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How can I drive more business to my website

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    smartsitessmartsites subscriber Posts: 5
    Hi Sauce Lady,A few have mentioned content and SEO and those are definatly what you want to do but how do you go about that? SEO can be quite expensive when you are talking about redoing your site`s structure and format and content which most of us small businesses don`t have the budget for. There are a few new concepts that have not been discussed here which I think are the best route for any small business. The first being blogging. I`m sure you`ve heard of the phenomenon of which 70,000 new blogs are being created each and every day. What you may not know is that Google (the most important search engine) IMHO, visits and ranks blog content much faster than your static website. It is said that google starts off visiting your site every 90 days but blogs are being visiting daily!!! Now don`t get confused about the term blogging. It`s just a web tool that you and every other business should be using to drive traffic to your website.Another new concept we have developed is branded blog communities. Sorry for the (shameless plug). What you do is decide what type of websites, clubs or interest groups there are that would be a good fit for your product. Think of all the products and  groups that are not competitors to you and offer them a free blog site with your branding of course. So what happens is you are providing a service and branding yourself at the same time.I hope I did not confuse you. Again just think of blogging as a tool that is very affordable and easy to implement.
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    LauraGlynnLauraGlynn subscriber Posts: 2
    Hi Sauce Lady-
    Great question!  and Wow some amazing info in the answers!
    cartess3 basically just gave a complete business review...for free.  I love his ideas for the Veggie/Vegan site!  I agree that they would be turned off by the domain name...perhaps a better veggie name that points to a specific page on your site.  Domain names are so inexpensive and can just be added to your same hosting plan.
    I love all of the great SEO suggestions, newsletter, blogs, etc
    I have to agree with JRMudd though.  It took me too many clicks to get to where I could buy any sauce.  and I even gave up when I was taken off your site.
    An investment in a programmer and a shopping cart installed directly on your site should be a huge payoff.  There are a number of great carts out there..xcart, MivaMerchant, Zen Cart, OScommerce that are relatively easy to maintain once you have a programmer set them up.  You can get recommendations (from here I bet!) for the best carts, then the best hosting for those carts...and the hosts usually have recommended programmers. 
    It will cost a little more up front to hire a decent programmer but it will be worth it to have a professional site that you can maintain yourself and is automated...so you can sit back and watch the sales come in. 
    (side bar: I have one client that installed some program on her site that actually makes a cash register sound whenever anyone buys anything.  She said that it was great..at first.  But then was too distracting. )
    Hope that something in all the stream of conscious above helps!
    Happy New Year! and I hope that you sell more sauce then you ever imagined!
    Laura
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    Thanks so much for everyones input it has been almost overwhelming... but so gladly recieved.
    Thanks to everyone who wrote me now time for action!!!
    Saucelady
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    AddassaMariAddassaMari subscriber Posts: 2
    Hi SauceLady,
    I too am new to internet advertising, so I would not dream of offering internet advertising advice.  I am, however, a student of the Hospitality Industry and want ot say "welcome to the foodservice segment of the Hospitality Industry".
    I just have one tip to offer.  In establishing your customer base make provisions for feedback.  Feedback helps you to refine your marketing strategy and determine if you are using a "pistol" reaching your target market or  a "shotgun" scattered all over the place approach.  Target marketing is how to gain the customers best suited to your product and feedback is how you maintain  or keep on target.
    Keep one thing in mind: one person who likes your sauce means three people are told how great your product is, whereas one person who does not like it means five people are told.  Do the math.  Target marketing is important as mentioned earlier.
    Feedback is how you build a mailing list for your e-zine of tips as mentioned previously.  Make it easy for people who like your product to tell you and their friends about it.
    Now as to which approach works in increasing traffic flow to your site, please let me know, cause I  need all the help I can get.
    Gail
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    Thank you Gail great advice.
    SauceLady
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    dbinkowskidbinkowski subscriber Posts: 0
    I wanted to drop a few notes about the blogging suggestion that was made:1. Blogging takes time. It can be done inexpensively however ultimately it comes down to your time to post and drive traffic to your blog.2. Maintaining and moderating others blogs will take even more time. There are simpler routes you can take if you want to get involved in the blogosphere. I run campaigns for global brands where we give products for bloggers to try - that way you`re leveraging their audience, insight, popularity and voice while still getting your messaging across. Drop me a line and I`ll send more pointers on how to locate the right bloggers, engage in that discussion and ultimately get your product talked about.Thanks,Dave
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    LauraGlynnLauraGlynn subscriber Posts: 2
    ...There are simpler routes you can take if you want to get involved in the blogosphere. I run campaigns for global brands where we give products for bloggers to try - that way you`re leveraging their audience, insight, popularity and voice while still getting your messaging across. ...
    I love this advice!  Thanks for sharing Dave.Laura
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    yourNAMEinDotComyourNAMEinDotCom subscriber Posts: 17
    Sauce Lady, by now you would have noticed that you already increased traffic to your site just by asking the question that you did.
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    rexiedexierexiedexie subscriber Posts: 97 Silver Level Member
    I made a site for my friends to help them get site visitors.
    My sites get 30,000 visitors a day.
    See http://www.helptosucceed.love-au.com/</A>
     
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    EventOneEventOne subscriber Posts: 0

    Hi,
    I have a website www.rozanacuizine.com</A> and would like to get people to order my sauces. How do I go about doing this? I have been told to link to other sites but how do I get other sites to link up?
    Thanks

    I can answer that.   Use the Google Adwords, they work!
    adwords.google.com
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    sauceladysaucelady subscriber Posts: 1
    Thank you all for the wonderful information about blogging, articles, my website and affilate programs and so much more. I have a feeling I will be busy for the next 6 months just working to make these suggestions work. First is the website and then on the the rest.
    Thank you again,
    Saucelady
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    rexiedexierexiedexie subscriber Posts: 97 Silver Level Member
    Marinamarsala
    To get you signature link to work
    <a href="http://www.your signaturepage url"> Your signature description </a>rexiedexie2007-1-14 19:51:45
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    rexiedexierexiedexie subscriber Posts: 97 Silver Level Member
    Test Post
     rexiedexie2007-2-5 22:17:49
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    Tangent1Tangent1 subscriber Posts: 0
    Use google analytics with adwords.
    awesome tracking for small business.
    Let you see where traffic is coming from, where they are going and
    where you are losing them- Lets you find the hotspots of traffic then do a
    physical promotion in that region.

    Start a grassroot marketing campaign-hit tradeshows, reciprocating linking
    with cooking sites
    Send a bottle to oprah-
    I read a story on here where a candle maker sent a candle to Oprahs
    assistant.Oprah smelled it an ordered 10,ooo for audience members-friends
    etc. Just an idea.
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    Tangent1Tangent1 subscriber Posts: 0
    I never watch Oprah by the way-but i do appreciate her branding.
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