Where to promote

[tony84]

I have started an online fancy dress site. Its doing ok, im getting around 1000 uniques a month (its around my 3rd or 4th month) from the major search engines and the odd few hits from backlinks i have in place but nothing worth mentioning.

Im looking to get this up to around 5000 uniques a month by September/October time but i dont have an advertising budget. All profit made is currently being re-invested to build up stock as i only have a small amount of it.

So im looking for ideas and suggestions on where to promote really. I have a few places that i usually promote on which gives me a boost of about 5-10 hits a day but thats not really a big enough scale. I do have a club who as an existing customer so i was thinking of asking them to promote it to their customers and for every x number of customers i get i will give them x% off their order.

I was also thinking starting a facebook group but i only have about 10 customers so presuming i get a 10% join up rate, im looking at 1 member (i dont know what type of conversion rate i would get though) - so i would rather leave this until i have 50 customers so i dont look as small a business as i actually am.

I dont have the time or patience for twitter, but i do live in a pub so was thinking of putting a banner on our website.

Are there any other things that people can think of for free?

Cheers

 

[david64]

To be honest, I don't think there is much that would really be worth you doing without budget for online promotion. You will need at least one of the following:

* Someone to work on promoting your business - £££
* Someone to enhance your site to allow you to promote it yourself - £££ + time
*Someone to help you build a stratergy for online promotion - £££ + time

There are a few quick and easy things you can do that are free:
* Google Local (make sure you read up on how to do this properly first)
* Classified like Gumtree

Successful online promotion requires at least one of time and money in large quantities. Quick bursts can be very ineffective. However, each site will have different requirements when it comes to time and money.

 

[tony84]

Ive tried gumtree, thats the one that gets me 5-10 extra hits but ive not had any conversions so its not really worth the time.

To be honest im not too bothered about earning any profit for the tme being. I want to get people to sign up initially then once i have say 100 customers then do a promotion for them all, and get a big lump sum behind me in one go. Once i have that i can then build up from that i think. I have a thing where i want all of my sites to be self sufficient. I dont want to start investing my own money from my main job into it, it may take longer but i have reasons for that.

Google local is not something ive heard of before so i will give it a look over. Any other suggestions?

Cheers

 

[32cardinalpoints]

You really need to have a budget to spend to put in place an effective marketing plan to help increase your site's exposure on the internet.

There are SEO companies out there who will promote your website for free for a percentage of sales in return.

I would definately recommend setting up a group on Facebook as this is a good way of networking. I would tell all your friends to join your group and to ask their friends to join as well. It's amazing how quickly you can build up the number of members from nothing. Also look for similar groups on Facebook you could post a message telling them about your online fancy dress shop. If you look at the groups section - why not do a search for groups related to theme parties and events.

Another useful way of getting traffic to your website for free would be to setup a Google Local Listing. You will need to setup a Google account first before you can do this.

If you need any assistance with this - please private message me and i will be more than happy to help you.

 

[Toni Anicic]

If you don't have a budget but have time to invest into marketing, read this:
23+ Ways to Promote Your Website for Free

 

[mojomedia]

Hi Tony84,

You talk about increasing uniques, but how well are you converting the 1000 visitors a month you are getting?

Given that you don't have a marketing budget I'd recommend spending some time with analytics and Google Website Optimiser and focus on converting the traffic you are getting, after all 1000 uniques isn't small fry if you're converting a decent percentage.

I hope this helps

 

[tony84]

hmmm, what are normal perameters of conversion rates on shops?

Mine seems quite low at around 0.2% I think this may be slightly inaccurate and low due to things like only accepting payments through paypal, making people register in order to place orders (I think this helps with security).
1000 uniques isnt small? I have sites i dont touch getting around 500 uniques a month, ive also had sites which get around 20,000 uniques a month but for some reason doing what i do with other sites doesnt seem to work on this shop.

Its strange because im not too bothered about profit at the minute im pretty much undercutting everyone and making about £4-5 an item - less if they order more than 1 at a time.

Thanks for the offer Paul, i may take you up on it

As for Analysing my site i dont really know what to look for but i do have experience getting traffic to sites although usually with more success, which is why i was thinking of increasing traffic rather than improving conversion on what i already get.

