Web developers & E-commerce Gurus: Advice Please
 

NOTE: OOPS, wrong forum, please move to OT.

Kinda long, but here goes....

A year ago I launched www.veryfinebooks.com.
My interests in book collecting and web site development lead me to embark on this venture. The past year has met with lukewarm success..., we get about 2-3 orders a month with positive net profit to justify continuing running the site.

My goals are to bring it to the next level. At this point, I do all the web design and "background" Yahoo store editing myself...here's where you come in, perhaps from a few of you pros who are in the industry and have more exp. than I do. .. I need some input along the following lines:

* Is the purpose of my site clear?

* Do all the pages of my site focus on that one purpose?

* Am I effectively targeting my audience?

* Is the content interesting and relevant?

* Is my site professional looking? Would a visitor know my skill level by the look of the Web site?

* Is the content well written and easy to read? Is the content written appropriately for my target visitor?

* Do I always know where I am throughout every page of the Web site? Or do I find myself lost or in a dead end?

* On a dialup connection, do the pages load fast enough?

Thanks very much for taking the time in helping a fellow Pelican!

SmileWavy

I'm getting sleepy, but heck, I'll drop a few tidbits.

A few immediate things: one, move from yahoo stores, onto a host that has a high end stats package. I would study the means by which people find your site; this is something that a high end stats package will give you. You can tie out your visits to orders (visits to the order complete page) and get a good sense who has "referred" your traffic.

I tested it out, I did not find you on a google of "limited edition books". Upon examining your keywords, they are not perfect for web site indexing. Too much repitition and not enough "diversity". Think mission statement broken into single unitized words/phrases.

Also, your home page needs to tie out the key words as much as possible.

IMO, the site aesthetics and speed are ok, but I think you need a web dev to spend some time with you, lots of these issues need tuning over time. I have a client that gets 6-10 orders a day when google lands him on the first page, and 2-3 a month when he disappears! I developed a "keyword shifting" program that feeds dynamic keywords to his pages as the pages change.

Hope that helps, off to bed with me!

PM me. I'm an SEO/SEM specialist with years of e-commerce retail experience, from organic optimization to designing and managing pay per click adversiting campaign with focus on ROI/conversion rate.

I can help you.

I built a very large Yahoo store and initially many sale were sourced through it's audience. However, as the Yahoo vendor community grew these sales went to nearly zero.

IMO, you should concentrate on marketing. Wether it's a proven pay-for-clicks program, search engine ranking or other methods this will be where your time is best spent.
Have you put a few of your books on Ebay? This will expose you to the most people for very little cost. I'd be surprised if your target audience didn't scan Ebay regularly.

BTW, predictably, Yahoo became a very unattractive means of hosting as they nickel and dimed customers at evry turn.

I agree, getting good stats helps. I'm no expert, but my wife used to use "web-stat" and it worked well. I discovered some info that helped me 'fix' my site.

Yes, I do have books up on Ebay. it's very sporadic and people are always low-balling me.

Anyone have experience with Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing? I'm seriously considering doing this for a targetted marketing campaign.

I'm using Google Adwords for one of my sites and not having much success with it. My cost-per-click is very expensive - about $1.13. Not translating to much action. Might work for others, though. I'm with Rick - I think eBay is your best bet. The collectors seem to use it extensively.

Richard
As I mentioned to On Ramp in a PM, at my day job, we spend $10,000 per week on pay per click advertising. I can help you get positive ROI out of your ppc spend. PM me, I do lots of freelance SEO/SEM work on the side.

is Google Adwords another scam? 155 clicks and $27.56 later and nothing! or am I being impatient?

we also using a mailing list to offer special low prices for everyone that is on it. we'll see how that gets recieved. it's similar to the Barnes Nobles model.

anyhow, thanks for your helpful advice. Wayne, great site. more printing and reading ahead.

google "click fraud"

is that where my competitors keep clicking on my ads?

Part of it, it's also where clicks are brokered to people that should not see them and burn out your adsense budget in 1/2 hour.

My personal opinion and experience is that your website is not the problem: your business model is.

I totally applaud you for selecting such an enlightened endeavor for your business, however your target market is probably much too small and far to specialized, to reach in this fashion (website) alone.

I could be wrong, but considering what you are offering here...it leads me to a few natural questions that I would have if this were my business: How big is the effective market for very fine, signed copies of outstanding literature? If it is suitable to make a living out of it, then is the web the most effective tool to utilize in your sales efforts? What avenues exist to market your services and draw traffic to your website? (magazine advertising, collectors trade shows etc.?)

To be the leader in a highly telescoped upscale product market such as this, it seems that developing your reputation as the most knowledgeable and best connected source for such material would be the best way to go in terms of building sales. I'm just not sure that this website alone is going to achieve that.

Point one:

Most people are dumb as a box of rocks.

You neeed to tell them what to think about your store. What single phrase sums up what differentiates your store from others that sell fine/signed books? IOW, "position" your store with a headline/tagline.

Next, tell them to bookmark your site. Silly, but true, people need to be told.