Did your Prestashop format store bring you any cash yet?

[Spark]

Hi guys,

Would like to know whether does your store bring you any cash yet? Or is there any cash flow going on for your store?

I am not sure what wrong with my store...I check my status in google and show that there's ppl coming in to my store..funny things is till now there's no one buying?

Anyway i reallly do hope anyone can help me check what's really went wrong with my store?

www.thattoyshop.com - this is my store. Would really appreciate someone can help me review my store?

[Newest]

Your shop looks very good. You just need to do some advertisement and wait for your turn. How do you do advertisement? If nobody knows your shop is out there, there will never be any sell. I used Google adver for $50 per month, and after 6 months, my sell begin. I sell baby toys and it do very good around Christmas time. You need to prepare for that. In between, you just keep improving your site, and advertisement. Your time will come.

[Spark]

Hi Newest,

Thanks for your comment on my shop.

Yup, i have been trying to make advertising through SEO and linking. Google Adver? You mean PPC [Pay-Per-Click] method?
I will have to keep trying to advertise more. I also think of trying to improve my site, but as there's no one to give me any review.
AS for improving, i am not sure what;s the things that i need to improve for now.

Care to share your website? i am interest to know. Thanks

[Hoodgrown]

Well I just received my first order today. About 3 weeks after launch. My last store, a latin music download store, took about 6 months to get that first order. After that it started coming in.

With my new store... I plan to start my PPC advertising next week. I have though, just launched an ad campaign on Facebook.

[Star]

Well I just received my first order today. About 3 weeks after launch. My last store, a latin music download store, took about 6 months to get that first order. After that it started coming in.

With my new store... I plan to start my PPC advertising next week. I have though, just launched an ad campaign on Facebook.

Hi Hoodgrown,

Do you mind to tell me how to launch an ad campaign on Facebook?

Thanks,

Star

[San Diego]

hi

ok i´m german but my english is not too bad

and first i read your shop name i read by overflowing it thattoo shop

you know what i mean people look for toys and read thattoo

oh forget it i don´t want to have a tattoo

hope you get what i want to say

sd

[Katmatcreations]

It all comes down to the marketing, people dont only buy your product they buy your idea and your experience.

Look at what other businesses have done and do what they dont do! look at other purchases youve done and things that you think could be done better, get into the mindset of your customer and think of what you would want to see and what would make you buy your product.

we had our first sale within the first week of opening and have since expanded because our model worked, im currently working on our second shop.

Selling online is easy providing your do your homework!

Just remember, people can be made to want any conceivable thing imaginable with the right marketing.

[Hoodgrown]

Well I just received my first order today. About 3 weeks after launch. My last store, a latin music download store, took about 6 months to get that first order. After that it started coming in.

With my new store... I plan to start my PPC advertising next week. I have though, just launched an ad campaign on Facebook.

Hi Hoodgrown,

Do you mind to tell me how to launch an ad campaign on Facebook?

Thanks,

Star

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
It can be as inexpensive or as expensive as you want. And as of yet, none of the click fraud associated with normal PPC

[Spark]

Hi San Diego,

Thanks for your comment about my site URL! Really appreciate it.
However i have already purchase the site and registered it. So i will just go as it is. But really appreciate it. I nv really look into it until you notice me about it. Thanks!

Katmatcreations,

Glad that you are expanding your business. As you mention about marketing, you mean we have to keep marketing till there's people coming in right? Is that simple? Because from what i see my site, i think my site should be more than ready to get paid visitors..maybe i don't have much traffic yet?

I will have to keep market it till it success! Thanks for you guys inputs. Cheers!

[shinebeat]

I am so glad that I see this discussion. (release my stress from "no one buying")

I am also having same question Spark is having.

After devoting so much time and so many efforts to finish up an eCommerce website and hoping for good revenue comes in...(total eCommerce reached 133 billion in 2008)

Obviously, the dream of eCommerce does not happen in my way.

I have put my advertisment on Google AdWords and Facebook Ads (which I know from Hoodgrown's twitter, thanks)

I am still trying to improve my website and doing the real people surveys....

So, I think what I need now is "be patient" and keep improving my website

And Hoodgrown, congratulate on your first order ^^

[Star]

I am so glad that I see this discussion. (release my stress from "no one buying")

I am also having same question Spark is having.

