Forum Moderators: buckworks
After 4 years of study, investigation, and limited "fiddling about" I know a bit about SEO, SEM, HTML, CSS, ASP.NET, server admin, copywriting, site design, affiliate programs, shopping carts, etc.
I'm ready to start making mistakes. I'm ready to actually start an online business related to the sale of oil paintings.
Soooooo, tell me, what are the first dozen mistakes I am likely to mistake when starting up a venture involved in selling any product (oil paintings) online?
And the corollary: What will increase my chance of success?
[edited by: engine at 9:13 am (utc) on July 24, 2003]
[edit reason] No names, thanks. See TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
It doesnt need to be anything formal that will land you VC, but it is good to have a informal written set of goals and guidelines to follow.
What will increase my chance of success?
Luck and money.
How about finding a successful business in or related to your niche and try emulating them at first.
Your site needs to be professional enough to give customers the confidence to buy from you.
So you've got a nice site, body copy in keyword weighted, <title> and <description> is good.
Graphics are fine and people can see what they are buying.
So, how are they going to pay?
Do you have a merchant credit card account or PayPal?
How much is shipping? How will you ship? What about safe -secure packing?
Have you submitted to Dmoz, Google et al?
How fare did you get in this list?
Who would actually buy an oilpainting online? I wouldn't. A painting is something that I would really want to see in the flesh.
So are you sure a market actually exists in the first place? Based on what? And, if you find that there is a ready market for the product to be sold online, who are your target audience?
TJ
What do you refund, the price ex shipping or inc shipping etc?
Also, there apparently is a market for "photo to oil painting" art. Turn the kids picture into a portrait. I've seen some nice work in this area.
For unique pieces I'd have to agree: you really have to see them. However, in that realm, artists are always looking for exposure and to draw in regional interest (even small collectors will travel some distance or will drop-in on known galleries on their route) so perhaps the "online gallery as magnet to physical visit) approach would make sense.
What about affiliate programs? How does one actually manage to profit from affiliate programs and avoid getting SCRW'D?
there apparently is a market for "photo to oil painting" art
From my offline past I can confirm that there is a big market for this. The problem I found was that generally people didn't realise the amount of work involved, and would expect a week's work for about what I charged an hour, and I learned the hard way that I had to turn most requests down.
That may have been partly down to my 'advertising' technique though. I guess if you made the time/costs involved clear the from the start you'd put off a lot of people who expect an original for the price of a print.
Margins, Cash Flow, Unique Selling Proposition, Passion, and Vision.
Other mistakes you make you will overcome. Most of which can't be predicted.
Do what would normally be an ecom no-no and place a link to a big, high-res jpeg for each item and warn surfers that it is such.
I would also consider a toll-free number to be an absolute necessity as your selling skills will become paramount. I don't know your prices but I don't find myself ever thinking "gee, let me just whip out the Amex for this $2,800 piece of art at this web site I know nothing about."
Read everything about online fraud that you can find and consider calling every single customer before shipping. This will help with fraud. Also 50% of my customers are in the top 10% of spending power of U.S. households according to a consumer segmentation software. I've found that a "hello, how do you do, and your order will arrive Tuesday" call helps with repeat orders as they like the special treatment and expect to receive it in this spending category.
Forge relationships with your artists that have web sites and make sure they tell surfers that your site is the place to buy online. This will inspire confidence and with proper SEO your pages for each artist will do better than their own sites in serps.
One of the members of WW is responsible for what I believe is the the most visited art site on the net. I have sticky mailed the domain. You might shower him with gifts, bribes, etc. to get advice, links, or whatever. I have no relationship with the site, just saw the domain in a profile and thought "wow."
Kevin
To really earn a living on line I found impossible but I started to supply the local art shops and found that they would buy online at trade prices.
Tip: take several pieces to your local framing gallery have one framed at each. Put a label on the back saying bought from xyz.com.
And wait... Youll see orders coming from those shops!
It happened to me, sell plenty to art shops but if I had approached each wit a view to selling them art. Well i think it may have failed.
