Need your help to promote my online business

[jesszj]

I have tried Google adwards for my online business for handmade products like jewelries and home decor stuffs for a few months, however, it didn't bring in any business. It seems finding key words is a big challenge for products from a different culture. Two of my products Craft Knot Button and Stone Shadow Carving are really great hand made products with rich cultural background, but you only get a few search result if you type in those two phases at Google. My questions are:

Do you know any other online marketing tools which are good for my business?

I also do Manta, other than getting a lot of ads and sales calls from SEO and social marketing companies, it doesn't turn into any business. Anyone using
Manta, how does it work for you?

I got a presentation from a company named VOCUS last week, which provides a marketing software integrating different features together. Anyone familiar with this software? Is it worth trying?

Silkroad Handicrafts (http://silkroadhandicrafts.com)
Above is the link to my online store. Your advises for improvement are highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jessica

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Jessica. Hopefully we can offer some good ideas to help.

With AdWords you're right those aren't the most popular things people are going to search for. It still makes sense to bid on both phrases, since it probably isn't going to cost much if they don't get searched a lot. One thing you could try is to bid on as many of those not so common phrases as you can. None will provide a lot of traffic, but together they could supply some and again they aren't going to cost a lot.

You might also want to think less literally. People might not search for Stone Shadow Carving so think instead about what kinds of things they might search for where a Stone Shadow Carving could be a good result. How about a phrase like "handcrafted gifts" and similar. I think it would make sense to look for some less specific phrases. Here are some phrases I'm getting right from your about page.

folk crafts
Chinese art
ethnic crafts
unique handmade crafts
artisan

There are lots more words and phrases you could use. I haven't even mentioned jewelry yet.

A couple of sites you should probably look into are Etsy and Pinterest. Spend some time at both sites and become active with them.

You might not want to hear this part, but I think your site could use a lot of improvement. I don't think it currently shows off your products well. The site also needs much more content than it currently has. For example what are craft knot buttons and stone shadow carvings? I see images of them, but I don't really know what they are. Tell us about them. The words will also help where search engines are concerned.

While the music you're playing fits well with your products, it's usually not a good idea to have it play automatically unless it's really, really soft in the background. If someone has the volume of their computer up high, there's a good chance they just click back when they first land on your site. Make the music very soft and I think it would be ok. Overall I think the site could use a lot of improvement. There are better options for shopping carts than what you currently have set up.

I'm not familiar with the companies you mentioned (Manta and VOCUS), though my guess is you don't need either. I think you have nice products that people would buy. I think improving both your site and the way you've set up AdWords can help. I'd also look into Etsy and Pinterest as I think both could help your business too,

I hope something I said helps.

[Harold Mansfield]

I have nothing to add, I just wanted to emphasize that everything that was just said is spot on. Adwords wouldn't have worked for those search terms, nor is your website ready to convert traffic into sales, so right now you'd be wasting money paying for advertisement.

Also, sometimes you need to think broader and educate people a little on your product or service.

[jamesray50]

Hi and welcome. I agree that your website needs improvement. It looks like a homemade website instead of a professional website. The content on your About Us page needs editing. There are grammatical errors. Your items are pretty, are all of them made to order or do you have inventory of some of the items? What is Stone Shadow Carving? I have never heard of that. Maybe a description on what it is and how you do it can be mentioned on the page that has those items. Same thing for Craft Knot Button. They are really pretty, but it looks like embroidery.

I don't like the music at all. I turned my speakers off, but if I was just shopping I would have exited the page. How about a FaceBook page? I've heard they work really well for retail stores. Once you get a page set up, invite people to Like your page. Look for LinkedIn groups that in your field, maybe retail, internet sale, handmade jewelry. Just find some groups with a similiar interest. Then ask the group to Like your page and in return you will Like theirs. Find some blogs similiar to what you are selling, doesn't have to be the same. Just blogs about selling online, or be specific and look for blogs about the items you are selling. Then comment on the blog. Ask a question and get a dialog going on the blog. Add Google Analytics to your website. Then periodically check your stats to see where your traffic is coming from and what keywords are being used to get to your page.

Don't expect results overnight. It takes a lot of work to get a website noticed, if you are passionate, offer good products and excellent service the rewards will follow.

Good luck :)

[IADS]

Have you tried selling on eBay, and linking from your eBay ads to your site? I use to do that when I was doing mail order. It worked.

[jamesray50]

Have you tried selling on eBay, and linking from your eBay ads to your site? I use to do that when I was doing mail order. It worked.

Wouldn't that be a violation of the seller agreement, linking to an outside webpage? I'm not familiar with their seller agreement (or whatever they call it), but I know on Amazon you cannot do anything to direct the visitor away from Amazon.

[nealrm]

The site does need some improvements, it is extremely slow. So slow in fact that had I been a buyer I would have move else where. Also I had to keep turning the music off. Every time I did something, it turned itself back up. In general I really hate repetitive background music, so that drove me nuts.

Also, the SEO on the site is extremely poor. Given the few results the Google returned, you should be able to move up quickly. Look into Google webmaster tools. Take a look at the fetch as Googlebot and the tools that analysis SEO issues. Also the site appears to be flash based, that alone will hamper your SEO efforts.

[IADS]

Wouldn't that be a violation of the seller agreement, linking to an outside webpage? I'm not familiar with their seller agreement (or whatever they call it), but I know on Amazon you cannot do anything to direct the visitor away from Amazon.

I don't know, but I see it done all of the time. Also, when you set up an eBay store there is a link to your site in it.

[jesszj]

Thank you all. I will focus on the above improvement you mentioned above for now.

[vangogh]

Keep us updated and don't hesitate to ask more questions if you have any. As you can see we're never short on opinions. I think you have some nice products and would like to see you do well.

[karpin]

And try to focus on vertical communities that can really buy your products. ie if you are doing staff for woman try to move in the right forums and make your message as much viral as you can...

[SWAMP80]

Consider where people are inspired to make fashion/jewelry purchases - sites like Pinterest, bloggers, etc. You want to build something that pulls all of this together and takes into account the shopper. We'd love to discuss further as this is right in our wheel house! (our director of social is also a fashion blogger!) [Link Removed]

[Willow]

You might also want to think less literally. People might not search for Stone Shadow Carving so think instead about what kinds of things they might search for where a Stone Shadow Carving could be a good result. How about a phrase like "handcrafted gifts" and similar. I think it would make sense to look for some less specific phrases. Here are some phrases I'm getting right from your about page

I was thinking the exact same thing. You might want to broaden your keywords to show up in a lot more results. I still don't think you would have to pay to much for that type of search which is good. Also from my experience I did not have much luck advertising on Google network or whatever its called. I had my ads only show up in the Google search results. It seems you get a lot of random clicks the other way. At least it was that way for me.