 

[JamesCartwright]

Never underestimate forum marketing, Gumtree and Craigslist. You would be surprised how effective they can be in getting customers, but also building links to improve your search engine ranking!

 

[streetslocal]

I have started an online fancy dress site. Its doing ok, im getting around 1000 uniques a month (its around my 3rd or 4th month) from the major search engines and the odd few hits from backlinks i have in place but nothing worth mentioning.

Im looking to get this up to around 5000 uniques a month by September/October time but i dont have an advertising budget. All profit made is currently being re-invested to build up stock as i only have a small amount of it.

So im looking for ideas and suggestions on where to promote really. I have a few places that i usually promote on which gives me a boost of about 5-10 hits a day but thats not really a big enough scale. I do have a club who as an existing customer so i was thinking of asking them to promote it to their customers and for every x number of customers i get i will give them x% off their order.

I was also thinking starting a facebook group but i only have about 10 customers so presuming i get a 10% join up rate, im looking at 1 member (i dont know what type of conversion rate i would get though) - so i would rather leave this until i have 50 customers so i dont look as small a business as i actually am.

I dont have the time or patience for twitter, but i do live in a pub so was thinking of putting a banner on our website.

Are there any other things that people can think of for free?

Cheers

Whats the website url?

 

[tony84]

here you go

 

[webpromoterservice]

have you considered affiliate marketing? You can sign up with clixgalore.co.uk and build up an army of publishers to market your products.
you only pay a commission when a customer makes a purchase on your site.
I've had my best results from affiliate marketing and its a lot cheaper than PPC.

 

[teachingspeaking]

I use freeindex, (search it as I am new I am not allowed to post a link) and have had success in getting customers from there. It also boosts your search ratings on google. They do not pester you to upgrade either which is fab. You only rise up the list of businesses in your category by getting customer ratings. One drawback is that the copy that you can write is restricted into a template format and they will only accept certain phrasings, but definately worth it.

 

[wood1e2]

I am confused you said you are a fancy dress shop? You URL states something less obvious. And your website says you sell fancy dress and club wear?

Are the two connected?

And where is the guide as your strapline suggests? I see no information about clubbing...?

I would look at working on some seo on the site, get yourself moving up the rankings, removing any confusion as to what you offer on your site, then you may see an increase in visitors and a increase in conversion.

Get a home button as I can't see how to get back to the homepage. The breadcrumb is fine but you need it in the menu

I am sure it is on there, but there is no address and phone number, having this will instil further confidence in your products.

I would remove the 'TEST' from your UV products.

 

[eventdomain]

I have started an online fancy dress site. Its doing ok, im getting around 1000 uniques a month (its around my 3rd or 4th month) from the major search engines and the odd few hits from backlinks i have in place but nothing worth mentioning.

Im looking to get this up to around 5000 uniques a month by September/October time but i dont have an advertising budget. All profit made is currently being re-invested to build up stock as i only have a small amount of it.

So im looking for ideas and suggestions on where to promote really. I have a few places that i usually promote on which gives me a boost of about 5-10 hits a day but thats not really a big enough scale. I do have a club who as an existing customer so i was thinking of asking them to promote it to their customers and for every x number of customers i get i will give them x% off their order.

I was also thinking starting a facebook group but i only have about 10 customers so presuming i get a 10% join up rate, im looking at 1 member (i dont know what type of conversion rate i would get though) - so i would rather leave this until i have 50 customers so i dont look as small a business as i actually am.

I dont have the time or patience for twitter, but i do live in a pub so was thinking of putting a banner on our website.

Are there any other things that people can think of for free?

Cheers

I'll link swap with you, as you have a related website my visitors will want to search it. We'll deliver far more than 10 hits, on average we deliver 250 a year to every client.

 

[tony84]

to the first 2 posts on this page, i will check both of those sites out thank you.
Wood - There are 2 links to the articles in my homepage, one in the main text and 1 in the links on the right hand side near the bottom.

As for the domain and fancy dress and clubwear being linked. Club wear and fancy dress both get worn on nights out in bars and clubs. To be honest the site used to be a clubbing forum but because i built up loads of banklinks i thought it would be better to use that than start from scratch.

I didnt know there was a test item in UV products, thanks for that i will get that removed.

