web sites for marketing products

[Arc Innovations]

Hi I have been doing this for less than a year, and I was just wondering how some of you have had the most success marketing the pieces you make on your machines. I have tried Ebay with no luck, and I am thinking about getting my own website up and going. Just looking for some input on weather or not this would be worth the time and money to try out? Is there any other ways for marketing your products that have worked well for you?

Thanks, Gary

[Arc Innovations]

Great advise. Do you recommend any particular place to build the website?

[AnotherDano]

There are a lot of marketing sites out there, but beware.

One of them contacted me, offering to market my products. They say that they specialize in Wyoming-made products,,, blah, blah, blah.

The bottom line was;
They expected me to do the shipping with their name on the package.
The wanted wholesale prices, but expected me to hold all the stock. IOW, they didn't buy from me in quantity.
They were very concerned about my ability to provide timely response to their customers. I would need a large stock of products to fulfill orders.

They expected me to hold all the risk and just skim off their commission as orders were passed through them, with no effort on their part other than a one-time posting of a picture and description on their website.

After checking their stats on the internet, I found that their traffic was dismal. Most of their hits were from google searches for a particular item that was not related to my products.

[jimmyrig]

Great advise. Do you recommend any particular place to build the website?

This depends on how good you want the site to look and perform. I did a Godaddy website and it was okay. Problem it looked like a homemade site. Seeing how plasma is just a small part of what I do I invested in a full website. I went with a vendor who came recommended to me. One word of advise:

as they say in tattoo shops: " good tattoos are not cheap and cheap tattoos are not good" I do not build sites, and would not have the first idea how to...The Godaddy will get you buy as your just starting out.

Check out my site to get a feel of what a "paid" site looks like....It is still in the works but you will get the idea.
www.outdoorlogic.net

[Arc Innovations]

Can you give me an idea of what the monthly cost is to have a website like that? Can people buy your work right off the web site using a credit card?

[jimmyrig]

People can purchase right off the website.. Right now I have it set for paypal, but soon it will also be set up for a merchant account through my bank.

I paid for hosting for two years that was like 300.00 or so. the monthly cost isnt to bad, its the up front to build it that is a big pill to swallow.
When I called around every professional web builder was charging 3-5k to build a site with all the requirements I needed . I was lucky to find a guy who charged less then that.

And people wine when we try to charge them 20 bucks for a cut out----

Can you give me an idea of what the monthly cost is to have a website like that? Can people buy your work right off the web site using a credit card?

[pony]

A few years ago when I first looked in to getting a plasma cutter I explored making my own web site using one of the many off the shelf templates. I paid $49 for the template.

[pony]

As for hosting your web site:
I own a lot of domains (about 40), so I use a developer package for $19.99 a month, but the $3.99 a month (promotional, and raises to $6.99 a month) aught to be enough to get you going.

http://www.1and1.com

They include a free website builder tool for basic design

[minnfatz]

I am waiting until after the first of the year to officially start my metal cutting company up here in Minnesota. It will just be a home based business. I would like to get a website going, but I HATE trying to do website design, so I am going to hopefully find someone reasonable and source that out. I am also looking at selling stuff on Etsy.com. Have any of you tried that website? It looks like there are at least a dozen different people selling stuff on there, but I figure why not have one more.

[admin]

Great advise. Do you recommend any particular place to build the website?

I would recommend that your look on local Kijiji.com ads for freelance local web designers. Chances are you will get better service and price from a local freelance designer. Select a few to contact and ask to see some sites that they have completed in the past. After reviewing the sites you will likely have selected someone with the style and skills that you feel will get the job done. From there its just coming up with the text, images, and creativity to provide your web designer with.

Once your site is complete and online you need to get it placing on the first page in the search engines for popular keywords related to your products. This can take a long time for a new site unless your in a ghost market that no one knows about and competition is low. To accomplish this you need someone who knows what they are doing also. Your web designer should be able to direct you to someone who is capable if he/she is not and they should be able to prove to you results they have achieved on previous sites they have optimized so you can feel confident in your decision.

It will take time after completion of the site to make it profitable but thats why its so important to start yesterday. Shouldnt cost you anymore than $10 a month to have the site online so it's not a huge ongoing expense.

Best of luck.

[Arc Innovations]

Has anyone dealt with Heritage web solutions, now known as HIT web design? I have been waiting for over a month now for them to just finish my logo. I have already paid half of the cost to have the website built, and haven't seen any results!!! I don't know what to do at this point.