- Thread starter vmhatup
- Start date
What do I need for my online business to grow?
If you have to even ask, you shouldn't even be considering it.
ADVERTISING is NOT a one-shot deal. The ONLY way for advertising to work is by offering a consistent message over time.
You must have me on ignore, because I gave you excellent advice about YOUR site in this thread. The FIRST thing you need to do is some basic strategic planning on your product, then on how your product is presented. Because if your ONLY exposure to customers is on the web, and you don't capture the pre-customer's imagination with a clear, concise message in the first 10 seconds, you can give away gold coins...and nobody will notice it.
Three things any online business must have:
- good product/value
- clear message
- great presentation
Cobraboy, I appreciate all your feedback, and I understand what you mean, but we already dealt with product presentation.
Several weeks ago we created a small 'focus group', and the site was given overall positive feedback. The site stays as it is. At this stage, I cannot afford to mess with the site anymore without seeing any ROI.
That said, my only concern is advertising: Reaching more Dominicans via the web, reaching more Dominicans outside of the web, and improving ranks in search engines.
A banner in remolacha is one of many options (albeit a $2,000 option) and I wanted to share it here. Nothing more and nothing less.
Several weeks ago we created a small 'focus group', and the site was given overall positive feedback. The site stays as it is. At this stage, I cannot afford to mess with the site anymore without seeing any ROI.
That said, my only concern is advertising: Reaching more Dominicans via the web, reaching more Dominicans outside of the web, and improving ranks in search engines.
A banner in remolacha is one of many options (albeit a $2,000 option) and I wanted to share it here. Nothing more and nothing less.
Here is a focus group of one from inside the web business:
Your site has no clear, central theme. I do not know what it is you do: sell stuff yourself, offer advertising or broker products. You might as well have pretty pictures of zoo animals with prices. You absolutely fail the KEY "what's in it for me" test.
I don't know what kind of "focus group" you used, but I'd seriously question the methodology and knowledge of consumer behavior. Saying "it's pretty" favorable isn't the same as saying "I want to use this service and tell my friends" favorable. Which do you think will bring business success?
I think you're too stubborn to admit you're badly over your head but are willing to pee huge $$$ down a hole to prove it you aren't. You seek advice from people who know nothing about how the web works or consumer behavior, and you ignore advice from those that do.
Before you poop more money down a hole, drop that $2000 on consultation from DR1's Robert for a month. You'll get 100 times more bang than from a banner ad.
How long is a piece of string? Thats why you test, test and do more testing so you know if it's worth it.
If you don't know how to test, then I wouldn't bother spending US$1 on any form of advertising as you will never know it offers a ROI.
OK, what is the big secret, why don't you tell us what your site is? Here, let me go first.
Hi, I am Clara, and I waste entirely too much time keeping DominicanCooking.com. There. See, not that hard. You will get curious and visit my site, then you may leave and not come back. Perhaps you will remember next time you need a Dominican recipe.
First let me say that although I have been doing this for nearly 10 years the fact is that a) I still am not sure what I am doing, and b)I could be making a lot more money from my site, but I limit the hours I work on it because right now my main job is getting a kid through school and being a part-time housewife. My site is still my only job.
Now, I know that Rob is way ahead of me in the game, heck, he even advices me on the geekiest part of running our site, but I can tell you a few things that can help with minimum investment:
Wear your site on your sleeve. Don't spam other sites, but if you collaborate with other sites, I don't know, an exchange of products for promotion you can get some eyeballs. I have sponsored giveaways in my site. For the price of the gift (if it is substantial) companies get some eyeballs. Contact popular local bloggers and go that way (I am not sure what you do so I don't know which to recommend).
Network, network, network. I have been approaching other Dominican culinary bloggers and making friends with them, sending traffic their way, twittering about them, etc. They'll repay by being appreciative of a much larger site (ours) helping them and in return you get links, advice, promotion and traffic.
Make tons of cheap cards (moo.com? perhaps). Give cards to people that you meet that seem to be the kind of people that would use your site (bank tellers, service representatives, friends, acquaintances, etc.)
Tees. I am not suggesting you give away tees. You wear them. As much as possible. Better yet, get some nice polos. It may not bring you any traffic, but it will give your site an air of respectability.
