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Zen-Cart

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I have a fully functional site, and I don't have any problems getting traffic to the site, but they are not making any purchases from me. I have a lot of products to offer but no revenue coming in, and I am slowly spending my savings that I have left. So does anyone know how I can get traffic that will purchase from me. my site is http://jtcollects.com, I know that this might be asking much since I can't make people buy stuff. maybe there is a different ad campaign, to target a bigger audience. If any of you have any ideas out there let me know thanks

:bgh::coffee:
 
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Luke12321

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Here are my suggestions.

The main one, get focused on your main goal. You may have just started up but I don't think this site has really been focused in on. Anyways, here are my suggestions.

1. Change the top bar…the black area. Make this area flow but most importantly…get the main idea of your site across.

2. When the page loads, the part that I can see without scrolling down…nothing catches my attention. People searching the web like short sentences….bulleted items, get to the point quick (If not, they are gone!) Your paragraphs are just words….I didn’t even read them because I am searching to purchase an item, not read about your business.

3. Speaking of the paragraph on the initial page load, you don’t need to explain what shows up on paypal and the details. That just throws up red flags and a unprofessional appeal to a customer. Break down, get a shopping respectable shopping cart if you are serious about this business.

4. Offer more than paypal.

5. Have pictures of your most popular (or most profitable) items on the landing page that you actually see when the page loads.

6. Know about landing pages? If not, study up. You could build keyword specific landing pages for the products you are marketing. Google Adwords….could be a great boost for your business if not already using it.

7. Ads on the right side for ZenCart, umm…think your visitors are interested in e-commerce? Doubtful. Look into trading links with people in your industry.

That is all I have for now. Congrats on taking the step…you can do this! Take my suggestions FWIW. I am not a pro on website design or e-marketing. Again, good luck and hope this helps.

Luke
 

Elliott

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This really needs to be tied up. JTcollects: we (blank) what ties each of these products together?

What's with the (your ad here) I'd put my own banner up there before I put one of those up. It comes off as amateurish.

The zen cart makes it look really good.

The form and function is great.
 

aptohosting

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Hey there,

If you allow us to re-design your site, I believe that would GREATLY increase your conversions! Call me at 1-866-404-9090 or email me at tom@aptohosting.com.

Thanks,
Tom C.
www.aptohosting.com


I have a fully functional site, and I don't have any problems getting traffic to the site, but they are not making any purchases from me. I have a lot of products to offer but no revenue coming in, and I am slowly spending my savings that I have left. So does anyone know how I can get traffic that will purchase from me. my site is http://jtcollects.com, I know that this might be asking much since I can't make people buy stuff. maybe there is a different ad campaign, to target a bigger audience. If any of you have any ideas out there let me know thanks

:bgh::coffee:
 
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This really needs to be tied up. JTcollects: we (blank) what ties each of these products together?

What's with the (your ad here) I'd put my own banner up there before I put one of those up. It comes off as amateurish.

The zen cart makes it look really good.

The form and function is great.

that place your ad here, is from a ad banner site that I am a member of, called project wonderful, it allows me to place banners on my site, and as well place banners on other sites that are in the project wonderful "family", but as it stands I don't have any people who want to advertise on my site.

as far as offering more then paypal, I do have more. I accept checks and money orders and I am trying to get Google checkout to work on Zen Cart, Google doesn't like Zen Cart, and I am trying to use Adwords and Adsense on my site. thanks for all the help so far.
:Welcome::3some:
 

Analyzer

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You already have alot of good suggestions on design, etc. above.

What comes to my mind as an important issue is waht kind of traffic are you getting?

If you are getting ramdom traffic you shouldn't sell much but if those are search engine or adsense visitors you should be selling something. If the second case is true, visitors from adsense, search engines, etc. you might want to review the words you are using or your ads to make them more targeted.

You might also consider selling some of your items on ebay in the collectibles section, make sure you put a nice description of your site and the link in the selling item page and you should get some targeted visitors.

Alos consider joining specific forums/websites of people that use the same kind of products. If you build your reputation as a member of the community you can probably attract some customers and get some insights from other people doing the same.
 

Yankees338

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You already have alot of good suggestions on design, etc. above.

What comes to my mind as an important issue is waht kind of traffic are you getting?

If you are getting ramdom traffic you shouldn't sell much but if those are search engine or adsense visitors you should be selling something. If the second case is true, visitors from adsense, search engines, etc. you might want to review the words you are using or your ads to make them more targeted.

You might also consider selling some of your items on ebay in the collectibles section, make sure you put a nice description of your site and the link in the selling item page and you should get some targeted visitors.