After devoting so much time and so many efforts to finish up an eCommerce website and hoping for good revenue comes in...(total eCommerce reached 133 billion in 2008)

Obviously, the dream of eCommerce does not happen in my way.

I have put my advertisment on Google AdWords and Facebook Ads (which I know from Hoodgrown's twitter, thanks)

I am still trying to improve my website and doing the real people surveys....

So, I think what I need now is "be patient" and keep improving my website

And Hoodgrown, congratulate on your first order ^^

Shinebeat,

Your product will sell. you just need to give a little bit more professional touch on your site.

[Spark]

Yes,

We can do it..I am glad that i make the right choice to ask this question.
It seem to me that our site does look good..it's just how do we really market.
Let's get some cracking, Yup i am into Twitter as well as i think it's might be one of the important market tools.
I think it's much better than facebook and myspace? I am not sure on this..however this is good since there's no much things you need to worry about.

Just type within 150 words once you update your site, [etc new arrivals, pre-order] and mess send to anyone who follow you.

[Star]

Hi Spark,

I am just being honest since you are asking comments about your site. When I first read your URL, I by passed it as I am not interest to get a thattoo or something. I did not even open it. Even if your website goes to the first page in google (it will not happen if people by pass your URL), but when people see the name, they will not click on it as they are not even bother to check it out. Then what go about doing advertisement?

Your website looks very good. I love it. But the URL......

[San Diego]

you see

star says the same as me, or is it a psychologic thing that she read my advise and thought it is hers lol

sd

[Star]

you see

star says the same as me, or is it a psychologic thing that she read my advise and thought it is hers lol

sd

No, I noticed it before you post it here. :-) I did not say anything as I did not know if it is okay to say this here.

But I did post it here after you as I know I am not the only who feel this.... :roll:

[Star]

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
It can be as inexpensive or as expensive as you want. And as of yet, none of the click fraud associated with normal PPC

Thanks. I will check it out.

[Trip]

Hi Spark,
I think your shop is O.K although I would change the colors and maybe think about the logo but this is just my opinion. What I really would not do is to have a big top sellers button when there is just one product sold.
For advertisement I can recommend google adwords at the moment. It is not cheap but from experience I have the best conversion rates.
People clicking on those adds usually have an intention to buy something.
At the moment I do not understand the twitter thing and how I can reach customers but maybe someone gives me a hint .
Greetz, trip

[Amish Gramish]

My company is very new, and it has taken me four months to get a Record Label to sign on with me, but I haven't tried very hard trying to find them, as I am in college, so I spent a lot of my time studying and being lazy.

I only have one CD up on my website, but I am getting 20 more CDs on there in a week or so from that Record Label (Bar-None Records), so I hope my adding of people as friends and posting links on MySpace will get me a customer or two.

I haven't made a sale yet, because I only have one CD up, but I hope to get at least one sale by the end of May.

And my site doesn't look anywhere near as good as yours does, Spark, but I'll keep yours in mind when I need to buy some toys for my nephew and my other niece/nephew when he/she is born in a week or two.

EDIT:
One more thing, I think your logo needs some changing.
If you can't think of any other logo, at least edit it in PNG and save it in PNG, so there aren't any compression blocks. I don't know how to change it so you can change the logo (I did the same as you and had it as "logo.jpg"), but that is surely one thing I would look at.

My logo is kind of simple, so you might want to simplify it a little more. (Maybe remove the border, and see how it looks?)

[Spark]

Guys,

Really thanks for all of your comments on my site. Wow..i will take a look into my site once again.
Amish Gramish - Keep going, you sure will make it big. Let's work hard together make our site more cash! heehee

*And a small review about why using Twitter is another method to market your items out*

Twitter is good where you can constantly update your followers {your customers or viewer who is interested on your products}, i see alot of good review on twitter using in e-commerce. i mean if it's been using from other e-commerce, it's a good to start one and see how's the result?

From what i see, it's has the potential to market your item out as well. Perhaps, you can search people with your keywords in it and follow them? You know what i mean? From there, you can have more people who didn't notice you in the search engine and 'follow' you with you constant update.

Constant Update doesn't mean everyday need to put a few sentence here and there, but maybe new arrivals, making some survey. And lots more. Ideas is there, just imagine.

Plus Twitter to me, it's much much faster and easier to connect with people instead of using Facebook, Myspace. Since what i do is just update them with my 150 words on it. Of cause you can even put your links as well! Hope this give you some ideas about twitter.

