Guest RyanMillerDotcom Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 I have had cubecart for 2-3 years about. I am sort of getting annoyed. I still have a pr of 0. About 6 months ago i installed a "seo" mod that "supposedly" helps. Nothing is working. And on top of that the cart just is so non-functional. If your paying for the software why don't they include mods into them instead of having you pay tons and tons of money. It seems so irrational. Software like vbulletin.com (forums software) is a one time fee that includes tens of thousands of free mods, thousands of free skins, a on site template editor, ect ect ect. I don't understand why cubecart makes you pay so much to just have to pay more. Cubecart should look into what they are doing. Why does cuebcart use session ids and all. Go onto any seo forum and they will let you know how bad they are. So what are you going to tell me... of course go buy another mod or install another piece of software. I just am wondering why is all of this.my site: pbmansion.com support/ feedback/ help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Hi Ryan, I can't see many inbound links in to your store - and you don't have many pages indexed on Google. If you've read any SEO forums, you'll know that you need some links to your site. Place your site url as your signature in the forums you frequent (including this one) -obviously, don't spam. Try to find similar sites to link to you. PR isn't all its cracked up to be - there are other ways to bring in customers. Search for CubeCart mods on google- the #1 site has PR0..... Searching for cubecart skins has a PR4 for #1 site. Do you advertise anywhere? This will include Google Products (Base), and MSN product search - both are free, and I get many sales from Google Product search. Look at your stats -where are your visitors coming from? A smallish store should get somewhere between 10 and 30 visitors (not hits) a day. As a guide, I set-up a store last November, and she has a PR0, but gets about 10 visitors/day- she's done no promotion for various reasons. As a last resort, consider changing hosts (or asking them to move you to a different server/ip address) - a site sharing your servers IP address may be blacklisted by google... Hopefully you can see there is quite a bit to look at. The only thing you can measure well is visitors and where they come from (and how they found you). Google will re-evaluate PR every few months, so any change will take time to have an effect there. However, if you're not using Google Products/MSN product search, sort it out now, and once the feed has been validated, you should see increased traffic. Obviously there are many things to influence sales, so I'd concentrate on a traffic increase for now. I assume you are having some sales (just to ensure your cart is working) Regarding the price of CC with Mods -you'll find its still good value, if you look at other options. A BBS will be different, as many BBS owners are running their board for fun, so are happy to share their code - there is little money in that area of the web. Stores, however, are all about money - and whilst there are many free mods/skins, authors soon latched on to the fact that store owners are buinesses people and may not want to learn PHP/CSS/XHTML -hence the commercial side. Not many ecommerce solutions will try to do everything. That said, for less than $100, you should be able to get a pretty good CC store, fully licenced. If you're serious about the project, that is a very small cost. I note you're using one of the default skins, and the SEO mod is the free version, so apart from the licence fee, you've probably had very little outlay. I hope this is of some help and encouragement. Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RyanMillerDotcom Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Hi Ryan, I can't see many inbound links in to your store - and you don't have many pages indexed on Google. If you've read any SEO forums, you'll know that you need some links to your site. Place your site url as your signature in the forums you frequent (including this one) -obviously, don't spam. Try to find similar sites to link to you. PR isn't all its cracked up to be - there are other ways to bring in customers. Search for CubeCart mods on google- the #1 site has PR0..... Searching for cubecart skins has a PR4 for #1 site. Do you advertise anywhere? This will include Google Products (Base), and MSN product search - both are free, and I get many sales from Google Product search. Look at your stats -where are your visitors coming from? A smallish store should get somewhere between 10 and 30 visitors (not hits) a day. As a guide, I set-up a store last November, and she has a PR0, but gets about 10 visitors/day- she's done no promotion for various reasons. As a last resort, consider changing hosts (or asking them to move you to a different server/ip address) - a site sharing your servers IP address may be blacklisted by google... Hopefully you can see there is quite a bit to look at. The only thing you can measure well is visitors and where they come from (and how they found you). Google will re-evaluate PR every few months, so any change will take