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Only one order - live since Sept 2

dandelion

By dandelion
in General Support

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dandelion

dandelion

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

We've only received one order since we went live on Sept 2nd - how long does it take for business to start booming?

 

we are number one in google and other search engines for keywords "Aromatherapy Ontario"

number 13 for "Aromatherapy Canada"

number 5 for "shop Aromatherapy"

 

we have a page rank of '3'

 

Any suggestions of what I need to do to improve the site.

 

My Webpage

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

I would consider scrapping your front page or at least minimizing it's content. Your catalog page seems to have all the content that your index page does so you're basically duplicating your efforts and making it harder for your visitors to get to the core of your site.

 

If you do choose to keep your entry page the way it is then maybe minimize it's content (For example you have your phone # listed 3 times on it).

 

Also some pictures in your catagories pages would make it a bit more interesting.

Good luck.

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Vger

♥Vger

Posted
Posted

Well, one thing missing from your website is a 'Returns' policy. That may put some people off.

 

You are using a shared SSL, and again this may also put some people off. It doesn't cost much to upgrade to a full SSL and is so much more professional.

 

Beeswax Candles are a real slow seller. You should consider marketing them as Party or Wedding Favours or as Marketing Gifts - and hope to get some large quantity orders.

 

Opening the online store is only a start - consider paying for Google Adwords - do regular mailshot promos to Lifestyle Magazines (they're always looking for copy and this will drive sales). Mailshots, apart from posting and packaging are also FREE and yield better results than paid-for advertising in magazines/papers.

 

Vger

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FalseDawn

FalseDawn

Posted
Posted

It is all about marketing.

Ranking for keyword phrases is irrelevant if those phrases only receive a handful of searches a month.

 

You really need to start a google adwords campaign - not only is it far more effective than relying on organic search result click-throughs, it also allows you to see (after a period of time), what the most popular search phrases are for your products.

 

Be prepared to set your budget at something like $5 a day to begin with, and to make no money (or even lose money) for the first few months or so until you get more proficient at targetting your adverts.

 

I assume you have listed on froogle? Also consider yahoo shopping, shopping.com, yahoo search (formerly overture), goclick etc.

 

Good luck!

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Cisco

Cisco

Posted
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Add your files to www.froogle.com. I have heard of some people get more orders once they are on froogle.

 

Depending on you product type and how many are available out there for purchase. You have to win your customers from there current vendor they are dealing with.

 

Homepage content is a bit much also around the links under the banner.

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PartyMania

PartyMania

Posted
Posted

Didn't read the replies, but first off wrong section of the site, post this in My Store. It took me three months to generate my first sale, getting ad words and overture will help. I'm still struggling, but have been doing better now with ad words. It just takes time and patience.

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ise

ise

Posted
Posted
Didn't read the replies, but first off wrong section of the site, post this in My Store.  It took me three months to generate my first sale, getting ad words and overture will help.  I'm still struggling, but have been doing better now with ad words.  It just takes time and patience.

 

Hi,

I am still in the proses of putting my osCommerce site together,and know it will take some time to attract customers. I have had a front end site to my ebay shop for some time and this front end site enjoys a fair number of hits. Is it ok to say link my original front end site,to my new osCommerce site,or would it be better to invest my time and effort into pushing the osCommerce site directly.I just thought it would be nice to make use of the number of hits I am already getting on my current site and not to start all offer again so to speak.Any thoughts would be much appreciated,

Ian

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dandelion

dandelion

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Okay, I've simplified page one but I'm afraid to mess with it too much as I don't want to lose the page rank and hits I am getting with the existing keywords. I'm much more comfortable with html than I am with php so that's probably why I'm keeping it.

 

Be prepared to set your budget at something like $5 a day to begin with, and to make no money (or even lose money) for the first few months or so until you get more proficient at targetting your adverts.

My friend has exhausted her startup funds so $5 a day is out of the question at this point.

