Help marketing a site!

by Banned 249 replies
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Hello everybody, i just signed up here on WF but i have been a long time observer .

For the last 4 months i have been putting quite a lot of efforts on a website. My sister lives in Rome, Italy and she has a fashion boutique so i decided to build a website selling what she sells; fashion, apparel, handbags, jewelry and so on... in which there is a lot of competition i understand but the stuff i sell is truly unique, really really cheap and beautiful.

It took me about 2 months and a half to build the site and adding 700 products. In a month, around 500 people got into my website but i haven't made a single sale! I don't know what is it that i am doing wrong and i would be really interested in hearing some great advice from more savy internet marketers.

I want to thank in advance for you help and please be brutally honest.

Thanks
#main internet marketing discussion forum #made #needed #sale #single #website
  • Man is it slow.
    I'm still waiting for it to come up.
    Is it always like this?

    It finally came up; probably took 2 minutes.
    That's a killer right there if this is the norm.

    Just clicked on moleskin link, still waiting...... I hit the back button already.

    As far as design, maybe an eCommerce experienced member will comment.
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      Hey Vic, i do agree is really slow. I have many plugins which are slowing the site down. I m thinking about moving to a better server. Before i move to another server do you guys have some tips to improve the speed? This is a wp and i have w3 cache installed, but doesn t seems to improve the speed much... I feel almost embarassed by the speed of this website. It loos like we are back to adsl!!!
    • Banned


      This here is most likely 87% of OPs problem. I gave up & closed the browser tab without the page loading, I'm not waiting all day for one webpage to load in my browser.

      Fix the page loading problem or give up now because nobody will wait for pages that take forever to load...
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  • After I click on the link it took 5 mins to load! so you need to fix that up and get rid of the cute mascots, for the different lines you have I would use an image as the later makes it look like a Kids shop also too much green

    Jason
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      Yes the site is really slow! Working on the site speed. I think is the server. I am thinking about moving it to a better server soon...
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      Hello Jason, i agree too much green! I will change that...
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  • First thing you say to the customers at the top of the page is to hurry up, because deals are ending...but...how do they hurry up?!?
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      Hello there, thanks for taking the time to visit the site and help with your suggestion. I though that HURRY UP would work because the deals will be ending in 3 days and if you click on GO you would be redirected to the deals page but since many of you guys already suggested to delete that or rename it i will go ahead and change that.

      Thanks a lot.
  • Your website takes a longer time then usual to load for me so this can be an issue for future potential customers.
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      I know it takes a lifetime. The reason why is because i have 40 plugins or more installed! But i need every single one of them. This is a wordpress. Do you guys have any idea on how to improve the speed?

      Thanks
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      yes I also facing same website loading problem, second things price is separated by (,) I think it should separated by (.), Example Price $24,99, it should $24.99
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  • Improving the page load time will definitely help. As another member said, you want to get rid of the cute cartoon mascots and replace them with something more professional. Perhaps a sample of a product in that category.

    If you want to start getting more sales, create an Instagram account for the business, and start sharing product images on Instagram. Learn how to use hashtags and how to market on Instagram, and over time, you should start seeing an increase in traffic and sales.
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    • Banned
      Hey kurttasche. Thanks a lot for your help! I will def do that. Get rid of those illustrations. At the beginning i though they were cool but now I agree with you guys. They make the website look like a kids/toys store. Never used Instagram but i will start to use it, i know it s really important especially for fashion boutiques but i don t like the fact that is only for mobiles .Is there a way to use instagram from desktop? At the moment i m doing great on twitter. Yestarday i spent almost 10 hours tweeting and got 400 followers and around 40/45 unique visits from twitter. This morning i woke up with 90 notifications of followers and mentions/likes to my tweets and was anxious to open the admin panel to see maybe at least 1 order. Not even 1! Sigh
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  • First of all congratulation for you taking action. I like the idea that you picked a good, short, and memorable domain name. "Scrafted" the name says it all.

    My take on this: You need to work on improving the website load time. It will be the difference between success and failure.

    I also liked the opt-in popup, you can also tweak and split-test popups. For example "13000 smart people joined our newsletter .. and you're smart too. ( By nature when customer read that, he will feel inadequate, and the words will push him to signup). You see? just a few things could make a difference to whole business.

    If you need any advice, just pm.
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      Hey Joe! Thanks a lot for your comments. At the beginning i wasn t too sure about the name but i already received many nice comments saying is a good name. From what i understand the main issue is the website speed.Thanks for offering your help. It is really appreciated!
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      Thanks to everybody for the great advice.
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  • You should market through the social media sites.
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    • I just quickly read this whole thread, and your site is still trying to load.

      I'd be urgent on getting this resolved first.

      Page finally is here, and the scroll down is wicked fast - like too fast IMO.

      Clicked on a product - layout is horrid. But looks like it's still trying to load something?

      I've got no navigation to go back to the home page.

      Not user friendly at all.

      Clicked to go back to home page and whole thing is reloading all over again. Just white screen.
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    • 1) SPEED

      Your site still takes 13 seconds to load: too slow. Way too slow. This is enough to discourage any user. Personally I do not like Wordpress and I code my sites by hand: all of them load at lightning speed.

      Right now, you make too many http requests on your homepage: you have 99 external Javascript scripts and 77 external stylesheets! You can add Yslow to your browser: they explain in a simple way how to increase speed.

      You can hire someone in India for a reduced price if you are not able to solve the speed problem by yourself. Check this website: Worknhire.


      2) MENU

      A horizontal menu would be better. With a "Home" button on each page (top left).

      3) ABOVE THE FOLD

      The informations above the fold are not sufficiently relevant and engaging.

