My online gift shoppe

[lilmiss2die4]

I haven't had a sale since December. Please someone tell me what I am doing wrong. I have been advertising on Google Adwords for about a month and nothing. Although I think my site is easy to navigate, I need your opinion. I am working on backlinks but it is not an easy task.

 

I have an Ebay store and I do awesome but I would like to get the same (awesomeness) with my site.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice or critiscism.

 

Kelly

http://www.just2cutegifts.com

[AHoskins]

I know it probably doesn't help, but the problem might not be the shop but instead getting visitors to the shop. Have you done any SEO on the site? I see that you do have 204 results show up under a google search which is good. Have you researched and optimized your Google Adwords? You may be getting a lot of hits off of people not really interested due to certain keywords. This might help some. Sorry I am not much help, just wanted to throw a few things out there.

 

Another thing is you don't have SSL. While this may not turn off everyone, some people won't order from a site that isn't secure. You should probably look into it. Lastly, just a personal preference, I like the text, but it may not be best to use for everything on the site. Maybe change the menus to something clearer and straight forward.

[lilmiss2die4]

Thank you so much for replying. I do have SSL but you don't see it until you get to the checkout pages. Maybe I can figure out away to advertise that in the footer.

 

I seem to get the most negative feedback on my font. So I definitely need to do something. I have changed it in the past but I hated the way the plain text looked.

 

Again I appreciate the reply.

Kelly

[AHoskins]

Whomever you have your SSL through should provide you with a seal to put on your site, something like these. That would be a big step in showing everyone it is secure.

 

I do like the Papyrus (?) font too, but it is a but distracting. I find smooth fonts work nicely on menus.

 

Good luck to you.

Alan

[jbastow]

Thank you so much for replying. I do have SSL but you don't see it until you get to the checkout pages. Maybe I can figure out away to advertise that in the footer.

 

I seem to get the most negative feedback on my font. So I definitely need to do something. I have changed it in the past but I hated the way the plain text looked.

 

Again I appreciate the reply.

Kelly

 

I don't hate the papyrus look, but it doesn't display very well in broswers (plus, your viewers may be seing plain fonts anyways if they don't have papyrus installed). What bothered me with the fonts is that you have so many different types and variations. Curlz (is that it's official name?) at the top, Papyrus at the bottom, and I think at least 3-5 different styles of san-serif in the middle, depending on which page you're on! I love your buttons, with the Papyrus and the butterfly detail. It shows that fancy fonts like Papyrus and Curlz are nice in small doses, but overwelming as full text (such as the descriptions for each category). Turn key items into pictures (such as "free shipping" in the footer, etc.) to keep the Papyrus touch, but don't display it for text - too pixelated and fussy. Then pick 1 (at most 2) sans-serif fonts, and change everything else in the site to them. Watch your used of Bold and Italics too - these can also make a page look overdone.

 

In regards to getting customers to your site - before investing in any more ads, take a close look at your traffic: Are people coming but then just leaving when getting to checkout? Do they leave from the home page or from a certain area? Is anyone actually clicking on your ads?

 

It might also help to add a contrib that doesn't force your customers to sign up before buying anything (look up Purchase Without Account in the Contrib section).

 

Hope this helps! :thumbsup:

 

Janna

[dmacus]

It might help if you make it look more proffessional; at the moment it looks like a myspace page (not serious). Consider changing the font and layout, make the menu stand out. Have a look at other online retailers, they always include things like 'shopping cart', 'payment methods' right on the front page, they help instill confidence in the buyer.

[lilmiss2die4]

Wow! A myspace page? I guess I never looked at it like that. Before I started working on my website ~ myspace and ebay were my only other internet experiences. So I suppose that could be where I got my inspiration.

 

I have checked out my competitors and I actually thought my site looked better. Please take a look at a few of their pages and tell me what you think. Use the keyword ~ Dragonsite.

 

I do have the Purchase Without An Account contribution installed and there is a button that says Proceed directly to Checkout. But I will work on that area, right after I change all of my font.

 

Thank you for commenting on my buttons. They were my first attempt. Yay Me!!

 

Kelly

[homewetbar]

Wow! A myspace page? I guess I never looked at it like that. Before I started working on my website ~ myspace and ebay were my only other internet experiences. So I suppose that could be where I got my inspiration.

 

I have checked out my competitors and I actually thought my site looked better. Please take a look at a few of their pages and tell me what you think. Use the keyword ~ Dragonsite.

 

I do have the Purchase Without An Account contribution installed and there is a button that says Proceed directly to Checkout. But I will work on that area, right after I change all of my font.

 

Thank you for commenting on my buttons. They were my first attempt. Yay Me!!

 

Kelly

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this site looks like those pages you pull up when searching google that are nothing more than pages filled with links to other pages. If I came across the page I would immediately leave thinking it wasn't a real site, just a relinking site. I would suggest overhauling the design and add some color.