time to have an effect there. However, if you're not using Google Products/MSN product search, sort it out now, and once the feed has been validated, you should see increased traffic. Obviously there are many things to influence sales, so I'd concentrate on a traffic increase for now. I assume you are having some sales (just to ensure your cart is working) Regarding the price of CC with Mods -you'll find its still good value, if you look at other options. A BBS will be different, as many BBS owners are running their board for fun, so are happy to share their code - there is little money in that area of the web. Stores, however, are all about money - and whilst there are many free mods/skins, authors soon latched on to the fact that store owners are buinesses people and may not want to learn PHP/CSS/XHTML -hence the commercial side. Not many ecommerce solutions will try to do everything. That said, for less than $100, you should be able to get a pretty good CC store, fully licenced. If you're serious about the project, that is a very small cost. I note you're using one of the default skins, and the SEO mod is the free version, so apart from the licence fee, you've probably had very little outlay. I hope this is of some help and encouragement. Jason I just don't think i need to buy all of these mods. Why do they make you pay for these mods? Can i have more feedback from you guys on the other ?'s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Hi Ryan, I've just placed a test order, and your store appears to function as I expect. However, I was able to order a ~$900 gun, and your store was offering free shipping to the UK.. You can restrict your shipping locations by ISO code. I'm a bit confused on your comment about the store being "non-functional" - can you please eleborate? Navigation, search etc all work fine. I can't see any mods on your store, apart from the SEO mod (which is free). So you have a working store, and your only expenditure is CubeCart licence. Did you pay $160 for VBulletin? The CubeCart license is curently $89, but was on discount for some time - so you may have paid less. So, you paid close to 1/2 the price of the Board software on something fundemental to selling your goods online. When you signed up a lease on your physical store, did it have the sign/tills/decor you needed - or did you have to pay extra for these "mods" As it stands, you've not had a lot of expenditure for your online store, compared to what you could have paid. There are quite a few free mods that would make a big difference to your store, and also a few free skins, that you may want to consider. For free and commerical mods/skins, visit www.cubecartforums.org and www.cubecart.org - see you over there! Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Cubecart is a functional store right out of the box, but naturally, not everyone wants/needs the same things which is why mods were created. You can pick and choose what you want to customize your store the way you want it. And of course, you can if you choose invest time to learn cubecart and php so you can do your own and then you don't have to pay for a thing - other than your own time of course. There are free mods as well as paid ones - some are complex and take time, time should be worth something which is why some mod creators charge for there mods. Cubecart itself has no control over that so perhaps you should discuss the question of charging at cubecartforums.org where the modders hang out. As far as sales problems - google base is the single best thing to do to increase sales. I notice my sales drop if my feed has expired without realizing it. Do you submit to it and keep your feed active? Do you add new products regularly? If you installed the SEO mod, it removes the session links so that isn't an issue. Sessions help cart software keep track of a customers basket as they are browsing. Personally, I did some SEO optimizing of my own and never installed the SEO mod, never killed sessions, and I get on average 10-20 sales a day from my stores. So that isn't a factor. I also noticed you have a pretty active forum community - yet you don't have any links to you store from your forum? You have to assume some people are visiting your forum and don't even know you have a store. If you've had your store up for 2-3 years and have had 0 sales, I'd take a look at more than CC. I know nothing about paintball (though I am a gamer and used to play lasertag - one of those rare older female gamers ), but I did a search and looked at some of your competitors and it seems to me, your prices especially on the guns is a LOT higher. I know it is often hard to compete price wise, but if you are higher, you need to do something to entice visitors to shop with you instead of your competitor. Offering free shipping, giving free ammo with each gun, etc, would be such ideas. Participating on other forums with a good signature set up is a great way for free publicity too. And when you go to paintball events (which I assume you do even if you don't play yourself), be sure to have flyers and hand them out. I go to a lot of sci-fi conventions all of which have flyer tables - I put stacks of flyers on the table at every event