Success!

[tony84]

I just wanted to give a good story to spur people on - especially with everything that is going on at the minute.

Im someone who can lose interest very easily and i have always created websites which earn revenue from advertising space not from actual sales.

This site has been running for about 5 months, after 3 of no sales but between 500-1000 uniques i was all but ready to sell the site until... I got my first sale in April.
3 days later i got my second order!!

The second order i messed up and lost it because of a supplier and me still learning the ropes, however i kept up constant contact and kept them happy despite losing the order. I refunded their money promptly and appologised and was honest with them that it was only my second order - they understood and said they would keep me in mind for the future.

I have now had my third order in around a month.

Im not after congratulations or anything like that.

Im just thinking in times like now, we need to spread as much good news as possible to keep up morale.

So feel free to tell your story of success or read these for moral boosting. I would also recommend reading the forums, asking questions and doing research.

If this helps feel free to donate 10% of all future earnings :)

[BusinessIdeas]

Its always nice to hear of someone doing well. I hope it continues, then you wont need our donations :D

[tony84]

id still happily accept them :P

[An Oasis]

Don’t let the negative aspects grind you down Tony, they happen to us all. People don’t buy for a multitude of reasons, even the most successful companies can look at each in astonishment after losing a sale that should have been in the bag but didn’t happen.

There are few get rich quick solutions but the longer you stay in your field the better you get and the better the conversions get.

Keep on posting good news.

[maria102]

Hey good news Tony! I wish I could remember the first time I sold something in the shop, I thought I would hear a fanfare and "Hallelujah"... but I was just really crapping myself and can't remember a thing!

[tony84]

I have a full time job to fall back on.
So im not really worrying, i suppose im lucky like that.

Im trying to get to the point where i can afford to give up working for someone else but would need to add a 0 to what im earning atleast before i can think about that, but atleast its in the right direction.

[barginboyrob]

What is the site?

[tony84]

i wasnt going to post that, as it wasnt a thread for free advertising or anything but as you have asked :P

aclubbers guide.net (without the space - im not sure if i can post direct links after reading something about paid membership recently)

[wizzard]

Congratulations :D

[KateCB]

Well done - I remember my first sale on the web - 3 months and nothing....sourced suits suppliers, belts etc at great time cost, spent hours putting images and text on site ....went on holiday for 2 weeks and when we came back I had my first order -for a holdall........! So much for niche market!

It gets better - w wached the hit counter go up by 5 a day....it now goes up by 5 a second I I don't look anymore (only at weekly stats!) :)

[tony84]

lol kate,

I used to do that, ive had sites that have had 20,000 unique hits in a month so 1500 uniques a month seems low to me. When i first started i was happy to see 100 in a month. Now i put a site online and expect a minimum of 250 a month without doing anything. Funny how your expectations change over time.

[EmmaNo]

Yay for you.

Im just starting in this game so no hits yet as its not running and tips on getting people to your site tony without spending a fortune?

[KateCB]

Tony - it is funny how your expectations change - it like when you are broke, £1.50 for a loaf seemed really expensive,but when you have cash its small change :)

[tony84]

£1.50 for a loaf is still expensive. Ive just been to the Hogs head and got a full english and a coffee for about £3.50
£1.50 for a pint on the other hand :P

Emma:
My first tip would be to not buy advertising. I used to spend a fortune on it and the returns were rubbish. Unless i was useless at choosing the right sites to advertise on??
Without knowing more about your site it is difficult but i would suggest promoting it as your status on facebook?
looking for good directories (But dont waste too long on this - yahoo directory is good for backlinks but not for traffic). Also potentially write a few articles on websites which look busy and active and put your link in those.
Another good 1 is to look for forums which are to do with your site, and put your link in your signature.

[quikshop]

Its amazing how much you can do without spending a penny on advertising.

If you have not already done so, upload your products to Google Base (http://www.google.co.uk/base/). If you are a newish business it can boost visitor numbers by up to 20%, and these are 'qualified' visitors as well, they are visiting your website because they want to find out more about a particular product you sell.

[sussexrob]

lol kate,

I used to do that, ive had sites that have had 20,000 unique hits in a month so 1500 uniques a month seems low to me. When i first started i was happy to see 100 in a month. Now i put a site online and expect a minimum of 250 a month without doing anything. Funny how your expectations change over time.

Tony

With your sites which get 20000 so 666 on average (dodgy number lol) is that with content and leaving it on constant work on link building?

Great to see a moral boosting thread!

Rob

[tony84]

My site was a football news site.
I paid a writer to post atleast 1 article a day. I topped it up with another 3-5 articles a week also.
But it had other things which made it stand out over others.

It had a forum (Which never really took off - but i put that down partly to the site only being about 3 months old before i sold it). It had livescores, live tables (Which auto updated).
I did a review on every team in Euro 2008, 1 new team every other day, which got people coming back.

I dont really concentrate on link building if im honest, i work on on page SEO, and building up content. Im a big believer in content being king and would prefer to spend time on that. I get bored of building backlinks. My theory is if the content is good enough people will link to it anyway.

[sussexrob]

Cheers Tony

Thats 2 people today who said have enough content and you will get people visiting anyway

Thanks very much for sharing

Rob

[tony84]

If you work on the backlinks also then you will get traffic sooner but if you only have the time or money to work on one of the two it would definately be the content in my opinion.