking action with your idea and your perseverance. I'm sure you must be feeling more than a bit frustrated. Just a few ideas for whatever they're worth. Since you are getting traffic, have you thought about creating your own product to offer in a predominate position on your home page as an additional way to monetize your traffic - for example, directly below the search box where presently a Google ad appears. Perhaps an ebook (pdf) on "The Ultimate Wedding Planner Checklist to Stay Organized & Calm!" or "The 25 Mistakes to Avoid A Wedding Disaster". You already have quite a bit of research on your blog you could pull from or you could interview some of those companies listed to gain content you can repackage. The idea is really about repackaging relevant information that can help you gain sells from the traffic you have coming to your site. The resource must assertively address a potential pain point of your target audience to increase the likelihood of activating their buying action. It is an expansion of your current sales model but you have already invested significantly to get the traffic and currently it seems it is only benefiting other companies. If you are going to wedding shows, is there a way for you to do some informal research and ask attendees what is the one thing that would make their wedding planning and preparation go easier? This may give you further ideas. One other idea would be also to consider promoting wedding affiliate programs with links on perhaps the side on your homepage. You could potentially make much better money than simply using Google ads and if those programs are well put together, then they have good sales pages etc and you simply have to pre-sell the click with a good headline or brief description. Just a few ideas - all the best!
It has not even been a year things will go slow initially. Try to get a custom domain, .com, rather than .uk.com for starters. Next put some adsense ads on your site and you could be making $20+/month (728*90 on top)... it won't hurt visitors and can help you some, rather than just featured listings. Also some may of wanted to be removed because if you didn't say something good about them...
Keep trying... your website looks great. Getting traffic and conversions is never ending as long as you are in Internet Marketing. You may have to work harder in the beginning but it will pay off in the end. Even if every page is optimize and used some traffic generating techniques, there are lots of ways you can promote your website for targeted traffic. Someone suggested adsense, you could go in that direction or join an affiliate network so you pick which ads from the network you want to display.
I would start adding some news. some blog posts or similar to gain more traffic, start by looking at what people are searching for: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=weddings&geo=GB&date=1/2012 12m&cmpt=q - I have the search narrowed to the U.K, 2012 and for the term weddings... if you start adding blog posts, news and popular search terms to your site you will get more traffic - branch out a little bit more into popular fields... Here's some more: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#geo=GB&q="wedding+venues"&date=1/2012+12m&cmpt=q - wedding venues, U.K, 2012 - maybe study what is popularly searched there and write some reviews... Start blogging and even incorporate a wordpress blog on a sub domain, like news.(yoursite).uk.com - then add the rss feed into your pages on the left hand side where it seems to be a little blank, empty... If you get more traffic and coverage - then people may be more willing to join your site... after all they want traffic.
I just want to say thanks! - all of your suggestions so far have be awesome and have given me new ideas/drive to work more at it Thank you again for your help and time taken to reply!