Is there an average of time before a first sale? We have been up and running since May? No sales....

Hey Donna,
First of all--welcome!

Projecting your first sale is a mystical task. Depends on a ton of variables--your visibility/rankings in engines, popularity of products, credibility of the site...etc.

Hopefully a sale will come soon--and many more.

Sorry to say that there is no firm answer. From experience, we launched our first ecomm site in (or around 1996) and waited about 6 months for a sale; but things are much, much different in todays game.

You might want to post in the review area to get feedback on the site. I took a quick look and I think that some feedback might help. Id love to provide some, but Im running to catch a flight. Here are some very quick tips:
>Site is out of standard size--scrolls right considerably.
>"Disclaimer" might be a detriment for SEO reasons
>Header background doesnt fit header size
>Google ads in your most valuable real estate (top left) might be a turn off
>HUGE fonts in center content area (all different colors) might not be the best choice
>Nav text changes size on mouseover
>Replace live contact link (and HUGE text) with a contact form
>Add a "text/keyword" rich "about us" page as a primary link
>Rotating "specials" gif looks "dated"--might want to add more products to the home page with rich text

...calling my flight; gotta run!

Hope some of that helps (sorry if you were not looking for feedback, but thought it might help!)



Again, all the best luck with it.

Thanks! I am keeping my fingers crossed (and toes!)

How are you promoting it? Adwords? What keywords are you bidding on? What is your current traffic like?

Donna

I also suggest that you ask the rest of the merchants to review and critique your site. I took a look and the home page has these HUGE fonts for Summer Clearance, WHats new etc. It goes right off the page and is pretty unprofessional. You have all these different fonts and font colors as well.

I went to one product (prodid=61) and the picture is not there.
Also at the bottom of the page you have a disclaimer that reads "AVAILABLE AT NOT EXTRA COST" I believe you mean No extra costs.

Shoppers out there are more savvy then in the past and they will see these issues as unprofessional and they may not trust you to purchase you.

Really look your site over and compare it to the big guys. They do not use big fonts,different colors etc.

And why oh why would you give Ads by google such a prime spot on your site. That should be where your product catagories or shopping cart should go.

Hope this helps

Any site that has Adsense running on it that is a ecommerce site, automatically looses my trust. I always wonder, are they in business to sell items, or to display ads from Google. IMHO Adsense is legit on sites that don't sell items.

I'd agree with the adsense comments. Should be for content only sites. The body is too wide -- I'm looking at it at a high resolution and didn't have to scroll but you have to cater to lower resolution users.

1. Graphics instead of huge text links might serve you better in the body and would fix your body width issue.
2. You may want to add a few more monthy specials for a symmetrical look.
3. If you have categories without items in them, it's best to hide them. I noticed in the Hexegon Jars that you have text telling the customer to go to summer clearance -- why not just put those items in the category. The less clicks a customer has to make, the better.
4. I agree with what was said about the disclamer -- it shouldn't be on the main page...you can put it on a FAQs page or similar.
5. Use the transparent versions of the shipping graphics in the footer.
6. Uniform thumbnails will make things look better on the category landing pages (see Jelly Jars categorgy to understand what I'm talking about). I use 125 x 125 for my thumbnails...you can use whatever looks good to you.
7. You might want to create a little light cube in which you can take your pictures. They're pretty easy to make with a few pieces of poster board with the foam in it (for rigidity) and a white piece of regular white poster board for the base and sweep upward. You'll also need a light. Do a G00GLE search for light cube and you'll see what I'm talking about.

All that being said, do a little advertising and you should get your first sale in no time!

- Jeff

I was working on two of your pictures for you and noticed that you're using html to resize the images on your page. The best way to do it is to create images that are the correct size. For example:
The jars with the flower on your main page is resized via html to 206 x 173 but the actual image is 400x300. The proportions are not constrained and therefore the image is distorted from the original. The "Monthly Specials" text image is resized up from the original dimensions and that is the reason it looks distorted and not crisp.

If you'd like, I can resize them if you don't have the software to do so.

