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Seeking advice on updating a website - Q & A

Coreen calls in wondering how to “spruce up” her website.

Rich Sloan:  Okay.  We're going to go to Coreen out of Boca Raton, Florida.  Coreen, you are on.  Hi, how are you?

Coreen:  I'm great.  And I got to tell you that you both are, as well.  I had stumbled upon you back in 2003 and if you asked me how, I'm not quite sure.

Rich Sloan:  You've stuck with us that long?

Coreen:  Oh my God.  Absolutely.  In fact, I read the book before it became, like, the thing, you know to do.

Rich Sloan:  StartupNation, right.  Cool.

Coreen:  Yeah. And as I was reading the book, I saw myself throughout that book in so many places from creating the image, creating the logo, getting the focus.  And knowing exactly, you know, what your niche is and all the stuff that I got out of --

Rich Sloan:  That is so cool.  You're talking the talk.  But are you walking the walk?

Coreen:  I'm crawling the walk.

Jeff Sloan:   Okay.  That's a place to start.  Let's get you walking.

Coreen:  Okay.  And I'm walking a little more than I was of late.  I actually recently got some funding.  Let me put it to you this way, I began, like I said, actually, Person Personality, which was my company, began a year ago.  And I designed the logo and I got everything going.  And I, actually, doing it on less than a shoestring, was forced to put up the website myself and do all this work myself.

Rich Sloan:  And what does your company do, Coreen?

Coreen:  I design and I retail jewelry, accessories and gifts.

Rich Sloan:  Okay.  Great.

Coreen:  Okay.  But I also sell -- I also buy sell.  I buy from handbag companies.  I buy from other people as well. 

Rich Sloan:  Okay.

Coreen:  And --

Rich Sloan:  Do you have a question?

Coreen:  I have a question.  I received funding and I have this website that is not my ideal website, but I don't have $25,000 laying around to build that ideal website. 

Rich Sloan:  Okay.

Coreen:  I want to know how to allocate the funds that I received.  I want to market and optimize my site.  Just because you build a website, as you know, you have to drive people there. 

Rich Sloan:  Right.

Coreen:  They don't just show up.  And it's sitting there like a good movie or a great Broadway show and there's, like, no advertising.

Rich Sloan:  Well, you'll be comforted to know that most people don't have 25 Gs laying around.  And they have a similar challenge that you have.  And, Jeff, maybe we could throw a few --

Jeff Sloan:   Well, yeah --

Rich Sloan:  -- marketing ideas her way.

Jeff Sloan:   The first thing you want to make sure you cover, obviously, in the website, Coreen, is the basic functionality.  You know, you've obviously got to have people be able to navigate through and see the products merchandised on the site.

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Jeff Sloan:   And you also have to be able to transact the sale, obviously.  So, you know, I think that in its most simplistic form makes up the basic functions of an ecommerce site, right?

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Jeff Sloan:   And do you have those two things?  Are you comfortable with, you know, even though your website isn't your ideal site at this point, does it serve those functions?

Coreen:  Yeah, I believe so.  I believe every day it actually gets even better and better.  I'm hosting through Microsoft.

Jeff Sloan:   Okay.

Coreen:  Their commerce site.

Jeff Sloan:   Yeah.

Coreen:  Which, I find is working for me right now.  Look, it's a template and you can't really do what you want to do, because I don't have HTML and I'm just starting to learn how to do Front Page.  So, I'm, you know, I created my initial homepage with Front Page.  I did that myself.  And I linked it to their commerce. 

Jeff Sloan:   Right.

Coreen:  So, am I, you know, it's working.  It's there.  People can go and they can purchase.

Jeff Sloan:   And who's doing the photography of the products that's posted?

Coreen:  Me.

Jeff Sloan:   You are.  And how is the quality of the photography?

Coreen:  Good.

Jeff Sloan:   Okay.  That's very, very important.  Because, you know, when a person walks into a brick and mortar store, they can obviously pick up and feel and touch the product and size it up and see whether or not they want to buy it.

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Jeff Sloan:   On a website, you've got to have trust of the customer that the product is how it's represented to be on the site.  And the better the photograph is, the more likely they'll be able to feel comfortable in making that purchase.  So, photography on an ecommerce site is very, very important.

Rich Sloan:  All right, Jeff, so, we've established the things that Coreen's site needs to be able to do or to have.  But the challenge before her is how to get the people there.

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Rich Sloan:  You know, she's built it.  Now, we've got to make them come.

Jeff Sloan:   Right.  And that's why I started with the fundamentals.  So, you've allocated budget for the fundamentals.  What's left over, should be utilized, Rich, as for marketing.

Rich Sloan:  For marketing-related activities. 

Jeff Sloan:   Exactly.

Rich Sloan:  And there are a few obvious things that you've got to do.  Number one, you've got to optimize the site for search engine optimization.  So, make sure that instead of graphics, which search engines won't find, that you do have the relevant text that the search engines will cling to and give you high search rankings when people look for things, like those products that you have on your site.  So, search engine optimization is key.  You can also actually pay for placement in the search, by what's called search engine advertising.