 

I hadn't even heard of froogle till yesterday - I guess I've had my head in the sand. I'll look into all this thanks!

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dandelion

dandelion

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Add your files to www.froogle.com. I have heard of some people get more orders once they are on froogle.

 

Depending on you product type and how many are available out there for purchase. You have to win your customers from there current vendor they are dealing with.

 

Homepage content is a bit much also around the links under the banner.

I'm trying to add the products to froogle but I can't figure out how. I've posted in the contribution thread with no replies.

 

I have no idea what I'm doing. Here are the errors I get

 

 

Warning: fopen(../feeds/aromatherapy_4_u.txt): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /var/www/html/catalog/admin/froogle.php on line 301

 

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /var/www/html/catalog/admin/froogle.php on line 302

 

Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /var/www/html/catalog/admin/froogle.php on line 303

File completed: aromatherapy_4_u.txt

 

Warning: chmod(): Permission denied in /var/www/html/catalog/admin/froogle.php on line 305

 

Script timer: 0.095891 seconds.

 

Here is what those lines say

 

$fp = fopen( $OutFile , "a" );
$fout = fwrite( $fp , $output );
fclose( $fp );
echo "File completed: <a href=\"" . $OutFile . "\" target=\"_blank\">" . $destination_file . "</a><br>\n";
chmod($OutFile, 0777);

/*

 

I haven't gone past step 7 in the instructions because the file isn't being written properly.

 

Thanks I'm sure with your help I'll get there evenutally

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toyicebear

♥toyicebear

Posted
Posted
I'm trying to add the products to froogle but I can't figure out how.? I've posted in the contribution thread with no replies.

 

I have no idea what I'm doing. Here are the errors I get

Here is what those lines say

 

$fp = fopen( $OutFile , "a" );
$fout = fwrite( $fp , $output );
fclose( $fp );
echo "File completed: <a href=\"" . $OutFile . "\" target=\"_blank\">" . $destination_file . "</a><br>\n";
chmod($OutFile, 0777);

/*

 

I haven't gone past step 7 in the instructions because the file isn't being written properly.

 

Thanks I'm sure with your help I'll get there evenutally

 

 

cmod your /feeds/ folder and content to 777 , then it might work....

 

To give further feedback about your number of sales, it would be a usefull start to know how many unike visitors you have had in this periode....

Basics for osC 2.2 Design - Basics for Design V2.3+ - Seo & Sef Url's - Meta Tags for Your osC Shop - Steps to prevent Fraud... - MS3 and Team News... - SEO, Meta Tags, SEF Urls and osCommerce - Commercial Support Inquiries - OSC 2.3+ How To

 

To see what more i can do for you check out my profile [click here]

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dandelion

dandelion

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cmod your /feeds/ folder and content to 777 , then it might work....

 

To give further feedback about your number of sales, it would be a usefull start to know how many unike visitors you have had in this periode....

 

Oh thanks so much! I thought I had done that but somehow it wasn't right.

 

In step 8 it says to uncomment block: from (line208)//start FTP to froogle to (Line 238)//End FTP to froogle. Well in mine it was from line 308 to line 362. Do I just uncomment the Start FTP to Froogle and End FTP to Froogle or do I remove // from all things in that between there - I'm not a coder can you tell?

 

Okay now how do I tell if it's working?

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dandelion

dandelion

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How many unique users do you get click on your site per day?

 

Here's what the tracker shows for the time since we went live

03 Sep, Sat 18

 

04 Sep, Sun 51

 

05 Sep, Mon 10

 

06 Sep, Tue 21

 

07 Sep, Wed 20

 

08 Sep, Thu 23

 

09 Sep, Fri 10

 

10 Sep, Sat 9

 

11 Sep, Sun 10

 

12 Sep, Mon 18

 

13 Sep, Tue 32

 

14 Sep, Wed 19

 

15 Sep, Thu 12

 

16 Sep, Fri 12

 

17 Sep, Sat 11

 

18 Sep, Sun 14

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dandelion

dandelion

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Actually having a good look at the tracker again I see that most of these hits are coming from oscommerce forum and live site link. Thanks for the interest are any of you interested in buying :D

 

I really need to figure out what keywords people use to shop for aromatherapy products. Any suggestions??

