Who has a Website & Is it worth it?

[JSR]

I KNEW I wasn't thinking outside the box and was sort of one track minded. So for my ad words which work as key words?
I could maybe focus on the custom printed tees/personalised tees/t shirt printing in Cornwall/ hen night as you have mentioned/gifts from Cornwall/gift ideas/funny t shirts.... along those lines?

Now if I want to do say a month here and there ie before Xmas or when I have promotions on that is ok?

I really appreciate someones feedback as of course I don't get any from the people who buy from the site. ( Several come back and buy again which is pleasing ) Hearing your thoughts outside of the box is great and i'm always happy for any comments.

I think I will try this soon as posting dates for Christmas delivery abroad is upon us and some are too late. A lot of my tees go abroad so I need to get my thinking cap on for the correct adwords

You can change the wording of your ad whenever you want to, or set up several ads and let Google use them at random or with certain keywords. For instance, if someone searches for "Hen Night t-shirts", your ad could say "Buy Hen Night T-Shirts... (etc)" but if they search for "Baby Clothing", your ad might say "Buy Baby Basics from...(etc)". If you're doing a special offer - like a 20% sale or something, then you could change the wording of your ads to reflect that.

The more common the search phrase is, the more expensive it'll be because everyone's trying to get noticed - for instance, if I Google for "Personalised Mugs", £1 per day isn't going to do me any favours. But Googling for "Personalised Colour Change Mugs" might stand more of a change. It's just a case of being sensible and having realistic goals based on how much you're prepared to spend. After all, there are people out there who won't buy from the advertiser listed at the top (due to the logic of "if they can afford that much advertising, their prices must be expensive!") so it's really just a case of trying it.

There are other ways of advertising, Adwords is just one of them.

[AJLA]

Thanks ever so much for your hints, i'm doing some serious thinking now (it hurts

The thing is for exmple searching for personalised mugs that is exactly what I would google for as until i got into the subli business I would not of known to search for a colour change mug. Surely someone offering those personalised t shirts will be using those words so are you suggesting using the words in a short sentrence?
Sorry but i'm a bit naive with all this it's all a differnt lingo

[JSR]

Thanks ever so much for your hints, i'm doing some serious thinking now (it hurts

The thing is for exmple searching for personalised mugs that is exactly what I would google for as until i got into the subli business I would not of known to search for a colour change mug. Surely someone offering those personalised t shirts will be using those words so are you suggesting using the words in a short sentrence?
Sorry but i'm a bit naive with all this it's all a differnt lingo

With something like Adwords, you're never going to be able to compete with the big companies who can throw hundreds of pounds into advertising. Our kinds of budgets just can't compete.

When you're setting up your keywords, you'll get an idea of the kind of cost of the keyword or phrase. Most of the time you're going to be looking at specific phrases that are cheap enough that you'll get impressions (so people see you) and the occasional click.

However, it doesn't mean you'll never get in a good position with a low budget.

Let's imagine the example of the phrase "Personalised Mugs" that may, in a prime position, be worth 75p for a click - which someone like Bonusprint is happy to pay hundreds of times a day. At your £1 per day, it's out of your price range. However, if you don't get (m)any clicks that day, Google will be working to spend your £1 budget. That means you could conceivably end up with your ad as high as the others on a popular phrase like that. It may only be there ten times and clicked just once, but then you have only spent £1 - your competitors may have spent £50.

Until you try it out you probably won't get a grasp on how it works. I know that, before I had a go, I couldn't see that my minuscule budget would ever get any interest - and I felt sure none of my ads would ever be on the front page. But it does work. You won't always be there on this kind of budget, but maybe that's a good thing. You will be there occasionally and that may attract people who are fed up with the likes of Tescos or whoever or who are fed up with seeing the same old ads all the time.

Adwords won't suddenly make you a millionaire with hundreds of customers whizzing to your door but, like all forms of advertising, it helps.

I tend to find that the oddest searches bring people to my site - such as "glass coaster" - but I still end up selling more mugs than anything else, even though I'm sure no one finds me on Google by typing "personalised mug"..!