- Jeff

Right now its just in the search engine and adsense, word or mouth and newsletters

Do you mean that you are using adwords or adsense

It doesnt appear big on my browser or my jobs browser??? How would i regulate the size of someone elses browser?

hmmm. pictures were all updated on wed. have to look at that one.

google adsense... dont know how to put it on any other page, any ideas?




Got me, I resize it in adobe photoshop and upload it, thats all i know.....




adsense

Donna,

I believe that google adsense is something that you put on your site to allow others to advertise and you get a small compensation.

Adwords is the program that allows you to create an ad and have it show up on the right hand side of search results in Google.

So if you sell candles, you could make an ad that says something like "we sell the finest candles, large selection, quick delivery" then you bid on keywords like "candles" or "mauberry candles" or whatever kind of products you sell

Then when someone clicks on your ad, they come to your site, and hopefully buy a candle of two.

Check it out

Hi

I went to check your site out, but it said Under Construction.... Hoping to see it back up.

Scooter

Fixing all the suggestions!!! Should be up now!

Looks much better without the adsense.

now you need to get that table on the right to be smaller text and maybe instead of two accross, make it one row with fours sections down


You have the size of that text set to 7 try it set to 3 or 4 on each one of those sections.

Thanks - now how the heck to I get that security window from popping up? I didnt always have that, I think it goes with the adsense.....

I don't see the security message on my machine.

Your table looks better, but now if you could change the border to about 4 or 5 and on each one of your td you have them set to 400 percent. I believe they should be 100 percent. If you could try it, and if it doesn't look right just put it back, but your whole body does not line up with your header or footer, so you need to change something in there, I believe it is the 400 percent.

Had to come back and edit this. I took a deeper look at your site, and noticed that the table down the right side of the home page has three links to things that are allready over on the left hand side, the 4th one "whats new" is not on the left. You could easily add it to the more info section, or possible incorporate that into your welcome text.

IMHO I would get rid of that table on the right all together. It doesn't match your site, which does look nice. The table is just out of place in relation to the rest of your site.

Hang in there, that first order is right around the corner.

Hello!

Your products have to look GREAT if you want to sell them!

I suggest reshooting all the candles so they're against white backgrounds and then photoshopping them (or use whatever retouch software you're comfortable with). The resizing of the photos is also a good tip.

The better your candles look, the more success you will have selling them.

Also, remember no one can smell them on the Internet. Maybe shoot each with some ingredients on the side. For example, shoot some nice flowers or spices, according to the candle you're shooting, by the candle. Could also show some lit! Make them pretty and special

Ad copy is also very important, so write with love and make them want to own and gift your candles!

Thanks, didnt think about lighting them and all!

Your Image in the center on the home page is not coming through. Your URL suggests that it is residing on your computer which means you see it but we do not. Make sure that image URL is pointing to your website and not to your computer. The file name contains "Cozy"

I didn't read through all of the other comments, so excuse any redundancy. Here's what I'd fix.

• Make the font the same size on your rollovers for your left nav bar. Have it change to a different color or underline or something to distinguish between rollover/not.
• Home page area is way too big because the font used in your message area is huge or something.
• Pics definitely need to be retaken with better lighting. Need cleaner pics to entice people to put it into their shopping cart.
• The pic in the middle of the homepage is broken.

Has anyone signed up for your newsletter? Send out a promotional sale or something if you've got any subscribers.

In my opinion...I think you need a complete total redesign. For what you're paying at your site should look a lot more professional. I'm not trying to be mean or anything. If this was one of those free ecommerce carts, I'd say something totally different but with the kind of money your shelling out you have the ability to have an extremely professional looking site.

I'm under the belief that less is more when it comes to website design. Consistent Fonts, consistent colors says a lot. When you look at sites like target, walmart, etc... they usually have two or three colors tops, the font is generally the same and there's lots of white space. Not saying all sites have to be like that but unless someone is a kick butt web designer less is more.

But good luck to you.. I hope everything works out for you.