      4) SLOGAN

      Your slogan "Beautiful Handmade Products from great Artists and Indie Brands" is not very good.




      CONCLUSION

      You asked a frank and brutal feedback...

      You offer your visitors a horrible experience. Why do you want them to remain on your site when there are many others website that are excellent?

      Hope this help! GOOD LUCK!

      P.S. You must solve the problems of your website before worrying about promotion.
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    I deactivated almost 20 plugins and the speed seems to have gotten even worst! At this point i don t think the plugins are causing the speed issue. I think the problem is caused by what Sven noticed:

    "Right now, you make too many http requests on your homepage: you have 99 external Javascript scripts and 77 external stylesheets! You can add Yslow to your browser: they explain in a simple way how to increase speed."


    Does anybody know or can help on how to fix this issue?
  • I have worked with Android quite a bit.Android has a feature for lists where it loads only what is presently visible on the page. It doesn't load what is at the bottom at the page because no one is seeing it!

    I wonder if there is a way to use the same concept for your webpage. It is a beautiful page - only after it loads.
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      Hello Tim, thanks for the nice comments about the site, cheered me up a little! My website is mobile ready but i think i need to work on that a little more... It takes a lot of time to load on desktop, on mobile it takes a lifetime. That would be a great thing! Where can i find some more information about that?

      Thanks
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  • You need to take all that junk off the home page. Your home page should function as an introductory index including your main categories. Use drop-down menus to include your sub-categories.

    Example of very common home page design:

    A slider with 4-6 slides linked to main categories. Below that three or four "feature" blocks general linked to a sign-up, about page, etc. A footer with category and business links.

    That's a nice informative, easy to navigate "index" for your visitors.

    Trim the home page way down and remove every plugin or app that isn't absolutely necessary.
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      Hey Brent, thanks for taking the time to visit my slow website. i already deactivated 20 plugins. Did you think the site was still really slow?
      I am going to delete those illustrations and also will work on the footer as you suggested.

      Many Thanks
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  • Banned
    Serry thanks a lot for taking the time. I am in the US my sister is in Italy, and the plan is when i get an order she will be shipping it from italy. Could you have a look a my shipping policy? https://www.scrafted.com/shipping/ I am not so sure about this page... I don't want to trick people but i am not mentioning products will be shipped from Italy. I want to market this site for the US market mostly, also EU but mainly US.

    I still could change the domain name, i haven't worked that much on backlinks and stuff like that but it would be a huge pain!

    Are you sure is a good idea to go with some other domain rather than a .com? I have read here on WF that domains that are not .com don t have the same authority and is easier to rank a .com. Is that true?

    2)Small scroll on the bottom serves no purpose...eliminate
    Do you mean the Foobar plugin (the green bar at the bottom of the page)?

    4) you still need a NAV bar...it is more user friendly
    Could you explain this pont a little better. Sorry didn t get it...

    Do you really hate the logo? I though it was cool

    Exclusive hand curated products from the FOUR CORNERS of the Globe.
     Love it, i already changed it
    Thanks a lot Serry. Really appreciated
  • 1. Your website is very slow. You need to improve it. If I am a customer, I will quit after 30s
    2. You put a lot of image at front page, it makes people difficult to navigate.
    3. With 500 visitors per month, you may not get a sale. You must increase it to 500 visitor /day
    4.You can marketing by existing customer. Each customer visit your fashion boutique store, give them a business card with your Facebook fan page
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    • Banned
      Hey there Xnice,

      1. Your website is very slow. You need to improve it. If I am a customer, I will quit after 30s
      But that is exactly what users are doing. Leaving the website after few seconds.

      I will do that. I will tell my sister to print some flyers and distribute them in her boutique. Great idea. Hopefully she will agree, because those are her customers...
      I know there is not much data to work with conversion rates and I agree 500 visitors is nothing but taking into consideration a 0.5% conversion rate that would had to translate to at least almost 3 orders... and especially with the stuff i am selling which is beautiful and really cheap.
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  • It was for me, yes. Much slower then I would tolerate if I were a normal visitor. I would bounce.
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      Got it! Thanks. I have a Godaddy Linux hosting with 1gb and almost all of the times is maxed out and is on red. Will def move to a vps.
  • In my humble opinion:

    1. No store starts with $0 capital - You must market your website. Just sharing on your facebook wall doesnt get people to buy. It is just like traditional marketing... selling to people around your home.
    2. Move your website to a VPS. There are VPS services that you can start at $6/month. Dedicated IP address that they offer will help your SEO too.
    3. Please your website interface should not be just what you like but what people are used to or what people want.
    4. Look at ebay.com, konga.com and see if you can get UI inspiration.
    5. Adding a functionality that allow other vendors to sell on your store front could help you bring in more visitors that can turn into buyers.

    PS:
    I am not a PRO as I have not implemented all these I have told you.
    But I know they will help you do better.
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    • Banned
      Hello christogonus, thanks for your help. It is really helpful.

      I will give it another 4 to 5 months. If it doesn t work i am just going back to work on my field, hopefully not, because i really hate it.


      Thanks
  • Banned
    Update: (i haven t worked on the site at all today) 36 unique today, (not counting you guys 19 visits from WF), bounce rate 46.23%, Avg Session Duration 3.34 min. Page/sessions 2.18. Aaaand 0 sales! I am beating the record here!

    I will let you know when i make my first sale, if i make 1!

    Ah btw, my alexa rank yestarday was 350.000, today it disappeared and it says NO DATA! Do you guys know why this happened!?
  • Read this article How to Make Money Blogging - Guide for 2015 that would be of great help to you.


