No sales since launch

[Solitaire]

Little or No sales

Hi All,

A big plea for some help. I have been an Actinic user for several years and last November I upgraded to V9. I am currently using one of Actinics Business Partners - at some expense- to prompte my site. So far with little sucess. Most of the marketing work on Keywords and Meta Tags I have done myself but my situation seems to be getting worse. I have reached the point that I now have to seriously rethink my position ie should I stick with it or call it a day.

My customers ,the few that I have think the site is great - most of my business is repeat orders - so can anyone advise me on what I should be doing to attract more visitors and increase my revenue. My site can be found at www.solitaire-fashion-jewellery.co.uk

[parklifeclothes]

The image on the homepage actually made me think it was a plumbing site, sorry!

Take a look at your competitors and see what they do, and you don't.

Look at changing colour schemes, adding contact details/delivery costs into the header. Look at your site from the eyes of someone wanting your product, would you buy from it or shop elsewhere, its a hard one but its the only way to improve.

[PhilipMoseley]

Hi Caroline
Is it a traffic problem -ie getting people to the site, or is it a conversion problem -ie getting people to buy once there.
Is this a full-time position for you or a part-time job?
There are better equipped people than me to talk about the technicalities of this site but my own opinion (and I have only veiwed the home page) is that for a jewellery site I think you need more visual impact on the page that prospects view first.
If you're getting repeat orders you should try and get some referrals on the right hand column - sounds like you could use 'real' people.
But don't lose heart, I won't bore you with the number of years I've been doing this but I am still learn something every day, and daresay I'll still be learning the day before they carry me away in a box!

[Paul Bulpit]

I don't know why it took nearly a week for you to get a reply, that bumped this thread.

I use the same theme as you, albeit V7. All I can say is:

1) It took us four years to get to our now high six-figure turnover.
2) We used heavy Adwords and still do.
3) Your site still uses javascript links - in spite of many views on the subject, getting rid of them did us no end of good. ST(F)F.
4) Your products appear to have links from the Product Description, but it doesn't do anything.
5) Your Exteneded Info pages need resizing, they don't fit.
6) You're a bit lacking in images and information overall.
7) Submit Google Sitemaps & Product Mash. We've had some indexing problems recently - fixing them showed an upsurge in trade, which proved that the system does have an effect.

Over the years we have done a huge amount of tweaking, derived from browsing the forum, working hard, and trying things over & over until the results show.

I can't pretend to understand what our SEO expert friends are talking about most of the time, and have not tried to put it into practice - they'll shoot me down for doing it the hard way.

But graft, even if it is expensive, paid-for, time-comsuming graft, pays off in the end. We might not have got there fast, we may have shelled out too much. But we're happy with the results and will never know any different.

Don't give up - keep at it.

In short, your site needs more work from you - you can't just stick it online and expect results.

[Chunkford]

Caroline, try using different pictures of the items. The type of customers you are wanting will be buying with emotion. They will be deciding if it will look good on them, so ask your supplier if they have pictures of people wearing them. Especially the home page picture!

Also measure the changes you make on GA (Google Analytics), and go from there.

Just remember it's like one big puzzle, keep at it, and you will find the path that works for you.

[malbro]

Hi All,

A big plea for some help. I have been an Actinic user for several years and last November I upgraded to V9. I am currently using one of Actinics Business Partners - at some expense- to prompte my site. So far with little sucess. Most of the marketing work on Keywords and Meta Tags I have done myself but my situation seems to be getting worse. I have reached the point that I now have to seriously rethink my position ie should I stick with it or call it a day.

My customers ,the few that I have think the site is great - most of my business is repeat orders - so can anyone advise me on what I should be doing to attract more visitors and increase my revenue. My site can be found at www.solitaire-fashion-jewellery.co.uk

The long pages are off-putting, you could perhaps use multiple columns on a page to reduce the size, though most people will recommend Single Product Pages.
I would also use better images to promote the products. Finally try Google Products many people (myself included) have found this can have a significant effect on sales.

[bamboo]

Benn
Who are your target customers?
You seem to have cast as wide a net as you possibly can in the hopes of snaring a few people and that is why there are no online sales.

You have to step back from the site because the reason there is no customers does not lie in the site itself. I've had a run through various sections and I am so confused I am unable to decide who you are targeting.

Is it kids who want to look cool?
Is it parents who want their kids to look cool?
Is the small company who wants a promotional item?
Is is a medium sized company who wants to run a promotional campaign?

I could go on but it just isn't clear.
The market is a strong one. There is a lot of competition so there is money in the market but your site is a 'me too' site that has no clear focus. Unless you can get this focus you are screwed. There is little point in sugar coating this.

The good news is that the only 'cost' is time. I say 'only' because although time is the only thing of value we ever have, most people think 'financial wealth' or lack of it when it comes to cost.

However if you spend your valuable time researching the marketplace and figuring out a pen picture of your ideal customer and then spend more of your valuable time changing the site (copy and images not design) to get over to the ideal target that they are in the right place to buy (Ignore being the 'best' place. The right place is much more important to a customer seeking a solution with their credit card in hand) and you will begin to see sales staring to come in.

You need to set up a testing system to keep track of the changes you make and the impact they have on two key metrics visitor value and net profit. There are the only two that matter.

So onwards and upwards.

[bamboo]

Hi All,

A big plea for some help. I have been an Actinic user for several years and last November I upgraded to V9. I am currently using one of Actinics Business Partners - at some expense- to prompte my site. So far with little sucess. Most of the marketing work on Keywords and Meta Tags I have done myself but my situation seems to be getting worse. I have reached the point that I now have to seriously rethink my position ie should I stick with it or call it a day.

My customers ,the few that I have think the site is great - most of my business is repeat orders - so can anyone advise me on what I should be doing to attract more visitors and increase my revenue. My site can be found at www.solitaire-fashion-jewellery.co.uk

Your pictures are bland. Go look at bluenile and as you clearly either have the equipment or have a tame photographer re-photograph your pictures so they are at least as good as blueniles.

Whilst you are at bluenile see how much information they cram on the page and if you read their copy it is dead easy to see that they know exactly who their ideal customer is for each piece they sell. You could learn a lot by cherry picking what they do and applying it to your products.

Create YOUR ideal customer profile for each piece and get the copy talking to them.

Fix these things then when you have got enough cash go hire a good Actinic designer, there are a few on here, to redesign your site to lift it up to the same standards as bluenile. It doesn't have to look exactly like theirs but it does have to enhance your new pictures and re-inforce the message in the text.

Fixing this is hard because you have to let go of everything you have done up to date and be brutally honest with yourself because what you have done to date isn't working as you alluded to in your post.
Admitting to ourselves that we got things wrong is the hardest thing we humans ever have to do. But just because it's wrong doesn't mean it can't be made better.
Go right through blueniles site.
Read EVERY bit of copy they have on their site.
Figure out how they address customers fears.
See how they upsell and cross sell their products.
In fact take their site and their business apart.

It's easy to do this part as bluenile are quite open about how they go about their business because they understand how to sell successfully and they have no need to fear the competition. They concentrate on the individual customer who is on the page not what some other company may or may not be doing better than them. The customer is actually on blueniles page and the only way they will ever find out about blueniles competitors is if bluenile cannot fulfil their pressing need. Get it?

Get researching and record everything you find out and then and only then come back to your business and work out a plan to rebuild it in it's new image to speak to your target customers or decide if it really isn't for you and bin the thing now.

There is no room for half measures if you want to maintain your sanity.

Best of luck, not that you need it. Just be honest with yourself