[San Diego]

hi guys

lee breemlow built a air ap for your twitter stuff maybe you like it and can use it

sd

http://www.gotoandlearn.com/

[June]

Hi: I have been up and running since December and other than the people I told to take a look at my site, I have had no visits. I definitely have had not buyers yet. I am concerned that the advertising with Meta is not working well. I advertise myself but to no avail. I do not want to go to another group to build another web site for me but the money has to start comming in or I have wasted money on stock not selling.

June

[Spark]

Hi June,

Did you ever try to marketing through internet? Care to see your website?
i did have plenty of visitors but couldn't convert them into buyers..

Perhaps you can post here and let others to view it as well? I think we have to really market it instead of sitting there.

I am trying to different ways to market it. For me..not going to spend on those PPC since it's need cash which i don..until i got cash flow for my store then i thinking of using PPC. Using those free marketing is possible but have to get the correct method.

Don't give up, just keep market it out to your friends, etc [Which you are doing right now]

[June]

Hi Spark: My web site is www.juneshop.50gigs.net I have asked the team how to go about advertising to get viewers, and am still waiting for their reply. What is PPC? How do I contact them or find them? I was helped by a friend to set up my web site but I do not hear from him any more now that it is up and running. I see a team member online now so I will try more information from him.. Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated.

June

[Hoodgrown]

June,
Please don't take this the wrong way.. but in all honesty, this is the kind of stuff you should have researched BEFORE launching an online store. How do you expect your store to succeed without knowing the basics?

Too many people they can just jump online and start a successful business, without failing to realize that... "IT IS A BUSINESS" and with anything you should do your homework and know what you're getting into before hand.

I'd recommend checking these sites daily... and going through their archives because they provided a ton of useful ecommerce information:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/
http://www.getelastic.com/
http://www.grokdotcom.com/

[Hoodgrown]

Trip,
You should probably read these articles as far as understanding what Twitter can do for your business:

Why Twitter is Word of Mouth on Steroids
http://www.getelastic.com/twitter-customer-service/

Ecommerce Microblogging: More Reasons To Use Twitter
http://www.getelastic.com/ecommerce-microblogging-twitter-marketing/


How To Use Twitter for E-Commerce
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/how-to-use-twitter-for-e-commerce.aspx

[June]

Hi: Thank you for the advice. I have a web site that Microsoft gave me and I built it last year but found that they do not cater for Australia and New Zealand yet. In the mean time a friend who is a computer science degree holder told me he would help me as my partner in the web. I understood that he knew all the basics from his connections in Google, that is why I am in Presta now.

It is good to get your feedback though even though I am an accountant and have several degrees including business, economics and law, that covers what you said. I have had a company manufacturing leather clothes which I closed and now have stock to sell. I had done a lot of research over a 2 year period but it is becase of the 50.gigs I am told that people do not find the site. They expect .com or .net etc.

Thank you

Regards

June

[Trip]

Hi June,
I took a look at your store and I think you could improve some things.
First you should take better pitures of your stuff.
Second - disable the topsellers block unless you've sold something or do some fake orders to give the impression that there is a "living" shop.
Maybe let someone help you in creating a cool logo.
Turn on SEO urls in backoffice if your hoster supports mod_rewrite.
I can not explain all my suggestions in detail. If you don't understand some terms do research by google or ask other people in the forum.

@Spark and the rest
I am spending money on PPC campains and for me it is (at the moment) more or less the only way to (successfully) promote my products-
Maybe you can try the http://www.ecartservice.net/03082008/exporting-products-to-googlebase/ module to export your products
to google base or use some social bookmark or link sites to get attention but from experience I can tell you that from just SEO and waiting I would be in the same situation like you.
Anyway, I think this is a very interesting topic. I also would like to know if someone uses social bookmarking services or knows other easy ways to promote a site.
Regards, trip

[Hoodgrown]

Amish Gramish,
I ran a very popular Latin music download service, Musica360 (Google it), that attracted a lot of major attention and articles so I can definitely give you some advice.

1. No one will join with a site that only has a few listings. You have to look major out the gate. I joined up the Orchard ( http://www.theorchard.com/ ) and added their latin catalog to mine giving me over 3000 songs to launch with.