[AJLA]

I'm actually in the process of having a look OMG! I think it's way beyond me all the words I have chosen or phrases have come up as top words almost 2.00USD each

[JSR]

I'm actually in the process of having a look OMG! I think it's way beyond me all the words I have chosen or phrases have come up as top words almost 2.00USD each

It comes up in £ and pennies for me.

Most of my keywords/phrases are set to "auto". Looking at yesterday's report, most of the keywords were about 5-7p. A couple (such as "coffee mug") would have cost 21p if they'd been shown.

If you set your budget to £1 per day, then it should alert you to the keywords you've got no chance of affording.

The reports will also give you an analysis of your chosen keywords and whether they are showing on the front page of a particular search. Looking at mine at the moment, I see that "personalised keyrings" won't show but "dog keyring" will show. Sure enough, I google for "dog keyring", and there I am in the orange banner at the top of the page next to Amazon (who, I'm sure, pay a heck of a lot more per day than I do!).

It's all about going for less generic keywords and more specific ones.

It may seem that "personalised keyring" is something people would search for, but if someone is looking for a gift for Christmas for a dog owner, they may just type "dog keyring" - and I've a good chance of getting them on my site for what amounts to 7p. I consider that a bargain.

[AJLA]

How do you set the keywords to Auto?

I think the problem is.. if i'm offering a photo keyring or whatever it is, it is what it is isn't it ?or a personalised one.
Perhaps i am in need of a thesaurus.

[JSR]

How do you set the keywords to Auto?

I can't recall how I set mine up. I think I just entered the keywords and followed whatever it said.

I think the problem is.. if i'm offering a photo keyring or whatever it is, it is what it is isn't it ?or a personalised one.
Perhaps i am in need of a thesaurus.

It depends how you look at it. My dog keyrings are personalised keyrings (printed on the tiny t-shirt which is fitted to the tiny dog with a keyring loop coming out of its head). The keyword attracts the person who's interested in a keyring for their doggie friend first, and then they realise they can have it personalised. There's nothing to stop you putting "personalised dog keyring" in your list of keywords in addition to "dog keyring". I've added many over time with and without the word "personalised", and other permutations.

Truth be told, I need to spend a bit more time getting my Adwords better optimised. I'm certainly no expert. I just started, armed with £30, and waded into it one month.

[Stitch Up]

JSR, I took a look at your website and am impressed.

I've been struggling with osCommerce & PHP but finding it fiendishly difficult!

How much ability does one need to create a website in Zencart? Any tips?

Cheers

John

[JSR]

JSR, I took a look at your website and am impressed.

I've been struggling with osCommerce & PHP but finding it fiendishly difficult!

How much ability does one need to create a website in Zencart? Any tips?

Cheers

John

It is pretty easy, but then I come from a background of websites. I've never actually been trained or anything like that, but I have been dabbling with them since 1999.

If you like, I could help you get ZenCart set up to begin with so you can have a play about and see what it's like. I would normally recommend people to do it themselves because you'll be the one who'll be upgrading it when necessary, but if you'd like some help just let me know.

To set it up for you, I'd need access to your hosting account so best to do that by PM or email.

To do it yourself, it's just a case of downloading the relevant zip file from http://www.zen-cart.com/ and then extract, upload by FTP, and follow the instructions. You don't really need to know PHP unless/until you're ready to alter files (and, even then, it's just a matter of "copy & tweak" - you'll never be expected to write PHP scripts yourself). In fact, the less fiddling about you do in the PHP files, the easier any upgrade will be.

Alternatively, you may want to check out their "Certified Hosts" link to see if there's a company that'll do the ZenCart installs/updates for you (they won't do the setting up of products, I wouldn't have thought). The flexibility of ZenCart means you can do it the way you want to do it.

JSR

[AJLA]

Just to update you JSR I thought I would bite the bullet and buy my little space on google. I'm now however about to throw in the towel!
Literally it is doing my brain in.
Filled out the form using key words suggested by them but they keep telling me they are invalid. I've swapped it, changed them, reduced the number to 10 and it still won't do it and can't even remember the keywords I originally started with.

Think i'll have to give up on that one.