theworldofdreams.com

My own web store is finally online (thanks Bayn!), and I was hoping some of the folks here could offer me some advice on how to drive traffic to it.

Do any of you have your own web businesses? Maybe we could swap banners or links?

What have you done to be successful?

What have you tried that hasn't worked?

What do you web-surfers see that you like and what don't you like? I have no pop-ups and don't plan to add any. I can't stand pop-ups!

My site is hosted by bCentral, and I have their "SubmitIt" program that submits my site to the major search engines. I have also used some free site submission software, and I made the mistake of trying the FFA (free for all) links, which basically generated a bunch of spam to my e-mail box.

Any and all ideas would be greatly appreciated!

http://www.magickshoppe.net

From my reading links are very important to google but they need to be quality links. someplace with similar interests to yours is best as the number of keywords of yours on the link site's first page is important.
My own marketing has been based to date on Pay Per Click but my marketing plan depends on selling a unit or two a week so PPC may not work for you. It's also fairly easy to make a mistake as i just found out i have been spending 300 a week on something of virtually no value to me. sigh.
there are some pretty helpful free search engine e magazines you can sign up for. i will send you some addresses for that in a little bit.
best of luck with the new store by the way.

Atei wrote:What do you web-surfers see that you like and what don't you like? I have no pop-ups and don't plan to add any. I can't stand pop-ups!

Congratulations

I really don't know too much about driving traffic, so just a couple of things that I noticed as an 'average shopper':

1) The fold-out menu for the shoppes: Why does it start out closed? It just seems like an extra and unnecessary step that potential customers have to take before they get to your actual merchandise. Something I know from reading different reports about designing websites/attracting customers is that you have a VERY short period of time to get them interested in something before they surf away to another site.

2) Similar to the above, have you considered placing a 'featured product' or two on the front page? Say, a couple of your more popular items, or new items, or items on sale or that you're just overstocked on, or what have you.

3) Something that I always look for in an online store, as soon as I start looking, is for a rough idea of how much shipping and handling will be. Stores that don't give at least a rough idea of shipping costs tend to result in an immediate good-bye, simply because I've been burned in the past by some places that charged outrageous fees. (Also, 'Free shipping for orders above $XX' tend to be a major attraction for shoppers.)

4) Your shopping cart seems to be broken. I'm guessing that you're still working on it, but I thought I'd best mention that

5) The reason that I tested #4: When someone buys something from you, it would probably help increase sales to recommend related or similar products.

Thank you both for the input--it is most appreciated.

Drocket: I had previously suggested that the shopping links be left open. I'm not sure why they are closed, unless it's a programming issue.

The Front Page was something I was going to ask for suggestions on, so thanks for reading my mind. Featured products or this month's specials is what I had in mind.

I *thought* the shipping issue had been resolved but I guess it hasn't. I will have to look at it again.

I tested the shopping cart just now and it seemed to work fine for me. I have PayPal as my payment option because I'm familiar with it and thru PayPal you can use credit cards and checks. Hmmm. Did you get an error?

That last suggestion is a great one, but I'm not sure how to implement it on this site. Let me check into it.

Ehran, paying for links is something I'm trying to avoid until I have no other options.

Thanks again guys!

Ok, I figured out the shopping cart problem: I had my privacy settings (Internet Explorer 6.0) set to medium-high. That probably is something that should be looking into and either fixed (I've never really had a problem with it with any other website) or at least figure out a way to give an error message if it can't set the cookie (trying to put an item into my shopping card simply took me to the normal 'Your shopping cart is empty' page.)

I see now that it tells your the S/H rates when you place an item in your cart. Do you not combine shipping? It seems a tad ridiculous that those 5 of those little gem trees are $14.75 plus $24.75 S/H (BTW, I like those trees. I'd recommend putting them on the front page )

Combined shipping is another one of those things that was supposed to be implemented but apparently isn't. I will have to dig into that next.

i wasn't suggesting paying for links as that is very prone to problems and the engines are getting better at weeding out the paid link sites. old fashioned exchanging of links with sites of similar interests is the way to go. a mere 6 hours a day should get you some links in jig time. it's a tedious process to find people you want to link with and getting them to agree to exchange links but it is worthwhile especially on google.

I have added a 25% coupon on orders over $100. It isn't advertised yet, but it's turned on. The coupon code (if anyone is looking to make a purchase) is June2204.

I still need to figure out how to list the shipping charge for each item. I think I know how to do it.

The exchange of links idea is a good one, Ehran. I need to find those folks that are interested.

these seo oriented newsletters are somewhat useful.

entireweb newsletter
webpro world
webpronews
devwebpro
stepforth

don't have subscription addy's for them sadly. being more computer literate than i am they will hopefully be more helpful to you.

Okay, the links on the left are now perma-open, the coupon is in place (but not advertised, yet) and the invisible counter is in place. Now, the shipping issue...

I posted a separate thread to ask this question...