Thoughts on my Amazon Niche site?

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Aehs01

Just curious if you guys find it easy to browse products on my site?

I've tried to make it as close as possible to a normal eCommerce store. With my girlfriends help we have used a plugin called Prosociate to add over 700 products.

I've also just hired someone on oDesk to write about 10 articles to start bringing in more traffic. Our main focus has also been using Pinterest to drive new visitors.

Check it out:
Skull Clothing | Skull Clothing & Gifts

Why are there no images of products on the home page?

Do you really think people will enter text into that search box?

People click on images of things that look good

I think your bounce rate will be terrible

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xpesos

10 years ago

Nice site, but you really should have shopping page as homepage instead of article, or if you want that article page to be homepage then add some recommended products at bottom or sidebar, images attract more than text links
Also you should have pin it button on your images
And when i am targeting pinterest i make sure that i have 5+ images of single topic or product in your case on single page, over the years working on pinterest i have seen that this strategy can bring you 3x more traffic then normal posts

Originally Posted by Aehs01

Just curious if you guys find it easy to browse products on my site?

I've tried to make it as close as possible to a normal eCommerce store. With my girlfriends help we have used a plugin called Prosociate to add over 700 products.

I've also just hired someone on oDesk to write about 10 articles to start bringing in more traffic. Our main focus has also been using Pinterest to drive new visitors.

Check it out:
Skull Clothing | Skull Clothing & Gifts

Thanks

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justray

10 years ago

I agree with some of the comments made already. Images, images, images; of course, in balance. Minimal text, with image, is best. Also, pay close attention to the copy on the front page: each line should be carry the reader to the following point. Also, read for clarity, punctuation, redundancy, etc. Colors always evoke mood and draw in observers/potential customers. White seems a little clinical for what you are selling. Just being constructive.

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nik0

Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Aehs01

Just curious if you guys find it easy to browse products on my site?

I've tried to make it as close as possible to a normal eCommerce store. With my girlfriends help we have used a plugin called Prosociate to add over 700 products.

I've also just hired someone on oDesk to write about 10 articles to start bringing in more traffic. Our main focus has also been using Pinterest to drive new visitors.

Check it out:
Skull Clothing | Skull Clothing & Gifts

Same as the other people said, your homepage scares people.

Divide it into categories with images or just products or better both.

Not sure if you wrote unique descriptions / titles for those products, if not then I don't give your site much of a chance of ranking well, adding 10 articles or so is not going to do the job in my opinion.

What you could do is noindex the whole shopping section, not exactly sure how to do that with your perma link structure, perhaps you can move it to a sub directory and noindex that sub directory in your robots.txt or perhaps someone else can shine a light on that.

Perhaps you plan to use the articles for other purposes to drive traffic instead of hosting it on your site, as your main traffic source is Pinterest as you already said, in that case forget all the rest.

Google seems to have an absurd / obsessive love for images these days so if you could add more images per product page and more related products in more of a random fashion it would be even better.

Thanks
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DWolfe 10 years ago

First thing on your home page. I would play around with the color fronts. The color of text and back ground are bland. I agree with theother comments about the home page. The actual product page seem ok.
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Ian Armstrong

10 years ago

I Clicked on a couple of the images and they seemed to takes a while to load( I have a decent connection) If 'the Mrs' was shopping on there I'd be happy as she would probably give up pretty soon.

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GGpaul

10 years ago

Change your URL's. Make sure you add the name of the product into the URL.

For instance you have

| Skull Clothing & Gifts

Make it (EXAMPLE) skullclothing.net/colorful-shoe-skull

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sochs 10 years ago

Switch off comments on your contact & privacy policy page.
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seekdefo

10 years ago

You will find this one very helpful as you are mainly using Pinterest to drive traffic

How to make thousands of dollars with Pinterest -...

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Aehs01

10 years ago

Just checked this thread now, thanks for all the suggestions guys. I will start implementing them this week and reply back once I've made some changes.

The reason for the home page article was an attempt to rank the primary keyword, which just so happens to be sitting on page 2 of Google. Most likely I will move this into a 'blog' category with the articles I've having written.

