With a site like this you need to build relationships to get meaningful traffic. Forge partnerships with art show organisers etc. Perhaps offer referral commissions to boutiques etc if they'll put brochures or something in their shops. Create partnerships with other sites catering to the same type of crowd. I think your sales are going to come from people that seek out your site specifically knowing what they are looking for. I don't see you as an alternative for someone who's just looking to purchase something online for the heck of it.
That's what I think anyway. On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 3:42 PM, Matthew Smith <[email protected]>wrote: > > http://www.RedHotKitties.com <http://www.redhotkitties.com/> > > This is the first site I ever built. It was a work of love because I did > it for my parents. The layout and functionality has remained largely > unchanged in the last 9 years since the site went live. > > The e-commerce was a bit of a challenge because many of the items are > unique, so transactional locking was required during the checkout process. > I cut my teeth on ColdFusion with this site. It took me a while, but the > code is solid. > > They are more than happy with the site. The admin section works well, > allowing them to add items to the inventory quite easily. They love it. > > They like to look of it and don't feel it needs to change. I feel it looks > to simple and dated and that an updated, professional look would help sales. > > Currently, the sales of the site don't even cover hosting and payment > gateway. > > I have tried various things to increase sales. > > We attempted Google Adwords campaign for several months with a modest > budget wihtout success. > > I have converted the dynamic item pages to static html that is updated > hourly in an attempt to get better listings in search engines. > > We upload the inventory to Google base daily, which has provided a few > clicks, but not sales. > > In real life, the art sells well at art shows. I know that it is difficult > to sell online non-commodity goods because it is difficult to convey their > substance through the medium. I just feel that we could do better. > > Admittedly, the graphic design needs an update. I have tried without > success to incorporate the art of the artist into the layout of the site. I > will probably find a template and try to integrate it into the site. This > will be my next step in the evolution of the site, but I fear it will not be > enough. > > I am more of a programmer that happens to do web sites than a full fledged > web designer. Graphic design is difficult. Marketing is out of my scope of > knowledge. SEO is a magic art that I know the very, very basics of, and > Google mystifies me. I have approached the problem from a technical > standpoint without success. > > I've been doing sites for almost a decade, but still cannot make this site > profitable. I won't make any money from it if it does succeed, but it would > mean so much to my parents, and therefore to me. > > So, I ask you, the cf-community to help me with this. Critique, advise, > guide. Be nice or mean, I don't care. There are a ton of smart people on > this list, and I'm open to trying anything. I don't have much of a budget. > Any expenses would be out of my pocket, a gift to them. A can afford a > template but not much more. If the cost is justified, we could invest into > the site, but we would need to know that it would work. > > I would love for this to be a community project, one that we could watch > together. We can see what works and what doesn't. I don't know, maybe I'm > asking too much. Just thought I would put this out to the list and see what > happens. > > Thanks for any help you guys can offer. > > Matthew > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:311988 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
