Hi people,
I am rather new to this, and have come for your help. I recently have taken on the process of building a business, though I have no expierience. I have learned alot to get me to this point. I have product and I have a website. I am putting the backend in place to support this endeavor.
It seems I am never happy with my website, www.huejazz.com ,I can't stop fidgeting with it. I assume it's a never ending process.
I do however have a large underlying problem. "Time".
I have all the free time I need to accomplish this now, but I only have till October to show results.
This is where I need your input. I have read through the forums and have found alot of information. Alot! But how do I apply it? Whats first? How do I make this work? Maybe this isn't the proper place for this type of discussion if not tell me where?

I thank you for your time.
Mike

Hi Mike!

I've working in the website design and internet marketing field for over 5 years now. The first thing I would suggest is make the site uniform. It jumps around from different banners and one page imparticular looked more like a word doc. I understand that you are a new business so a lot of the site is probably still in progress.

The biggest suggestion and piece of advice is make the website user friendly first and then you can worry about the search engines. I don't know how many times I've told my clients that if the site doesn't have the content consumers are looking for a call to action plan there really isn't a point in worrying about anything else.

You mentioned that time is of the essence. Two things I might mention regarding your time frame...

1. SE Results will take time - It doesn't happen overnight contrary to popular belief and we don't have any magically pixy dust that makes your site pop up in the blink of an eye. I tell all of my clients to give it a 6 - 9 month grace period for new sites in Google especially. Obviously this isn't a set standard. I have one client who had decent results after 3 months and another that is just seeing placement after 9 months in Google.

2. If you are serious about getting the site up to par before October and don't feel you know enough about how implement the right SEO tactics, do some research and hire a Virtual Assistant or SEO Manager to handle the site. Of course this depends on your budget for this type of work as it can get expensive depending on who you go with.

I hope this helps Mike! Oh, and if you're interested check out my website for info on Virtual Assistant program. ;)

- Jennifer :)

Hello Mike! Bienvenido a SEW Forums!

Hope this thread is useful when building your business: Website Valuation Models (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=673).

Saludos,

Nacho

I appreciate your thoughts. Thats what I am looking for. I have recently done what you suggested. Straightening it up so to speak. Let me know what you think.

I have to wing this myself, money is a big concern. Not to whine but I used the last bit of money I had on the major pinnings of this endeaver, equipment, supplies, and so forth.

My disability insurance runs out in November and I am trying to find a little security in something. I can't depend on social security and someone hiring me after having my back fused is about nil!

I am between learning the equipment and backend processes and learning to design web pages.(whew! my brain is smokin and wrinkly).

So........any input, evaluation, or comments are very important to me. I will use your advice and check out your sites.

Thanks alot
Mike

Thanks Nacho,

Thats a simple but accurate breakdown. I'm not looking for a quick fix, I want the right fix. I'm not building a home page. Thats why I came to this forum. "When you want to learn, learn from the best"

Also at some point I would like to target other nationalities, particularly hispanic, is that what you do?

Thanks again
Mike

Be sure to build your mailng list as you develop your business.

PS: check out my signatre.. it might give you a jumpstart

Hey Badmojo,

I guess there are a few things that you need to do but you need to prioritise - if this were my project I'd;

write a list of everything, and I mean everything, that needs to be sorted out - from the really tiny stuff (looking at your homepage in 1024 it shows a horizontal scroll bar - won't effect business but annoys the whatsit out of me....) up to the big stuff like 'seo' and 'marketing'

Then go through and seperate those out into things you can do at no cost and know how to and things you need help with.

The things you can do is a no brainer - do them :) - I'd include things like a logo redesign - if you look at the graphics you're selling they appeal to your target market - then look at your logo - which probably doesn't - add some flames or use the design from your pc case...

Next priority is marketing so you can get some income to invest in the stuff you can't do. Since you have a nice defined market (somewhat limiting for your sales of hello kitty stickers perhaps but you can always look at expanding that side later ;) ) you may want to create some bumper graphics showing your url, attach a 10% discount voucher to them and hand them out at, er, wherever testosterone driven teen boys hang out where you live.

You could also offer to produce stickers for your local radio, newspaper, highschool football team etc in return for an ad somewhere helpful.

Meanwhile if you read all you can about SEO you'll find yourself redefining some of that 'what I cant do' list. IMO if you need to earn a living from a site it's better to do SEO right first time than to rush in and do a bad job. Read everything you can, ask specific questions and err on the cautious side because your site's so important to you.

While it may be your dream to run a fully online business I honestly think that if you need to make a profit by October then it's easiest to kick start sales offline - your site is great for a first site but it doesn't have that professional 'oomph' yet which will likely come as you get more experienced (or when you have the cash to buy it), when you add to that you don't know much about SEO yet you're likely to struggle to make a living breaking into the market unless you can prove how good your stuff is and get them coming back for more. Look at it as two projects - short term income and long term profits - SEO will give you the profits but you're going to have to do the short term stuff as well until it kicks in :)

Thanks Gurtie,
You've given me some valuable information. I will take your advice it's very sound.
Writing things down is not a habit I have been able to master yet, I keep trying!
Are you advising me to "sex it up" a bit ? Would I be alienating women as customers? or maybe it doesn't mater due to nature of my product. hmmm.......
Working on the flames !
I think the 1024 is easy......bugs me too!
Does it load slow?

now about robot.txt...........hmm lets see

heres something,

I have noticed this. When I go to certain web pages, even MSN, the page only takes up part of my screen? It's like 800x600 no mater what. Is there a need for this ? Is 800x600 the norm? I wouldn't think so anymore. What gives with the small sites, that bugs me more than a scroll bar at the bottom.

yes it's 800x600, yes it's the norm and yes people do still use it. They also still use IE4 and some evil people use IE on a Mac which I can almost guarantee won't work with something on your site.

You can avoid the 800x600 thing by designing the site so it'll expand/contract, which you almost have at the moment. Although that does present its own problems as people now use some really high resolutions and you loose a lot of control over how the site looks.

You have a website called HueJazz (with a picture of a bodykitted car on it) and now you're worried about alienating women? :)

well....the 1024 resize bit wasn't so easy! About messed things up pretty good. (gotta write things down, and back things up duh!)

I suppose you're right. I suppose my own testosterone level may be an underlying factor here :D . I didn't meen it, honest!

"Be close to your target market" think I read it somewhere.

Thanks again Gurtie :)

Also at some point I would like to target other nationalities, particularly hispanic, is that what you do?

Thanks again
Mike
Yes, that's exactly what we do. We love it! There is so much potential for growth when no competition knows about, it's quite amazing how big it is.