So confused, what to do next..

what to do

[amythepoet]

Hi,

I'm so perplexed. I thought you genius' out there would be able to give some advice.

I am trying to set up a site, using Oscommerce to sell pre-written poetry. Now, I am beginning to think this might not be the best idea to use. I don't know. So far, I have 200 poems that I want to sell and have started entering them in the catalog part of oscommerce. But I am not a programmer, I think I would need a web designer to help. Wouldn't you?

Also, I have another site, called Poemstogo.tv, where I sell custom created poetry. Now, that is working fine, but what do with these other poems, is the dilemma.

thanks!

Amy

[lorax]

Personally, I can't quite imagine the clientele that would be willing to pay for a poem. No offense intended - I'm just too far removed from the literary world. A book of poems, yes, but individual poems? That being said, I read through some of your other posts and your traffic seems to be at a good starting place but as rcjordan noted - perhaps those folks are looking for freebies.

So. I think you need to do some business analysis before moving ahead on anything. Mind you this comment comes without knowing how much planning/evaluation you've already done. But given the subject matter and my lack of familiarity - I'm having a hard time seeing a lucrative market. Personally, I've come to the decision that before I move ahead on any project I want to see at least 3 different revenue streams. That way if one performs poorly at least I have 2 more producing something. What I'm reading in your post is one solitary revenue stream - the cart. And that's risky.

Options I see are varied. You have a good beginning base of traffic. There are two immediate questions that come to mind. First: how can you turn that traffic into $$; and second: if they aren't the audience you're trying to reach, then how do you reach the audience you want to reach? There's actually a third question too: have you thought through all of the possible revenue generating ideas given your chosen subject? Is selling your poetry the only option or are there a few less obvious and more creative concepts you haven't yet found?

[amythepoet]

Thanks for your note. On the site that I have presently, I have conducted a survey to find out if people would be interested in pre-written poetry. The response has been great and while some people would not buy, there are plenty of people who will buy and price point is low - $9.95, as opposed to $59.95 for a customized one, which is what I charge now on t he pre-existing site. So, my web host that it wise to start a new site. I t hought perhaps we could combine the two into one, but no, they said, it would be too distracting. I said alright, but I am not a programmer and I am trying to first, get the poems online at oscommerce site, I only will put on one or two stanzas of about 100 poems, but then I need someone to design the site around this.

It seems to me to be a big problem, I don't know what to do.

So I will call it a day for today.

Thanks

Amy

[derekwong28]

If you like OS Commerce, I suggest you look at cubecart instead. It is based on OS Commerce but is much easier to use. It is the easiest cart I have seen so far. Another possibility is litecommerce but it is more complicated.