    Chintan
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    • Banned
      Hey reachintan, reading it right now. Thanks!
  • Create a squeeze page and start your mailing list. Then find targeted subscribers by using free places, and promote your products to them.

    you can have free autoresponders at the beginning, and there are lot of places to post your squeeze link and receive subscribers
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  • Good grief. How many plugins do you have installed? This is likely what's causing all of your problems.
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    • Banned
      @Kingfish85 @Jhon Blum, 42 plugins!!! Now.
  • You need to completely re-build this site, it is not inspiring confidence-it is way too slow. Have someone who knows what they doing to build it for you if you are serious about doing this. There are a lot of people trying to publish on the internet, because the barrier of entry is so low, it is the execution that separates the successful sites from the plain awful.
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    • First off don't quit it takes awhile to become a success, It does not happen over night. If you are overwhelmed take a step back.

      Get a budget together, how do you plan on shipping when you have no money?

      Why don't you have one or two of the best selling products here in the US ? When someone orders from Italy are you shipping it or your Sister? If it takes forever to get here in the US, you will get cancellations. Get a few in your hands take photos and open a Amazon Sellers account as a Single seller not the paid pro version and ship them yourself. Some one else also said e-bay, that would be another good choice. Third party sites like Amazon and E-bay will take a commission but at least you will find buyers that can pay.

      Your site is still very busy and way to slow as everyone has said.
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  • anytime I hear someone say

    "This IM is BULLCHIT!"

    Or "I cant make sales"

    or "My website does not make money"

    Study the rich guys, they always build a list first, and the business around that list.

    So I do not have to visit a psychic to work out you are not doing the most fundametal thing, in thriving businesses....BUILDING a LIST, HELPING THAT LIST, and then OFFERING them stuff.

    Even since the 1800's this is what successful companies have been doing, and it was more difficult for them, cause they has to use the phone, and newspaper ads, and offline forms, with ONLINE we have the ability to set all this up within a day, send traffic and build leads within a 24 hour period.

    So, build a real business, build real highly targeted leads, and you will never have to worry about money ever again in your life. No joke!
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    • Banned
      Hello Celente, i haven t said that at all. I am asking about the quality of the website because this is the first website i managed to build without any help from designers or programmmers.

      I am trying to recruite affiliates at the moment.
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    Thanks everybody for the help!
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  • Posts on WF and get more ideas like this also is one of the way to go.

    But try new things until you find what you want.

    Invest to paid traffic methods

    This is our adventure. The most important thing is that " It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop"
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      Invest to paid traffic methods
      I am planning to do that soon...
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    Do you guys think is a server problem? I am attaching a screenshot of my cpanel http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/...psfdcb1wdi.png. After deleting those 20 plugins the memory now is on green (before was on red almost all the times) but the website is still slow. Do you guys think changing to a vps will improve the site speed?

    Thanks
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    • Banned
      Disable every single plugin & revert back to the default Wordpress theme. If the page/s still load slow it's a Host problem.
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    • No you do not need to change at this time Did you read what Kingfish and Yukon said

      " Aside from that, your current host is highly likely not the problem. " &

      "Disable every single plugin & revert back to the default Wordpress theme. ."

      You have to listen to advice of posters they are telling you the site is way to slow. Keep the plugins down to a minimum. You can make your life easier if you pay attention to what is being said. Don't spend money you do not have as you stated earlier!
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  • It is alright If you do not get any results right away. Most do not.. Have you tried to post your website to affiliate websites such as maxxbounty,clickbank.. anything like that? You will be able to have thousands of people trying to sell your product to earn a commission on each sale. I think there is an initial fee of like $20 or $50 bucks, but you will make your money back 10 folds. You can also mark up your prices of your items for sale and offer a bigger commission for each sale to get more affiliates to sell your product.You will actually make more $$$ that way
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    • Banned
      Hey Cporter221. I am not expecting results right away. I know it takes time. Yes i added the website to some affiliate directories. I am also contacting fashion bloggers. Got 4 affiliates to register today. I have 9 affiliates total. I recruited this new 4 affiliates by sending 700 emails i collected yesterday visiting site by site. 10 hrs at the computer..
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    I want to thank again all the warriors that went through the site and and gave me feedback on how to improve it. Your help is highly appreciated!
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    • I'd advise to change the hosting at some point anyway.

      Godaddy sticks some kind of wordpress plugin of their own on the wordpress sites installed on them. Found it on a recent client site who I moved. Her site btw is running much quicker now after getting them off godaddy and doing a nice clean install w/o those "extra" plugins that get loaded on by default.

      If you have that plugin on your blog, would love to hear about it.

      If you're actually deleting plugins, you're going to want to get the database cleaned up a bit too when you're done because some of them leave junk behind.

      (if you've not killed the hello dolly plugin yet, be sure to kick it out.)
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  • You have a good website but you need to optimize it. Message me for more details.
    I was facing the same problem and thought of changing server. However, my problem was solved after optimizing the website. As it grow, you upgrade your hosting plan.
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  • It Depends on Many Things :

    1- Quality of your LP or whatever you are sending visitors to.

    2- Quality of visitors and from where you got them.

    3- Quality of products you are promoting.
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    • Ahmed..WP profit builder I can't use for my clients?
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    Yes i have fb, twitter, pinterest and i just started using instagram.
  • Hi SCrafted, I am not an expert but I'll try to be helpful here.

    After reading most of the replies here I'll try not to repeat every single thing of what's been said (can't promise that LOL)

    1- I think you've done a hell of a job putting up this site. So don't worry you'll be able to have it at 100% in short time just by taking some of the advices people is giving you here.

