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How do I expand? Whats next? Overwhelmed.

jb21

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Apr 23, 2018
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Hey all

Came across this forum today as I am currently at a standstill at my side hustle I made with a friend. My niche is selling soccer goals/benches/other equipment. I coach soccer so this seems fitting since I am always meeting new coaches who may need equipment. I dropship these items and make about 15% on an order. These are high ticket items, with each item being about $900.
My friend and I have started in March and currently have 9 customers just through me meeting people through coaching. Thankfully we arent in the red.

With that being said, I want it to grow of course. I have tried google Adwords, received some clicks, but had no conversions. To be fair, I am not the best with social media/online marketing. I have also tried to understand SEO, which I seem to be "okay" with.

My question is, where do I go from here? As someone who isnt the best via SEO or online marketing, what the heck do I do next?

Things I want to achieve:
Organic SEO- Id love for people to google something and have me pop on the first page of google.

Google Ads- Id love to master this. I have the basic idea of it, have taken the google adwords course, but didnt seem to get the best conversions.

To be fair, my website compared to my competitors has the lowest prices.

At your convenience please take a look at my site and give me you thoughts.

Yoursoccerstore.com

Thanks all
 
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Iammelissamoore

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Hey jb21, firstly, welcome aboard.

Your website has a remarkable set of products. I'm not too sure how long you have been in business, but, I highly respect the relationships you are building by actually meeting with people one-on-one and sharing what you do/have to offer. That is a step in the right direction.

Andy Black, one of our many veteran Fastlaners, has a remarkable Adwords Course that can absolutely assist you in genuinely building your audience organically, and no, I'm not "just" trying to sell you on some other course, beyond the course, he really helps in guiding one ahead in building audiences organically, you can check it out and decide from there, or you can reach out to him, prior to deciding to sign-up so you can determine your next step.

I'm also not sure if you ever got your hands on either of the books the forum is built around, but, it has remarkable insight in helping us grow our businesses from the beginning to maturity and beyond - the type of information that no one else will ever teach you, and there are many important principles that help differentiate the actions we take which determines our superb success from the rest. I've recognised you mentioned your price is the lowest compared to your competitors, honestly, once you are bringing that genuinity and meeting your customers ALL the way, you wouldn't have to worry about compromising on price over your competitors. Once the principles are employed, you would be able to charge top dollar in equivalence to your quality and still be guaranteed to land your customers/sell out your products.

I wish you the best in all your endeavours and look forward to reading more about your success as time goes by.
 

Beast Of Ecom

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Your site could do with improving is not that visually appealing to me anyway.

Also I checked and you do not even have a Facebook pixel installed for basic retargeting. If you're selling high ticket items you HAVE to retarget because most of the people who land on your store will NOT buy first time round.

Retargeting is essential
 

jb21

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Apr 23, 2018
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Your site could do with improving is not that visually appealing to me anyway.

Also I checked and you do not even have a Facebook pixel installed for basic retargeting. If you're selling high ticket items you HAVE to retarget because most of the people who land on your store will NOT buy first time round.

Retargeting is essential

How can you see I do not have a pixel?? I thought I set it up via facebook ads before.

What would you do to make it more visually appealing?

Compared to my competitors my site is very modern. There are 2 competitors that have very old style websites. Of course I have competitors that have better websites as well.
 
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Beast Of Ecom

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How can you see I do not have a pixel?? I thought I set it up via facebook ads before.

What would you do to make it more visually appealing?

Compared to my competitors my site is very modern. There are 2 competitors that have very old style websites. Of course I have competitors that have better websites as well.

You have a pixel but everything has a warning sign from what I can see. Download the FB pixel helper for chrome to check it out yourself

In terms of improving, the banners are all different sizes.. No reviews at all. The sale price could be in green to stand out or the amount being saved. Everything just blends into one.

You have to make the important things stand out to higher your conversion rate
 

Bhanu

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Last edited:

jb21

New Contributor
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Apr 23, 2018
12
7
NC
You have a pixel but everything has a warning sign from what I can see. Download the FB pixel helper for chrome to check it out yourself

In terms of improving, the banners are all different sizes.. No reviews at all. The sale price could be in green to stand out or the amount being saved. Everything just blends into one.

You have to make the important things stand out to higher your conversion rate
Ok just downloaded the pixel helper and I can see when I click it on and item, the red triangles come up.

When I clocked learn more, this came up..

This error means that the Pixel Helper found what looks to be Facebook pixel code on your site, but the actual HTTP call was never made.

This could typically due to an error in the code, but could also occur if the pixel fires on a dynamic event (e.g. on a button click).


My question now is, what do I change to make it go away? Is it something i need to change on my storefront site?

Thank you again for your help
 
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Real Deal Denver

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I used to coach soccer, so I know and love the game.

I'm far from being a good web designer, but I have built a few websites over the years. Here are my basic suggestions ~

1) Your site is akin to buying tires for a car. Informative, yes. Boring, absolutely. This is as plain vanilla as it comes. Get rid of the white everywhere. Spice it up. Soccer is an action game. You can go a long way to reflect some of that excitement.

2) Get some photos with testimonials. The thing I like MOST about Amazon is the reviews. I will pay more for a product with good reviews. I will shun a cheaper product that has bad reviews. Money isn't everything - but reviews are golden.

3) Give some incentive to buy NOW. Your prices may be good - but you need a "call to action" to buy now. If need be, be like the mattress companies. They go from one holiday to the next - and their products are ALWAYS on sale. Kind of funny how they run things. But I guess it works?