and always see an increase in local sales afterwards. I always have business cards with me too - its amazing how many times I end up discussing x thing (that I happen to sell) and will give out a card at a restaurant, etc. You also it seems offer a lot less options on the guns than other stores do. Almost all the ones I looked had listed upgrades like hopper and HPA Tank, etc. I would also think about adding a payment plan for higher priced items. Let customers pay for a gun over time for example. Paintball is an unnecessary expense - fun, not bills and every day living. Making it easier for customers to buy "luxury items" is always a good thing - even for adults, and especially for the kid/teen market. Also I saw you have a photo site link, yet you have none of the photos on your store. It's rather plain vanilla. Make it exciting - gamers love graphics and fun things. Add a listing of tournaments, or product reviews. Or a blog about your latest games (where you also talk about using X gun that you sell or y ammo or that cool gadget - that you sell). This type of thing builds a community around your store and keeps customers interested in your store opposed to store x. And blogs are picked up on other searches as well increasing your link reach. I also see you have a store in Florida - do you have flyers for your site there? And why do you mention it, but NOT give the address, a map, etc? If I were a potential customer, I would be thrown by that and think there was something shady about it. Your email link isn't a link. Your contact us page needs a LOT of work - truthfully, it looks more like you are a teen selling stuff from your garage than a professional business - plus the typos don't help. Expecting someone to buy from you - and buy items in excess of $500 - is unreasonable with all of the above. Remember a lot of people are still afraid of ordering online and you are doing nothing to reassure them that you are on the level - especially enough so for me to send you $1000 for a gun! Your news/updates is a links page - why not call it that instead? There is no mention I could see of payment methods - don't make a potential customer hunt for information that should be upfront and center. Do you take credit cards? (since you have a storefront, I would think you do). Add their logos to your front page. I am assuming at least a chunk of paintballers are teens/underage. You need to reassure parents who are probably making the purchase. Tell them why they should buy from you. Tell them what kind of refund policy you offer, payment plans, after the sale support (can their kid email/call you with questions after they get their gun)? Etc. Help them buy the right safety equipment to go with that gun. I could go on but hopefully the above will get you thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest webicon Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Great advice from both Jason and Lori there... especially about getting one-way inward bound links. The mods as Mysty pointed out are 'add-ons' but is worth noting they are not made by the Devellion Ltd (the cubecart programmers) - it is not a ploy to part you with additional money - as these guysaren't making money from any of the mods. For the main product I think their price is a fair one given the amount of work they have put into making this program and supporting it. One last thing - I'd like to chime in about your Robots.txt file. You have stopped all robots going to a number of files. I personally would not put the following in the list.. Disallow: /index.php?act=login Disallow: /index.php?act=taf (tell a friend page) Disallow: /cart.php depending on the robot - this could potentially prevent the robot spidering your site as the index.php and cart.php files are the global templates for every page on your site... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RyanMillerDotcom Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 can i have more info? Also where are you seeing these spelling errors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 can i have more info? Also where are you seeing these spelling errors? Ryan, From my previous pos Place your site url as your signature in the forums you frequent (including this one) -obviously, don't spam. Try to find similar sites to link to you. What have *you* done in the last 3 weeks? Have you built any inbound links? I can't see any url in your signature (this should be a proper link) Have you submitted a Google Products /MSN Products feed - or asked how to do it? Whats happening with your stats- you have Google Analytics installed. Where are your visitors coming from (forums/google/msn or direct). Direct would be fairly bad if you're not getting many other visitors, as its probably people you already know! Obviously there are people who can do this for you for a fee, but there are no real quick fixes, other than advertising on Adwords etc. If you're on a budget, you'll have to learn to be a bit more proactive. Most of us were not born with the knowledge, its a matter of reading and learning. Fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with your store - you have a wide product range, nice descriptions. You've done most of the hard work! Personally, I'd use a different skin (free or commercial), but this shouldn't really stop you getting visitors - just orders! Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 can i have more info? Also where are you seeing these spelling errors? Well on a quick recheck, on your contact us page (which hasn't changed since I first look at your site btw), "Please Note: Store hours varry, Execpted responce via phone is less then 1 hour." Hopefully, you see the typos there! lol There may have been others but honestly cannot remember since the last time I looked at your site. The grammar, at least of that line, isn't the best either. You need to project a professional image to get sales. Lori Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mxcemel Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 IMHO running an online store is the same as running a non-virtual store: not a single storeowner will get rich by just waiting for he money to come his way. Cubecart or any other software is just a tool to achieve your goal Be inventive, know the product you sell inside-out, work hard, learn from your competitors, good products wil always sell => it's up to you to find and keep customers.A salesman number one rule : you're on your own. (number two : start local , then broaden) On this board 99,99% of the members are salesman, including the moderators.Do not excpect to much help or inside information from competitors.90% answers on this board are +/- 'please visit .org' ( yes we are salesman) This used to be different in the early days of CC , but hey,...times do change. So you want to tweak the software : learn php, html and css. CubeCart is more then verry good and cheap software, so use it, work with it , but don't just rely on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted August 14, 2007 Share Posted August 14, 2007 On this board 99,99% of the members are salesman, including the moderators.Do not excpect to much help or inside information from competitors.90% answers on this board are +/- 'please visit .org' ( yes we are salesman) This used to be different in the early days of CC , but hey,...times do change. So you want to tweak the software : learn php, html and css. CubeCart is more then verry good and cheap software, so use it, work with it , but don't just rely on it. I think that is inaccurate. I don't sell mods, I certainly don't sell Paintball gear, and as far as I know, nor does Mysty and Webicon. We're all trying to help. I think the advice so far has been pretty reasonable, certainly not asking Ryan to spend money at ccf.org There is little "inside information". Whilst the moderators may speak to Al/Devilion or exchange emails, its not in Devilions interest to hide information about the cart software from their customers. Obviously, if someone has a successful store, they will mention it to others. The referrals to cc.org /ccf.org came about some time ago to separate the core program from 3rd party mods. I don't think there are many instances of mod owners forwarding people to buy their own mods. In this instance, I'm recommending a visit to ccf.org due to the amount of free mods/skins and excellent information there. Obviously commercial services need to exist, but there is a good mix of both, and most mod/skin authors have a few free products. If you check out the free mods on ccf.org, there have been some excellent submissions in the last few weeks. Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robsta Posted August 14, 2007 Share Posted August 14, 2007 I'd just like to mention that these forums are not the only website on the internet that can offer help with getting traffic. There are hundreds of thousands of other resources that can help, it only takes a few minutes to Google and read. Ryan doesn't help himself as the forum looks quite active, yet there are no links to the store from the forum. The store and forum look completely different, fluid navigation between them is impossible. The skin used is the basic killer skin with little or no alterations/improvements. There is no 'sales' text on the front page of the store. The first thing visitors see are links to the picture gallery and forum... which guides visitors to leaving the store.... there no links back from the gallery either. There is a wealth of information out there on how to get traffic to a site. A little bit of pro-active reading will do wonders. It's how we all learn :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mxcemel Posted August 14, 2007 Share Posted August 14, 2007 On this board 99,99% of the members are salesman, including the moderators.Do not excpect to much help or inside information from competitors.90% answers on this board are +/- 'please visit .org' ( yes we are salesman) This used to be different in the early days of CC , but hey,...times do change. So you want to tweak the software : learn php, html and css. CubeCart is more then verry good and cheap software, so use it, work with it , but don't just rely on it. I think that is inaccurate. I don't sell mods, I certainly don't sell Paintball gear, and as far as I know, nor does Mysty and Webicon. We're all trying to help. I think the advice so far has