    2- I had the same issues when installing the w3totalcache plugin but since I couldn't find a better one then I had to change other plugins that could work well with w3totalcache. So you might want to check into that too if you can't find a great substitute to w3totacache.

    3- I agree that it seems you want to show too much on your front page. In my opinion your front page should have more general information and as it's the port of entry to your website it should be exciting and fun and it should entice people to stay and browse.

    You may have nice easy to navigate (drop down) menus for your different categories where people can choose where to go according to their desire.

    4- Yes, you should not use discount deals at the start, that is something you might want to use later on or just for your already existing customers to help cross selling but if what you're selling is not being sold everywhere then there is no need to compete with yourself.

    5- 2 plugins I use to help improve my site's loading time (besides w3totalcache) are WP-OPTIMIZE and WP SMUSH you might want to take a look at them.

    6- Since you're not in the US but want to market to the US you should have a banner or something that can tell people they'll get their order form overseas since people like the feeling of importing stuff from overseas. (you've gottto do your own research to find out the best way to do this but it can definetely help you make people stay and even purchase) you've gotto make visitors feel they will be part of that select group that purchase from overseas.

    7- Besides instagram you should highly consider getting a facebook fanpage (in case you don't have it already). Facebook can really give an edge when it comes to the fashion niche. Since facebook purchased instagram then you can make both work really well to your favor.

    I don´t mean to say this is all you need but it's my 2 cents so far.

    I hope that helps and I wish you al the best.
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      Diego thanks a lot for your suggestions. I m trying to clean it as much as i can. I am already using wpsmush. Do you have any other suggestion as an alternative for w3totalcache?

      6- Since you're not in the US but want to market to the US you should have a banner or something that can tell people they'll get their order form overseas since people like the feeling of importing stuff from overseas. (you've gottto do your own research to find out the best way to do this but it can definetely help you make people stay and even purchase) you've gotto make visitors feel they will be part of that select group that purchase from overseas.

      Do you think is necessary to say products will be shipped from overseas?

      I do have a facebook and also a pinterest page but it has been really difficult to gain fans there. I am doing well on twitter and i just installed instagram and i am having a great time with it.

      Thanks Diego
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  • Remove the newsletter popup. There is nothing that will drive people away from an ecommerce site than one of those pop-overs.
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    How about the speed now guys? I think has improved a lot.
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    • Banned
      What ecommerce platform is powering this? I don't want to read through 3 pages to try to see if it was mentioned. Are you using Woocommerce? If not, why?

      No one needs 40 plugins. The site is slow as mud for me and if I hadn't really been trying to see it, I would have left fast.

      So, my adblocker blocked 112 scripts that it would have loaded slowly. I disabled the adblocker temporarily to load the site. I clicked on Shop and Woman and still see no products at all. Nothing but yet another slide in photo gallery rather than products. No one is going to just type in keywords to try to find your products. They should literally slap you in the face when you first come to the site. They should be screaming at you with every link you click on. All that time it took waiting for it to load, and I didn't see one product link.

      EDIT: Finally saw the three green dots that had been struggling to load some products on the shop page and saw some products. I would have never seen them if I were a customer as I would have left long before they loaded.
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  • This totally reminds me of 2005/6. After leaving eBay, I started on my website, spent months putting in products and after1 year building the website, there was 1 sale. Today, I am glad it happened. I was in the Sh** but glad it happened.

    In your case, you have done a good thing with affiliate program and making contact. Problem is affiliate programs are just that - another route to gain sales. It's a strategy you followed but did not understand the truth about this. You have btw done well to contact people to join your program but here is the mistake.

    Contacting affiliates doesn't mean sales.

    Contacting affiliates can mean affiliates.

    Next comes understanding. You run your business, and affiliates are an extra strategy but like you, they also have to act, so results are likely to take longer than you could earn with the site. It's an extra bonus. It is a strategy, but shouldn't be your only strategy at this stage.

    If you want fast sales, advertising and that is it. You need a media spend at this stage.

    Going back, I would recommend anyone reading this, including the OP to make sure only start with a handful of products then expand.
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    • Banned
      Koz I agree with you 100%. Now i have 10 affiliates but only 4 seems to be active. I think if i work for 5 hrs a day, sending emails, i can get 1 affiliate per day. Maybe in 6 months i will have 200 affiliates and if every affiliates sends 2 to 3 visits per day that would be great.

      Thanks
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  • Too slow to sell, page load speed is not a secondary priority.
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    • Hi SCrafted!

      Like many are mentioning about your website speed. The site is going incredible slow here in New Zealand, i also tested the site on pingdom and has a page load time of 60 seconds, i'm not sure if that would of kept on going too.

      You can probably cut down your plugins to four for now until you have found a better host.

      1) WooCommerce
      2) A SEO Plugin
      3) Cache plugin
      4) Contact plugin

      Just the WooCommerce plugin alone can be wonders.

      I haven't checked what your other pages look like as the speed of the site is a big put off for me.

      Go find a similar but more lightweight theme and start with WooCommerce. See if the speed will improve with just the necessaries.

      Matt
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  • Ciao, Scrafted. New guy here. I just took a look at your site, and whilst I may not be a master of coding I feel that you could make a lot of changes.
  • Sorry. I pressed Return and it automatically posted.

    1. You have too many navbars at the top. The Register bar, Logo bar, and the navbar. Try compressing them into two bars. My suggestion would be to put the FAQ, Contact, Terms/Privacy, Customer Service tabs into the About dropdown bar. Returns/Refunds, and Shipping tabs could move into the Cart tab. Register and Login, Account and Wishlist could stay where it is, but make sure it stays above the other tabs on a smaller bar. The logo is fine where it is, don't downsize it.

