Question

www.decals.citymax.com

Asked by: AlexF777

I am trying to help out my wife's parents to sell their product. We have been trying for 7 months. So far off this web site we had only 1 sale. Any recommendations ( as far as site design, promotion, etc. ) would be greatly appreciated. May be we should try to sell it on ebay or something ?

 Thank You

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2003-10-02 at 08:49:54ID20755212
Topic

Miscellaneous Web Development

Participating Experts
6
Points
500
Comments
7

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. re:  how to buy and sell on ebay
    I realize that I may be posting this question in the wrong category, but, this one most closely matches to my question to the best of my knowledge. Basically, I am interested in any internet links or feedback regarding the procedures for buying and selling merchandise o...
  2. Selling OEM software on ebay
    The company I work for has around 40 unused and unregistered OEM copies of office XP in stock which we are unlikely to sell with new systems and would like to get rid of. I am thinking about selling them on through ebay. I had a look tonight and their seems to be a fair bit ...
  3. selling wines on ebay
    A friend of mine has 9 $500 bottles of wine to sell. I'm wondering if I could get some expert advice about how exactly to sell them on ebay. If you've got other ideas besides ebay, I am interested in them too. Thanks guys, Bob
  4. selling web design on ebay
    I'm selling web design on ebay. What category should I put it in, and how do I make sure people can find me when searching? Bob
  5. Ebay Sale Optimization
    Hey Everyone, I just started selling on ebay and was having trouble deciding the best way to list my items. I need to know the best practices to get optimal results on my sales. I am in the market of Diamonds and was hoping someone can direct me somewhere or provide further...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: SpikeyBenPosted on 2003-10-02 at 09:19:06ID: 9478221

Promotion of a website is important..  Ebay might be a good idea to get some new clients..  What i would use is a product like http://download.com.com/3000-2181_4-10221360.html ....  This will allow your site to get picked up when it is searched for in google or yahoo.  Another thing is to make sure that you use unique keywords to describe your site and product.  This will increase the chance of a search engine returning your site.  You might also want to try adding metadata to your site which will also increase the amount of traffic..   Somthing that you might want to do is a add a counter to your site and see if it is maybe getting traffic but no one is buying the product.  or if you really aren't getting any traffic try one of the above methods..   Good Luck...  Ben

 

by: KenAdneyPosted on 2003-10-02 at 09:40:51ID: 9478422

Just some personal opinions...

As far as the web site goes, check your rankings in the search engines and do some usability testing.  I assume you've already checked to be sure you're offering something your competitors don't (cheaper prices, faster delivery, etc.).

Far more important, is to use the traditional tools & techniques of marketing.  Advertise in magazines, provide useful information not available elsewhere, get a word of mouth referral plan going, do some cross linking from compatible businesses, etc.  The dot.com failure was, in part, because lots of folks thought building a web site to sell stuff would work on its own.

You could check out Guerilla Marketing for some low cost ideas.

 

by: FushiPosted on 2003-10-02 at 10:18:55ID: 9478800

SpikeyBen and KenAdney are both right, Ebay is a pretty good idea since ebay is getting far more hits (just due to the size of it) than an individual site, lik eyours.  Also when people think of stuff like your decals they think ebay.  
Also your payment method might scare people off.  Would you really give someone you don't know your credit card number over the phone? You might want to sign up with a securte third party for payment services (payPal for example)
As far design - that could defenietly use some work.  Your design is simple but not very attractive - not eye catching if you know what I mean.  The first page you hit should be an intero page (maybe a little animation in flash, a little about your products etc) then you would have a chance of viewing your catalog.  The way you have it set up now (aperson enters your site and hits the catalog) migh be a little overwhelming and intrusive.  They are like hey what's this? and why is it here?
I'd be willing to give you some graphics advice or do some work on the design/layout of your site...

 

by: rolftollerudPosted on 2003-10-02 at 11:57:19ID: 9479532

I agree that the most important, is to use the traditional tools and techniques of marketing. However, I think that maybe this could be something for you,

http://www.submit-it.com/

 

by: linux4every1Posted on 2003-10-02 at 18:03:30ID: 9481707

meta tags .... go to the websites that best fit your description in a search engine say ... www.google.com ... look at the number one listed site and right click view sourc and look at their meta tags .... that's what search engines use to spider pages .... specifically the keywords ... then use a submission service ... submit through them, they get paid to do submissions and to bring you traffic .... another pointer would be to goto www.metaspy.com and watch ... it will show you ever few seconds what people are searching for .... find keyword strings that are common and that fit your site and use them. you would be surprised to find what works
and probably even more surprised what some people search for lol

 

by: duzPosted on 2003-10-03 at 01:17:59ID: 9483138

AlexF777 -

What you have done is printed a party invitation and forgot to send them out or tell anyone!

You have a website but anyone using a search engine to find 'Etched Cling Decals' will be unable to find you because your website has not been indexed in the search engines.

The first thing you will have to do is make sure that your site is search engine friendly, so that after you have submitted your site to them and they come and visit you they will like what they see.

It is quite easy to do the basics of creating search engine friendly pages but the exact approach depends on the specific site. I would suggest you read a basic text on the subject, of which there are many, something like 'Streetwise Maximize Web Site Traffic: Build Web Site Traffic Fast and Free by Optimizing Search Engine Placement' by Robin Nobles, Susan O'Neil.

After you have prepared your site for the search engines you can start submitting them. Do this by hand and do not be tempted to use software or site submission software. There are many reasons for this that few people are aware of but just to name one here is a quote from the Google Webmaster Guidelines - "Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our terms of service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google."

I hope this answers your question.

- duz

 

by: linux4every1Posted on 2003-10-03 at 01:25:39ID: 9483165

duz also forgot to mention that multiple submissions form a static ip will also ussually hinder the process cause slamming the engine makes more work fo rthe search engine and ussually ( as a preventative measure ) most of the engines delete submissions that have multiple refferences from a fixed ip in a set amount of time.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...