Alos consider joining specific forums/websites of people that use the same kind of products. If you build your reputation as a member of the community you can probably attract some customers and get some insights from other people doing the same.
I think that's a great idea. But, in addition to that, how about trying to take out private ad space on forums and websites such as these? Personally, I'd be much more likely to click a private, banner ad that is pretty well designed and looks professional than a regular AdSense ad.

Just a thought. Hope it helps.

Luke, great info. Rep+++ for you!
 

CactusWren

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Just my 2 cents. Who is your target market? Once you define it decide what they do: what magazines do they read, what forums do they visit, what blogs do they like and promote there...Targeted promotion is key.

I have a zen cart website and its coming along thanks in part to lots of great advice I've being getting at this forum. I have a ways to go though.
 

LightHouse

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I will tell you why i wouldnt buy there.

i hit the site...

#1 nothing flows or looks professional, looks like someone didnt know much about coding changed some pictures out on a templete.

#2 why are their ads on the site? your selling products not making money from adsense, possible some link exchanges to compatible products on the bottm but haveing sign up for MS messenger on the right... NO!

#3 paypal check money order? BOO get a merchant acct and take real CC, get SSL cert, make sure the check out as short and professional looking. the chunkier and unappealing it is makes me think that my information isnt safe gaurded.

#4 what am i coming to your site to buy anyway?

#5 powered by zen cart at the bottem? did you purchase the licence for the cart? The point of e-commerce is to sell products through your company, not though zen chart, ad brite, etc etc. It seems like you threw a site together, hooked up with a drop shipper and got a paypal account. no indication that its a professionally backed service i would buy from over amazon.com.

#6 what am i coming to your site to buy anyway?

#7 i didnt look but do you have a 1-800#? any sort of instant support or contact info and an address? NO? well i wouldnt order



I hope you do not take offense but dont waste your money setting up a site only todo it half butt. gether the money get it done up professionally, get a focus, and commit to selling some products. e-commerce is not the next get rich quick avenue, it takes alot of work.
 
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I will tell you why i wouldnt buy there.

i hit the site...

#1 nothing flows or looks professional, looks like someone didnt know much about coding changed some pictures out on a templete.

#2 why are their ads on the site? your selling products not making money from adsense, possible some link exchanges to compatible products on the bottm but haveing sign up for MS messenger on the right... NO!

#3 paypal check money order? BOO get a merchant acct and take real CC, get SSL cert, make sure the check out as short and professional looking. the chunkier and unappealing it is makes me think that my information isnt safe gaurded.

#4 what am i coming to your site to buy anyway?

#5 powered by zen cart at the bottem? did you purchase the licence for the cart? The point of e-commerce is to sell products through your company, not though zen chart, ad brite, etc etc. It seems like you threw a site together, hooked up with a drop shipper and got a paypal account. no indication that its a professionally backed service i would buy from over amazon.com.

#6 what am i coming to your site to buy anyway?

#7 i didnt look but do you have a 1-800#? any sort of instant support or contact info and an address? NO? well i wouldnt order



I hope you do not take offense but dont waste your money setting up a site only todo it half butt. gether the money get it done up professionally, get a focus, and commit to selling some products. e-commerce is not the next get rich quick avenue, it takes alot of work.

:wtf:all things considered you really didn't look though the site, and I did a lot of research and a lot of online companies use Zen-cart. and with your condescending attitude towards me for using Zen-cart really doesn't help much. I came here for help not to be laughed at for trying something different, I have an address and phone number for instant support, my site looks better then a lot of sites I have seen that are making money that are not using any Cart system. I spent months on research for the best pre-built cart system be cause I do not have the funds to get my own built, if I did have the funds I wouldn't be using a pre-built cart. and Zen-Cart is free no license needed. now because of your attitude I am leaving this forum becuase I dont need your crap, I take enough from my family for trying this and I dont need it from some one I dont know. everyone else have fun,
 

Yankees338

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I hope he sticks around. I wrote him a long PM encouraging him to do so. It'd really be a shame to give up on all of the valuable info here...
 
