Kryptronic Software Support Forum

Hi

BigDog

One thing that could be a big cause is that you site took nearly 1 minute to load and viewing other pages you have a blank screen for up to 30 seconds before it loads-  Most people will leave in less than 8 seconds.

As for Adwords - it can be hit and miss and you need to correct keywords - if its costing you a lot and not getting SALES - STOP IT!

The Splash page need more wow - less writing (put that on another page with a link from the 1st if people want more info) 

Get you pictures of items above the fold of the screen  you have about 8 seconds to stop a surfer and get them to stay interested in your products.

Less is more - just look at newspapers front page - its that make you pick up and buy the paper.

Hey Charlie, thanks for taking the time to have a look and your comments.

Load time seems to very. Like Dave said, normally it loads fast on this side of the pond but I sometimes have to wait for it to load also.

More Wow on the splash. I kind of wondered about that also.  Just like the song says, "a lot less lot talk and a lot more action" might be what helps.
I have been thinking about how/what to do about that.

BigDog..

Last edited by BigDog (05-11-2008 16:24:12)

Thanks Emma. That helps also.  Can't do much about the slow load time across the pond. Like Dave said, loads quickly on this side.

If I add more images and more Wow, that increases the amount of data on the first page that has to be transmitted. That is against all recommendations I have read about keeping the page size small in amount of data to load.

Recommendations I have read said to keep the first page under 100k of data to allow it to load quickly. Heck, that is just one or two relatively small graphics.

I would like either more or larger graphics on the landing page BUT that would slow down the loading even more.
Removing the text is next to nothing on amount of data. I feel like the first person with this problem.

I will figure out what to change my "staff photo" to. Maybe a picture of some whiz bang jewelry.

I definitely appreciate you taking the time to look at my site and make some comments.
Getting another perspective is definitely helpful.

Anyone else feel free to jump in with your comments about anything you see on my website.

BigDog..

hI,

a GOOD START -

Still too much text get rid of it and just leave

"Welcome to Silver Onion Jewelry!

We are located in the scenic and rolling hills of Tennessee. In this serene and relaxing location amongst the trees, deer and turkeys, we design and create beautiful, handcrafted 14k gold-filled or sterling silver jewelry just for you. Just relax and take your time as you browse our on-line store and read about us. Please come back often to see what new varieties of stones, gems, beads, glass, shell or bone we have included in each new piece of jewelry we create for you."

and the new image you put in place of the old people make it smaller.

As for the name silver onion - if it a technique for making the jewellery? if so keep it - if not bin it or change the logo if your going to keep it - it looks old and not in keeping for what you sell.

Last edited by celdirect (05-13-2008 17:06:50)

Hi,

This is going to sound harsh -

Has your contest worked? anyone taken the offer? if not get rid of it - as they are not interested in 25% off nothing they are interested in.

You seem to have good products and passionate about them, let that shine through.

You need to step back and realise that a web store is not that much different from a brick and mortar store.

its great that you have 400 products - but who cares? do you have the one product the customer wants?

How many sales have you had with this site?

I am harsh, but if you want to make this work, someone has to say this, wish someone did to me 3 yrs ago as it would of saved me thousands.

As for photo software - there is loads of free stuff on the web - like paintdotnet  its ok - adobe photoshop elements is better but around £70

As with the company name - do you really think that having onion in a name that is for jewellery right?  I love onions (& garlic) but with jewellery, onions just does not fit.

Your products are wow! - I see this as i have spent time looking, to try to help you - but when you get to the site for the 1st time there is no wow.

Most people will come and leave in 8 seconds.

- You are doing well - lets move it up a pace and you will see a great difference!

I'll provide some comments - i haven't read all of the other comments so that mine are unique to my thoughts and not influenced by other opinions.  I'll be honest as you've requested so forgive me if I'm insulting

First point - how many unique visitors do you get per day?  Expect 0.5 to 1% conversion (guesstimate) considering it's a competitive market and there's lots of competition. That's assuming the traffic you get is targeted.  i sell gift baskets and every day I get someone who types a postal code into google and visits my site because of it.  There's a remote chance they'll be buying anything. But if they type 'gift basket delivery in toronto', they have a better chance of converting to a sale.  So with adwords, you should get 50 to 100 unique visitors per day to get 1 sale.

Second point - maybe i'm biased because I know what a stock cart install looks like but you haven't even bothered to make the site unique.  Even if I don't know how a cart looks without customization, it's usually obvious how much effort someone puts into designing their site.

