Semi OT but related

As the subject says, semi-OT, but having lurked here I believe this
group collectively can help me with some feedback.

A few years ago I was contracted to build a website for a local
wedding chapel. At some point in the development process they called
me in a panic saying the website needed to be launched asap as they
were very tight on cash and needed the site to produce sales
immediately.

There were obviously operating under the assumption that the website
would bring in quick business immediately upon launch and had no other
marketing plans other than leads from the internet. For the record I
never led them to believe this.

I have a current customer whose site has been active for about thirty
days. We started an ADsense campaign last week and I'm just getting
ready to look at the traffic logs. I can tell you that there have been
no sales and the majority of the traffic has been one click in and
then out. Not quality visits. But that's a separate issue.

They launched in November expecting to do Christmas business. A lot of
their energy is focused on trying to get business "right now".

All things being equal, and they rarely are, what is a realistic time
frame for a website to start generating leads. I theorize 6-12 months
if someone takes an active role in promoting the site.

Feedback would be much appreciated.





Mutant Bluegrass That Rocks!
http://www.thepickadillos.com

Steve Harder-Kucera <steve (AT) no-spam-betterwaywebsites (DOT) com> wrote:

All things being equal, and they rarely are, what is a realistic time
frame for a website to start generating leads. I theorize 6-12 months
if someone takes an active role in promoting the site.

Extremely hard to say. Depends a lot on the SEO possibilities of the site,
and/or, what you're selling, the budget available for promoting, etc.

But I think 6-12 months is an ok figure for an average site (no idea what
that is though).


--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
or have them custom made
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/

John Bokma wrote:

Steve Harder-Kucera <steve (AT) no-spam-betterwaywebsites (DOT) com> wrote:

All things being equal, and they rarely are, what is a realistic time
frame for a website to start generating leads. I theorize 6-12 months
if someone takes an active role in promoting the site.

Extremely hard to say. Depends a lot on the SEO possibilities of the site,
and/or, what you're selling, the budget available for promoting, etc.

But I think 6-12 months is an ok figure for an average site (no idea what
that is though).

It would surely depend on

what was being sold,

how customers normally buy that kind of article
(some items are long-time catalogue favourites,
others are almost always puchased in-store),

how easy the site is to navigate,

how easy the ste is to purchase from,

and what sort of sense of "being a real store" the
site conveys (its confidence factor rating).

When i started Lucky Mojo, we had about 100 items listed, most at or
under the $10.00 price point, and we were selling $10.00 worth per day
within two weeks of going online. Within six months we had a list of
about 500 items, still ostly under that $10.00 price point, and we had
to hire our first full-time employee to help fill all the orders. So six
months looks about right to me. Maybe a year.

catherine yronwode

http://www.luckymojo.com/power.html
Power Spiritual Supplies

Yeah, its hard to estimate as there are so many variables. In terms of
the site being picked up by search engines though i would expect that
to be effective after 3 months or so. The thing is, and many people
underestimate this, is that the site will require regular love and
attention (like a real store) if it is to be successful. Content is
king so as long as you have good content and well written copy (from
the search engines perspective) and that you are competitive in your
pricing you should expect a return pretty quickly.

"Antigravity" <webmaster (AT) antigravitywebdesign (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

Yeah, its hard to estimate as there are so many variables. In terms of
the site being picked up by search engines though i would expect that
to be effective after 3 months or so. The thing is, and many people
underestimate this, is that the site will require regular love and
attention (like a real store) if it is to be successful.

Hear, hear. I know people who think that everybody can make a fortune with
paying 20 USD a year for a site, and have the son of the neighbour do the
design for the latest System of a Down CD :-D.

Content is
king so as long as you have good content and well written copy (from
the search engines perspective) and that you are competitive in your
pricing you should expect a return pretty quickly.

Or not. If it looks easy, you're probably looking wrong :-D.

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
or have them custom made
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/

Steve Harder-Kucera wrote:

As the subject says, semi-OT, but having lurked here I believe this
group collectively can help me with some feedback.

A few years ago I was contracted to build a website for a local
wedding chapel. At some point in the development process they called
me in a panic saying the website needed to be launched asap as they
were very tight on cash and needed the site to produce sales
immediately.

?? Not a good start chap lol. Bit of a tall order!

There were obviously operating under the assumption that the website
would bring in quick business immediately upon launch and had no other
marketing plans other than leads from the internet. For the record I
never led them to believe this.

I have a current customer whose site has been active for about thirty
days. We started an ADsense campaign last week and I'm just getting
ready to look at the traffic logs. I can tell you that there have been
no sales and the majority of the traffic has been one click in and
then out. Not quality visits. But that's a separate issue.

Im not reeally a advoctor of PPC to be honest but I also belive in being
at the bottom with a small charge per click as I think if people really
want buy somthing they will 'search em all' and people clcikig on the
bottom ones are better traffic for me anyway IMHO and the top one are
often big company im not really in the market to compeate with..

If you use this link.. Yhaoo give you a free £50. you have to sign up
with £60 but then have £110 to play with. Ok for a 4/500 smaller cost
clicks.

http://www.content.overture.com/d/UK...jhtml?o=GB0099

They launched in November expecting to do Christmas business. A lot of
their energy is focused on trying to get business "right now".

All things being equal, and they rarely are, what is a realistic time
frame for a website to start generating leads. I theorize 6-12 months
if someone takes an active role in promoting the site.

Thats what im looking at i.e this time next year working on it yeh
hoping to be pulling in then. 'Good profit' doing well for 100's small
terms , in good shopping places, traffic from links etc.

Feedback would be much appreciated.





Mutant Bluegrass That Rocks!
http://www.thepickadillos.com

One of my sites www.pennlanemusic.co.uk - ..I know guys I still have a
great deal of work to do iv been working on feeds, adding stuff and
setting up AW Stats, and making the thing. not SEO... Still im on my way.

Launched two months ago. I use Froogle (very good and free) and have
just compleated my Kelkoo feed as they have a free month

I am ok in Yahoo for some small terms 'cheap electric guitars' - 14 or
so 2nd page but alot of the first is kelkoo, ebay etc yadda is one and
for explicit product names.

Just started sold about 3/4k's worth so far ..making 2/3 sales a day.
not much but just the start.

James


--
James Helliwell
Firespin Design
w. www.firespin.co.uk
West Sussex Company specializing in
Web, Print Design, Illustration,
Hosting services and Support.
Affordable prices.