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MJ DeMarco

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:wtf:all things considered you really didn't look though the site, and I did a lot of research and a lot of online companies use Zen-cart. and with your condescending attitude towards me for using Zen-cart really doesn't help much. I came here for help not to be laughed at for trying something different, I have an address and phone number for instant support, my site looks better then a lot of sites I have seen that are making money that are not using any Cart system. I spent months on research for the best pre-built cart system be cause I do not have the funds to get my own built, if I did have the funds I wouldn't be using a pre-built cart. and Zen-Cart is free no license needed. now because of your attitude I am leaving this forum becuase I dont need your crap, I take enough from my family for trying this and I dont need it from some one I dont know. everyone else have fun,

Ehh ... did you really want criticism? I'm afraid I don't understand what you wanted to hear. You asked for an opinion. In fact, LightHouse told you EXACTLY why he wouldn't buy. You can bet there are a good % of OTHER USERS like him that feel that same way. Instead of chastising him, you should be thanking him .... and everyone else that is trying to lend you a helping hand! Sheeeez!

I was gonna give my opinion but seeing it probably will be discounted and defended, whats the point?
 

MJ DeMarco

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Within 3 seconds of looking at the site I can tell you why no one's buying.
 

CRBFL

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Hearing why you're not converting is never easy, but I couldn't pick a better group of people to take constructive criticism from. If you want some really brutally honest criticism stop on over at http://wickedfire.com Even if you don't post, there is a crazy amount of information on everything marketing, traffic, SEO, SERP, ad campaigns, ect.
 
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your right I should be thanking him, but at the time I put that reply post, I just had to vent and Lighthouse was the unfortunate target, I put that together with the last little bit of savings I had, after losing my job and using my severance pay to stay a float, paid all my bills 8 months in advance, car, rent, utilities. I am living off 50 bucks every 2 weeks for food. so I am way past the ramen noodle diet, so when I read his response I just blew up, from everything and for that I do apologize. now on to the task at hand, you said 3 seconds you could tell why no one is buying let me in on it. because it sucks to see 23k hits in 1 month and not a single sale to show for it sucks.
 

tbsells

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I'm really looking forward to MJ's reply.

I'm not an e-biz guy. I don't know the first thing about coding, adsense, SEO or any of the related stuff. But I am a consumer and heres what I thought: The first paragraph at the top of the page sounds like an MLM recruiting pitch. Thats a problem. I'm not interested. In fact I'm leaving and searching for another company to buy from. If the purpose of your site is to sell product; use your space to sell product, not recruit distributers. I'll bet that first paragraph is the 3 seconds MJ was talking about.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Within 3 seconds of looking at the site I can tell you why no one's buying.

Reasons why no one is buying and what to do:

REASON 1: Within 3 seconds I noticed this:

SATIFACTION GUARANTIED, OR YOUR MONEY BACK!
Anyone that realizes that guaranteed is spelled wrong will be able to immediately recognize that this site is run by an organization (or person) that lacks attention to detail. ADDED EDIT: Actually *guarantied* is a word, but improper use as in "I made a guaranty on the loan" vs a product guarantee. To make the matter worse, you have

ALL ORDERS SHIP WITH IN 48 HOURS.
Its WITHIN, not WITH IN.

Below that, yet another error:
You can visit our forums, by Cicking Here.
Cicking? Or do you mean "CLICKING?"

Within a few seconds, I noticed 3 spelling errors on the MOST IMPORTANT REAL ESTATE within your site. These types of errors scream that anything I order from your company would be liken to putting $100 on red in Vegas.

If you can't spell 3 simple words properly, how are you going to handle my order? Or my merchandise return if I don't like the product? After seeing these errors, as a customer, I wouldn't bother digging deep into the site.

Furthermore, these spelling errors remind me of online scams perpetrated by internet con artists in Africa. They put up online storefronts that serve as fronts to harness credit card numbers ... if I didn't know better, I would have thought this was one.

So, within a few seconds, I knew that this site was run out of someone's house and by someone with a no attention to detail. Or, a remote chance it was a scam.

REASON 2:
Aside from the spelling errors, there is no brand here. JTCollects? Sorry, but its not very brandable and again, the entire site looks like an attempt at making money, not at providing a service.

This begs the question ... did you start the site to fill a bona fide need? Or did you start the site because you had access to products via droppshipping and had knowledge of a shopping cart? To me, it appears the latter. I smell an entrepreneurial premise that is defective.

REASON 3:
Why do you have Google Adsense and ads on the site? You struggle to get customers to the site and buy, yet you offer them an exit for pennies? If you look at flourishing ecom store fronts, none of them have Google exits. This again, reeks of amateurville.

REASON 4:
No organization. On the front page you have products of all kinds ... a pink tote bag, a garden frog, and wholla, next time I referesh, its a dart board. WHO IS YOUR TARGET MARKET? Everyone? You cant service with world.

REASON 5:
Your focus / target market is so broad your website cant convert. To follow up Reason #4, it looks like you are trying to serve everyone which results in you serving no one.


