Will a Blog help drive traffic to my E-commerce site? I need your help!

Hi All, I am looking for your help.

I have been running e-commerce websites for the past 3 years. My main website is www.totalsunglasses.com and although sales are really strong, it is costing me a lot of money in Google Adwords (pay-per-click). This is not a problem spending a lot of money on advertising as for every £/$ I spend with Google, I probably get about x8 back. I’m just looking for alternatives.

The appearance of the site has been kept very basic so that the pictures of the sunglasses are the primary focus. I have also used a limited amount of text so that customers can enter the site, find what they want and exit in a very quick time.

The main problem with having little text is that it is very difficult to get a high natural listing with Google and hence the reason I use Adwords.

In an attempt to drive more traffic through currently untapped Google natural listings, I have thought about setting up a blog focusing on sunglasses and maybe fashion that hopefully results in a good natural listing. I started my own Entrepreneurs blog at www.mybusinessweek.com about a month ago and so do have a bit of experience in running one and so should be able to get it up and running quite quickly.

I would talk about the following in the new blog:

• New Models of Sunglasses
• New Advertising by Designers
• Press releases by designers
• What sunglasses are worn by certain celebrities
• Health: The importance of wearing sunglasses

That sort of thing. All information heavy with important keywords.

Basically if someone types in a 'keyword' such as 'Prada Sunglasses', I want us to come up in the natuaral listings in Google. Then on the blog there would be a link to my e-commerce site.

The blog would cost money only in time but if I can sell XXX number of sunglasses through it, then it will pay for itself. Obviously the aim would be to sell a lot more than my breakeven figure to generate a good profit.

This is where you come in! I am after as much advice and opinions as possible. Previous experience has taught me to listen to all and to take the best bits.

I have the following questions that I hope will trigger some thought.

• Does this sound like a good idea or is it utter madness?
• Will I achieve a high natural listing in Google in 6-8 months?
• What tips do you have for me to achieve this listing?
• Will I have enough content?
• Are there enough sites out there to link to?
• Sunglasses are a great fashionable product but will people be interested enough to come back to the site. If not, how would I get them to do this?
• Will visitors just see the blog as a just a marketing tool to sell sunglasses and lose interest? How would I keep them interested?

I have views on all of this myself but I would love to get some fresh thoughts.

Look forward to hearing from you.


Steve Waters

 

Hi Steve,

This sounds like a good idea. The 2 main aims of a blog on a site like yours will be to add content to the site and to get natural links by link baiting. If your site sells the products well then most users will just buy from you and not read the blog.

You are the expert on your topic so you should be able to write some good blog posts. Also you could employ some writers to write posts for you. I am paying around $30 for a 1000 word post (see todays at the link above) if I run out of time or inspiration.

If your content is good enough then people should link to it. Make sure you link to other bloggers in your niche and contact them to build up a friendship.

If nobody will link to you then use payperpost.com to get people to link to your latest blog posts.

Patrick

 

Steve

Blog is a good idea. Get a paid host for your blog instead of free. In case your blog gets famous - the free hosts won't like all the bandwidth you blog will be using - so to be on the safer side - use a paid host.

Off track - get rid of your landing page 'Enter' - you don't need that.

Why don't you start affiliate program. That could drive up your sales.

 

When designing the blog layout think of having a search designed from Yahoo or MSn that goes directly to keywords from your site. The majority of search result would be relevant links to products on your site. Do this on either the homesite and blog. Just a hint.

 

First thought that crossed my mind too. Like, what do you mean 'enter'. I'm already there?! Waste of clicks and very 1995. Also reduces the correct flow of PR.

Also a good suggestion. More on that here: http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/

But no affiliate will pump traffic to you with that telephone number plastered so visibly everywhere.

Content is a BIG problem for you. Pages like this http://www.totalsunglasses.com/acatalog/secondindex.html don't have ANY content whatsoever. You might just want to dump acatalog and get a proper ecommerce package that's more flexible in that regard.

But yes, a blog could help you indeed.

 

I think blogging is overrated and is a fad that'll pass. Blogs are just gloried message boads, and there's LOTS of blog spam lately.

 

So far blogging has produced great results for bloggers, but has also created a more info driven Internet. people create related articles in a bid to attract more attention to their product or service.

So should we give up blogging?

Publishing articles on multiple websites may also be an attractive and affordable option. But it is definitely not an alternative to blogs since it can not replace the traffic retention capabilities of blogs. That is, people on your blogs spend more time on your websites than those generated from an article.

Also blogging is much cheaper than article publishing.

I also recommend a paid blog service than the free ones. If you must change host or if your blog becomes famous, you must be able to control the future of your website.