    2. The bar on the bottom with your links are unnecessary. Maybe move the social media links to the top bar on the right. Keep them the size they are, everyone knows what they will link to. I am not sure what you could do with the live message chat, maybe it is unnecessary with the traffic to your site being so low. Consider removing it and letting people mail you for now, possibly with a complaints tab in the About Us dropdown.

    3. Your homepage is extremely cluttered. Remove the stick figure links to your different sections. Remove the links to your different brands. Just keep your best merchandise there, WITHOUT the price. Your stuff is good, if they want to buy it, the price should not matter.

    4. Your scrollbar on the right keeps disappearing. Since your page is centred with space on the right, you do not need this extra "functionality." I spent the first minute wondering whether the page could scroll or not.

    I understand that too many chefs spoil the broth. Maybe if you consider some of these changes your site you could remove some plugins and your site may speed up. After all, simplicity=speed, and your site is far from simple, with too many redundant links to too many places. A good place for minotaurs, not shoppers. I look forward to your site being worthy of The Flash. Or maybe I am that extra chef.

    Anyway, good luck, and I am looking forward to your site going global.
    P.S. That guy who said Amazon has a great idea. It may also help in redirecting traffic to your site.
    P.P.S. You could try pinning tweets to the top of your twitter that links to specific products you think may sell well. Everyone likes pinups. You could also link your Twitter to your Instagram in the Twitter Profile. Builld a social media network that ties everything back to your site. Maybe in the future when sales pick up you could advertise on Facebook.

    Take care.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Hello Cabriz, my home page is 14 mb which i think i quite a lot. I will delete many of the images i have now, i think that is one of the problems i think. I am worried about this page: https://www.scrafted.com/scraftedstore/ this is the most important page in my opinion (shop page). and is really slow. The essential grid plugin i m using to display products is what i think is causing the issue but can t get rid off that...

      I will follow your advice. Today i m going to work the whole day on the site and post a message when i am done.

      A good place for minotaurs, not shoppers. Ahhahahah.

      Thanks Cabriz
  • I just looked at the site out of curiosity. The home page took about 30 secs to load here in the UK. That page seems to have a lot on it. Then I scrolled down a lot and clicked on "Cromoforo". That page took over 35 secs to load.

    One other point is that your prices are showing oddly, e.g. 19,99$ instead of $19.99. I would normally expect to see prices shown correctly in USD, or have a drop-down menu on the top bar to change to my local curreny (GBP).

    Hope you can speed the site up!

    cheers,

    Jon.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      jdjenkins, i just upgraded (10 bucks) the memory to 2 gb and now i have 2 cpu´s and 150 entry processes instead of 125 i had before. It seems the speed has improved a little bit.

      One other point is that your prices are showing oddly, e.g. 19,99$ instead of $19.99
      I need to use a dot to show prices?
      If you look now i have set in the store page a way for users to change to their local currency. I have Us dollars, Euros, British pounds, Brazilian reals, Saudi arabian riyal, Canadian dollars, Chinese Yuan, Australian Dollars and Singaporean Dollars.

      Btw are you an helicopter pilot? I was an arline pilot untill last year eheheh.

      Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • You should correct this issues, whatever badge this is - times out.

    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • Selling is not about to ask some for buying our product, but we must build strong trust before gaining first closing.
  • Banned
    List of plugins currently active:

    AJAX AutoSuggest

    Contact Form 7

    Essential Grid

    EU Cookie Law

    Google Analyticator

    Interactive World Maps

    KnB - Wordpress Knowledge Base Shortcode Plugin

    LayerSlider WP

    Ninja Popups

    Opening Hours

    PressApps Fullscreen Login

    Redux Framework

    Scrollbar

    Team Showcase

    Usernoise

    WaspThemes - Yellow Pencil Pro

    Widgets on Pages

    WooBag

    WooCommerce

    WooCommerce Currency Switcher

    Stripe for WooCommerce

    WooCommerce MultiStep Checkout

    WooCommerce Pretty Emails

    WooCommerce Sales Countdown

    WooCommerce Show Attributes

    WooCommerce SSL Seal

    WooCommerce TM Extra Product Options

    WP Affiliate Manager

    WP Author, Date and Meta Remover

    WPBakery Visual Composer

    WPML Multilingual CMS

    YITH WooCommerce Customize My Account Page

    YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

    Yoast SEO Premium

    Zopim Widget
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      AJAX AutoSuggest What do you need this for?

      Contact Form 7

      Essential Grid Already discussed

      EU Cookie Law

      Google Analyticator What do you need this for? Isn't GA enough without a plugin?

      Interactive World Maps What do you need this for? This is probably a real bandwidth hog?

      KnB - Wordpress Knowledge Base Shortcode Plugin What do you need this for?

      LayerSlider WP What do you need this for? Most WooCommerce themes already have a built in slider that would be more efficient than an addon slider?

      Ninja Popups What do you need this for? People hate popups?

      Opening Hours What do you need this for? Overkill. Just do a page with your hours?

      PressApps Fullscreen Login What do you need this for?

      Redux Framework What is this?

      Scrollbar What do you need this for?

      Team Showcase What is this? Can it be done in text/images on a page without a plugin?

      Usernoise What is this for?

      WaspThemes - Yellow Pencil Pro

      Widgets on Pages What do you need this for?

      WooBag What is this?

      WooCommerce

      WooCommerce Currency Switcher

      Stripe for WooCommerce

      WooCommerce MultiStep Checkout

      WooCommerce Pretty Emails

      WooCommerce Sales Countdown

      WooCommerce Show Attributes

      WooCommerce SSL Seal

      WooCommerce TM Extra Product Options

      WP Affiliate Manager

      WP Author, Date and Meta Remover What do you need this for?

