Uggghhh, I've been on the computer all week, many, many hours! I've been trying to blog for days, but I was on a mission to launch my new website~ Yay!!
Awhile back I started getting my business cards through Vistaprint because well... they were free! Then, I decided to upgrade because I wanted my own design, and recently I became reaware that they offer websites. A couple of years ago I had tried this when I opened Simply Smitten, and I was not impressed. It seemed very limited, and I canceled before the free trial was even over. However, I thought I'd try it again, I hoped that things had been updated and advanced in the past two years!
So, on Sunday I signed up for my free month trial of the most expensive package (30.00 per month) because it was the only one that offered a Paypal shopping cart. I spent a couple of hours Sunday trying to figure things out, basically getting the hang of it again. It seemed easier, although there are still a couple of things that don't please me. I was thrilled that they offer much support on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which I've been reading a lot about lately, and applying to Simply Smitten. So, Monday and Tuesday were spent setting up shop. Of course that had to be worked around school, cooking, chores and sleep, but I got a lot done. ;) Last night I officially published my new website Inspiration-earth.com. I'll admit, I had butterflies!
There are still some things I need to tweak, and some more things to figure out. Let's suppose I get found on this enormous World Wide Web. In Etsy I only list one of each item. I do have the stock for more of all my Inspiration Earth products, but someone would have to contact me for a large quantity. On the Vistaprint site it's left wide open. I wish they had an option of "quantity available", especially if it adjusted as one was sold. I suppose I can go in and do this myself, it just means more work that I will have to continually keep on top of. Right now, I'm just going to play it by ear, still thinking on that one...
Also, shipping is less than desirable. I have a separate shipping price listed for each item, (like in Simply Smitten), but if someone were to place a large order, that shipping would be off. There is an option listed on there about going through Paypal, I'll have to research that. What I would love is a shipping calculator! :) Right now I've just made sure to explain on my "Shipping Info" page that I don't try to make money off of shipping overages, and I will refund said overages once the package is shipped and I have an accurate total.So, this is one more part of my new adventure. It may take awhile to get found in Google and the like, but when I launched my profile it was fed to over 100 different search engines. I spent much time trying to get my "SEO" numbers up to 100%, but the highest they reached before I gave up was 85%. I figured that would have to do for now. It sounds so redundant, and unintelligent to keep repeating the same words over and over. I know it's for the search engines, but come on? Human beings will be reading this too... hopefully! ;) There are statistics in my dashboard that tell me how many people have visit my site, where they are from, what pages they viewed, I LOVE that! Over 30 people had found my site overnight, and that was even before I had launched my search engine profile this morning. So, I'll keep you posted as time goes on. I figure I'll give it a couple of months after the free trial to see what I think, it can be canceled at any time, no obligations. Just thought I'd share with you, there might be someone else out there willing to give this a try! Happy Wednesday to you all! 