Re: website (this will probably be long)

[Guest guest]

Building a website can be easy. Building a website that is optimized

(meaning it's built so that search engines like it and will give you

higher rankings) is difficult and complicated. But it's doable.

First of all, you need to view your website for what it truly is - an

investment in your business. Investments mean money. Money upfront

that eventually (eventually is the keyword) should bring your a return

on your investment if done properly. Free Websites unfortunately just

won't do. First of all, search engines don't like them, and oftentimes

won't list them. They don't view them as serious websites. It sucks,

but that's the truth of it. If you're truly serious about growing your

business then you need a quality professional looking website. This

doesn't mean that you need to pay out the wazoo for it, but you will

need to pay something. Accept that as a fact of doing business online.

You have to spend money to make money. You'll most likely have monthly

hosting fees (probably varying from $15-$45/month) and merchant fees

(allows you to process credit cards - again a must for doing business

on the internet - and runs approximately the same as the hosting fees).

Once you've started building your website (many hosting companies have

templates that can make this easy for you), all of the other stuff

comes into play. Writing Ad Copy for a website is very different than

writing it for a brochure or any other type of printed ad. Then you

also have all of your metatags, metatitles, keyword density, etc. The

more you learn about SEO (search engine optimization) the more you'll

discover that you will never learn it all. And it doesn't help that

it's constantly changing.

But it can be done, and done successfully. But it takes work,

constantly. You can just build a pretty website and assume it will

bring in sales. It won't happen. But with proper work, you can build a

website that will rank well in the search engines, bring in steady

traffic, and close sales. I know I was honestly surprised when I

discovered I was ranked on page two with MSN for Handmade Soaps.

That's one of the toughest keyword phrases for our industry. My

website has only been up since September, so that shows you it can be

done. But I've spent countless hours developing my website, and still do.

I write a newsletter that shares tips on things like this. If you're

interested, drop me a private e-mail, and I can tell you where you can

sign up.

Goodwin

www.blsoaps.com

>

> Hello everyone,

>

> For those who have a website:

>

> Has it been a slow process to get your business going? There are so

many

> people now with websites. I wasn't sure if it would be less than a

year or

> two for people to find your site.

[Guest guest]

>

> Building a website can be easy. Building a website that is optimized

> (meaning it's built so that search engines like it and will give you

> higher rankings) is difficult and complicated. But it's doable.

,

Thanks for reminding me to make my website so that search engines

will like it. I am thinking that may be my problem with

getting " hits " on my site. Hubby, who is a computer programmer

showed me a LONG time ago how to include subjects on the web to link

to the subjects in my web site, but I now forget how to do that. If

I don't do something regularly, and if I didn't write it down, step

by step in order, then it's like working with a clean slate all over

again. I have learned to keep notebooks on different things, to

refer back to when I have to do something.

I did that when I first set up my own website, but I think I never

updated it when I started making changes to my page/site.

Thank you for reminding me.

Anita B.

[Guest guest]

> ,

> Thanks for reminding me to make my website so that search engines

> will like it. I am thinking that may be my problem with

> getting " hits " on my site.

> Anita B.

Getting " hits " on a site is completely different from counting and

tracking visitors. Hits can mean anything from the number of pages

that are visited within the website by your visitors, and others can

be even worse. I once had it explained to me that you have your home

page, and within that home page you have 10 different elements (photos

or other things that need to load). A " hit " counter will get a hit for

each element, as well as the home page. So you'll get 11 hits from

your home page alone from one visitor. Not exactly accurate. Then if

they go to page two, you get another hit for that page, plus the

loading elements (let's say 4 hits). Then if they go BACK to the home

page, those 11 hits get added again. So one visitor visiting two pages

on your website tallys up 25 hits for your site according to these hit

counters.

A decent and free statistics that you can load into your website can

be found at www.statcounter.com. I don't know how to load the code

into your builder (DH did mine, and each builder is different), but I

remember it not being difficult. When you log into their site, your

stats show up.

There are quite a few things you can track, but for these purposes,

the most important will be unique visitors. It'll give you page loads,

unique visitors, and repeat visitors. The unique visitors will tell

you how many individual IP addresses visited your site that day, that

week, that month, that quarter or that year. By then comparing these

numbers to your sales, you come up with your conversion rate. This is

the key number that tells you if your website is functioning

successfully. You can have all the traffic in the world, but if it's

not closing sales, your website is failing.

The simplest way to determine your conversion rate is to take your

sales for the last month and divide that by your visitor stats. So if

you had 20 sales last month, and 1200 unique visitors, your conversion

rate is 1.6%, which is pretty good if you're not actively working

towards it and are still learning. 2% is a good goal mark. Very few

websites close above this and do so regularly.

I know the numbers don't sound great, but think about your own online

shopping habits. You probably shop around for price and quality. You

probably revisit the same site several times before placing an order.

Everyone else is pretty much the same. It's rare to close a sale on

someone's first visit to a website. So getting people BACK to your

site is key, but a completely different issue as well! LOL!

But don't fret over not getting a lot of traffic until you're know

what your conversion rate even is. If you're below 1%, your time,

money and efforts are much better spent getting that conversion rate

up rather than getting more traffic to your site. Does that make

sense? It can kind of be compared to this. If your company is losing 2

cents for every dollar it brings in, more sales means you're losing

more money faster. Fix the current problems (like your conversion

rate) before trying to drive sales volumes up.

