What? No sales after 6 months

[zigzag]

My site is not new. It has been in existence for nearly 6 months. The problem is that the web site has not generated Any sales. So I am looking for suggestions and/or criticism on how to improve the sales pitch content, or anything about my site for that matter.

My products are not mass market items. They are unique, heavy, and expensive. A pair of small candle holders would sell for $650.

I have learned over 6 months, that I would be selling direct, because after retailers have added on their 100%, the products become ridiculously pricey. Interior decorators contracted to wealthy home owners would be the ideal market. But how do I become known to these guys? Any ideas or leads would be welcome.
I feel that there are 2 major weakness in my site at the moment. There is no price list, and no order form. In spite of this, I thought that the 'Contact us' page would generate some enquiries, but there have been less that 10.

Thank you in advance.

[lovethatbluegrassmusic]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

I would put an add in an interiors design magazine

How are people finding your site?
Has it been submitted to search engines?
Have you considered hiring a marketer to market your site?
Whynot put a Paypal access to allow folks to purchase?

[VodaHost]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

You have a very nice website...Have you done any promotion???
Keyword advertising???

[zigzag]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Hi Captain Bluegrass,
Thanks for your comments. Yes Googlebot, MsnBot and a handful of others crawl my site, and are listed. In fact if you search on "solid aluminium candleholders", in Google, I am sometimes at the top of the first page.
I get about 250 unique visitors a month. About 150 of them, are BV forum vistors, because I often answer queries.
The next most popular source is a South African search engine, called Ananzi. The hits from here are mainly because I have taken the trouble to list SA candle makers on my site.
There are a handful from Google, and others, often because of a keyword search on the 'Golden Mean' which is another page of interest I have added to my site, to try and keep visitors interest.
Hiring a marketer means cost, but it is something I will have to consider.
You just have to hold one of the products. The photos don't do proper justice.

Regards

[zigzag]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Thanks *****. I think I have the keywords right, but of course I am not an expert after 6 months. I have done a lot of reading and thinking about keywords.

Regards,

[Vasili]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

You have a very nice website...Have you done any promotion???
Keyword advertising???

Apparently you are experiencing the common deflation many webbies face even though they have done everything right to create, optimize, organize, and compose a "tight" website.

Without traditional promotional and marketing efforts, your website cannot be expected to perform as desired: you need to support your "storefront" with real business investments and planning.

Here are just a FEW ideas:
1. Do you have your product in any stores? If those stores have websites, be sure they feature your line visually, and provide links to your site to build hard-link metrics (reciprocol, one-way, etc.).

2. If you have already tweaked out your KeyWords and Meta, try adding another popular SE draw (in it's own Search right, which is a way to introduce a whole new SE metric as well) such as a Contest or Drawing: not only will you be able to build a leads list from people who have expressed a desire in your product, but you begin building relationships - the more time people spend on your site thinking about your product, the greater the rememberance. If you capitalize on this interaction with somehow making the prize "personalized" you will be likely to see an increase in returning visitors as the entrants re-visit to see if they won....people maintain their musings, much like lottery players!

3. Can you afford to "trade" some trivial personal expense (movies, pizza, etc.) to invest in a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) program? For as little as $50 a month, you can actually deliver semi-qualified visitors to your site to not only help build the hard-rank that is still important in overall SE indexing, but you begin to develop a more beneficial position with the SE's (based on hard-rank clicks/visits) as your popularity seems to increase, thus your unique content and relevancy elevates. I would personally suggest some of the programs at Yahoo, as they are currently quite aggressive and have lowered their program prices across the board in an effort to compete with Google....especially just before the big Holiday selling season. Any business cannot forsake the cost to pay for advertising of some sort!

4. Have you taken the time (and this can be considered an investment on your part, as it may take HOURS) to surf the web to find complimentary and relevant sites to list your website with? Some of these might include Directories, Shopping/Review, Business Rating, Association/Guild, Professional Organizations, City or Community lists and Bulletin Boards, even listing your site on any of your Vendors websites as part of your "address" - all of which is considered "relevance seeding." (Stay away from the temptation to seed blogs: most SE's flag this practice) * Since VodaTalk itself has a very high SE rank, it benefits you having your website URL as part of your signature as well!

5. Obviously, you are not depending on your online business to put food on the table, but are you willing to establish a reasonable budget to promote it? If so, for as little as $150 a month, you can actually fund 2-3 PPC programs (maybe 1 on each engine?), 2-3 paid listings on high-traffic Directories (they average $10-30/mo.), and at least 1 KeyWord with Google, which should be revolved each month....