2. I actively sought out every latin internet based publication, physical publication, newspaper and tech blog in every spanish speaking country I could find and collected their email address to send press releases too that my store had launched. Yes, it's VERY time consuming but well worth it. I garnered articles in MacWorld Magazine, Lo Rider Magazine, The New York Post and a few others.

3. We would go to concerts and give out business card sized flyers (so that they'd be added to a wallet as opposed to being thrown out) etc.

I never even did PPC with that site... but in 6 months we really started taking off.

[Hoodgrown]

It is good to get your feedback though even though I am an accountant and have several degrees including business, economics and law, that covers what you said. I have had a company manufacturing leather clothes which I closed and now have stock to sell. I had done a lot of research over a 2 year period but it is becase of the 50.gigs I am told that people do not find the site. They expect .com or .net etc.

June,
Yes you seem very knowledgeable about business in general.. but not ecommerce. Otherwise you know about PPC and certain basic things that are lacking on your site.

That's not to knock you in anyway... I just think a lot more people should really do ECOMMERCE research before even thinking about launching an online business.

Those links i've provided you with will more than help you get up to speed.

[Trip]

Hi Hoodgrown,
thanks for posting the links. I will read them the next days (late here in geramy - hehe)
I appreciate your postings to the community
Cheers, trip

[qasrani]

Check out my these two sites:

www.presentfromsantaclaus.com
www.laplandelishop.com

These are working for more than 6 months, still I have got 1 order for first site and 2 for second. These both were my own personal orders to check if everything is working fine in real time environment

[June]

Thank you Qusrani.

[qasrani]

You are welcome, June!

[jamiedickinson]

Yes, i've noticed since my new setup of Prestashop that sales have come to a halt. I used to own a designer name clothing store that sold about 20 products a day, now i've been open 2 weeks and only got 4 orders, yet 1,200 visitors!
A cheaper way to market is go on forums, or websites your customers would go on for example fashion sites and commenting your link. Try not to spam, make it relevant and informative.

Jamie

[fancydressqueen]

Hi All,

Had my site (www.FancyDressQueen.com) up since January and all is going quite well.

Not sure if many other people found this, but I was getting loads of visitors and few buyers due to a compatibility issue with Internet Explorer. I also posted a contact phone number on the site for buyers to order direct, which turned out to be a huge help. Alot of people still call me saying that when they try to log into my site they get thrown back to the login screen. Users must have all cookies enabled otherwise the site becomes inaccessible to the buyer. Could just be me, but a tip all the same. Could be the reason why you were getting no sales, as buyers couldn't actually complete the purchase.

Spark, love the site. I just signed up for Twitter (never had Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, etc), so I am delving into the unknown. Could you let me know how you added the "Follow Me" twitter image and hyperlink to your site please? I will have a friend design a different image, but I would like to do the same for my site.

All comments appreciated.

[June]

Just read your post on lack of sale and I think that is a great idea of adding the phone number. I have sent myself messages to different email addresses I have through "contact us ", and I am not receiving them.

Thank you for the thought.

June

[fancydressqueen]

Hi June,

I warn you in advance...if you do have a large volume of site traffic, be prepared for the phone to ring, and ring, and ring. It sounds great now, but when you have alot of work to do and orders to be packaged/sent it can be difficult keeping up with enquiries.

I am based in the UK and have a "pay as you go" phone number on there. It costs me nothing as I only receive calls on it. Great investment and is recommended to all site owners.

[Trip]

Hi fancydressqueen,
twitter offers 2 nice flash widgets http://twitter.com/widgets which can be easily implemented in the html homepage editor in the modules section.
Unfortunatly the interactive widget loads to slow for my opinion but anyway... with the widgets you also have something like a small news module
on your homepage.
Regards, trip

[Spark]

Hi fancydressqueen,

I choose some of the Free Twitter Icons and using this module to help me link them to my twitter website

http://www.prestashop.com/forums/viewthread/9216/modules/module_add_stuff_module

Hope this help. Cheers!

[Fabrice]

Hi June !

you did NOT translate the editorial page in french version.
I get this :

Lorem ipsum presta shop amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[sweber25]

Well I just received my first order today. About 3 weeks after launch. My last store, a latin music download store, took about 6 months to get that first order. After that it started coming in.

With my new store... I plan to start my PPC advertising next week. I have though, just launched an ad campaign on Facebook.

