Online store - how to put your business out there?

[Dizzie]

I'm really after some tips on how to put my online store out there and make it known. My store has been up and running for 7 weeks now and l have had 1 sale.

I am based in Australia and my store is made up of a gorgeous range of quality wooden toys, organic clothing, knitted toys, skincare and more. I advertised in a children's magazine for this month which is widely distributed within my state but have had no response as a result. The store is also picked up by search engines.

I have also started a blog and only have a handful of followers (other wahms) who are returning the favour of me joining their blog. I have had heaps of positive feedback on my site from people but no sales. Am l expecting too much too soon?

I am passionate about my store and items and am determined to make it work. Not only that, l actually NEED it work because if it doesn't take off l need to go back to work in a few months time. That will be devastating for me because l need to wahm so that l can care for DS with aspergers syndrome and take him to appointments etc because we desperately need to get some help for him. Also DD is happily nursing along and not really eating and it would absolutely break me to wean her. Gosh l hope all of this doesn't sound like my store is driven out of desperation, it is not. It is something l have always wanted to do. But if it doesn't take off l guess the consequences for my family and l will have quite an impact on our lives.

Happy to PM my store details to anyone if you wanted to check it out to give me feedback or something.

[EmmalinesMom]

Personally, I've found signature advertising here and at other forums to be a good way of getting your name out there. Even if most clicks don't result in an immediate purchase, they're still checking out your site, and hopefully filing it away for future reference. They may pass it on to friends, too.

SEO is important, too.

Good luck!

[Dizzie]

To be honest, l feel a bit nervous about having my business in my sig cos l find MDC to be a safe place l can come to vent and talk about personal aspects of my life which l don't feel comfortable with my customers knowing. It does sound like a great way to get hits though so l may need to have a think about how l can work around this.

Any other tips?????

[Mommyintraining2]

Could you hire a marketing service to send out postcards to homes? Radio? TV? Farmer's markets? Not sure what you have available where you live. I really hope it works out for you!!!

[tinyblackdot]

If you want here to be you safe house, maybe try having siggy ads in other forums and just post there. You can post in the WAHM/Vendor threads on other forusm to let people know about your store.

Also i think doing a HUGE sale on on particular item in your store and advertising it through forums, or facebook or whatever, and then getting the new customers emails and sending store updates every so often.

You could take out an add in the Mothering Mag, or see if you can find fellow mamas that have natural centered blogs to put adds on their sites or links.

[kssinca]

A wonderful and FREE resource to learn about SEO is through the 30 Day Challenge. DH and I are doing it right now.

We have an online store and do not advertise it anywhere - no money. We get traffic from Froogle and from our keywords. Our traffic has been dwindling so we were concentraing on SEO to bring it back up.

[Quirky]

MDC probably doesn't have enough Australian traffic to make a signature search worthwhile. But you need to find similar Australian/NZ forums (assuming you ship to NZ) and post there, put up banner ads, etc. Run a free shipping or 10% off special.

Also try putting up flyers and business cards any local places that will take them, and try getting out the word locally too, esp. if there aren't places locally that carry the same things you do.

[PJsmomma]

Twitter is good for traffic. You can also make a Facebook fan page--not quite sure how to do that, but I hear good things from those who do it.

[Night Owl]

Have you done any target market research?

Do you know what your customers want? Do you know how much they're willing to pay? Do you know where they look when they're searching for what you sell?

If not, this is the first thing you need to do. Talk to those people who have given you great feedback. Find out what they like about what you are offering -- and find out what they don't like.

Check your website and make sure there isn't anything on the site or in the way that it is setup stopping people from ordering.

And finally, seven weeks is a blip on the radar in the startup of a business. For most businesses, it can take up to two years to turn a profit.

Do your market research. Develop a marketing and business plan. Then settle in for the long haul.

BTW, I interviewed a business woman last year -- Francine Glick of Water Journey, a company that makes an alcohol-free hand sanitizer. She created her product in her kitchen sink more than 10 years ago. When I interviewed her, she was just starting to see success -- including getting her products into large stores across the U.S.

Most overnight successes take a few years to arrive. So hang in there.

[nursingmom]

Froogle is free and will drive the traffic that you need for sales. Adding more products (that sells) plus writing more content on your website will drive traffic.

I've launched my website a year ago and I still have not made a penny for myself yet. Still in the red... sale keep coming... but it's hard to pay off the debt quickly since my profit margin isn't very high.

[poppyseed]

The things that have worked for us in our first year (and we have advertised on a very tight budget):

*Bussiness signatures on several parenting forums, and posting regularly

*Getting postcards printed with pictures and information about our business, and including these in every order we package - these then get passed on to friends and family/stuck on the fridge and people come back as repeat customers etc (this has been one of our best marketing stratagies)

*The best though is awesome search engine optimisation, so that we come up on page one of google, if you search for ANY of the products we sell.

*Writing articles related to healthy living, and getting more traffic to our site by people searching for these related issues