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www.artaffairsoftware.com

Hi all,
I have had my website up and running for about a year. I want to try to increase the amount of time visitors spend on my site and reduce the number of visitors who exit quickly. I`m also always trying to optimize the site for search engines so I can increase the total visitors to the site. Doing that can be very confusing because I read conflicting suggestions everywhere. But I`ve tried.
I would be very appreciative of any comments regarding SEO issues and also any other comments on site design, etc. I`m thinking of moving the navigation from the left over to the right hand side. Any thoughts on this?
I originally used a purchased frontpage template but have modified it somewhat myself.
Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions anyone can make.
Deborah Miller
I have had my website up and running for about a year. I want to try to increase the amount of time visitors spend on my site and reduce the number of visitors who exit quickly. I`m also always trying to optimize the site for search engines so I can increase the total visitors to the site. Doing that can be very confusing because I read conflicting suggestions everywhere. But I`ve tried.
I would be very appreciative of any comments regarding SEO issues and also any other comments on site design, etc. I`m thinking of moving the navigation from the left over to the right hand side. Any thoughts on this?
I originally used a purchased frontpage template but have modified it somewhat myself.
Thanks so much in advance for any suggestions anyone can make.
Deborah Miller
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Comments
I suppose you could say that there is no difference between any business database application and excel since you could always stick all you data into spreadsheet rows. Most artist would not be able to reproduce the functionality, automatic calculations, parent/child database relationships, reports, charts, event (sales, shows, fairs, classes) tracking, and scheduling in Excel.
Actually, I`m working on an interface with Quickbooks right now to include in a future release. However, Art Affair Artist Edition does much more then calculate your income and expenses.
I haven`t had the error you experienced reported before nor have I been able to reproduce it in the short time since your post. But, I`ll continue to try, and fix it as soon as I can locate it . I fix any bugs my customers or trial users find and release the corrected version right away. In fact, I even offer a 10% discount (on a new purchase or major upgrade) if a customer or trial user reports a previously unreported bug. Can you tell me what version of windows your using? Also did you download the Artist Edition or Art Organizer (freeby).
Over the past year, 14% of the people who visit the site download the trial version. Of the people who download the trial version, 7% purchase it. From info given by other software sellers in other forums, these percentages sound reasonable. Of couse, I`d like to increase them. But, I would also like to increase the number of people visiting the site.
I`m not sure what category you mean when you say it`s served by many companies who sell inexpensive software?
Sales have done pretty well during this first year. I also have my husbands income but if I were alone, my sales would have been enough to support myself. But it has not yet replaced the salary I was making as a senior system analyst with the state of Alaska. But, I think if I can make enough to support myself during the first year having spent a total of about $500 on advertising, the market is there. Actually, the market (artists/crafters) seems to be a little underserved.
I have been able to find about 5-6 competitors. All but 2 have very poor user interfaces and limited features. Also their database designs are poor and therefore improvements in their functionality without total rewrites will be hard for them. The two who I consider valid competitors are both higher priced. One at $269 and the other at over $800. But pricing is a whole other subject. . One of these is mainly marketed at jewelry designers (a.k.a. beaders in this case).
What I really wanted to concentrate on here is the web site SEO and design and how it could be improved to get and then keep visitors. I think the biggest benefit of Art Affair is the time savings from keeping yourself and your business organized. I tried to convey this is the opening words on the home page, but I guess not very well.
Craig, I have over 3000 components myself and I`m not the worst I`ve heard of. I do beading, painting and fiber art and many times mix them all. It`s very nice to sit down at the computer and see at a glance what I have and how much of it I have instead of digging through boxes and bins. Art Affair also helps with pricing and all sales related functions like invoicing, handling commission works, consignment sales, art fair sales, etc. Believe it or not, this is not fast and easy to do in Excel. Most of my customers, judging by my interactions with them to date, can barely use excel. I have done several conversions for customers from their excel spreadsheets and they were pretty bad.