ways you advertise/promote your website?

i am some what new to online selling. i started on ebay a few years ago. i had some success but all the fees were overwhelming. i am on etsy now. here is my store if anyone has time to take a look and critique. http://www.etsy.com/shop/atfcandlecreations my question is if you have an online store how to you promote yourself? how do you advertise? i made a twitter pager for aft candle creations and i have told my friends on facebook. i am considering making a facebook for my candles and soap specifically. i am looking into craft shows in my area. i also have business cards. any advice would be greatly appreciated though. thanks so much

I have had success with a facebook page. The trick is to make it interactive. Don't just throw product at them. Offer discounts for each friend they invite to join your facebook, play games where they suggest scent names, etc. They don't need to buy your candles, they want to have fun & have a relationship with the cool lady that makes candles.

I do soap naming contests on FB, and get some sales through friends and friends of friends, but I ran a one-day ad recently and got absolutely no result from it. Disappointing. Anyone have experience with Google ads? Looks like it wouldn't be worth it, but maybe I'm wrong. It's driving me nuts trying to figure out a way to come up on searches. It sounds like a
Catch 22; can't show up on searches unless you get business; can't get business unless you show up on searches.

BakingNana said:

I do soap naming contests on FB, and get some sales through friends and friends of friends, but I ran a one-day ad recently and got absolutely no result from it. Disappointing. Anyone have experience with Google ads? Looks like it wouldn't be worth it, but maybe I'm wrong. It's driving me nuts trying to figure out a way to come up on searches. It sounds like a
Catch 22; can't show up on searches unless you get business; can't get business unless you show up on searches.

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Well, actually you don't need business to get on search engines. I was looking at your site...you don't have keywords on your pages. I can pm you some suggestions if you would like in regards to SEO. (That's my day job.)

Don't mess with google ads. Just my opinion.

Also...a blog is a great idea. It allows you to get personal with your customers. You can offer sales; show your customers how you create stuff. I think if you have an etsy site...a blog is the perfect match.

I recently got my site up.... www.wilsonssoap.com Wilson's Soap Co.

I'm paying a monthly service for it through a bigger service provider and they automatically enter some of the info into search engines. Posting your info on pages like Facebook and web forums like this one will also help your rankings.

It works like this... the search engines use "spiders" to "craw" around the internet looking for words and names. After the spiders find your website, they'll look at the name and words on your site and link them all together. The more often your name is put out on the internet, in as many places as possible is another factor. In the end your ranking in search results is a combination of how well the words on your site match the words a user searched for as well as how many times your name is mentioned on the internet.

PS. The fact that I wrote this and put my company name in this post will only improve my search results
Mentioning that I'm in Philadelphia, PA and making handmade soaps won't hurt either

agriffin-sending a pm.

donniej said:

I recently got my site up.... www.wilsonssoap.com Wilson's Soap Co.

I'm paying a monthly service for it through a bigger service provider and they automatically enter some of the info into search engines. Posting your info on pages like Facebook and web forums like this one will also help your rankings.

It works like this... the search engines use "spiders" to "craw" around the internet looking for words and names. After the spiders find your website, they'll look at the name and words on your site and link them all together. The more often your name is put out on the internet, in as many places as possible is another factor. In the end your ranking in search results is a combination of how well the words on your site match the words a user searched for as well as how many times your name is mentioned on the internet.

PS. The fact that I wrote this and put my company name in this post will only improve my search results
Mentioning that I'm in Philadelphia, PA and making handmade soaps won't hurt either

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I also have a large company as host--Intuit. They supposedly also take care of keywords, too. Evidently, there's more I need to do!

Thanks for the reply!

Key Words

Me too obviously. I know my site needs work because I am building it myself. I don't know much about flashy screens, banners, etc. I would love it if you guys could take a look and critique it. luxuriouslynatural.webs.com, and hostgator has it at luxuriouslynatural.com as a wordpress blog. Since I was laid off, I couldn't afford to pay someone, so google has been my encyclopedia for now. Still working kinks out.

Put a custom stick on logo with your website on your car & drive around! whenever you leave feedback use your website name for example " Pursesgalore4less.com" thanks & welcomes you always.
That what I do on E Bay
Custom logos are like $30 & I bought mine for my E bay Purse store on E bay

advertise

Great idea. I am always on the road. Thanks for sharing.

i like to make a little business card size "flyer" and attach it to a small zip bag with a little slice of soap in it. I keep 25-50 of them in my purse at all times! Whenever I meet someone new I give them one. Sometimes I leave one in random places around town and use the grocery store bulletin boards to post flyers!