      WPBakery Visual Composer What do you need this for?

      WPML Multilingual CMS

      YITH WooCommerce Customize My Account Page What do you need this for?

      YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

      Yoast SEO Premium

      Zopim Widget What do you need this for?
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    I tried to install cache plugins. I have tried w3, supercache and wprocket and all this are messing up the site. After i install them i will get layout issues. So at the moment i don t have any cache plugins. Do you guys have some other reccomandation for cache plugins other than this ones?
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Sorry but i have another question as well. Could it be that what is slowing the site as well is the ssl certificate? I tried the speed test on pingdom and by entering www.scrafted.com it says it takes 10.something secs. If i type https//www.scrafted.com will take more than 60 secs...
  • Man, you did a ton of work on this. I love the fact that you really hung yourself out there and took a risk.

    Awesome!

    I think your site looks great, but as many have pointed out already, it is moving rather slowly.

    All of that aside, I'd like to ask you a few questions.

    First, did what made you want to sell these particular items and what was the market research that you did on the front end before you actually started putting this site together?

    Also, what specific target market are you trying to sell to? 20 year old females? Male executives that buy gifts for their girl friends?

    Who are you targeting exactly with these products.

    Knowing exactly who your market is will determine exactly what kind of message to send and where to advertise at.

    God Bless,
    Elmo
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      Elmo, thanks for the kind words!

      If i can improve the speed the site will be targeted mostly to a female audience i would say 15 to 32 but also to male audiences since i am selling t-shirts, bowties and some other products for man.

      My sister has a fashion boutique and she is selling this products so i am selling her products. I don t stock anything, she does in her store. When i get an order, if i ever get one she will be shipping the products to the customers.

      Thanks for taking the time to have a look at the site...
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  • IF your having speed problems. You need to check for clutter in your server and you definitely need to upgrade your hosting to handle everything that runs your site.

    or you can learn how to code and just write everything efficiently.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      "or you can learn how to code and just write everything efficiently." ehehheh easy to say hard to do.

      Actually has been more than 3 months that i have been working on the site, i would say 6 months because i had to learn wordpress and did some market research. 6 months of my life! Well actually not everything goes to waste. If the site doesn t work, which is a high probability, at least i learned to build wp sites, correction slow wp sites.

      Sniper what is the clutter?
      • [1] reply
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    • Banned
      miltonmahmud there are so many ways you could advertise your business, this is definitely not one that is going to work. At least for me and especially on this forum, where people can smell the real purpose of your post miles away.
      It is like wasting your time and being rude thinking that we are all stupid.

      He just removed his signature. Great, much better.
  • Hello SCrafted, I'm in a similar situation as yours, I just signed up here but I have being doing affiliate lone wolf for a few years now, I just wanted to recommend you one BIG and FREE traffic source you do not mention you using, and you should totally give it a try.

    I'm talking about Pinterest! Pinterest its a great social Network for your niche! Just create an account, create your board and start pinning your items, then start following niche related accounts with many followers, it won't be long till you start getting shares and people repining your stuff, Pinterest doesn't work so well with all the niches, but it certainly does with food and fashion

    Hope this comment helps you! If it does, please let me know! Have a great day!
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      I am using it but i find it extremely difficult to gain pins, followers (or whatever they are called on Pinterest) and drive traffic to the website. I am a twitter ninja, now without even tweeting im gaining 50 to 100 followers per day, when i tweet i can get to 400 followers per day (well it just happened once, after spending 10 hrs tweeting), but i have red that amongs the big 4 (fb, twitter, pinterest and instagram) twitter is the one with the lowest conversions. I am so lucky! eheheh.

      Will read more about Pinterest and Instagram because i know that for the particular niche i am in they are the best.

      Thanks @iBusiness
  • Banned
    I have decided that i m going to sell my brand new sony vaio so i can have 700$ to do some little marketing. I am going to miss it!
  • Banned
    Guys could you advice if the speed has improved? I can't check it because from my browser it looks much faster.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Yes, pretty nice improvement in speed for me and I live in the country and don't have broadband, so broadband users should see a better speed than me.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      Hey Dubpats you have a really nice website.
      Thanks
  • Banned
    I think the main issue now is the essential grid plugin which is slowing down the shop page. I will contact the plugin developers, again, to see if they can help out on this but i just realized my support has expired 2 days ago, hopefully they will be nice and help me on this considering they told me that out of 15000 customers they have i am the one who broke their b...s the most and never worked so much supporting a customer ehheheh. They have been really nice though.
    • [1] reply
    • Massive speed increase there.

      Only took 5-6 seconds for me this time.

      It can go faster, but at least you have something to work with now.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Although I am not an expert on website hosting but this might help you Try a free plan on https://www.cloudflare.com/ for improving the site performance. Hope it helps
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      Free really?!? Will have a look! Thanks
  • Dear, I am also working on same niche for a company. So I am sharing you some suggestion, I am sure those
    will be helpful for you.

    1. Start listing your products on Amazon because your most of the sales are going to come from Amazon & other
    market places not from your website.

    2. Give your Inventory to Amazon fulfillment center. They will help you to generate the sales.

    3. Start Hiring affiliate marketing companies, who can generate sale for you on sales basis not clicks or visits.

    4. Start running normal 2$/day facebook carousal ads.

    5. Read this post for technical issues: http://www.aspmedia.in/article/top-10-reasons-your-website-traffic-increasing-not-your-conversions?utm_source=ASP&utm_medium=Forum&utm_ca mpaign=Traffic%20Is%20Increasing%20But%20Not%20You r%20Conversions

    Follow these simple steps for 1month. And I am sure you will start getting sales.