ACTIONS STEPS

1) Dump the name JTCollects ... it doesn't say what you do and doesn't help communicate your purpose for existing to your market.

2) Acquire domain names that hit a niche and narrow your target market. I noticed you offer inspirational / religious products. I'd create a store solely for that product line and build a brand around it. For example, a site named "SpiritualJT.com" is better than JT Collects. Having a refined store targeted to a specific market will increase your conversion ratio.

You can do this for every niche or just start off with 1.

Would you rather have a store that sold EVERYTHING to NO ONE? Or sold a few things to EVERYONE?

3) Redo logo with new niche and brand accordingly.

4) Fix the spelling errors. Again, will increase your conversion.

5) Hit storefronts that are flourishing and model them ... there is no need to reinvent the wheel when successful storefronts litter the internet. See what they are doing and copy them.

LampsUSA.com
CSNLighting.com (Actually CSN has dozens of stores that are very successful)
Luggage.com
RugsDirect.com

These are all successful stores. Visit them and MODEL them. Notice, they don't have google ads. They have very specific, drill-down-categories, hot items, sales -- NOTICE they are selling very TARGETED products to a targeted market.

6) And finally, reexamine why you started this business? Because of unmet needs in the marketplace? Or because of your need to make money selling stuff via dropshipper? This might be the most important step of all of the above -- steps 1-5 would be wasteful if your premise for this business is not based on legitimate needs.

Remember, my opinion doesn't represent whether or not you will be successful in this business -- your online users do -- they vote with their money -- and based on what you said, 99% of them are voting NO. You need to get them to VOTE YES.
Hope this helps and good luck!!
 
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LightHouse

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I just relized i never got back on this thread, To the OP Im glad you came around. the Numebr one this you need right now is people telling you why they would not buy.... you dont have any buyers, the only way you are going to get them is too fix the site. Thus the advice given by both myself and MJ. I could have written mine a bit more professional however.


What i suggest beyond MJ's advice, if todo some serious research. checkout sites like marketingexperiments.com and others related to landing pages and ecommerce etc etc. then find stores that sell. check out evey avenue of what they are doing. there is TONS of free info out there about selling products online, find it and spend every minute reading it. Then put it all to action.

As you can decipher i had some of the same ideas that MJ had. those are your main huge points. i heard a qoute today " people arent buying products from a website, they are buying it from a person." make sure you make people comfortable and secure and that their is a professional staff (even of 1) on the otherside to take care of their order, and most importantey as told FOCUS on a type of product!
 

LightHouse

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Jeremey, Just checked out the site again. Looks like nothing has changed yet. Hopefully you can focus on it and get it cleaned up and have no advertising. If you have more questions feel free to ask here, I believe there is alot of information that can be sqeaked out on this forum regarding e-commerce.
 

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Satisfaction is still spelled wrong on the front page.

This is a bad sign if after MJ points out what is spelled wrong and you just correct only what he pointed out and did not go through the rest of the site to look for other errors.
 
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biophase

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Here are my suggestions. Get rid of all the categories but one. Concentrate on just that one category and try to sell those products.

On Google Adwords what keywords are you targeting and what landing page do they go on?

Of those 23,000 visitors, how are they getting to your website. What keywords are they searching for?

$15 for shipping and handling? Who's gonna pay that for a $5.95 product?
 

LightHouse

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Here are my suggestions. Get rid of all the categories but one. Concentrate on just that one category and try to sell those products.

On Google Adwords what keywords are you targeting and what landing page do they go on?

Of those 23,000 visitors, how are they getting to your website. What keywords are they searching for?

$15 for shipping and handling? Who's gonna pay that for a $5.95 product?

Google adwords is the biggest problem and needs to be eliminated completley
 

LightHouse

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I think you mean Adsense.

I apologize, yes, I just re-read what you wrote. I thought you were at first suggesting that the adsense was ok on the page but it needed to be more targeted! Sorry about that!
 

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Just my two-cents, but the logo being a turtle makes me immediately think slow and in my head that translated into an expectation of your services. I now already expect slow, and I want fast, so I'd look elsewhere.

Also, if you were to use multiple sites as MJ has suggested, you could use the advertising real estate on your page to send consumers to your other sites. It may be more profitable n the long run than what you earn from adsense.

I am in no way a coder/developer, but from a consumer standpoint and a general business standpoint those were things I noticed. I think MJ and LightHouse gave you great advice, and I hope you meet with success in this endeavor.

Edit: Gave Speed++ to MJ and Lighthouse for their great contributions.
 
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