attract customers online

amother

Sun, May 17 2009, 10:29 pm

does anyone sell items online? what attracts customers to your site?

I have a small website, I'm listed on yahoo shopping and many others, I advertised on google but had to pay cost per click which was way too much.

does anyone have any ideas how to attract traffic to a website???

I don't want to give up but don't have the $$$ to spend on loads of ads...

thanking you in advance.....

TwinsMommy

Mon, May 18 2009, 3:15 pm

Have you done article marketing, linking back to your site? If you become an expert on some of the top article directories that will help.

Along that line, doing guides and listmanias and such on amazon, linking back to your site is a good idea.

Are you doing google analytics/SEO on your site?

Do you have a good referral program in place for the site visitors/customers you already have?

I'm in a group coaching program which is covering some of this material. If you want to mail me I can maybe hook you up.

traveler

Mon, May 18 2009, 10:14 pm

It takes a lot of hard work to rank high on googles organic search. One thing I can recommend is starting a blog - the more "text/articles" you have the greater the chance of you ranking higher in the organic search. I know that there are a couple of companies you can pay approximately $250 a month and they'll work on getting specific keywords of yours to rank high - for free.

Running an online company is very difficult, especially in these times. People keep searching, but aren't willing to buy. Even more so if they want to buy - they will usually keep filling up their carts are return a couple of times before they complete their purchase.

Furthermore I am not sure which program was used to build your website but there are ways to see who is on your site and when, what they are looking at, if carts were filled but the order wasn't fulfilled.... You can check which customers filled their baskets but didn't check out, you can always email them to find out why they didn't complete their order, and then offer a 5%-10% discount code they can use at checkout. You can also have online chat so you can interject costumers while on your site and offer them help.

I have a website and these past few months have most definitely been the slowest ever. The economy hopefully will pick up and so will all our businesses.

Best of luck!

TwinsMommy

Mon, May 18 2009, 11:33 pm

group coaching---- for those of us who can't afford $1000 a month for private business coaching, group coaching is a more affordable option at usually under $300 a month---- you can join a group who has weekly assignments, phone calls, audio recordings, etc etc. It's been great for me.

another traffic idea-- hang out where your niche is. So if you're selling light bulbs, you want to be on all the social media sites where people are asking where to get decent light bulbs. Friending people individually, getting known, being personable. Not that you'd be selling light bulbs online but you get the idea. Whatever widget you're selling, hang out where the people wanting that widget are hanging out.

catonmylap

Tue, May 19 2009, 1:10 am

Quote:

I know that there are a couple of companies you can pay approximately $250 a month and they'll work on getting specific keywords of yours to rank high - for free.

you can work on doing it yourself....read up on seo. Don't pay anyone $250/month. You are better off spending some money on google ad words if you can afford to. Did you track your stats from the google ad words-did it bring you business?

You should also start an email newsletter to keep your current client up to date on what you have to offer. (use a service like constantcontant or verticalresponse)

Start a facebook fan page, tell your friends about it. Put specials on your page.
You can start twittering too.

traveler

Tue, May 19 2009, 2:11 pm

catonmylap wrote:

Quote:

I know that there are a couple of companies you can pay approximately $250 a month and they'll work on getting specific keywords of yours to rank high - for free.

I have someone who does the SEO in house, yet I also pay a company $250 a month. They have done wonders, got us countless keywords to rank first or second in the organic search. Most companies you call will tell you approximately $1000 a month. Even with spending on google, it is much better to invest in your words then to constantly pay.

As for facebook, it is extremely personal. IMO do not want business from friends. That is my NUMBER ONE rule. I find doing business with friends never works out. Twitter may be a smarter idea. You can also sign up for constant contact and send out monthly emails.

FranticFrummie

Wed, May 20 2009, 7:03 pm

My SEO is $150 a month, I submit my site to blog tips, I use Google AdWords, Yahoo, and ProjectWonderful. Advertising is expensive, but what is the alternative? If no one knows where you are, how are they supposed to find you?

If you took out a small business loan and really pushed some ads you might be able to get enough momentum going in your business to turn a profit. I suggest you work on your site over the summer, make sure that it is perfect, and then for the three months before the winter holidays run a MAJOR ad campaign. Holiday sales combined with repeat customers should be more than enough to pay back your loan for the ads, plus keep you going forward.

Make sure that you are tracking all of your ads for those three months, so that after the holidays you'll know where to spend your ad dollars, and which ones were no good.

yitta25

Wed, May 20 2009, 8:46 pm

Traveler...may I ask who you use for $250 a month? I dont know if you would mind giving that info or not...I would appreciate it. We also have an online business. We twitter, facebook (no friends) our website has a facebook link.
We spend alot of money on google adwords, really alot. I would love to somehow be able to come up in searches without spending all that $$.
Any suggestions??