    If after doing these activites if you will not get sales. Then ping me I will personally check your website at my own end
    without any cost. And I will suggest you the right steps to get the sales.

    Thanks,
    Abhishek
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Banned
      Abhishek thanks a lot my friend! This morning i registered an amazon and also an ebay account.

      Top 10 Reasons Your website Traffic Is Increasing But Not Your Conversions | Online Marketing Company, Social Media Marketing Agency, Digital Marketing for companies in Delhi NCR India mpaign=Traffic%20Is%20Increasing%20But%20Not%20You r%20Conversions
       Really good article!

      Start Hiring affiliate marketing companies, who can generate sale for you on sales basis not clicks or visits. Seriously? There are affiliate companies that work on a commission basis? That would be awesome! Could you provide some names?


      If after doing these activites if you will not get sales. Then ping me I will personally check your website at my own end
      without any cost. And I will suggest you the right steps to get the sales.
       Thank you so much for offering your help! Really really appreciated!
      • [1] reply
    • Yep send it to Amazon and have to pay a fee each month. If he just got a basic free sellers account on Amazon he can list it there and let his Sister ship it. He does not have the funds he said in a earlier post to ship the product here.

      To Scrafted it is back up now. Keep the good work up.

      Here is the link to sell as a individual https://services.amazon.com/services...asus_soa_p_cat Than you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page to click on the individual account.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • Banned
    Sojourn is right about the images on the front page. If you compress them as she suggested, you'll get an enormous boost in speed. Images should always be compressed on websites for optimal speed.
    • [2] replies
    • Banned
      Doing it right now! I deleted wpsmush, will try what Erica suggested.

      Thanks Sbucciarel!
    • Banned
      thank you everybody!
  • I can't see the site but from the complaints of others here, your site is dead slow.
    One thing you can do to improve it is host the images differently.

    As far as sales is concern, you need to get a lot of exposures and trust
    before anyone can buy from you especially when you aren't promoting
    a known site or brand.

    I don't know anything about the internet habits of Romans,
    perhaps some traditional marketing like flyers, banners,
    radio jingles, business card can do better.

    And if you eventually make some money, investing in localized
    PPC (adword) and Facebook fan page will be great.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      Hey johnben1444

      I can't see the site but from the complaints of others here, your site is dead slow. You can t see the site?! But is it because is not loading for you or some other reasons?

      I don't know anything about the internet habits of Romans Have you watched The Gladiator? We are not really good at IM but we are great at throwing people at lions and tigers... ehehehhehe

      And if you eventually make some money, investing in localized
      PPC (adword) and Facebook fan page will be great.


      I really hope i get to that point.

      Thanks Jhon
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    Optimizing images... 2721 images. This is going to take a week ehehe
    • [1] reply
    • Hi SCrafted,

      I've been a lurker for some time and just got an account to add to this. A lot of people have given you some very good advice here but I thought I might give you a perspective from the consumer end. You have done a nice job on the site but I think there are a few things you could improve (from a new user's point of view) to increase sales.

      • In my opinion, You should be targeting the sale a bit more. You have way to much going on "above the fold." I felt too much animation and not enough information.
      • You are using multiple tag lines ("Exclusive hand curated products from the 4 CORNERS of the Globe" and "Unique handmade items"). I would stick with one an go with that.
      • The main image carousel isn't telling me anything about the products or the company. As a new consumer, I don't know what you are offering. Maybe a text overlay?
      • The main nav menu seems to have a lot of items that would be better suited in a secondary menu on the bottom. Really, to me, the main nav should be what you are showing under "Shop."
      • The first 4 products I see when i scroll are titled ""T-shirt By Overhead." You may want to either have more descriptive headlines or change the order of products to mix it up a bit. (also, the T-shirts don't appear when I select the Cloths -> Men category?)
      • Other's have mentioned the speed of the site (particularly when selecting a category from the Shop menu) and the incorrect currency format so I won't go into that but they are big issues.

      Anyway, you are on the right track and I wish you luck. Keep pushing.
      Rob
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Banned
    oh oh site broke down. I m reinstalling an older backup...
  • build back links to you website with defirent descrptions ... google love that
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Banned
    btw 2 more affiliates signed up yesterday.
    • [1] reply
    • Your site took just under three seconds to load for me. Don't know if you've dealt with this issue or whether it's due to the fact that I have super-fast broadband.

      Not everyone has fibre optic broadband so you should ensure that your site will load reasonably promptly irrespective of the broadband service that a visitor might have.

      You've been given really good advice by a number of fellow Warriors but I'll add my perspective, too, so you have some idea of what your visitor experiences are like.

      1 - there is far too much going on on your Home page so that it's difficult to know exactly what your focus really is

      2 - In your shoes, I'd have top navigation links for various categories and then have teaser image/content on the portal page for each category so that a visitor who is interested in say 'bow ties' can click on that link and then view your showcase of bow ties. This will tidy up your site considerably and, I think, speed up your site load time because it will have less images to load when the visitor first arrives on your site.

      3 - Avoid dynamic images/banners that distract the visitor from what you really want them to do. I didn't know where to look, at first, and in desperation, I got out of your site.

      4 - Amazon is a great site to study for getting the look and feel of a retail site just right - to draw interest and then take action.


      As for SEO, you really need to do some keyword research for each category of your products to see what terms people are using to search for products like those on your site.

      Then for each product category (Main Category: Men's Accessories, Sub-category: Bow Ties), make sure the keyword appears in the heading. Also include other search terms for your category within the body of your product description.