Hi Hoodgrown,

Do you mind to tell me how to launch an ad campaign on Facebook?

Thanks,

Star

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/
It can be as inexpensive or as expensive as you want. And as of yet, none of the click fraud associated with normal PPC

How did you get your banner on your page to rotate pictures? I like that idea and it would be terrific for our site too. Would you take a look at my site and tell me what's wrong with mine? http://www.bargainbookbuy.com

[diu1so]

Well, I have too the same problem.. low income...
From february I received only orders in about 250 euros.. but I haven't invested money on adversting, I only did my best to appear in first pages of google-s search engine.

I have a Conversion rate*: 0.00 (1 purchase / 295.36 visits). What's yours?

[Amish Gramish]

Hi fancydressqueen,
twitter offers 2 nice flash widgets http://twitter.com/widgets which can be easily implemented in the html homepage editor in the modules section.
Unfortunatly the interactive widget loads to slow for my opinion but anyway... with the widgets you also have something like a small news module
on your homepage.
Regards, trip

Thanks for that!

I just had my first sale earlier this week! (I honestly thought it would take another month and a half before I got my first one.)

So, that makes it 1/1100 conversion rate...

[electro-maniac]

Hi everybody,

I am having around 50 visitors per day,it has been only 15 days that it is online so I think it is a good number.Of course I am not expecting to have lots of orders in the beginning but I just wanna know if there is something wrong with my shop or not cause I am not receiving any messages also.I will be glad if you can just have a look and tell me the negative things that you see on it.I tried to do my best but everybody has different tastes so I am waiting for your comments.
Thanks very much

[eddieuk]

Hi fancydressqueen,
twitter offers 2 nice flash widgets http://twitter.com/widgets which can be easily implemented in the html homepage editor in the modules section.
Unfortunatly the interactive widget loads to slow for my opinion but anyway... with the widgets you also have something like a small news module
on your homepage.
Regards, trip

Thanks for that!

I just had my first sale earlier this week! (I honestly thought it would take another month and a half before I got my first one.)

So, that makes it 1/1100 conversion rate...

Hi, do you know how to get the Twitter Widget in the right hand column as a module? I tried and failed to do it....

[junnecito]

Well, well, well I can see that we all have the same problem... I did not have a sale from February that I open my store, I realy don't know what I did wrone I try every thing to make the store nice (at least I think so) but nothing.... some one will be nice and let me know what is wrone with my stores???
www.gourmetyvinos.com
www.1000rebajas.com
www.mcmregalos.com
The last one i'm making changes to make it a bit nicer.
Waiting for your avice.
Best regards.

[fluxxii]

As both a consumer and web designer, I'd like to offer some advice for those who are struggling with their Prestashop store:

1. If you are using a template that looks anything like a default template, I probably will not even look at your products. There's just something that turns me off about it. You only have a few seconds to catch any user's attention, so you have to make sure that you make your storefront look good. Consider doing something more than the three column layout that is so common in most e-commerce default webpages. If you want to see some examples of effective e-commerce design, check out the Prestashop showcase or here.

You don't have to learn a lot of coding to get a unique design. Use someone else's template, but don't keep it entirely. Edit the images, colours, and placement of items so that your design is unique (make sure the artist is okay with it though). Free templates that aren't already adapted to Prestashop are fairly hard to find, but it is pretty simple to adapt a normal template to Prestashop!

2. Don't pay for advertising if you can't afford it. Think about this: when you're surfing a website, how often do you click on advertisements yourself? I've found that the best way to market my products is to first figure out who your target market is. Are they book readers, artists, parents, pet owners, teens, etc? Once you figure out who your target is, find some sort of website such as a forum or social networking site where they will probably visit often...and then become a part of it yourself. It may be hard, but you really have to be passionate about what you're selling, otherwise it just doesn't seem worth it.

For example, my site sells homemade crafts by various designers. I'm a member of a fairly large crafting forum. I keep my shop's link in my signature and profile. Just by posting there several times a day, I get tons of daily hits without having to spend a cent. I've discussed this with other shop owners and they agree that more visits come from networking rather than paid advertising.