So, there is a handful of basic low-cost ideas that have proven to have benefit to websites businesses. The best way to start practicing the foundations of any successful commercial-based website is to treat it like a real business, develop a business plan, and be disciplined in implementing that plan.
The days of pasting a website and waiting for throngs of customers to throw money at you are long gone, my friend. But, with just a little bit of effort based on a lot of forethought, you can still achieve your dreams!

[zigzag]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

General *****,
Did I get the wrong end of the stick about keywords?

[moviemedic]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Vasili,
Thanks for some very helpful information. I did not post this question but I am happy someone did.

[zigzag]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Wow Vasili, that's a lot of food for thought!
A very big thank you for taking so much time to consider my dilemma and post such a lengthy reply.
On a personal level (mine), I have too many things on the go at the moment, and have decided to chuck some of them, so that I can devote more planning time to me. Your advice, has therefore found a very receptive home.
I am not going to give up and become another boring new business failure statistic.

Regards and thanks

[Bethers]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Royden,

I think, from your original post, that you have to accept that you are targeting a very specific audience. I honestly believe you need to do OFF-line marketing - phone calls, etc - to those interior decorators. Get some literature that you can mail out to them - if you can get to some big interior decorators and show your product in person, even better.

You can also use on-line to contact them - find sites of interior decorators and contact them via email or again, via phone, and tell them you have a product.

You are going to have to SELL them on your product - then they can purchase it online. However, remember, they will expect your prices to them as a business to be less than what the website advertises - as the website is retail.

You have a good product - and you can also sell it online if you are targeting the correct audience. Have you written any press releases - targeted to the high end decorator or interior designer?

I do use PPC - but would be worried about it in your case at this time - I would take the same dollar amount Vasili mentioned and maybe advertise in a publication particularly targeting YOUR target audience - and there are online versions of magazines, etc that you could check. Unfortunately, if you target your product online in PPC - you'll have difficulty getting the higher end buyers - unless you can find keywords that discrimate in the same fashion.

Good luck.

[zigzag]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Hi Beth,
I was hoping that you would see my question and post a reply. You always give such sage advice, in a direct, and to-the-point manner.

Yes, it's high time I put some real effort into promotion.
As a matter of interest, if you look at candleholders on ebay, there are a few items that sell for far more than my products, but they tend to be more ornate, and sometimes vintage, not quite antique. I am saying this to point out that for the very wealthy, my prices are not pie in the sky.

As an aside, I have had 2 big orders, one for a restaurant, and one for a guest house. Both were scams! One decorator trying to get material for nothing, and the other guy trying to get my bank account details. My terms were 50% with order, so fortunately I did not even order the material to make the orders. Strange cruel world out there.

Thanks for your helpful tips.
Regards

[Karen Mac]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Zig

Im not an expert, but you didnt give the search engines much to work with. Your store LOOKS Great, but there isnt enough CONTENT.

I did a little leg work for you to show u an example of what I mean

I went to :

http://inventory.o*****re.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

to get some search terms: Thats O*****res reverse search tool.

Candle Holders:

Searches done in August 2006CountSearch Term 16498 candle holder 3685 candle holder votive 2900 candle glass holder 1878 candle holder hurricane 1445 candle holder wholesale 1202 candle holder unity 1105 candle holder iron wrought 1067 candle holder pillar 1057 candle holder wall 998 candle hanging holder 864 candle holder metal 811 candle floor holder 767 candle candle holder 719 candle holder iron 685 candle holder pottery 641 candle floating holder 638 candle clover holder pottery 638 candle diy holder yourself 638 candle floating holder tapered 606 candle crystal holder 544 candle holder mosaic 515 candle holder votive wholesale 510 candle glass holder hurricane 504 brass candle holder 419 candle fireplace holder 405 candle holder taper 397 candle holder unique 396 candle glass holder votive 355 candle glass holder wholesale 334 candle cheap holder 332 candle holder wedding 327 candle holder tealight 326 candle holder light tea 318 candle holder silver 314 candle holder trinity 310 candle holder wooden 286 candle chandelier holder 270 candle holder wood 255 candle holder pewter 254 candle holder tall 251 antique candle holder 239 bronze candle holder 231 bulk candle holder votive 231 candle holder partylite 228 candle holder outdoor 226 candle holder lantern 223 antique candle glass holder 219 candle decorative holder 208 candle circle friend holder 203 candle halloween holder 189 candle holder metal wholesale 184 candle glass holder mosaic 174 candle holder jar 170 bulk candle holder 164 candle holder sconce wall 157 candle holder wire 154 candle crystal holder unity 153 candle holder iron wall 150 candle holder **** tree 142 candle glass holder tall 142 candle holder square votive 141 candle glass holder pillar 140 candle craft holder 139 candle ceramic holder 139 wrought iron floor candle holder 136 candle centerpiece holder 135 candle cylinder glass holder 135 candle discount holder 134 butterfly candle holder 134 candle holder large 134 candle holder mounted wall 132 candle holder red votive 131 candle christmas holder 131 candle contemporary holder 129 candle holder stick 128 angel candle holder 128 candle holder unity wedding 127 candle glass holder stained 124 birthday candle holder 122 candle glass holder votive wholesale 122 candle holder tin 121 candle holder iron wall wrought 120 candle favor holder wedding 118 candle holder square 117 candle dragonfly holder 117 candle holder stone 114 candle cheap holder votive 113 candle glass hanging holder 111 candle frosted holder 110 candle holder mold sugar 110 candle holder pillar wholesale 109 burnished candle holder silver 109 candle floor holder standing 107 bamboo candle holder 107 black candle holder 107 candle holder spiral 106 candle holder rustic 103 candle fairy holder 102 candle holder salt 101 candle holder mexican