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Ecommerce Advice

10 years ago

You have a fair amount of work to do if you want this to make money for you.

Imagine you just typed 'Skull Clothing' into Google and clicked on your site.

Within 3 seconds how did you solve their problem / show them you have the answer / the products they want and are trustworthy.

I bet your bounce rate is massive.

On your homepage have a strong headline eg "Discover over 120+ Skull Clothing Designs To Make You Unique..."

Then take the strongest image from each category and put it on the home page with a label 'Shirts', 'ties' etc.. so people know where to click.

I picked an item at random - | Skull Clothing & Gifts but I couldn't even select color or size? Do you think I'd stay on the site?

I then added this - Kiditude Skull Baby Socks (0-12 Months, Black Sock Large White Skull) | Skull Clothing & Gifts to my cart. I only saw it had done anything by looking around the page. Take me to the cart page when I add something to the cart so I know it worked.

How much is shipping, how long does it take?

You need to answer all these questions straight away

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wolfmmiii

10 years ago

Site is terribly slow and offers no added value. I searched a sentence string from one of your products and found dozens of sites with the exact same content. In addition to what others have said (particularly GGPaul and Ecommerce Advice), set your site apart from others with REAL content.

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dsimms

10 years ago

Sure you got enough spam links to your home page?
Why do you think you need so many in each article
pointing back to your home page?

Your layout maybe ok for just starting out, and testing this
and that, when you decide to get serious, then checkout
themeforest for some really prof theme designs for woocommerce.

looks like you have already given up since your last blog
post was dec 2013 - no need updating if you have....

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justclick

10 years ago

Amazon is the best website for shopping and easy browse the products and itsis the best eCommerce store.

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CynthiaDixon

10 years ago

In my experience with having a niche store using a plugin that automatically loads products, images, and descriptions - they don't work.

In order to be successful with niche site stores, you have to stand out like a sore throbbing thumb that's oozing puss.

By pulling in tons of products (700) I believe you said, there's no way of providing a genuine description that will set your products apart of what's been listed on Amazon.

If I were to have a niche store again, it would contain drop shipped items that aren't found on Amazon, but that's just me. I understand what you were going for with this, but you have to be unique and your products have to be original.

Thanks
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Xenia Sites 10 years ago

Originally Posted by CynthiaDixon

In my experience with having a niche store using a plugin that automatically loads products, images, and descriptions - they don't work.

According to my experience, the sites that generate tons of products work rather well with Amazon program, using its API. More products=more long tail keywords and more pages on Google=more traffic=more commissions.
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FIVE STAR

10 years ago

Cynthia, love your saying. I tend to agree though... I've been visiting affiliate stores A LOT lately and I can say that only one or two really stuck out as being a place I might actually be tempted to click a link on.

A few targeted products that are easy to find that have a story behind them carry a lot more weight than just having pages and pages of items.

Aehs01 - Can you share some success or some lessons learned from what you've set up up to this point?

I just recently set up a niche affiliate store on a brand new domain using the same prosociate plugin. I don't expect overnight traffic and tons of buys right out of the gate. One thing I do expect is to be able to really promote the products with those in my inner circles. We buy a lot because these products are very related to us and our hobbies. Hopefully from there and more content rich blogging/reviews with product links placed, it will turn into something in the future.

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Aehs01

10 years ago

I changed my entire site, would like to hear some suggestions on how it can improve from here!

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qowb

10 years ago

Great looking website and pretty unusual niche (at least to me) ... I wish you all the very best and I am sure if you can brand your website, you'll definitely rock with it. It has all potential to do that.

Only 4 things I'd like to mention

1) For the footer disclaimer, IMO it would look better with less line-height. Your current one is like this

And IMO, it could look better like this

What do you think?

2) Your contact page doesn't show where you're located. As an online shopper myself, I feel more comfortable when I can see where the site is located, a Google map, maybe a QR code, phone number - all make me feel more comfortable, and not just the contact form ... again just my thoughts ... I know, this is Amazon affiliate site, but think from consumer view, do they really care if you're affiliating or not? In fact, they may feel secure if they know that they need to deal with Amazon at the end, but in that case, they may simply don't want to keep you in the middle, if they find you're simply redirecting them.