3. If you haven't already, print out some business cards. It makes your store seem more professional and will get the word out to others. You can also give them to public places that will display your business cards. I also like giving them out with each of my purchases, just to remind the buyer to come back again. : )

4. Have multiple shipping options. I read an article once that cited high shipping prices as one of the main reasons why customers don't complete their order. Sometimes shipping will cost just as much as or more than 50% of the order's total itself! Add options to allow customers to pick the best shipping for them, but make sure you don't lose money from it. I find that a fair method is to ship by weight. Don't offer only UPS unless you must (their prices are crazy!). Artjunky is currently working on upgrading his beautifully simple USPS shipping module, which is very easy to install.

5. There are a lot of miscellaneous little details that will increase my chance to purchase from a website. This article actually has a very good list that I recommend everyone check out. All of the items on their list are very important, but two big things that most shops forget are customer service contact information and clearly placed security information (the last two things on the list).

Sorry for making such a huge post, but I hope that it has helped you out! Good luck with all of your stores!

[junnecito]

Thanks fluxxii:
Very interenting what you say, its true there is a lot to learn for a few of us.
I will read the article and try to get out some interensting things.
Thanks again.

[sperio]

Fluxxi is correct... your customers coming in depends very much on how u gather the clients and get the information about your products out... try to participate in forums and lists of people who might be interested in your products... love what you do and the money will come...

[visua]

I've edited this down to a few main points since it was really long.

1) Use your network - This means offline!. Getting business sized coupons or credit 'code' cards are cheap now! just search cheap digital printing. Think about how many people you come in contact with in the span of one day. All these people could be customers. And you have a better chance of getting quality return customers. Think about the small businesses you give your money to and why?

2) Invest properly in your website. This is an investment often overlooked. Nothing says more about your business than the way it looks. People can spot a shotty site or a default template from a mile away - The same way you decide if "this place is too expensive!". You wonder why the industry leading sites have nice websites. If it didn't matter we would be staring at unformatted pages. It's there for a reason.

3)There is more to the internet than google and facebook. Sure, I've gotten orders off this advertising but it's not worth the time, money, and effort. How often do you really click web ads anyway? This brings me to my next point;

4) Treat your website like a business. You have to learn to cut the fat when it doesn't work. Try and experiment with your marketing, if it doesn't work simply don't do it. Just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean it works! (hint: Google ads are crap - in a study 70% of people said they don't even notice google ads anymore, they have effectively trained the mind to 'tune them out')

5) Define your edge. brick and mortar companies always have to find a way to edge out the shop across the street. This is the same online, if your just dropping prices and dumping money in advertising your not getting anywhere. Take the time to invest in a real business strategy that sets you apart from everyone. This could be a innovative feature on your website!

6) Quality not Quantity! If you bring in 100 quality return customers, you are already out-performing some of these bigger business websites. Do you know 100 people? You probably have access to network with at least a couple hundred people. Turn them into loyal customers and you will have a great base to build on.

I hope some of this helps! I've been running my business for 5 years now and have learned a lot. Some of the stuff seems to basic, but you have to remember to tell yourself to think differently in business. You have to be a marketer, scientist, researcher, and consumer.

Good luck!

fluxxii I didn't mean to re-iterate the things you said, but I guess we are on the same page! That's just more voices in peoples head helping out

[Piper1]

Just received my first order from my store after just a week of being online after changing from OS Commerce where I had no sales at all. Done loads of marketing and thats what takes time. Didn't help that there were a few...shall we say minor glitches (I'd call them Nightmares) with the software...like customers being denied access to the products when they tried to view them :s but got over that now and decided not to alter the shop too much. Shop looks good (well I think so lol) and had loads of good feeback from visitors.

www.pipebandoutfitter.co.uk

[Spark]

Hey Guys,

Actually to succeed in Internet Business is not about just going 'Offline' what you need is getting the right Internet Marketing Blueprint that let you understand and learn how one go to market yourself in Internet.

Yes, i totally agree that Google Ads [Pay-Pay-Click] is not the wiser choice to start with. Guess what, Most people will advise that to start PPC first because they will get their on google page 1 easily! - Which is total Wrong. Getting Top page is easy unless you are talking about big budget or the ROI is high enough to cover your ads fees.

People has suggested that having a good website is a must to have good conversion sales. Yes, it's true but if there's no traffic going to your site. It's like a powerful cannon that are able to shoot more than 100 kilo Meter but if you don't have the ball / powder to shoot it. It's USELESS! Remember getting traffic is more important then a website that cannot gain any traffic at all even you have the best web designer to help you out. No one know about your presence at all!

