Every business must have a website, that goes without saying. How elaborate it is depends on your marketing strategy, your available time and your willingness to learn how to set up and use the site.
You could hire a site designer (including David, whom others have suggested and who from what I've seen does excellent work) or you could go with one of the many ecommerce platforms out there that offer low monthly or annual fees, free templates and 24/7 phone or chat support. You could also go with one of the blog hosts who offer an ecommerce option (like Wordpress, I believe). There are options out there that allow you to set up and run a site for less (often much less) than $1,000 a year. Whatever you do, the key to getting traffic is updating the site often, with inventory, text, images, etc. This is both for the benefit of Google's webcrawlers and as a way of attracting and keeping customers with fresh content, just the way a brick and mortar store changes what they have in the store window, except you must do it much more often, in fact, every day. (This is the vaunted Search Engine Optimization - SEO.) In the age of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc, content is king. Once your site is set up it is imperative that you have an ongoing presence in social media. That can be very time consuming but it is also fun and rewarding on a personal level because you get to connect and interact with so many more fans and collectors than you would otherwise. The purpose of all this is simply to establish and maintain a brand, while constantly reminding folks that you have really cool stuff that could be theirs. So while planning your website, give some thought to how it fits into a marketing strategy that includes social media. Hope that helps a bit, Dave Posteropolis Vintage Movie Posters http://www.posteropolis.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/posteropolis Twitter: @posteropolis Tumblr: http://www.posteropolis.tumblr.com/ -----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alan Adler Sent: December-28-13 12:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [MOPO] Dear Mopos with Websites! Dear Mopos with Websites - Have been thinking of following Bruce's advice and creating my own off-Ebay website to sell (not auction) posters and goodies. How do you mo-pros who sell on your own sites enjoy that digital venue vs. the old Ebay paradigm? Is it more difficult technically (man hours) to use your own site or costly to keep running than you thought it would be? How do you drive eyeballs - Is it tough getting visitors? Do you sell on Ebay and your own site - or strictly your own site? What do you suggest be included or avoided when building a site? Any big surprises or epiphanies you've had in the process of building and running your website that you'd be willing to share? Hope some folks find this a stimulating thread. Thanks in advance for your time. Alan Adler Museum of Mom and Pop Culture Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
