Hello everyone, Well I feel a bit embarrassed to ask, but im quite confused why noone is buying any drawings on my site. I sell quite a lot of drawings to people here in Sweden, but noone ever buys over the Internet! Try to look at it from a car entusiast eye. I understand people with no car interest will not buy, but im getting most of my traffic from people who love cars. I know the ads probably scares away a few customers, but still without them I pretty much dont sell anything! Please let me know what you think...everyones comments will be appreciated! The site is here
Get rid of all the ads. Bigger images on the home page. Utilize the top navigation more. And what is your natural traffic like?
Since google ranked my at number one for "car drawings" ive been getting about 150-200uniques each day.
I would get rid of the ads if that was the reason noone is buying, but since I had it for about a month or so without any ads and still I didnt sell, i dont feel like removing them.
If I am looking for car drawings, I want to see big images, not tiny thumbnails on the frontpage. Stick big pictures in there on top of the text of the front page. You only have three seconds to sell people that your site is an online store, not an MFA site. See my sig links for example of online store.
So you guys think adsence is what making them not buy? Keep in mind I had it add-free for a longtime and still noone bought. I also see that most of my visitors spend between 30sec-5min so Im not all convinced that the ads are making them go away so quickly. Still thanks for your advice, more suggestions apprciated!
Fatinfo guy is right. Put a few of your best drawings in the middle of the page (where you currently have the text) and clearly indicate the price of each drawing at their bottom. Most visitors are impatient, if they don't see what they are looking for immediately they simply leave. You might wanna get rid of the ads (at least some of them), they are creating an unnecessary confusion IMO. Considering that you are getting 150-200 uniques a day and the topic of your website, you can't be earning much from Adsense anyways. The check out pages don't look that good. Especially the "Buy with confidence use Paypal" part looks unprofessional. This might actually be the main reason why people don't purchase. I think your drawings are really good so, the problem is the way you present them. Try making some changes and see what happens. You always have to experiment with these things, optimize everything. I think it was a good idea to start this thread. Good luck to you with it. Nice SEO job btw, getting #1 on a keyword that generates over 1 million results. Have a nice day! -Bender-
There is a big difference between buying artwork in person and buying on line. When it is bought in person you can see exactly what you are buying where as there is some doubt left when buying on line. By this very nature your online sales would be naturally harder than in person sales. I will also echo what others are saying. You are an online store. You are trying to market your product so stop posting advertising on your site. It distracts the buy, degrades your site and your drawings are denied the attention they deserve. To sell your pictures on line you will probably need to attract more than a couple hundred visitors per day.
My thoughts (in no particular order): 1. Remove the AS ads (a definite nono on a retail site). 2. Do a thorough site audit for spelling and grammatical errors (mostly spelling). Looks unprofessional. 3. If possible, try to get a merchant account so that you can also offer cc payments (even if it is some 3rd party processor like 2checkout). 4. As a retail site, you are missing some critical info on the site that lends credibility to you as an online vendor. Info like - - what is return policy? - How long does shipping take? - How much are shipping costs? - What methods are avaliable for shipping? Ground? Express? Courier? - Is there a money back guarantee or a returns policy? - What is your Privacy Policy with regards to my email address? (Most of these items could just be included in an FAQ page) 5. Tighten up the site design to look more professional. For instance, http://www.autodrawings.net/displaymcl.html has gaping white holes in the page. If you want the visitor to have confidence in buying, you must reflect professionalism in the design. 6. When clicking on a thumbnail to see the larger image, make it "actual size". Let the visitor get a sense of the "real thing" they wilkl be getting. If the larger image doesn't fit within the site design, put it in a presized popup window. 7. As a retailer, you should display mailing address on your contact page. If possible, a phone number as well. But at the very least, an address. Many shoppers will not place an order if you don't show one. If you are getting a couple of hundred "targeted" visitors a day, and I assume they are targeted if they are finding you through a specific niche keyword search, then you should be converting at least 1-2%, meaning 2-4 sales a day. If you aren't, then you need to figure out why visitors are not plunking their money down with confidence. Good lick with the site. Vito
This is offered as a shopper and not as a marketing guru. I agree with those that said: get rid of the ads. At least reduce them to the footer. Also the images do need to be larger. At an artist market they can see your work full size. On the web you have to "grab them". I doubt that you will ever sell the same % of lookers on the web as you do in person. There is some magic involved in arts and craft fairs. Are you targeted to the right market? Car lovers or car art lovers? There is a major difference. I have a buddy that loves cars. He would never buy a picture of one. A hood dodad maybe. Cosider a little color in the header or elsewhere to contrast with the pencil drawings. I know the look you wanted but some color may be better. Everyone has been screwed a time or two on shipping. Get your $4 USD right up there in the main copy so that people will know you aren't ripping them off. Are these orginial or lithos? Makes a big difference for art value. Nice blending on the header links. I gave you a click by mistake. That might be a problem as it took me to a spammy parked page. Really I would get rid of that. What did you get? 2 cents? I hope at least something I said helps you in some way.
If i had your talent i would offer to do Commissioned pieces of Art too - I mean guys love thier cars and if they can get a drawing done (like that classic James Dean picture) they might open up the market a little more. You should also offer gift certificates so that girlfriends and wives can buy as a gift. If you want to sell more i would start several targeted car enthusiast forums or blogs and then over time as you capture names you can try to upsell those members some of your work and try to persuade those people to buy your work or give them incentive to sell for you. Your customers are out there.. you just gotta find them! Make Strangers... Become Friends.. who become customers.. who then turn into your sales people... and find more strangers (friends) for you.. the bottom line - don't stop workin!!
Wow thanks everyone for all the help. I will probably redesign the whole site, and see how it will perform. All your comments will be taken into consideration and hopefully the new site will look better! Thanks again everyone!
Hello. 1. The Ads schould go in less you have people pay for ads related to your site. 2. How much traffic does your site get? 3. Possably need a redesign of your site. It's very dry and boreding. 4. More real designs and a larger gallary. These things are just what i personly think though. - John
Yup I would get rid of the ads, just visited your site and the 1st thing I did was click on the google links instead of your navigation. If the 1st thing I click on is an ad then I won't visit the rest of the site. Wayne
I havent read the comments above as I like to make comments first. 1. Loose the adsense - it makes the site look like one of those sites just for adsense. 2. Make the site look more like a shop, look at other shops and how they draw people in, special offers, more product pictures etc.. HTH