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FalseDawn

FalseDawn

Posted
Posted

This is a great tool for helping optimize for phrases.

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

 

Anything less than a few 1000 searches a month is not worth bothering with.

Just try typing in a few phrases to get an idea of how popular they are.

 

Bear in mind that conversion rates are probably 2% ish - so for every 100 targetted visitors, you could expect a couple of sales. To be honest, without targetted advertising on major SE, you are going to find it tough to get any real volume of sales.

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Jumping Rabbit

Jumping Rabbit

Posted
Posted
Here's what the tracker shows for the time since we went live

03 Sep, Sat    18   

 

  04 Sep, Sun    51   

 

  05 Sep, Mon    10   

 

  06 Sep, Tue    21   

 

  07 Sep, Wed    20   

 

  08 Sep, Thu    23   

 

  09 Sep, Fri    10   

 

  10 Sep, Sat    9   

 

  11 Sep, Sun    10   

 

  12 Sep, Mon    18   

 

  13 Sep, Tue    32   

 

  14 Sep, Wed    19   

 

  15 Sep, Thu    12   

 

  16 Sep, Fri    12   

 

  17 Sep, Sat    11   

 

  18 Sep, Sun    14

 

 

With those numbers, 1 sale is actually quite ok....

 

While targeted advertizment/key word advertaizment can get you a quite high coversion ratio from your visitors(Typically from 1% and up), relaying only on organic search engine traffic will land you a fairly low covertion ration. (Typically from 1% and down)

Faster Checkout - osCommerce Knowledge Base - Anyone meet offline?, Has anyone of you cyberkids meet offline?

 

For newbees do atleast read this 4 points: Basic info - Search tips and help - Posting tips and help - Basics for Design

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dandelion

dandelion

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Looks like I didn't want the "_" in the name of the .txt file - I guess it takes a long time for froogle to make the changes.

 

 

 

This is a great tool for helping optimize for phrases.

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion

Thanks for the tip - I'll give it a try.

 

If you go with ad words - how long do you have to use it - indefinitely? Doesn't it cost a lot?

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FalseDawn

FalseDawn

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Posted

It costs as much as you are prepared to pay! You can set a daily limit on your spending and cancel the account at any time. Or just pause your adverts.

 

There are tools to track conversions, roi etc. The system has its flaws, but it's very popular and gets results.

 

Just don't expect to become an expert straight away - it takes a lot of time and fiddling to get things set up to run efficiently.

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dandelion

dandelion

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I just got an email from froogle that my feed was rejected because the prices are CAD not USD. I have Canadian as the default but offer US do I have to have the prices defaulted to US to use froogle!?

 

Ruth

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toyicebear

♥toyicebear

Posted
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I just got an email from froogle that my feed was rejected because the prices are CAD not USD.  I have Canadian as the default but offer US  do I have to have the prices defaulted to US to use froogle!?

 

Ruth

 

No, you do not have to set USD as default, you can adjust the froggle feed contribution to include the currency switch in the product links.

Basics for osC 2.2 Design - Basics for Design V2.3+ - Seo & Sef Url's - Meta Tags for Your osC Shop - Steps to prevent Fraud... - MS3 and Team News... - SEO, Meta Tags, SEF Urls and osCommerce - Commercial Support Inquiries - OSC 2.3+ How To

 

To see what more i can do for you check out my profile [click here]

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  • 3 weeks later...
dandelion

dandelion

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Add your files to www.froogle.com. I have heard of some people get more orders once they are on froogle.

 

Thanks so much for your advice. The store is working on Froogle now. We've had 3 completed orders since we were added to Froogle. I'm hoping for a lot more from the store but this is a bit more encouraging.

 

Ruth

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