You mention candle holder 2x on your home page, and one link to candle holders in your footer. It should be mentioned three to five times in the body to give it weight as a KEY word. By the same measure, Table Lamps is mentioned 2x.

In your footer you have Products Candle Holders, Products Table Lamps, Product Care, etc.. To the SE your search term is PRODUCT and no one is searching for PRODUCT.

I dont see anywhere DESIGNER CANDLE HOLDERS, DESIGNER TABLE LAMPS, ALUMINUM DESIGNER TABLE LAMPS, etc etc. You have a great product and a beautifully laid out store, you need more content about your DESIGNER TABLE TOPPERS than you do about candle safety tips, and so on. The page you have about your products I would use on the home page with specific products mentioned and links to them. You arent really optimized for the kind of visitors you want or need. You are also wanting to marketing your product as a work of art with no reference as to how the design and uniqueness reflect that.

your meta tag is great

<META name="KEYWORDS" content="candle holders, table lamps, solid, aluminium,solid aluminium, solid metal, harrow candle holder, harrow lamp,classic proportions, contemporary design, home decor, aluminium candle holder, solid aluminium candle holder, solid aluminium lamp, art deco,polished solid aluminium, bold design">

But you didnt follow thru on the page with all those keywords:

<META name="DESCRIPTION" content="Candle holders and Table lamps crafted from polished solid aluminium. Exclusive bold tasteful contemporary design with classic proportions. For the discerning home decorator.">

Same thing with your description! All of that should be on your page!
You told the search engines thats what you have, but when they looked, its not there. Use names of products, link to products, how they will decorate your home, high end interior decor, etc in good context will help you alot. Before you pay for advertising, some optimization will pay off big time.

Hope this helps!

Karen

[zigzag]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Gee Karen Mac, you Have gone to a lot of trouble. I really, really appreciate it. I can and will implement some of your suggestions tomorrow.
What follows are not excuses, but reasons or comments. Some of these remarks may help others.

Site maps and AllWebMenus
The footer stuff is because I am using AllWebMenus, and as a result the <A href tags are hidden in javascript. At first, Se's only saw my home page. I added a site map and that helped some SE's. (ROR site map generator couldn't build a proper site map because it also couldn't see the anchor tags).
Then I discovered that my local search engine had to have a mini site map on the home page, otherwise it only indexed the home page. So, I ended up with a manually created site map, and the mini menu you see in the footer. This satisfied all the SE's but it took some time to find out all this, and fix it.

Repeating the keywords in text.
I did read about this, but I consciously decided not to put too much text on my front page. I did want the layout and theme to be discreet, and not too packed with promotional flashy stuff. It looks like not repeating keywords was the wrong decision.
You have certainly given me lots to think about.

Thanks

[Bethers]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Royden,

Karen gave you excellent advice. You can still keep the page clean but you HAVE to use the words that people will be looking for. If I'm that interior decorator and want to know that you have what I'm looking for - I want to see it - then I'll look further. If you put words into your keywords and don't use them on the page, you'll have a much harder time having the se's bring people to the pages for those words. Of course, you can optimize each individual page for specific words (and you should) - but you need to spruce up a bit as mentioned.

As for that footer - we understand why you did it - but for it to work correctly the links have to use the best text. A link like "click here" does no one any good. And in your case a link "candle holders" really doesn't help you - it will bring you the wrong audience - but to use the phrases Karen said as your links "designer candle holders" "aluminum designer candle holders" will show both your visitors and the se's exactly what it is you carry.

Thanks for the compliments about hoping I'd see the post. I've been offline for 5 days - and that happens with me occasionally - so I don't always see all the posts - feel free to email me and then I'll be sure to look when I get back on line!

[Bethers]

Re: What? No sales after 6 months

Be sure to read a post I'm about to make in the SEO room - "It's how you say it"