 

Curious what's your average visitors per day (not hits) and your bounce rate (people who view one page and leave)?

[lilmiss2die4]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this site looks like those pages you pull up when searching google that are nothing more than pages filled with links to other pages. If I came across the page I would immediately leave thinking it wasn't a real site, just a relinking site. I would suggest overhauling the design and add some color.

 

Curious what's your average visitors per day (not hits) and your bounce rate (people who view one page and leave)?

 

Well my average of visitors per day is about 250. I don't know how to check my bounce rate or where they are leaving. It looks like I will just have to hire someone to design the site, cuz I am baffled. I am not knocking anyones sites but when I go through the sites people have submited here, I think they all look somewhat similar.

 

Although sometimes the feedback, feels more like a blow. I appreciate it. I hope that it helps me over this slump I seem to be in.

[homewetbar]

Well my average of visitors per day is about 250. I don't know how to check my bounce rate or where they are leaving. It looks like I will just have to hire someone to design the site, cuz I am baffled. I am not knocking anyones sites but when I go through the sites people have submited here, I think they all look somewhat similar.

 

Although sometimes the feedback, feels more like a blow. I appreciate it. I hope that it helps me over this slump I seem to be in.

 

A lot of those sites in the live stores are pretty bad, and are many times abandoned, I wouldn't basis my store on any of them. Look at the larger merchants and how their sites look, the Amazon, JCPenney, Pottery Barn, Gap, etc. of the world, they are the ones generating real revenue.

 

250 visitors per day is not a bad number, you should be converting at least 1% of those to buyers so that would be an expected 2.5 orders per day. Lets say your average order value is $50, so you should be bringing in $125 a day or $3,750 per month. A poor converting site (0.5%) would bring in half of that $1875 per month. So if you are not hitting at least the $1875 per month with 250 visitors per day you have a serious problem.

 

This is very likely because of one or more of the following reasons: 1) Your Site, 2) Your merchandise, and 3) the quality of your traffic (ask yourself are they coming to your site looking for what you sell or by mistake?) Since you said you have an eBay store that does well it's likely not your merchandise, it could be partially true due to your traffic, but after the process of elimination and after seeing the page I would say it has to be the site causing the sales problem.

 

So how do you fix it?

 

Here is how I would go about fixing that site and getting you to the point to where you are making sales...

1) Redesign the site yourself or hire someone immediately, the quicker you get it fixed the quicker money starts coming in. Optionally you may consider an oscommerce site template, I've never used one myself but I hear they are a quick and easy visual fix. Google it.

 

2) Signup for adwords.google.com and make at least one ad if you haven't already. This is important because you can then get access to their Free Google Analytics tool which will provide you loads of data on your incoming visitors, where they leave the site, how long they stay, where they come from etc. Once again Google it if you want more info.

 

3) Promote your site after it is redesigned from your eBay site (but be sure to follow eBay's rules) to start getting current customers looking around and generating more sales directly.

 

That's it! Those are my suggestions in order of priority, good luck and I wish you the best.

[germ]

Kelly,

 

I think the site looks great!

 

I only wish I had the creativity to do such a good job!

 

I wouldn't take the "blows" expressed here too hard.

 

Unless it's a comment about the technical side of things (the way the site functions), anything else is just an "opinion".

 

My favorite saying about "opinions" is this:

 

An opinion is just like an anus - Everyone has one, and some of them stink.

[Draeisme]

The website looks really nice. I would include something on the homepage to show what forms of payments are accepted. Also the menu can get really long at times and hard to navigate. At times it doesn't clearly indicate what are sub categories and what are main categories, Im not sure how much customers like scrolling down a lot for the menu.

[Obewanz]

Kelly,

Look back to December and several months before and ask the question; What has changed?

 

If you changed the site look, layout, or any combination of things, then you can pretty well be assured that the change wasn't good. That said, other posters have made very good comments so I won't bore you with the repetition - just wanted to make sure that the obvious was pointed out.

 

As far as the current look of the site - I probably wouldn't be too eager to purchase from it. Others have said it (MySpace), and I understand your situation. But do yourself a favor and if this is in one of those items above, go find an inexpensive template that you like from one of the template shops and get it installed ASAP. There are some other options, but you would need someone to help you work through those and it would take time.

 

Chin up, tackle the immediate problem (if you have identified it) and then comeback and ask for feedback if it doesn't help. Just remember, not everyone on this site is making money with their websites either, so filter the comments and don't take the negative ones too seriously, unless you agree with them.

[luckyno]

2) Signup for adwords.google.com and make at least one ad if you haven't already. This is important because you can then get access to their Free Google Analytics tool which will provide you loads of data on your incoming visitors, where they leave the site, how long they stay, where they come from etc. Once again Google it if you want more info.

you can signup to google analytics without google adwords...