Bobs Notebook » How to Guides

Increasing Site Conversions

admin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:10:34 +0000

Here is great article that talks about how great copy can dramatically improve your conversion. http://www.grokdotcom.com/2009/07/13/can-copy-create-added-value-on-its-own/
My collection of links to help with conversions:

http://videos.webpronews.com/2009/04/13/making-your-ecommerce-site-convert/

UserTesting.com – This is a fast and cheap way to get feedback on your site. $29.

Tips to increase your website sales with Live Chat Software

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:08:06 +0000

Live Chat Software – use it to increase your web sales
Liverperson or other similiar live chat software, allows you to watch your visitors (live!) on your website. In real-time you will be able to see what pages they are looking at, where did they come from (who referred them) and how they navigate your site.

When I built my first website I didn’t have the knowledge or experience needed in building a site that is primed to close the sale. I literally spent hours watching our shoppers. It was an eye opening experience and I used this information to implemement changes that made a positive impact on the site. So what can you learn… here are a few things that caught my eye:

1. offers were not as great as I thought
I would create a graphic to an offer an put it up on the site. What a great offer I would say to myself. I would put it up on the site and see visitor after visitor NOT click on the promo. Why aren’t visitors clicking on this special offer? Is it the offer? Placement of the offer? The graphic not eye catchy enough?

2. people couldn’t find what they were looking for
I would watch shoppers enter the site and see they found our site by searching for a specific product (or line of products) that we sold. Great! We sell that product and here comes the buyers. In my disbelief I would see these shoppers leave our site before seeing the product (or product line) that they were searching for. This told me our navigation was not user friendly and changes had to be made so shoppers could easily find what they were looking for. Make sense?

3. lots of people left the home page (what!)
I thought I made an attractive home page that would start generating sales. I could see people visiting our site and then quickly leave. This made me go back and rethink the structure, content and graphics.

4. used the live chat feature to directly speak to customers
I used the live chat feature to speak directly with our customers. This gave me some insight to what our customers’ needs were and gave me ideas to how we could better meet those needs.

Those are just a few things I used the live chat software for.

Live Person – This is the service I use. I believe the options below are cheaper and are worth checking out.

Other Options:
Provide Support
WebSiteAlive.com
Whoson.com
BoldChat.com

Buying Domain Names

admin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:17:16 +0000

Selecting the right domain name for your business is extremely important. It also proves to be very difficult to find a good domain name that is not take. It seems that the obvious good domain names have already been taken, either by existing businesses, soon to be businesses or by people hoping that the domain name may have some future monetary value.

So where can you buy domain names? What should you look for in a domain name registrar? My suggestion is to go with a reputable company with an established track record. I would also buy all of your domains with 1 company. It is much easier to manage your domain from 1 interface that you are familiar with instead of using a few different registrars.

Tips on Buying the right domain name:
1. keep it as short as possible
2. pick a .com
3. be creative
4. put 2 words togethers

Here are some companies to use:
GoDaddy.com – A very popular company. They do a lot more than just register domain names.

Google Domain Registration – I don’t have experience with their service. It seems like Google always does things right.

Network Solutions – I don’t have experience using their service.

Starting a T-Shirt Business

admin — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:39:53 +0000

So, are you thinking about starting a t-shirt business? Here is a list of vendors that sell t-shirts at wholesale. You can buy the t-shirts in bulk, or your can work with a company that will print the t-shirts on demand.

On demand is a great solution to start your business with little or no money. There is no inventory to buy as your supplier will only print the products your customers buy.

PrintMojo.com - They make it easy to offer retail quality products in your own online store! We offer high quality custom screen printing and embroidery, relabeling, ecommerce, payment processing, warehousing and fulfillment services.

SpreadShirt.com – This is a print on demand solution. They will make up your clothing as you sell your merchandise.

SonicShack - Design your own t-shirts and sell them on your website.