What i suggest is to go for Search Engine Optimization or even blog about your stuffs - Going for long tail keywords will be great for your store as well. If you are targeting your own country, it's even better as the competition will be much lesser compare to google.com

You see, Internet Marketing is not about going to your friends and mention 'Hey, i got a website for my store. Care to drop by or even through word-of-mouth to help me out on it?' It's about getting target visitors to go into your website and make purchase or even subscribe to your list! Do you really think that by going through the 'offline' way to get more clients?

PLEASE NOTE: Marketing your store / company through Internet has tons of method to do it. Google Ads [PPC] won't go far. If anyone who are interested to get yourself out through Internet and don't wish to do those stuffs. You can PM me for details.

The Key To Success In Your Internet Marketing Lies In Effective Internet Marketing Strategies.

If anyone are interested or wish to know more about it, feel free to contact me via PM or go to www.Empowerperformancemarketing.com for more information. I will do my best to help you out.

[kyrre]

Greetings all!

I started my webshop late november 2007. I used Candystore for about a year, and migrated to Prestashop in january 2009. In 2007 I sold for €210

2008 turnover was a different story. About €22350 total and of that €14110 came in november and december.
In 2009 I have had a 50 % increase in sales so far - looking forward to christmas sales

Marketing costs 2008
Facebook (PPC ads and a page): €250
Google AdWords: €2120
Local ads - Norwegian websites and magazines/newspapers: €1500
Total marketing 2008: €3870

I have not spent that much in 2009 so the marketing activities are not responsible for the increase alone. I partisipated in a large scale car show where my kind of customers went (I sell DVDs with cars and motorsports and some gadgets). I have also been to five motorsport shows/races during summer selling and handing out product information.

I have also buildt a motorsport blog where I publish news and info about Norwegian and foreign car industry and motorsports. In the articles I place my own ads and two lines of text about related products. On my own personal webpage I have added links from some of the most popular articles/blogs to my shop.

In addition to that I have spent an endless amount of ours adjusting the shop design, features and CEO. The result is as I mentioned a rapid increase in sales the first six months, and more visibility on search engines.

I send out a newsletter every two weeks with new products and sometimes a good offer. I use Newsletter Pro to send newsletters and Link Tracker to keep track of all the links in the newsletter.

Building a webshop without unlimited funds takes a lot of time. It's hard work and as already said here, you need to do this with your heart to make it happen. If you are doing it for some quick cash you will be surprised how much you have to work for it

I started with absolutely nothing, and a little less than two years later I'm starting to make some real money. One day it might be my full time day job!

Keep it up!

[Ann]

My site is by now my full time job, and takes me at least 12 hours of tough work a day. It opened by the end of 2007 and now doing quite well. :kiss:

[cyberd0g]

Hi Guys,

After reading your posts regarding promotions I couldn't help but share with you what I have been reading about this week. We all know that for us to get sales we need the world to know about our shops. we also all know that face book is masive and with it, its possible to meet hundreds of people in a short time. so its a brillient place to start your marketing but the question is.... How do I bring the facebook community to my store?

well my answer to that questions is actually another question...... HOW DO I BRING MY STORE TO THE FACE BOOK COMMUNITY????

The answers is in a link that I will provide at the bottom of this post. But unfortunately its not currently available in Prestashop. I have been talking with a third party developer of PS modules about having something like that. Please express you interest after you listen to the podcast.

My idea is that we can all sponsor this developer to provide this excellent opportunity for us to take advantage of the evergrowing community of FACEBOOK!

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1855-Guitar-Retailer-Offers-Inventory-on-Facebook

[Spuelbruehe]

Thxxxx for all the tipps.
Anybody could tell me how to make an Online Marketing Strategy?
How can I analise what my competition is doing or has done, just to do it better or to do different things??

Greetings.
Spülbrühe

[stocktips20]

hi, my self sanju,

i provide finance services like like share tips, MCX tips and nifty tips .

It has been proved historically that a Long Term Investor always gains and thus to provide you all with the returns equivalent to long term

[GotLiveChat.com]

Well I just received my first order today. About 3 weeks after launch. My last store, a latin music download store, took about 6 months to get that first order. After that it started coming in.

With my new store... I plan to start my PPC advertising next week. I have though, just launched an ad campaign on Facebook.