      For example: If you see that at least 4,000 people are searching for "silk bow ties", then this term should appear in the heading for that sub-section of men's accessories and related terms should appear in the description of each silk product.

      SEO is a complex subject and attempting to 'do it all' is going to take you a lot of time and study. But the basics are not difficult and you can deal with it, yourself - see this site for some useful information:
      https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo (not an affiliate link)

      For keyword research, use Google's Keyword Tool - You'll need to set up a Google Adwords Account to use this tool - it's free to set up and you can use it for keyword research and nothing else, if you so wish.

      Jamie

      PS - unless you've got deep pockets, I would avoid paying anyone to do the SEO for you. Make loads of money, first and then outsource the SEO, if you still feel that your could do with expert help.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • have you tried building your social media presence?

    build your fb page, twitter, and instagram
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Find some ebook on how to make your first affiliate sale and that could help you. one major factor is website authority. make sure your site has a good authority trusty rank
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • No not a typo - 60 seconds.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Still?!?! I got in and it was good enough. I also tested with pingdom, 5.87 sec to load from NY.

      Thanks Jamie
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    • Says who ? This is nothing but plain spam ! Take it elsewhere and take this dude with you "pumasare"



      Scrafted took about 5-6 seconds just now.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • customer will not waste their time to wait, all consumer wants a fast performance, and addition on that do an eye catcher so that customer will be interested and do a review, more chance of winning
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Maybe because this is no review below your product page, so people don't trust your website, or your price has no competition compare with other online store.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      There are no reviews on the products page, you are right, that could be the problem but actually the prices are really good! I actually think they might be too cheap.
  • Make the info available at a click of a mouse. For example when I click on a purse I need basic information, pictures from different angles, and of course the ability to pay without waiting for page to load. You have too much going on IMO...Something is just off on your site.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      That could be also a problem. More information about the products would be helpful to customers. I also though that maybe having a zoom on images could help (all fashion boutiques have this option) but i have installed all zoom plugins out there and they are not working. They are not zooming the images. I think the problem is the actual image sizes. I need to upload bigger images in order for the zoom to work. This is a pain in the a..s!
      • [1] reply
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  • If you're selling items that people can buy on Amazon or Ebay then that could be your problem. You want to sell artisan items.
  • Use Lazy Load plugin to improve page loading speed and remove unnecessary plugins.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Thanks! Will have a look at that plugin.
  • As Vic 1 stated speed if website is essential, people usually only wait a couple of seconds before hitting the back button. But in all honestly I have a friend who sells ladies clothing online and it is very tough because few women will buy clothes they haven't tried on for fit. What they like to do is visit a store and try on things until they find something they like. Then they use their smart phone to see if they can find the exact thing they like in the same size at a better price online. If your Sister's apparel isn't in the shops nobody will be searching for it. Hope that makes sense. Good luck. Cheers, Dave
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Banned
      Dave i completely agree with you and you have made some very good points. Speed is a major issue and thanks to the suggestions i have received here on WF i have improved it a lot even if i am still working on it... I agree that selling clothes online is probably harder than selling many other things and I agree that many women would like to try first and then buy but if that was 100% true then there won't be successful online fashion boutiques that only sell online such as redressboutique.com for example that sell unique pieces that you can t find it anywhere else. I will see how this goes. Will probably give it 4 to 5 more months, if it doesn t work then will do something else.
      Also i am selling other stuff such as (cheap) jewelry, handbags, and even some home furniture...
      Thanks for your comments.
  • At this point I recommend exporting your products to third party platforms like Shopify and Bigcommerce, who have lightning quick hosting and great support. The technical side of things is the least you should worry about when starting out - it's the marketing!

    I've left a post on one of your other threads here as well :

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...l#post10602562

    Good luck!
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Banned
      @ naidyphoon
      Thanks a lot! Your comments on the other post as well were really great. I already created an Instagram account, so far 300 followers. I know it s nothing but i started less than a week ago. I will check Instagress right now! I also have a facebook page but i find it really hard to get fans. I am doing well on Twitter now (8000 followers) but the low traffic i am getting from twitter doesn t convert into sales.

      Do you suggest moving to platforms such as Shopify because you think the site doesn t look professional enough or slow or ugly? Your comments about this would be really helpful...

      Thanks!
    • Banned
      Just signed up on instagress. Looks like a great tool. Will study it a little more tonight. Thanks!
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  • As so many others have said, the site takes far too long to load. Also, and this is prpbably a personal preference of mine, I don't like being forced to give my phone number on the sign up page. It should be optional with a note saying that you will only use it case of an order query.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I clicked on a section and it took too long to load. Hence people leaving the site and not coming back.

    I think a good site redesign might help, plus it doesn't hurt to set up a BigCartel store and Wordpress etc and direct traffic to that plus as many on here say set up a Youtube channle talking about and displaying your products and fashion and beauty tips etc and direct traffic to your shop.
  • Banned
    Working on the speed guys. Is caused by the essential grid plugin. I am working with the plugin developers right now.

    Thanks
  • Banned
    Essential grid developers are working on the site. And it seems it has improved quite a bit?

    Could you guys confirm it?
  • Banned
    Nevermind, they are still working and still slow...
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  • I really feel surprised I hope you can solve this problem.
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  • 253

    Help marketing a site!

    Hello everybody, i just signed up here on WF but i have been a long time observer . For the last 4 months i have been putting quite a lot of efforts on a website. My sister lives in Rome, Italy and she has a fashion boutique so i decided to build a website selling what she sells; fashion, apparel, handbags, jewelry and so on... in which there is a lot of competition i understand but the stuff i sell is truly unique, really really cheap and beautiful.