The shop I work for donates gift certificates to schools, daycares, ect.. for their auctions door prizes and what not for events.

No not everyone will use them, but many do and the shop now has many long time customers because of it.

I have to say we don't do online sales, but local customers are always a good way to get things going.

my2scents said:

Put a custom stick on logo with your website on your car & drive around! whenever you leave feedback use your website name for example " Pursesgalore4less.com" thanks & welcomes you always.
That what I do on E Bay
Custom logos are like $30 & I bought mine for my E bay Purse store on E bay

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If you have an accident (your fault or not) and your logo is on your car, and your car is not registered as a business vehicle through your car insurance company , your car insurance may be invalid.

A website is one of the best tools you can have. Market it with business cards and craigslist. Those two I have found to be the better ways to advertise. Sending out flyers or putting them in paper boxes (not mail boxes), is another good way. Avoid any paper advertising such as yellow pages, it's a waste of money, I used it before.

As always the #1 advertising method is word of mouth. Nothing beats it.

lets look at social media. Facebook is not good for selling. Almost all of the research is saying same thing....Facebook is gathering site like bunch of friends meeting at a bar. They don't purchase there. Others are correct...make it interactive, offer discounts but your marketing campaign for facebook is simply to get them to click to your site not to buy there. Pinterest is turning out to be much better as users are coming there in a mood to "buy". You go to pinterest to buy - you go to facebook to talk about your day.

Business cards - dont be afraid to make them unique. Have a corner missing, etc. Have your social media sites on back of card (facebook, twitter, interlinked, pinterest) and have a QR code on back of your card so smart phones can scan and go right to your site.

Online advertising. Press release are great idea to kick start your site. You can hire people from fiverr.com to do this for you for 5 dollars. Community boards is tremendous (possibly best way to advertise your site). Establish authority/credibility and people will check your site out. Youtube is emerging but you really need to be creative and very unique to get views but can generate huge traffic. Blog can be helpful as it builds up credibility with google as your traffic increases - you then can link to your ecommerce site to give it more juice in your google ranking. We have not tried Esty yet but based on number of others using it on here...its definitely worth setting up.

Offline - maybe get a magnet for your car. Think about how many people would view your business name while sitting in traffic. These are not expensive. You can buy two magnets for side doors and one on back at www.vistaprint.com. We love that site as we get all business cards there also. USPS is really pushing new program where they will will put advertising into your neighbors mail box - we have not tried that method yet. Also was mentioned above always be getting the word out about your business thru word of mouth.

Good Luck

Thank you for all the great ideas. I am really bad at marketing and have wanted to do a press release but never thought of fiverr. Where do you find the QR code?
Another idea :idea:
I am taking some soap and shampoo bars to a local health food store. They will actually buy them but I agreed to a 'Guaranteed Sale' where I buy back any items that do not sell in 3 months. It is a great way to get your foot in the door. I am going to their store tomorrow to demo and talk to customers about how I make them, etc. How do you demo soap? I printed out 2 papers with my name and website on the top with "Which fragrance do you like best?' Then the name of each soap/shampoo bar with a space big enough to set a small round sample of each bar. They can actually pick it up, smell it, and want one! May have a drawing also.
Tonight I thought of taking a bar to some beauty salons to try.

Just a note - Facebook now prohibits anyone giving away prizes or running contests to generate more likes for a page. Don't want to see anyone's FB page get shut down!

I recently came across an article that does amazing job at walking you thru what I think is by far the best advertising platform..Facebook. You will want to bookmark this article: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/deep-dive-facebook-advertising/

my2scents said:

Put a custom stick on logo with your website on your car & drive around! whenever you leave feedback use your website name for example " Pursesgalore4less.com" thanks & welcomes you always.
That what I do on E Bay
Custom logos are like $30 & I bought mine for my E bay Purse store on E bay

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Depending on where you live, you may want to be cautious with this approach- though I think it is a great idea- many states require Commercial license plates and registration for the vehicle if it is being used for business/commercial use. Don't want to see you incur any fees or fines unnecessarily...

MaitriBB said:

Just a note - Facebook now prohibits anyone giving away prizes or running contests to generate more likes for a page. Don't want to see anyone's FB page get shut down!

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You're kidding! That stinks!! That was one of my possible plans.