From the same perspective, why not add a cart feature? People may find it more engaging that they add multiple products in the cart and then leave your website and go to Amazon with all these products added to their own shopping cart. There are plugs for that ... again just my view

3) For an e-commerce site, now from both developer and consumer perspective, I'd like to say, it must have some return policy, shipping policy, faq, support, etc listed - don't you think so? Even you can simply point out that you're partnering with Amazon as an associate at these pages - telling your readers the right facts, yet writing them in a way that you can actually turn your drawbacks (an affiliate and not the direct merchant) into your strength

4) Last but not the least, adding blog is an excellent idea. But instead of sending the readers to the home page for the products (links in the article), why not link to the exact product? It may increase conversion rate. Also, for the product images included in the post, why not add a lightbox if you want to click on the image to open the image in bigger size (instead of sending them to image link and seemingly outside of the site) or better linking to the product (either on your site or directly to Amazon with your affiliate link).

Sorry for writing so many things.

Hope you don't mind. I am just loving your niche, so looking at the site thoroughly and found those points. But I am not the best one here, there are experts and you'll definitely get more ideas coming along.

However, again I'd like to mention - I find the niche awesome ... products look amazing ... so I wish you all the very best with your store and I am sure success is on your way!

Best of luck!

P.S. BTW, I was just wondering what plug is keeping the price updated on your website? Is this Woocommerce Gateway Amazon Payments Advanced? I can see you have this plug on your site.

Originally Posted by Aehs01

I changed my entire site, would like to hear some suggestions on how it can improve from here!

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Aehs01

10 years ago

I didn't quote your post because it will make this reply huge haha.

To cover your suggestions.

1. I did notice this when doing the footer, I couldn't get it to show up how I wanted so I'll have to play with it more.

2. Good call on the contact page, I will implement more of these things into that page.

I do actually have a cart on the site but it will only function for items which I plan to dropship or actually sell from our home. Right now that is minimal and a work in progress.

Previously the cart did do exactly what you said but sometimes pricing might be slightly off, also if items no longer existed on Amazon it threw errors and caused problems. I also found it to be a conversion killer, I like giving people the opportunity to look through reviews on the Amazon page prior to forcing the item into their cart.

3. Good points here, I have implemented some of this but can do more with some of this content.

4. I actually had those articles written for $2 each from someone on oDesk, most of the products I don't even know if they are on the site. I'm going to have to go back through all of them and re-write some of them.

The plugin on the site is Prosociate 2.0, it uses Cron jobs in the cpanel backend to consistently update pricing on a regular interval. You can buy the plugin on the WSO forum.

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qowb

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Aehs01

I did notice this when doing the footer, I couldn't get it to show up how I wanted so I'll have to play with it more.

I guess you've already found it, if not, all that you need to do is look for base.css in the theme root folder or if there's any css folder or similar. Now, find out #footer-bottom { (you may need to use Ctrl+F and use only #footer-bottom this part. Next, just delete or comment out line-height: 35px; and this will do the magic.

Originally Posted by Aehs01

Previously the cart did do exactly what you said but sometimes pricing might be slightly off, also if items no longer existed on Amazon it threw errors and caused problems. I also found it to be a conversion killer, I like giving people the opportunity to look through reviews on the Amazon page prior to forcing the item into their cart.

There's woocommerce plugin (I am not the plugin seller and not preselling the plugin, LOL) that actually scraps the product reviews and load on the product page itself .... I had a site where I used to have the cart feature. Long time, didn't work on the site though.

Originally Posted by Aehs01

The plugin on the site is Prosociate 2.0, it uses Cron jobs in the cpanel backend to consistently update pricing on a regular interval. You can buy the plugin on the WSO forum.

Okay, thanks.

Yea, I know about this plugin, I used the free version once. I will check the pro one soon.

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Barry Cross

10 years ago

Nice site!

Cheers
Barry

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Aehs01

10 years ago

I have made some more improvements to the site and would like more feedback on it's current setup. Can you find everything you are looking for?

I also officially opened a store on Amazon and have started buying products wholesale, taking this site to a whole other level beyond just Amazon affiliates!

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