About us. Dull. I wanna see YOU as the coach in a team picture.

And speaking of details - tell me why your products are good. Why should I buy yours instead of someone else's? Maybe I don't know what the difference is for quality (I don't actually!) so tell me!

And lastly - I don't know how your system works, but automate your shipping costs somehow. That's not my biz, but somebody somewhere knows how to do it. That's not a biggie, but if you're going to remodel your site, you might as well go all the way.

On a scale of 1-10, I give your site a 2. Basic and boring. It does the job. Shoot for a 7 or 8. EVERYTHING you need is already on the web - stock photos - website building tools - hosting companies. Everything. (Except testimonials and your picture)

Get some books on marketing, and boost that as much as you can. How about some press in the soccer magazines or websites? Where and/or how would YOU go to find equipment? So would everyone else - follow that trail.

Hope you don't take this badly. I ask the same thing of my customers, and I have rebuilt my website four times based on their feedback. It's badly overdue for a fifth rebuild, which is on my list of things to do.
 

jb21

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Apr 23, 2018
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Answers in bold. Thank you for commenting!


I used to coach soccer, so I know and love the game.

I'm far from being a good web designer, but I have built a few websites over the years. Here are my basic suggestions ~

1) Your site is akin to buying tires for a car. Informative, yes. Boring, absolutely. This is as plain vanilla as it comes. Get rid of the white everywhere. Spice it up. Soccer is an action game. You can go a long way to reflect some of that excitement.

I swear, i have two competitors who do much more business than me (due from being around longer) and I thought their websites were boring. Goals4sports.com is one of them. Green and blah. I started adjusting the colors, will add a little more blue to it.

2) Get some photos with testimonials. The thing I like MOST about Amazon is the reviews. I will pay more for a product with good reviews. I will shun a cheaper product that has bad reviews. Money isn't everything - but reviews are golden.

Yes agree 100%. Reviews are key. I have an email go out for auto reviews 10 days after purchase, will need to redo it and follow up.

3) Give some incentive to buy NOW. Your prices may be good - but you need a "call to action" to buy now. If need be, be like the mattress companies. They go from one holiday to the next - and their products are ALWAYS on sale. Kind of funny how they run things. But I guess it works?

Great point

About us. Dull. I wanna see YOU as the coach in a team picture.

Will fix the about us.

And speaking of details - tell me why your products are good. Why should I buy yours instead of someone else's? Maybe I don't know what the difference is for quality (I don't actually!) so tell me!

So I compete with KwikGoal. Everyone knows them. Theyve been around longer, sponsor USA etc.

Pevo goals are engineered 100% better, last longer, more durable, come in 5 pieces (user friendly), and are a fraction of the price. People just dont know about them!

But I will definitely spruce up the product description, mention how it goes through powder coating etc.


And lastly - I don't know how your system works, but automate your shipping costs somehow. That's not my biz, but somebody somewhere knows how to do it. That's not a biggie, but if you're going to remodel your site, you might as well go all the way.

Shipping is a pain. It goes through Old Dominion and prices vary greatly depending on the load, or where its going to. My competitors all have "Call for a quote".

Soccer.com (eurosport) charges a flat rate per goal. Maybe I do the same?


On a scale of 1-10, I give your site a 2. Basic and boring. It does the job. Shoot for a 7 or 8. EVERYTHING you need is already on the web - stock photos - website building tools - hosting companies. Everything. (Except testimonials and your picture)

Get some books on marketing, and boost that as much as you can. How about some press in the soccer magazines or websites? Where and/or how would YOU go to find equipment? So would everyone else - follow that trail.

Hope you don't take this badly. I ask the same thing of my customers, and I have rebuilt my website four times based on their feedback. It's badly overdue for a fifth rebuild, which is on my list of things to do.

Thank you!
 

Real Deal Denver

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Pevo goals are engineered 100% better, last longer, more durable, come in 5 pieces (user friendly), and are a fraction of the price. People just dont know about them!

But I will definitely spruce up the product description, mention how it goes through powder coating etc.


THAT information *alone* is solid gold. I had no idea of the great features something so "basic" could have.

I was thinking how I would do things if I were you. You're going to like this - I hope. I'd get a couple of high school kids and have THEM design it for you. Kids are full of energy and creativity. I can almost guarantee it will be super powerful and catchy. If anything, you might have to rein them in a bit from getting too crazy.

I'd give them a pay scale to work from. For example - on a scale of 1 to 10, pay them $300 if it's between a 5 and 7. Add $200 if it is an 8 or 9. A ten? I don't know...

Give them the option to improve, based on your feedback. The carrot dangling in front for quality work has always yielded great results for me. Who knows - they may blow your mind with a *10* right away. Some of the kids that ingest video games are pretty good at design and adding kick.

Another idea. Make several websites - or at least landing pages. Get more bang for your buck. Make them to appeal to different key words to see what works best. Instead of *choosing* the best keywords - do em ALL!

With the description above, I can see you have great products. Make it fun for your viewers to learn these things. A roll over pop up "feature" window would be somewhat high tech and classy. Don't just settle for just a bullet list on a separate page. Maybe a group of small roll over pop ups - one for each feature. Make it "interesting" and they will spend more time on your site - and that translates into more sales. This is the internet - not a brochure you are handing out!

(I think I should be in this biz - - - (website design) I may have missed my calling...)

Run with it. The sky is the limit!
 
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