marketing Do you have a web site and ...

AJ Drew

AJ Drew

Mainly just curious, but also trying to get a grip on if folk go the website path or stick with the various services like Facebook, Shoppify, and so on.

So, do you have a website? Please share the url.
If you have a web site, do you use software for it? Wordress?
If you have an online store, what is the software? Woocommerce?

Have noticed a lot of folk sell pods, seeds, and sauces without having a web site. Its often more of here is what I got, send me something via paypal sort of thing.
 
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Super Hots Canada said:
Super Hots Canada Food and Plants
 
Built from scratch and has been up for over a year and listed on my business cards. Though, to date, there's not been a single order placed through my website.
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What, really? Maybe you are not proactive enuf. "If you build it, they will come" does not work for websites.
 
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The Hot Pepper said:
 
What, really? Maybe you are not proactive enuf. "If you build it, they will come" does not work for websites.
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Exactly.. Marketing isn't my strong point, but I'm learning and this next season I intend to do far better. I'm finally starting to build a following locally - including owners of local pizza shops and restaurants, and I've made it to the local Farmer's Market a couple of times.. That's a costly venture, but it's great for getting my name out there. I've made a few sales through FB and this next season I'll focus on pushing the fresh peppers. I think selling fresh across Canada will encourage more word-of-mouth, beyond my little county - that should really help turns things around. :)
 
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Super Hots Canada - You already have the single most important thing in business these days: a three letter name.  SHC
 
Seriously, I am right there with you on wanting to promote but not knowing a thing about doing it.  If you want to bounce ideas, share what works, share what does not, I'd love being your sounding board.  I am about to do the promote post thing on Facebook.  I am using a coupon code that lets me know where the sale came from.  Will be doing the same elsewhere.  If you remind me in spring when the experiment ends, will let you know what was good for me and what wasnt.
 
If you sell fresh pods, please do let me now.  That is our main business but shipping priority to Canada is wildly expensive.  Rather than telling people I am sorry but no, would love to have a list of good folk up there that I can send them to.
 
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AJ Drew said:
Super Hots Canada - You already have the single most important thing in business these days: a three letter name.  SHC
 
Seriously, I am right there with you on wanting to promote but not knowing a thing about doing it.  If you want to bounce ideas, share what works, share what does not, I'd love being your sounding board.  I am about to do the promote post thing on Facebook.  I am using a coupon code that lets me know where the sale came from.  Will be doing the same elsewhere.  If you remind me in spring when the experiment ends, will let you know what was good for me and what wasnt.
 
If you sell fresh pods, please do let me now.  That is our main business but shipping priority to Canada is wildly expensive.  Rather than telling people I am sorry but no, would love to have a list of good folk up there that I can send them to.
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My full business name is "Super Hots Canada Food and Plants" - but only because the rules in my province demand certain elements in a business to describe what you primarily do/offer (unless your a corporation - then they let you have just about any name you want).. But yup, it works out nicely that it abbreviates like that. :)
 
I tried out buying Facebook Ads a couple summers back - one focused locally, and one focused nationally. I only threw in $50 CAD, but all the same it provided rather ineffective. $50 over 7 days only earned me around 1-3 new Page Likes... BUT this season I tried out hosting a small contest on my FB page that I let run for about a week. I picked out 3 winners (from Canada & US) and in that time I shared the post to a few FB groups and in the end it attracted around 50 new Page Likes (before the contest I had just under 100).. So I'd highly suggest a simple contest - i.e. set some simple rules for liking/sharing a post, and pick a winner or two at the end for even something as simple as some packs of seeds. :) .. Part of my inspiration was the simple, fun contests people sometimes have here on the forum.
 
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Facebook marketing works best as 2 phases. First you have to get people to Like your page, unless you already have a lot of fans (in the thousands). If you look at your page and scroll down you should see a "Promote Page" button. Once clicked choose your target audience. The ad itself with have the Like button right in it. Works great for new Likes.
 
Once you have fans, then when you have a sale or promo, and boost that actual post, promote it to "People who like your page and their friends." If you simply have a sale and target people that like hot peppers it is not as effective. Promoting to people that like your page means it is targeted to people that are interested in actually buying what you have to offer (like a mailing list), since they liked your page, and it works well to promote to their friends, as, the chilihead community is tight knit, and usually, they have chilihead friends with the same interests. So it works exponentially for sales and new Likes. It's all abut building brick by brick. But simply using keyword targets like hot peppers etc. is not as useful for direct sales, a lot of wasted $ as people scroll by. But targeting first for Likes, then, those and their friends for sales, I find works very well. Cheers!
 