Did you do something differently this time to get a sale sooner (3 weeks vs 6 months)?

[erwu]

Greetings all!

Marketing costs 2008
Facebook (PPC ads and a page): €250
Google AdWords: €2120
Local ads - Norwegian websites and magazines/newspapers: €1500
Total marketing 2008: €3870

Gee Better grab keywords + ( landing page ) from Google Analytics with filiter for small bounce rate and long spending time.. and import data into e-weblink ;-) to hit massive Long Tail.. For saved cash buy 10 bottles of very old Whiskey and shipp one for me

[scottyboy]

Hi, Since I started to build my web shop in February this year I have spent a grand total of zero on any marketing/advertising. My sales started to trickle through about 5 weeks ago and already I have sales of over £2000 making me a very tidy profit.

I started off by writing around twenty five 700 word articles that were keyword optimised with back links to my site and information about my products and the services I offer. I gradually submitted these articles to 'ezine articles' over a period of 3 months, about 2 articles per week. This had a huge effect on my page rankings and after around 4 months I had over 150 pages indexed by Google. I also submitted my site to some of the many free web directories out there. I carefully chose only the directories that had very good page rankings above PR3.

I have to say that the golden egg for me was when I decided to write a blog with articles back linking to my web shop. I know that Google absolutely loves ‘Wordpress’ blogs so I made sure to learn how to upload and install the Wordpress blog software which I found very easy to do. This blog alone now brings in around 30% of my traffic and has sales conversions of around 70% (so good quality traffic is flowing in).

I know that all of this is very time consuming but if you really want to succeed then you have to be prepared to give 150%. Please don't waste your time and money on companies that claim they can get you to the top of Google rankings within 3 months if you part with an obscene amount of money - I know many people who have done this and have been left feeling very disappointed and ripped off.

[mcneal]

Hi Spark: My web site is www.juneshop.50gigs.net I have asked the team how to go about advertising to get viewers, and am still waiting for their reply. What is PPC? How do I contact them or find them? I was helped by a friend to set up my web site but I do not hear from him any more now that it is up and running. I see a team member online now so I will try more information from him.. Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated.

June

[Liberalis]

Hey all,

Those last pages were just full of experienced people telling their e-commerce stories. I'm about to launch my first prestashop site and learned a ton of info.
Thanks to all for sharing. :-)

[ricky.martin4545]

Your shop looks very good. You just need to do some advertisement and wait for your turn. How do you do advertisement? If nobody knows your shop is out there, there will never be any sell. I used Google adver for $50 per month, and after 6 months, my sell begin. I sell baby toys and it do very good around Christmas time. You need to prepare for that. In between, you just keep improving your site, and advertisement. Your time will come.

Thanks for the information.

[shacker]

Hi guys,

Would like to know whether does your store bring you any cash yet? Or is there any cash flow going on for your store?

I am not sure what wrong with my store...I check my status in google and show that there's ppl coming in to my store..funny things is till now there's no one buying?

Anyway i reallly do hope anyone can help me check what's really went wrong with my store?

www.thattoyshop.com - this is my store. Would really appreciate someone can help me review my store?

You need to promote the site, and make it viral with facebook, twitter.
you can add your stores to the free directory of prestashop stores.
www.directory-stores.com

[xlucass]

I don't think facebook helps in e-business.

[sebastiann]

Promote your site in Blogs, Adwords and other ways so people find your site. It is hard in the begining before visitors find the shop. Keep working and promote your site!

[Proglamour]

after 3-4 days working on SEO like google tools, blog, fb and 2 days for google adwords then i got about :

-200 unique visitors
-25 go to register page
-2 registered
-1 buy and make payment (i'm really happy)

i can rate my site :
-design : 6/10
-info & prod details : 8/10
-functionality and loading time : 8/10
-payment option : 2/10

any comment guys?

[bargain-box]

I started getting sells before my store was really up and running. I left a message explaining that the web site was under construction but anyone wanting to could register and browse the site, not really expecting sales from it yet. It's still not fully up and running but has generated around £130 in unexpected sales in under 2 weeks, so looking forward to getting all my stock uploaded. I'm using the basic prestashop front, but only because I wouldn't know how to change it to a better one without loosing all the work I've put into this one. Tell me what you think about it. bargain-box.com
. It's a simple site but can you tell me how to improve it?
Thanks
Brian