Eventdomain - what is your site? I dont mind doing link exchanges but only if they are related and beneficial - not for the sake of it.

 

[eventdomain]

Eventdomain - what is your site? I dont mind doing link exchanges but only if they are related and beneficial - not for the sake of it.

site is: www.eventdomain.co.uk

and is the UK's No1 search engine for the Event industry. So it's very related indeed, I too prefer related links

 

[lazytycoon]

Hi Tony

Where is your traffic coming from? Like previously mention I arrived on your site thinking 'hey where's the clubbing info, this is just club wear'. I'd bet money your bounce rate is pretty high because your targetting the people looking for the wrong thing. I recon you should spend your time refocusing your site to target the keyword 'club wear' with about 33k searches per month, pretty weak compeition and nice even trends.

 

[tony84]

the majority of my traffic comes for specific items such as fancy dress cowgirl etc rather than clubbing guides and what not.

The site itself will be expanding. I dont just want fancy dress and clubwear i want clubbing guides for all the major cities in the UK plus other things, so although it doesnt look aimed at the right market at the minute once its all done it will be.

My traffic i do get is pretty targetted as mentioned my prices are pretty cheap so im not sure what exactly the problem is but i will get there eventually.

Event - your site looks good. will my link be sitewide or on a specific page?

 

[eventdomain]

Event - your site looks good. will my link be sitewide or on a specific page?

Thanks, well placement depends on what you want. Link exchanges get listed in our link page here: http://www.eventdomain.co.uk/links.php
so if that's what you want, we can do that.

1. You'll get a specifically targeted entry in the search results plus a client page, which we upgrade as standard free for clients.

2. We have a couple of paid options such as Sponsored links for 12 months, which generate at least 200 clickthroughs and I'll chuck in an extra month for nothing. So that's £40 for 13 months. More details on the site.

3. Homepage Links & Banners are £400 per 12 month period, includes an extra month on us. Homepage stats in the region of 1 miilion plus eg: 1'287'461 views to that page.

We don't charge for actual weblinks - it's the adspace we sell.

 

[tony84]

No problem. I will just do the standard link exchange. If it goes well and i see a few conversions i may end up paying for advertising but will give the link exchange a try for a month or 2 first.

Im back in work tomorrow and think im off out after so probably wont gt chance to add your link until saturday but i think that depends on how long i stay out for tomorrow.

 

[jonathanfigaro]

Never underestimate forum marketing, Gumtree and Craigslist. You would be surprised how effective they can be in getting customers, but also building links to improve your search engine ranking!

I mus agree! Forum marketing is such an effective way to make customers!

 

[eventdomain]

No problem. I will just do the standard link exchange. If it goes well and i see a few conversions i may end up paying for advertising but will give the link exchange a try for a month or 2 first.

Im back in work tomorrow and think im off out after so probably wont gt chance to add your link until saturday but i think that depends on how long i stay out for tomorrow.

That's fine Tony, let me know what you want your link to say, and I'll add it.

May I suggest you also opt for a free entry here http://www.eventdomain.co.uk/users.php

this will allow you to view your stats/personal company page hits, so you can see your listing working for you. This works brilliantly once it's set up

 

[PrettyPaws]

Just looking at the page and to be honest I'd look at your page titles first. You homepage title for example "A clubbers guide" - you needs to get you keywords (ie fancy dress) in there asap! Your product titles also need a lot of work. I'd start there as it will increase your google traffic.

1,000 per month for a fancy dress site is very poor to be honest, we've worked with one who had more than that per day so there is huge room for improvement. Good luck with it.

 

[tony84]

Hi Pretty - Thanks for the feedback. Im still getting used to all the features prestashop has to offer but have finally worked out how to add info to the title which i have now done. Ive also added a meta description for the homepage (even though i dont think they do a great deal).

I agree, i do think 1000 a month is a nice start for a 3 month period but it does need to start increasing now. I wouldnt expect to get to 1000 a day but i suppose if you aim for it you have more chance of reaching it.
I expected to get a few hits via the clubbing guides but they dont seem to be getting any traffic really.
I also think as i add more producs this will help as i currently only offer about 40 different items.

 

[PrettyPaws]

Not at all, for a start 1000 hits is ok, just so you know the potential is all. It's a huge market.