Third Point - i'm in Canada - I tried 3 different links, first link, i hit cancel after 1 minute, 2nd link, i hit cancel after 30 seconds, 3rd link, i hit cancel after 20 seconds.  I could not get past the index page.  Your server must suck   I checked your nameservers...you're using IXWEBHOSTING it appears.  I used to use them but they suck, so I cancelled.  Get a free 'site uptime' checker for your site.  I knew they sucked when I would get 5 to 10 notifications a day that they couldn't connect to my server (you setup an account and it automatically tries to connect to your site every 15 minutes).  Ixwebhosting kept claiming the server was up and working fine but the site uptime checker was proof it wasn't. type 'site uptime checker' in google.

Regardless of ANYTHING, traffic determines sales for the most part.  The nicest site in the world will get no sales if it has no traffic and the ugliest site in the world will get sales if it has lots of traffic (a competitor of mine proves this point ).  I notice from your source that you have no stats program code installed (e.g. Google Analytics, web-stat.com, etc.).  I hope you know what keywords are being used to visit your site..  And what PAGES those visitors are visiting on your site.  If you don't know whether they are leaving your site from the index page or if they visit 20 pages then leave, you have a big problem with respect to figuring out what your customers want from you. I tried some obvious keywords in google and did not see your site listed.  What keywords are you targeting and could that be the issue.

HTH,

James..

Hi,

The site is looking much better.  You are getting there - don't give up

Next stage is to get the traffic in - (this takes time)

One thing I can see is your product links have no description in them _ I am not ofay with v6.0) but i thought that it has seo links in it - can someone help here with that (i am still on v5.1)

Search around the internet for shopping portals and alike and post your web url and details to the free ones to get you links out there.

Then you will need to work on adwords (which is easier said than done - but not impossible.) 

Good luck

Ok, I'll reply based on your points.

1. good, it's a start, and for the amount of traffic you get, good enough.
2. I'm done my customization, the early part is the hardest but now i'm pretty comfortable with how it looks, how to fix things.  consider it a learning experience that helps in the future.
3. INSTALL an 'site uptime' checker and have it check every 15 minutes - SAVE the emails to a folder so you can FORWARD THEM to ixwebhosting.
4. good
5. you think you should be paying under a buck for JEWERLY adword keywords? expect $1 to $2 and not in the top 3 for that price (for the right keywords) - it's ecommerce and you're competiting with ZALES and other bazillion dollar companies.

worry only about getting traffic right now - my suggestion from a business standpoint is this (please excuse my frankness):

if you want to sell 'jewelry' - QUIT NOW - your a small fish in a big pond and there are too many big fish.  if you want to sell 'SOMETHING', then pick something that is unique - a niche market like shark teeth jewelry where it's only a category on a competitors site and not their main theme. I have no idea if there's such a thing as 'shark teeth jewelry' but my point is research types of jewerly that are popular (maybe organic, or holistic for example) - find out if there competiton through adwords.  doing searches in google.  If there are 5-10 competitors with adwords that are TARGETTED (not someone who is paying for 'jewelry' and all variations but competitors who have their ads targetted to that niche market and that'll tell you if THEY'RE willing to pay for traffic, it must exist!

type 'donkey feces' in google. there are no adwords, because you can't make money off it. type 'holistic jewelry' and there are 4 ads - still not enough...you want closer to 10 because then you know there's competition and traffic and you can work on beating them.  who cares if you're number 1 if nobody's searching for something.  you'll need to do research and figure out what's a good market and can you work in it.

<i type in a 'train of thought' fashion so excuse the slopiness :>

Regards,

James...

Thanks  James. Still good comments and recommendations.

Dave, I will check with my hosting service.  See what is up. Maybe some problems after their move. I thought it seemed slow also. Sometimes worse than others.

Charlie, I have been doing that. Submitted months ago to DMOZ. Tried twice. Still waiting.  Got listed in NOMOZ.org. Looking for others. Reading ecommerce sites also for insight.

This is still a great forum to get help.

Now to figure out how to get the feedback.ordernum form installed as a button  like the others in ecom skin.php. 

$link_contact
$link_account
$link_checkout

I checked with my hosting service. They said another site on the same server was hogging the server time. They said they fixed the problem. My site seems to load faster now. If it happens again, they told me to call instead of opening a trouble ticket so they can track it down quicker.

Gosh, I'd be looking for a better host by now.  There is no excuse for things like that to be happening in todays hosting environments