There are a lot of things that you can do to improve your conversion

rates, but it's not a very quick process. It's kind of like tweaking a

soap recipe. You don't want to change more than one thing at a time,

because if it's a success (or total failure) you won't be able to

pinpoint what caused the change. So test one thing at a time, see the

difference in the conversion rate, and then move on to the next item.

Change your headlines. Change your ad copy. Improve your photography.

Add credibility items (secure shopping cart signs, member of such and

such soap guild, member of the BBB, etc.). Try these things in

different places on the website. There are so many different things

you could try, that basically, testing is never done. Websites,

quality ones, are always being tested, always being worked on, and

always being improved. It's definitely a labor of love.

Again, I've rambled. LOL! Can you tell I love these topics! I've been

thrilled to discover that I absolutely love the business side of

things. Which is also why I've started including business tips like

these in my supply newsletter! The more I learn about SEO (search

engine optimization) the more I discover that I'll never come close to

learning everything. But I just gobble it all up! I borrow books from

the library all the time on different business subjects, and I've

found I CANNOT use these books to read to fall asleep at night because

they have the exact opposite effect on me. They energize me, my mind

starts rolling a million miles a minute, and I want to start

implementing everything that I've read. But I know I need to pace

myself, try a few things at a time, and discover what works for me, my

business and my clients. It's a thrilling process, at least for me.

Goodwin

www.soapersworkshop.com

[Guest guest]

Can you tell I love these topics! I've been

> thrilled to discover that I absolutely love the business side of

> things. Which is also why I've started including business tips like

> these in my supply newsletter! ... "

,

Some good information there. I, too, enjoy owning a business, but I

have to tell you, you can have the SEO stuff. I am just not interested

in my converstion rates, etc.

For someone like me, who is more interested in leaving the web

business to my web guy, I rely on increased sales to drive my

excitement. It's very hard to know where every single person who

visits my site came from. And I just don't have the time to figure it

all out.

So, I have my website in every single email signature, and leave it on

every single group post, and I participate online and get my name out

there every way I can. I enclose a business card with each soap/item.

I leave business cards on public restroom sinks. I chat people up in

the soap aisle at the health food store.

And I sit back and watch it happen. It's a constant process, I think.

Enough rambling from me,

Amy

Author, _Making Soap In Your Own Kitchen_

Find the ebook here: http://www.soapcrone.com/ebook.php

[Guest guest]

Trust me, I know not everyone is interested in SEO. I also know there

are a lot of soapers who build their own websites, and then wonder why

they aren't getting any sales from them. Marketing is a many armed

monster. It can be fun and terrifying to figure out what works best

for you. You're doing awesome in making sure your emails have sig

lines, and business cards with everything, and well, basically all

that you mentioned will help drive business to you. And that's good.

There are so many different methods of marketing. Everyone needs to

find what they're most comfortable with. I know for me, I can't do

shows. The average price of a 2-3 day craft show in Utah is $120. And

with the general type of people who live here, naturally crafty,

usually SAHMs, a lot of people come to browse for ideas, not to shop.

Add in my 3 boys who are 6,4 & 3, a husband who travels for work (I'm

basically a single mom most Mondays-Fridays), and it's next to

impossible for me, and profits wise, well, it's usually not worth it.

But there are MANY MANY soapers who do this incredibly successfully.

I'm just not one of them. Everyone finds their own niche. Keep up the

good work!

Goodwin

www.soapersworkshop.com

So, I have my website in every single email signature, and leave it on

> every single group post, and I participate online and get my name out

> there every way I can. I enclose a business card with each soap/item.

> I leave business cards on public restroom sinks. I chat people up in

> the soap aisle at the health food store.

>

> And I sit back and watch it happen. It's a constant process, I think.

>

> Enough rambling from me,

>

> Amy

> Author, _Making Soap In Your Own Kitchen_

> Find the ebook here: http://www.soapcrone.com/ebook.php

>

[Guest guest]

I thought craft fairs the way to go , and paid for tables at 12 in

advance....Did two and they were soul-destroying. I sat all day and sold one

soap at

£5. Had to watch all these horrible old cats walking by and looking down the

sides of their noses at me--I hated it soooo much !

the second one was better, more sales and nicer people, but I hated every

single minute and that was the last one, I never went back. I felt so guilty

and such a failure for weeks after it....

_www.soapbops.co.uk_ (http://www.soapbops.co.uk/)

_www.highlandmist.com_ (http://www.highlandmist.com/)

[Guest guest]

> There are so many different methods of marketing. Everyone needs to

> find what they're most comfortable with. I know for me, I can't do

> shows. The average price of a 2-3 day craft show in Utah is $120. And

> with the general type of people who live here, naturally crafty,

> usually SAHMs, a lot of people come to browse for ideas, not to shop.

It is important to consider things like this when deciding where to

sell. I bet those craft fairs are highly attended, but you are

right--if the folks in your area are just scoping for ideas, then it's

not worth it.

For folks living in large metropolitan areas, craft fairs and farmer's

markets can be a good way to go.

> Add in my 3 boys who are 6,4 & 3, a husband who travels for work (I'm

> basically a single mom most Mondays-Fridays), and it's next to

> impossible for me, and profits wise, well, it's usually not worth it.

Family dynamics and accessibility are also things to consider. I can

do farmer's markets because I am a teacher, and build up my soap

supply in the summers. Then my SAHH (Stay At Home Husband) does one

market in the fall, when I go back to school. We are lucky that we can

work it this way--it means we can do both a Saturday and a Sunday market.

Just rambling so folks can get ideas,

Amy

Author, _Making Soap In Your Own Kitchen_

Find the ebook here: http://www.soapcrone.com/ebook.php