Can You Brain Storm with Me? Just for a sec!

12 replies
Hiya warriors

I have been steady working on a large project for a long time, and I feel it is time to switch gears a bit.

My system is working beautifully, however, I need some fine tuning done to my set up, and after running around in my own head for a LONG time, I thought some outside perspective would be lovely.

My system currently allows people to sign up for a (ecommerce/barter site) of their own, on my main site.

My problem, my site also offers a community.

I am finding people signup, and do nothing with their sites.

I am thinking at this point I must need some sort of support materials?

How can i easily create support materials?

I am NOT good with writing, I much prefer to design and or code. Not write instructions.

Also, I am thinking of offering upgrade packages, and was wondering since I use wp/wpmu.. would it be weird to setup billing through amember?

Oviously this would make my business less automated, but, it would also allow for more customization, and or control.

I really appreciate anyone reading this, and offering advice.
I am a stay at home mom that has been actively building this site for the last year and really need someone or multiple people to bounce ideas off of.

Thanks again,
Candace
#brain #sec #storm
  • Profile picture of the author Devin X
    Banned
    What's the website? I'd have to look at it before I could offer any suggestions.
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  • Profile picture of the author momtraders
    its my username at .com
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  • Profile picture of the author adsassist
    If your not shy in front of a camera, make some short support videos.

    You could have it before the fold so people know exactly what you want them to do.

    I think videos are key on getting the best explanation of your site and they get a personal connection with you.

    Good luck
    Justin
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  • Profile picture of the author Devin X
    Banned
    (1) consider changing the background. It looks unprofessional to me and is kind of distracting.
    (2) there's no call to action or direction. First page should prolly explain what the site is and what it can do for me (if I was a mom)
    (3) there should be a newsletter for the people that sign up. I get the feeling that the people who sign up, don't know what to do with their new store, so they just give up and forget about the whole thing.

    ::looking around the site::.... the background bugs me a lot...makes it hard to focus...

    Start with those 3 points. I'll think on this and add more if it comes to me.
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    • Profile picture of the author ShaneBoyd
      I have to agree with TheRealDudeMan. The site is distracting. However, if you have a system that works then cool.

      But it seems to me your question is more about how to add support materials. That's the easy part really. Because once they sign up for your system you probably have them on some sort of auto responder. Just send them videos on how to do whatever it is you want them to do.

      You can simply create about 3-5 videos, place them on your site somewhere, then email your members the link to the video. Then follow-up with some reminders about watching the videos.

      If you are camera shy, just write down what you want people to do and hire somebody over at Fiverr to make the videos for you.

      As for the upgrade packages, that's no biggie. It happens all the time. Just to the Silver, Gold Platinum model. It's been working for years.

      Hope that helps and best wishes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael D Forbes
    I'm going to take a couple guesses...

    1) People may not understand the benefit of signing up for their own site, so they sign up because they CAN, and then lose interest or just don't know how it will help them, so they abandon it.

    2) If I'm on the right track... you are offering 1 site per county. People may see an exclusive opportunity and jump on it, not having any idea what it is, again, because they CAN, with intentions of doing something later or thinking it's a great opportunity to be a squatter and somehow benefit from it later if someone else wants it.

    3) I noticed you have a number of "spammy" looking signups in your membership. Usernames like "wei3g5hao4j8" and worse. It may be that bots or who knows what are taking your signups, and of course, that's a dead end.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael D Forbes
    For grins and giggles, and because I CAN, I signed up for a local site. Upon registering, I'm looking at things and pretty much wondering, how does this work? Can I customize the look? How? How does adding products work? Do I get paid? How?

    Lot's of questions.. not a lot of obvious answers...
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  • Profile picture of the author momtraders
    Thanks everyone, actually I have a large following already for the site. MOMS have been waiting patiently for me to get this site built for over a year now. So I had already established my users long ago.

    I have heard from some hard core marketers that yes the background is distracting, but after surveying my moms they all love it. So I have decided to keep it.

    Yes Michael, there is NO real direction once the moms signup. So that is my main concern at this point.

    I have partnered up with a warrior here and he will be adding some content to give a better direction to my users.

    As for the actual upgrades, I think I will solely focus on getting some instructions to my users, and then offer the neat upgrades i have available.

    Thanks for all of your time, I really appreciate it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael D Forbes
    Thumbs up. I think you could be onto something pretty nice for yourself once you work the kinks out. I do like the background by the way. The only problem I have with it is that it all looks odd when the content scrolls, especially at the top at first. Have you tried making the BG scroll with the content?
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris_Willow
    I agree with most of what's been said regarding the background and lack of clear direction.
    As for the support materials- outsource, outsource, outsource.
    If you're on tight budget- use fiver to get somebody to write up a user manual, somebody else to record the voice and perhaps a third person to put together a screen capture video or pdf.
    Spend money to make money. Save yourself from doing something you're not good at and don't particularly enjoy doing.
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  • Profile picture of the author momtraders
    I can change the way the background scrolls yes. Thank you for your kind words.
    I do still have some kinks, but the system is a massive setup, and i just keep reminding myself that before momtraders, I had never even used wordpress. So I am pretty happy with my progress thus far.
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  • Profile picture of the author sriram rajan
    AS long as you have captured their email , you can keep sending them the lessons to get them "hooked" , probably you can do a series of videos and also other hot news on how the site can help them... it's about telling them what vvalue your customers can receive and how can they do that.. whether they do it or not , well thats something you cannot worry about ..
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