Forum Moderators: buckworks
I have built a simple ecommerce site last 3 months ago. Well it wasn't really built from scratch since I used Yahoo webbuilder, not sure how many of you guys use this editor but it was so easy to integrate all the items and shopping cart together.
I guess my real question is, I was thinking of moving to a different webhosting server. To save money (maybe). Currently im paying 39$ for the ecommerce startup package. I'm not getting high traffic approx 100-150 hits a day. So bandwidth is not an issue atm. I guess im just looking if i can cut down the monthly cost of the site to a minimal. But at the same time not sure if cutting cost is worth giving out yahoo's easy to use e-cart.
I;m also thinking of just purchasing a template, so I can get a good site up and running fast. I don't want to get too technical since I want to spend more time with the product and customers. So as simple as possible is best.
Any advice, I know there's too many questions but im just trying to figure out what to do next to improve my site.
Moving to a different server simply because of costs may lead you down the wrong path. ('you get what you pay for') and until you're generating revenue, don't blame yahoo for a lack of visitors. You need to implement a marketing plan to aggressively get your URL out to the world.
Websites may be passive, but marketing is active. So, don't focus on the cost-per-month, but focus on the sales-per-month and then you'll be able to do the right thing.
Do some surfing around and you'll find loads of tips how to sell online. (www.about.com is one place) and you can review some of whats been written here in WebmasterWorld for additional guidance.
Good luck!
Patrick Elward
In regards to your questions:
If you want to drive more traffic to your site, you should try to seo your site by getting *inbound and outbound links* to your site. This should help out *some* by hopefully placing you higher in the search engines and thus producing more traffic to your site because of the amount of viewers that might click on your listing. You should look in the forum under *Link development*. Also, here is a thread that should help you out as far as overall development of your site.
[webmasterworld.com...]
Your gonna have to do alot of reading on this site, as there is alot of information on how to optimize your site. Well,... start studying!
:)
Hope this helps you out:)
Good luck!
frenzy77
Oops, I only focused on your traffic dilema. I'll address the main question.
In regards to your question:
As far is if you should stay with your host, you probably should stay with them if you find that their cart easy to use. Others might not be as easy, although if your site is not doing very well, it might also be smart if you left them now and started looking for a better deal. The reason being that if your site ever does get alot of traffic, it will cost you more money if your site goes over the amount of bandwith that your host allows.(hosts charge you a little more for the extra bandwidth per month.) I don't know how much your host charges for the extra bandwidth, it might be small per gb, but it adds up little by little.(that is if you get alot of extra traffic per month.) Example: $39 + extra 5 gb of bandwidth per month(extra payment *if* it goes over for any given month.) At a rate of possibly say
$5-$10 for *five gb* of bandwidth. Total for a given month= $44-$49 a month on a given month if it goes over. + whatever other costs you may have(merchant account...etc.) Well this is *only* a possible scenerio if your site would get alot of traffic and needed extra bandwidth. I am only being optimistic as I would hope your site would be prosperous and thus generate alot of traffic. But costs do add up eventually if people like your products. Again, I don't know how much bandwidth your host gives you but if it goes over the limit it will cost you a little more for that month. **Oh yeah, if they give you say 30gb-40gb that should be enough for a good site that has a pretty good amount of traffic. But for now if your not sure, it would would probably be smart to just stick with what is easiest for you to use(cart) especially if your site looks descent. Meaning that with other hosts they sometimes give you cheap looking templates and they don't look very good. The site design looks cheap.(very basic looking)
Well, if the price your paying is affordable for you then stick with them. It would be safe to stay with them since they are a well know host, and others may not be as reliable.
**Well, now that I think about it, stick with them, and focus on getting your site optimized to get more traffic and hopefully produce more cash flow. Then once your sales increase, you probably won't need to worry about that extra money per month because of your increase in sales. With that said, you can then try to increase some of your products prices by a little more to help with the monthly costs of your business. Anyway, these are merely suggestions, you should use your best judgement based on your overall income situation.
Well, hope that helps you out:)
Sticky mail me if you need some help. I'll try to help as much as I can.
Gotta bounce....
Good luck!
frenzy77
Also, thanks for the advice of staying with my webhost company. I did think about the "bigger hosting site is more reliable" when I first decided to start my account with them. But thanks for making this clear to me and reminding me again of what is more important than just saving a bit amount of money.
You can count on me sticky'ing you :D. I am new to ecommerce, thus i don't know where to start yet. Marketing, ads, setting up the site, plus the product itself. Not to mention the gateway for the transactions, and some tweaks that I want to add to my site which I have no clue how to do it yet :D. But I will keep learning and digging. I will email you if i get stuck somewhere.. thanks again!