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Rich Sloan:  So, that you have a listing of your website that is in close proximity to the top of a Google search, for example.

Coreen:  Uh-huh.  Well, I did submit it and I'm in the top 50 and that's not going to do.  That's what I was looking to you guys for.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah.

Coreen:  And I checked out Valueweb, which I know you are affiliated with and it's great.  I just, unfortunately, don't have $100 a month, as crazy as that sounds, right now.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah.  Well, you don't have to use that service.  You can use any service you want.  I'll give you another important tip and that is, consider affiliates.  Consider links to other websites.

Coreen:  I have it.

Rich Sloan:  Now, that's good.  But you have to work the strategy hard.  You want as many links on other relevant websites as you can possibly get.  We had Nick Swinmern, who is the founder of Zapos.com --

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Rich Sloan:  -- on our show recently.  And he talked about how they have something over 40,000 links going into their site.  Now, you may or may not be able to achieve that.  But, you can --

Coreen:  I have eight right now.

Rich Sloan:   You have eight.

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Rich Sloan:  Well, you need 800.

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Rich Sloan:  And you should work aggressively on that.  You're going to get low-hanging fruit.  People who are very interested in what you have to offer from complementary sites, if you have links from their sites to your sites.  Jeff, do you have any other ideas?

Jeff Sloan:   I think -- yeah -- when you said you have it, you have signed up with affiliate marketers?  Is that what you have?

Coreen:  No.  I actually made relationships through marketing and I work with a bridal company down here in Florida.

Jeff Sloan:   Okay.  That's good.

Coreen:  And they, you know, connected me to like a national honeymoon site and I --

Jeff Sloan:   Excellent.

Coreen:   -- you know, I did a webcast.  You'd actually be very proud of me.  I am --

Jeff Sloan:   We are proud of you.

Coreen:  I'm so proud of me.  But, um, I have another question and it's an important question, as well.  I have a friend, my dearest friend, whose son passed away from leukemia.  He was 11.  And she believes he became a butterfly.  So, I designed a line of product on my site called Butterflies for Jesse.  And anything and everything butterfly-related that's part of Person Personality, I'm donating a percentage of proceeds to childhood leukemia.  And I have all kinds of items that I want to manufacture in the Butterflies for Jesse line.  But I want to keep it here in the United States and I'm sick of people telling me that I have to go overseas, and I refuse. 

Jeff Sloan:   Okay.

Coreen:  So, I was hoping that you could guide me as to how I find manufacturing here in the United States.

Jeff Sloan:   Uh, great resource is something called the Thomas Register of Manufacturers.  Have you heard of that?

Coreen:  Yes, I have.

Jeff Sloan:   Have you checked it out?

Coreen:  No.  I don't know how to use it, but I've heard of it.

Jeff Sloan:   Okay.  There's also an online companion; I don't know the exact web address.  It's not Thomas Register, but if you enter Thomas Register of Manufacturers into a search engine, it should take you to the website.  It lists all types of manufacturers that you could call on that could do this work for you right here in the US. 

Coreen:  Uh-huh.  Okay.  And do you have a minute for an elevator pitch that you guys inspired me to write?

Jeff Sloan:   We've got about 20 seconds.

Coreen:  Oh --

Jeff Sloan:   We'll see how good you really are.  First of all, let me make a comment to you.  I love what you've done.

Rich Sloan:  Yeah.

Jeff Sloan:   Just listening to you.  You are on the ball.  You are in the fast lane.

Rich Sloan:  You're making it happen.

Jeff Sloan:   You're doing more than crawling, I'll tell you that.  You are making it happen.  And I think it's really great.  Give us a quick pitch.

Coreen:  I see Person Personality down the road as a brick and mortar store in all the malls, like Build-a-Bear.  It's going to be just strictly focused on the purse, the handbag, the pocketbook, lampshades, rugs, jewelry.

Jeff Sloan:   Are you going to be able to offer a basic product and then customize it personally?

Coreen:  There are products on my site that that can be done.

Jeff Sloan:   That's cool. I like it.  Yeah.

Coreen:  But, basically, you know, nobody -- it seemed like nobody did the purse or the pocketbook as a niche.  My real dream is to be like Lillian Vernon in the mail-order catalog department, as well.

Jeff Sloan:   Right.

Coreen:  Because I'm going three avenues, retail in the malls, etail online and a mail order catalog.

Jeff Sloan:   All right.  Now, let me tell you.  You are so on to it.  The best way to succeed in any single channel today --

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Jeff Sloan:   -- is to have all three operating at the same time.  But if you've got a mail order catalog coupled with brick and mortar store, coupled with online presence --

Coreen:  Uh-huh.

Jeff Sloan:   -- you are so on to it.  I just went to the Shop.org conference on online retailing and that's exactly the message I took away.  That's the most important message I took away.  You are on your way.

Rich Sloan:  All right.  Coreen is on her way.