And
Guys like Robert can build a popular site from scratch in little time. I did it the old fashioned way: atractive content, lots of time. Maybe you don't have so much time, so I suggest you do hire Robert (he is credited in our site for his work)
Hi, I am Clara, and I waste entirely too much time keeping DominicanCooking.com. There. See, not that hard. You will get curious and visit my site, then you may leave and not come back. Perhaps you will remember next time you need a Dominican recipe.
First let me say that although I have been doing this for nearly 10 years the fact is that a) I still am not sure what I am doing, and b)I could be making a lot more money from my site, but I limit the hours I work on it because right now my main job is getting a kid through school and being a part-time housewife. My site is still my only job.
Now, I know that Rob is way ahead of me in the game, heck, he even advices me on the geekiest part of running our site, but I can tell you a few things that can help with minimum investment:
Wear your site on your sleeve. Don't spam other sites, but if you collaborate with other sites, I don't know, an exchange of products for promotion you can get some eyeballs. I have sponsored giveaways in my site. For the price of the gift (if it is substantial) companies get some eyeballs. Contact popular local bloggers and go that way (I am not sure what you do so I don't know which to recommend).
Network, network, network. I have been approaching other Dominican culinary bloggers and making friends with them, sending traffic their way, twittering about them, etc. They'll repay by being appreciative of a much larger site (ours) helping them and in return you get links, advice, promotion and traffic.
Make tons of cheap cards (moo.com? perhaps). Give cards to people that you meet that seem to be the kind of people that would use your site (bank tellers, service representatives, friends, acquaintances, etc.)
Tees. I am not suggesting you give away tees. You wear them. As much as possible. Better yet, get some nice polos. It may not bring you any traffic, but it will give your site an air of respectability.
And
Facebook is the second biggest source of traffic for us. Nowhere near Google, but pretty decent. I don't like Facebook, in fact I hate it, but I am willing to whore myself out (metaphorically speaking) for traffic, so I romance Facebook too. However you need to offer something to your FB viewers that make it attractive for them to spam, I mean share with their friends. I give them food porn, they can't resist it. If I knew what your site is about I will tell you (from a FB user point of view what would entice me to share your site with my friends).
Guys like Robert can build a popular site from scratch in little time. I did it the old fashioned way: atractive content, lots of time. Maybe you don't have so much time, so I suggest you do hire Robert (he is credited in our site for his work)
Yeah, what is it that you do?
I would be willing to pay anyone here with marketing experience in the DR for some consultation advice. But please hear me out and bear with me whule I explain my concerns, and please try to understand my point.
I understand that the few businesses that have been mentioned in this thread, especially DR1 and DominicanCooking, are very successful in the sense that they get many visitors. But my biggest concern is that these sites target English-speaking people outside the DR, so the strategies that may work with DR1 and DominicanCooking may not be the same as the ones used in supercarros and lapulga. Many frequent visitors to the DR and expats know what DR1 is, but that may not be the case with locals.
Does that make sense?
I understand that the few businesses that have been mentioned in this thread, especially DR1 and DominicanCooking, are very successful in the sense that they get many visitors. But my biggest concern is that these sites target English-speaking people outside the DR, so the strategies that may work with DR1 and DominicanCooking may not be the same as the ones used in supercarros and lapulga. Many frequent visitors to the DR and expats know what DR1 is, but that may not be the case with locals.
Does that make sense?
vmhatup, la pulga may have something for you
Realiza tus propios envios masivos de Emails en Santiago - lapulga.com.do
Realiza tus propios envios masivos de Emails en Santiago - lapulga.com.do
DR1 has never spent a US$1 on advertising, pretty much all our success has been organic.
Once again your logic is flawed... Nope, it makes no sense and I will tell you why.
A bunch of techniques have been posted in this thread that would apply to any site, regardless of location or niche. Marketing to Dominicans is no different to marketing to Colombians or Eskimos online. It's about finding the demographic, targeting via various add channels, testing the life out of those channels and seeing what combination of media and channel gives you the best ROI. Simple!
You're looking for a magic pill, well I'm sorry to tell you... you will not find it in DR1 or in this thread.
Marketing is about doing, making mistakes, testing, learning and rinse and repeating.
I suggest you start to take action, because all I see right now is lots of paralysis analysis.
FYI: I do a lot of stuff outside of DR1, that has nothing to do with the DR or in anyway related to tourism, travel etc. Most of it focused on Facebook, as it's a monster when it comes to driving traffic