been pretty reasonable, certainly not asking Ryan to spend money at ccf.org There is little "inside information". Whilst the moderators may speak to Al/Devilion or exchange emails, its not in Devilions interest to hide information about the cart software from their customers. Obviously, if someone has a successful store, they will mention it to others. The referrals to cc.org /ccf.org came about some time ago to separate the core program from 3rd party mods. I don't think there are many instances of mod owners forwarding people to buy their own mods. In this instance, I'm recommending a visit to ccf.org due to the amount of free mods/skins and excellent information there. Obviously commercial services need to exist, but there is a good mix of both, and most mod/skin authors have a few free products. If you check out the free mods on ccf.org, there have been some excellent submissions in the last few weeks. Jason Don't take my words personally Jason, I had a really big headache , writing an e-loyaltycard mod for a CC store for hours (with success hooray) My message was intended for Ryan. All Ryan needs to know and should do is answered in more then proffesional way by yourself and Mysty. I just have a problem with lazyness I guess :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted August 14, 2007 Share Posted August 14, 2007 Hehe, no worries - its 11pm and I've just finished a meeting with a local lady I'm building a store for. Guess who has the headache now (buy eyeing up a cold beer in the fridge....) Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RyanMillerDotcom Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 I am still having problems. My whole site is still pr0. Is my content being seen as duplicate content on the home page? I really need some help. My stats aren't going up either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 I am still having problems. My whole site is still pr0. Is my content being seen as duplicate content on the home page? I really need some help. My stats aren't going up either. Hi Ryan, I've replied to your PM -email me when your available to chat online. Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 Ryan: Your site looks the same as the first time I looked at it. - even with the same typos. Looks to me like you haven't taken any of the advice offered. Why not try doing a few of the things suggested before you say you still need help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest xceejayx Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 you're not gonna make money just sitting around doing nothing :w00t: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vokf Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 No PM from him, I've offered to chat via Skype/MSN etc. I'd say a few hours with his store would help, and shouldn't cost anything, if he does it himself. I'd personally suggest product titles as H1, use a free skin to improve appearance, seo mod, Google Product submission, Google Sitemap (now a free mod). Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RyanMillerDotcom Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 No PM from him, I've offered to chat via Skype/MSN etc. I'd say a few hours with his store would help, and shouldn't cost anything, if he does it himself. I'd personally suggest product titles as H1, use a free skin to improve appearance, seo mod, Google Product submission, Google Sitemap (now a free mod). Jason i have added a new blog pbmansion.com/blog , gotten new links to our site (digitalpaintball.net and hundreds of more) , bought vbseo for the forums , started an ebay store (http://stores.ebay.com/PBMansion-Store) , and fixed the typos I need a new layout to incorporate the blog, forums, and store all into one layout and theme. How can i accomplish this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RyanMillerDotcom Posted September 18, 2007 Share Posted September 18, 2007 Still lost... help? I mean I can pay for a site redesign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DarkSunStudio Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 I am still having problems. My whole site is still pr0. Is my content being seen as duplicate content on the home page? I really need some help. My stats aren't going up either. I've just visited your site. I believe overall, you need more content that will point crawlers to your site, because there is little text. Those spiders LOVE text, you have hardly any, and what you do have is poorly spelled. Poor spelling will mean your words don't get called by a search - while others do. Clean up the site a bit, I would say that's a start - make contact us a bit less mysterious. I would not send any money to this store under those circumstances. Seems you ask for a lot of help, but you don't help yourself. Why? Why do you ignore the help posted here in spades, don't answer it, don't thank these folks - but post yet again how you need MORE feedback? It's shameful. sorry everyone, but I'm 35 years old, with three girls, and Ryan, you remind me of a very ungrateful, lazy teenager. Sorry again. T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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