I have only one thing to say which will boost the entire site. Dash, not underscore!
-- Michael Dinowitz On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 3:42 PM, Matthew Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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:311994 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