 

[eventdomain]

I expected to get a few hits via the clubbing guides but they dont seem to be getting any traffic really.

Guides are so difficult to do, so many try this approach and if you get it even slightly wrong it won't work. Like you said

"but they dont seem to be getting any traffic really"

To do this properly, you need guides on everything to do with Nightclubs, and it's an ongoing content thing. I even worked in a Nightclub as a Manager and I wouldn't attempt it on any level bcos it's too work-heavy for little reward.

 

[tony84]

I thought i would revive this.

My Site has changed a lot since i last posted here. The design is now custom made and totally unique. Ive changed my supplier and am in the process fo removing the items from my old supplier to the new one. Traffic has increased to over 2700 in October.

Still the main issue is conversion. Im thinking there is probably 2 things stopping this as some of the search terms are quite specific and yet they are still not converting. Users have to register (which i have been told puts people off) and i only accept paypal. My prices are quite good and if anything i am cheaper than my competition from anywhere between 50p upto £20!! per item.

Im just wondering if anyone else had any suggestions/comments?

Cheers

 

[papverpoppies]

I thought i would revive this.

My Site has changed a lot since i last posted here. The design is now custom made and totally unique. Ive changed my supplier and am in the process fo removing the items from my old supplier to the new one. Traffic has increased to over 2700 in October.

Still the main issue is conversion. Im thinking there is probably 2 things stopping this as some of the search terms are quite specific and yet they are still not converting. Users have to register (which i have been told puts people off) and i only accept paypal. My prices are quite good and if anything i am cheaper than my competition from anywhere between 50p upto £20!! per item.

Im just wondering if anyone else had any suggestions/comments?

Cheers

How has your site changed - is it me?

Only I cannot spot the difference - am I doing something wrong?

Poppy

 

[creativeasia]

Use a video marketing like youtube

 

[tony84]

you cant see a difference? The original was very similar to the standard theme with just a minor alteration to some colours, the other is totally different.

 

[eventdomain]

Get your web person to create a 'Bookmark Us' tool. This helps a lot with returning traffic.
Attend some retail clothing events and get networking.

Give away something for free with each purchase.

Get a Blog on your site and use it lots - its 100% free advertising for life.

Get some printed T-shirts/clothing with your url and wear often.

 

[webpromoterservice]

I thought i would revive this.

My Site has changed a lot since i last posted here. The design is now custom made and totally unique. Ive changed my supplier and am in the process fo removing the items from my old supplier to the new one. Traffic has increased to over 2700 in October.

Still the main issue is conversion. Im thinking there is probably 2 things stopping this as some of the search terms are quite specific and yet they are still not converting. Users have to register (which i have been told puts people off) and i only accept paypal. My prices are quite good and if anything i am cheaper than my competition from anywhere between 50p upto £20!! per item.

Im just wondering if anyone else had any suggestions/comments?

Cheers

its only a small percentage of people who are put off by registering.Most visitors are willing to register and paypal is widely accepted.

I think your site is not converting because you are targeting the wrong visitors.You now have to look at your keywords and test your landing pages

 

[tony84]

I understand what your saying but im getting hits from very specific search terms that are not converting.

My initial thought was that its competitors looking at prices but the number of hits im getting makes me think that cant eb the case.

 

[chuk]

Hi

I maybe well of the mark here, this is a personal opinion rather that sound bussiness advice. (Not likely from me)

Bear with me... Two words ROCK HORROR SHOW. I love it, hundreds and hundreds of people travel up and down the county every week some scantly clad some in very very good costums/ fancy dress just to get a glimps of a strapping you man or woman in weird and wounderfull atire. If i was you i would get on this band waggon there are absoultly loads and loads of fan sites and groups out there bulging with with juice you could just lap it all up A big plus about these sites their run by fans not bussiness men (maybe). I think if you just give a little you may get alot back.

Hope this kinda helps.

terrychuk

 

[360interactive]

Tony, your site has very little items, and very little choice. If I did a search and came up with your site I would not stick around. Currently there are LOADS of fancy dress sites out there with an absolutely huge amount of stock, plus websites that really look the business.

Work on the site so it is converting as best it can be, then concentrate on increasing visitor numbers.