possibly starting a new ecommerce site

[amythepoet]

Good morning,

Here is the situation. Right now, I have one site that sells customized work.

Now, I am having a dilemma regarding the possibility of a second site and here is why.

The second site would sell already-made work. I don't know if I'm allowed to say what the services are in this forum, so I won't.

Anyway, my husband thought it advisable t o have a second site, as not to muddy the waters.

Do you agree?

I thought perhaps I could combine the two into one.

What do you advise?
-a-

[troels nybo nielsen]

Sounds like a good idea to create two different websites with two different product lines. I think that they should have related but slightly different design. And of course link to each other.

[amythepoet]

Hmm, well, I know of some sites that put both on the same site.

I am the one who would be responsible for making the new site and I think it's quite an undertaking, but I guess I could do it.

So, thank you for your input.

-a-

[Essex_boy]

How closely related are the two product ranges?

If your selling Cheese and rubber boots then Id put themon seperate sites but if its say mens shirt and mens underwear then Id put them together.

what chance is there of surfers buying both products with one visit?

[amythepoet]

That's the thing. I sell custom poetry for weddings and birthdays, etc.

Now, I also want to sell already-made poems for special occasions. I have the poems all set , ready to go.

Can't I just do that on one site and fix up the homepage to reflect that?

-a-

p.s. This shouldn't be so hard, but we're having a tough time of it. :)

[defanjos]

If I were you I would use the same site, simply add more pages to it. The product you want to add is pretty much in the same category as the ones you already sell.

Plus, your existing site is established already, it has good number of backlinks, it has good PR and is on DMOZ, why would you want to start from scratch again?

[amythepoet]

Right, I agree , o.k. - I will.

But now, how do I do this?

I am afraid of putting up entire poems on the site, as people will steal them. So I thought o.k., I will just put little bits of poems, how does that sound?

Plus, I wanted to display them on my stationery, so people could get a feel, but don't know how to do that either.

Please help .

Thank you

-a-

[Essex_boy]

Dont put your entire poems on the site, give a feel for them like list the title and just what the poem is about etc.

with the Stationary just place some text where where the poem is to go.

[amythepoet]

Oh ok, good advice.

This is what I'm going to do for now.

I am going to set up a little button on the first page that says "For a Free Poem, Click Here."

Then, that will bring them to a separate page and on that page I want to say "

I'll make you a deal... One Free Poem in exchange for your Opinion."

Then, I will ask them, let's say I sold the poems already made for $9.95 each including printing, would they buy one." If I got inundated with responses, then I willl add the new poems.

What do you think of that?

-a-

[Receptional]

Amy,

IMHO I disagree with people who recommend one site. I think you should consider two sites - even two separate legal identities. We had the same issue, we were selling a tailor made something costing about £500 on the same site as a "do-it-yourself" same thing for £30. The £30 item had started as an afterthought in the early days of teh web and we found it seriously started to damage our main business identity.

We therefore set up a new website, from the ground up, based around our keyphrase and put online marketing efforts into the new site. People could easily jump "up" to teh tailored service, but there were very few (if any) links "down" to the DIY service.

It was a good decision for us, due to the massive proce differential between the two offerings.

[amythepoet]

That's very interesting and I will keep it in mind.

There is a price differential between the two products, so that is a consideration, like you say.

Also, I have just put a link on my site asking if we did offer these already-made products for a lesser price, would they be interested?

My husband felt that before we jump in the water, we should get some feedback.

So, that is where we are at now.

Thank you for your note.

-a-