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In simpler terms it works like this: Say I'm a brewer that buys hops. In my feed I see a page that sells hops and the Like button is right in the ad. I click it w/o even having to visit their page. Then, when they have a sale, they promote the ad to "likes and friends," I see it, and buy. But if they promoted to everyone that likes beer to hops they'd waste a lot more money on those not interested in buying them. So if you already have a lot of likes, boost your posts. If not, get the likes first! :)
 
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I'm starting to do my site
I am currently trying opencart for my online store
 
 
and a test preview of the home page
 
Mex5UOa.gif
 
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here is a little overview of what the site is going to have
I'm going to sell my peppers with a little of their history, the place of origin is done with appication ( still in progress) that allows me to select on the globe and to choose the region to put in color
 
here is the control panel
 
LwyAOCX.gif

 
and here is the card by region selected, by clicking on the name the image and more description appears
e2g9iDU.png

 
 
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If you can pull off the world graphics it will be very nice.  I'd worry about bogging down slower computers that poor folk like me use.  But yes, including origin is a great idea.  I am working on that bit by bit by adding flags and maps.  I am wordpress, so I imagine I will add categories eventually so you can click on the category and see other peppers from the region.  But the map is way over my head.
 
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AJ Drew said:
If you can pull off the world graphics it will be very nice.  I'd worry about bogging down slower computers that poor folk like me use.  But yes, including origin is a great idea.  I am working on that bit by bit by adding flags and maps.  I am wordpress, so I imagine I will add categories eventually so you can click on the category and see other peppers from the region.  But the map is way over my head.
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it's all made with svg, it's very fast even with a 10 years old computer
 
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My take on it all and just my opinions. yes I have a website https://amfarms.fwscart.com/%C2 pretty much a business must in this age, just as are business cards. Thing is, business cards get lost and web address get forgot. Key is building CUSTOMERS , a SALE is NOT a Customer. Its just a sale and really does no good if it can be repeated.  Lots of businesses fail and close not because of lack of sales, but lack of CUSTOMERS. Sales alone will run out if its not repeated. 
 
Our web site is a free, I like the options for what we do right now, upgrade options are nice as well, not promoting them, just saying. Our goal is to build a customer base.When a person needs some more seeds, they will remember the SERVICE they got and return.Just about everything out there (products) has someone selling them, not real hard to get seeds or sauces, or gadgets and gizmos. 
 
At  a market I had rather buy from a seller that can answer "what kind is this and what can i do with it" when the answer is " its _____ pretty hot but not to bad, good for a sauce or salsa etc... than to buy from a guy that says "its a hot pepper"
 
Anyway, yes I have a web site, business cards to, part of doing business,i do the website SEO just has I hand out cards but in my opinion , Im seeking CUSTOMERS, not just sales.
 
I was raised in retail, and my father always made that point known to take care of the CUSTOMER and the SALES will keep coming.
Currently work for man with the same attitude and is a good mentor as well. His store has been open since 1968, started by his father and still open to this day as many just like it have come and gone, opened and closed. They all had SALES but most couldn't keep the CUSTOMERS .
 
Just my thoughts, Happy New Year to all.
 
https://amfarms.fwscart.com/
 
 
 
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Rerail:
 
I am looking at moving my website away from wix due to costs and ongoing issues with support.
 
Currently reviewing wordpress, sitebuilder, weebly, host gator and a few others.  Need a) easy to build, b) easy to add shopping cart, c) not super expensive.
 
Any recommendations from you THPers?
 
Thanks
 
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SmokenFire said:
Rerail:
 
I am looking at moving my website away from wix due to costs and ongoing issues with support.
 
Currently reviewing wordpress, sitebuilder, weebly, host gator and a few others.  Need a) easy to build, b) easy to add shopping cart, c) not super expensive.
 
Any recommendations from you THPers?
 
Thanks
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I've tried several over the years, and keep coming back to alphaomegahosting.com 5.00/month is reasonable, and can easily setup WordPress, or other systems on it. That's what I'm using now on my pepperinfo.com site. I do have an SSL cert that I bought from GoDaddy, but was easy enough to install through cpanel at alphaomega. Their support has always been great too.
 
Peter
 
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Thanks very much Peter.  I'll check them out. 
 
There are so many builders out there!  I'm just looking for an easy drag & drop builder with ecommerce functionality that doesn't cost too much.  :)
 
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SmokenFire said:
Thanks very much Peter.  I'll check them out. 
 
There are so many builders out there!  I'm just looking for an easy drag & drop builder with ecommerce functionality that doesn't cost too much.  :)
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Check out bluehost.com they offer a good WP package. Easy to build off their WP templates and add Woocommerce functionality. Good amount of customization and scalability as well.
 
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