Thread: Selling from web sites.

Originally Posted by tea lady

I'd like to hear from people who have either sold through their own web sites or bought from a web site (other than ebay. ) Or do the web sites act more like a shop window, and if people want something they will still come and look in person? Or at least make personal contact.

I rarely buy from websites, but people in my generation tend not to, An exception is sawandbits.com, when it first had lots of router bits at $5.50, and lots of good reports here, in this forum.

I do use websites to inform my purchase decisions, and do quite a bit of "window shopping."

A website that describes what you do, and has pictures of your work would be useful to me. To my mind, Bunnings and Mitre 10 haven't sorted it out properly.

Carbatec, H&F and Timbercon have okay websites, I can get most of the detail I want, and they have prices. Prices are important, not just to compare the price of a "a Maktita 3612C" but to tell me whether I can (or wish to) afford thing at all. I also interpret the price as an indication of quality, I expect a 10" table saw priced at something over $5,000 is better than one for $400.

Organisation of a website is important. Some sites are organised by brands, so to choose a router in my price range I might have to view Makita, Hitachi, Maktec, Ryobi routers separately. I'd rather a list o routers, and the ability to choose to sort the list by price, by brand and maybe by (input) power.

It also frustrates me when a website lists 500 widgets in groups of 10. I like the ability to choose longer lists, 100 and up. Even on dialup, it's quicker to get to the 41st item in one transaction of 100 than in five groups of ten.

Having a well-organised website with lots of goodies for sale isn't a lot of use without prospective buyers finding it, so you need some kind of marketing plan.

I used to be a noted OS/2 guru, and had a website hosted in clients' space at iiNet, they called it "The Zoo" and they ranked it in terms of the number of hits. At my peak, I ranked second or third, behind someone hosting pictures of women wearing little.

I used to hang out on usenet, reading the OS/2 newsgroups and helping out. As I solved my problems, I wrote up my solutions and hosted them on my hand-crafted (but very crude looking) website. I quoted the URL in my sig, and regularly referred people to answers I had already written.

That was before google existed. The best search engine then was Altavista, created by DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) to show off its computing prowess. (It worked, Compaq bought DEC, just before HP bought Compaq).

Unlike a blog, I didn't need to update my site very often.

Oh, you could regard this website as a marketing tool for Ubeaut. I'd guess everyone who's here regularly knows about Ubeat and its range of inishing products.

A while ago, I created a site hosted on my ADSL connexion, isay.js.id.au, where it's made clear that "forum membership is by invitation only." Interestingly, a few uninvited people have tried to join, but none, so far as I can judge, with any good intent. I've done google searches on the usernames offered, domains where they claim to have their email and found some enrolling, in the same time period, at other sites. Some names are associated with spammers. Some give bogus email addresses, since the email bounces there is no prospect of their membership being approved, even were it open tor random requesters.

I've done little to attract visitors, the site's main purpose is to familiarise me with the software I used. If I wanted lots of visitors, I would populate it with articles relevant to those visitors I want. Maybe "how to" information on woodworking, pictures of my work, suggestions people "contact me" if they want more information.

Lists of links are annoying, they are the most useless hits returned by google, except for those links that are regenerated "to match my search criteria."

Oh, it's important that, if google returns a link to information from your site, I get the same information when I follow the link (I'm thinking of The Quokka).

I've wandered, I tend to do that.

I think a website is good. Think of it as an extended business card.
You need a plan to attract visitors in the numbers you need. Preferably visitors who are prospective buyers of your goods and services.

If you don't have a lot of content, consider working with some others with similar interests. Probably, the probability of a more interesting site overall will outweigh any "stealing of sales" that might happen. I imagine a few people who've responded to this thread could comfortably work together.

You might also write occasionally for magazines, people who are published in magazines seem to have more cred on that account. The notion of combining pottery and woodturning might seem commonplace to you, but I bet it would attract a fair bit of comment if an article or two were published in suitable magazines.


ps
You could start right now by updating your website with some wooden stuff.

I buy from Etsy and eBay.

Selling on Etsy or Ebay wood turned items on the Oz site, for me is not a great money spinner and it would be doubtful if it would pay its way. On the other hand the US market has a history of greater appreciation to the point where many do well if not earn a living from doing so. Current economic times have slowed this in the US so I told. But there others more qualified to the details.

Never the less this is a great thread

Originally Posted by Johncs

ps
You could start right now by updating your website with some wooden stuff.

Yes! Its on my to do list. But trouble is Its actually my hubby that has to find the time to do it. But it will happen I promise. (I even have some proffessional photoes to put on it. ) Thanks for your invaluable feedback and pointers.

I've been poking around on pottery blogs looking at what others are doing and their different styles.

Here is an interesting one that I really like. The combination of chatty style and beautiful photos. Some interesting links. Its even from Australia. There is some interesting thoughts on blogging down the page too.

http://strangefragments.blogspot.com...3A00%2B10%3A00

And this one isn't bad either.

http://andrewwiddis.blogspot.com/sea...&max-results=5

Originally Posted by tea lady

I've been poking around on pottery blogs looking at what others are doing and their different styles.

Here is an interesting one that I really like. The combination of chatty style and beautiful photos. Some interesting links. Its even from Australia. There is some interesting thoughts on blogging down the page too.

http://strangefragments.blogspot.com...3A00%2B10%3A00

And this one isn't bad either.

http://andrewwiddis.blogspot.com/sea...&max-results=5

Spiffy blog sites!

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