ForumsInternet/eCommerce

MT, good post (and since you're a "real" developer with listed credentials, this gives jonah something useful to work with).

I was wondering if you might comment on my question to Tokyov: When working with a developer (or using a DIY tool), is it a case of "good code is good code - period" -- or can sites that have limited traffic, few sales transactions, less need for search engine visibility, etc. get by with cheaper, faster solutions that are still functional and secure (e.g, minivan instead of a hot rod)? I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Thanks for the response, MT.

Lighthouse, I'm not going to post credentials on here and am not trying to drum up business. Much of my post to web 101 stuff, and I think you should learn the basics before you venture to make money on the Web. Just like you need to know basics to use email, a web browser, connect to the Internet, etc.

This really isn't a matter of bells & whistles. This person is being scammed with broken code, and he's likely paying a premium for it. I post for that reason only, and it definitely doesn't apply to every shop or seller on the Internet. Your questions don't really relate to the topic but more or less relate to the building of a web shop in general. If you want a site like Amazon, I would actually recommend a cusomized site, not Yahoo or any off the shelf package.

Please don't take my comments out of context. My comments were addressed to the OP with his product type, limited knowledge, and basic needs in mind (based on what I can tell by what he's provided).

You need to look at this like a B&M and your goals. Some products sell better in certain situations, and every business has unique goals and may vary in audience.

I would like to thank everyone for
taking the time to chime in here. You have been extremely helpful and
I really appreciate it. We will be looking into implementing many of
your suggestions.

I may have posted this question too
soon as the site is still in beta and naturally it is going to have
issues. We haven't even gotten to the SEO part yet with the
developers, even though that is included in the Scope of Work. I have
just completed my keyword search in Wordtracker and plan on using
them in the title tags, meta tags, copy, etc. However, I don't know
anything about coding for SEO so I plan on hiring a third party to
review the site for that and the other issues that have been brought
up in this thread. Armed with that report, I'll go back to the
developers and have them fix the issues before final payment. As for
security, I just got my merchant account approval from Chase Merchant
Services and Authorize.net. We will be adding that to the site soon.
I am going to look into what other measures I need to take.

I wish I would have known about
shopify.com earlier. It looks like something we would have seriously
considered that would have saved us a lot of time. Of course, back
then I didn't know how frustrating it would be to build a site from
scratch. We looked into Yahoo, but didn't like what we saw.

I agree the site may have a web 1.0
look and feel to it but virtually every non-techie or ecommerce
person I've shown it to really likes it. At the end of the day,
what's more important: impressing the techies, or selling collars?
Obviously it would be nice to do both, but if I'd had to chose I'll
take the latter. I'm not selling iPods or digital cameras so I doubt
most of my customers are going to care that my site is not up to the
latest standards.

Am I paying too much for this site
($3K)? Yeah, most certainly. But I also got a pretty good education
in the process so I guess I can live with myself. And yes, next time
I would do things differently.

Thanks again for all you input. Time to
crack the whip on my developers so they can build me a better
“minivan”

Bill

Hi,

I think you may have misunderstood my comments.

This eLance Developer is providing you bad code. What does that mean? Let's see:
1. A percentage of the Internet won't be able to view your site. It will be completely broken in certain browsers, and will definitely crash any pre IE 5 browsers because they don't handle bad code well.
2. SEO optimization should not be an after-thought. You need to build your site around keywords and tags. With your current scripts, your site is currently unfriendly to search engines, and you will never reach your full potential with search engines if you don't change your site.
3. Search engines read code. Firstly, no one is building Web 1.0 today, and there are many reasons for why you should start with 2.0. Firstly, if you want a search engine to list your business, I highly recommend that you make the change to 2.0. You don't need to change your design to use 2.0 but you do need to change the foundation of your site. Secondly, search engines can't see your site. When I looked at your site, I looked at the code and not the design (at all, honestly). I found two doc types in every page. What does that mean? Let's say you're building a house, and as most people know, a building needs a foundation and one roof. What if an architect handed you a plan with TWO foundations, one at the base of the house and one in the middle of the 2nd floor, as well as a roof between every floor? It's not possible, right? Your site has two foundations. That alone will cause search engines to pass you up because there are millions of sites online and engines are picky today. Web 2.0 is absolutely necessary to be indexed by spiders across the Internet. Simply adding keywords and relative terms in your META tags is meaningless if your code has errors. Even if your site is error-free, it takes much, much more than keywords & titles, to make your SE friendly. It takes modern code. Search engines, like Google, are not going to refer business to a site that doesn't meet a certain standard, and to meet that standard, you must start with the proper foundation and code. A perfect example is Disney's UK store that launched with Web 1.0. It flopped, even with a name like Walt Disney behind it. They discovered pretty quickly that Web 1.0 was out online, and their new store was closed soon after it launched.

Yahoo should be used as a tool to building a site, much like PHP. There are tons of developers on eLance and other sites who can code a Yahoo store with any feature that you desire and for much, much less than $3000.

For $3000, you are literally being robbed. There are 1000s of sites online that are valuable resources for learning the basics. For $3000, your site should be cutting-edge with truly live data/features, and it's not even Web 2.0.

However, if money is not an issue and you don't mind if the site fails miserably in a search engine's eyes (the only eyes that matter SE generated new business online), then go for it. I think you'll be looking for a new developer pretty fast. I'd be surprised if the site can handle 10 simultaneous shoppers. Then again, you may not want a lot of customers or already have enough customers, and if so, then I'm sure the site is fine. It's sort of like putting a store on a dark alley. For some businesses, a dark alley and word of mouth are more than enough. However, if you hope to grow your business, then most people wouldn't pick the never-traveled location in the dark alley.

Ever hired a mechanic who didn't know what he was doing? That's the kind of developer that you've hired. For $3000, you should have a top of the line site that more than complies with the latest standards, not a cut & paste job with broken HTML using a FREE programming language (PHP). Web 1.0 was the first version of the Internet. It's similar to using DOS when everyone else uses Windows. You'll get left behind before you even get started because you're starting on the wrong foot.

When I opened my first shop in 1999, I got my first order within hours and made $10,000 in my first 2 weeks. I had never sold anything in my life until I opened this store online selling unique goods from Japan, and I only had a couple competitors. I knew nothing about the Internet. Today, I know a lot about how to run a business online, I have 1000s of competitors, and what happened for me easily in 1999 is truly impossible today. A solid foundation and a properly coded site are absolutely necessary to make it online today.

http://www.sitepoint.com is a great resource for all levels of experience. They have a specific forum that you can post your site to get reviews http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=12

I'm curious to know what ever happened with Johan305? Did you pay someone else to fix your store? I only ask because the current site is 1000% better than the original site that you asked us about. I note you're using Google Analytics now, have the verify tags in your header, have SEO friendly URLs, etc. None of that was on the original site.

I also found you on Google just now with "ëlegant collar" (page 2) but I had checked over 6 months ago and couldn't find your listed, at all, in Google. Even searching your domain name did not return results on Google but it's looking much better now. You just need to get to page 1. Start focusing on 3-4 words and once you're on page 1 with those words, then move to the next words. It would help if you used specific titles on each page without repeating the same words from page to page. That may be hurting you with PR right now because you're not on page one with any keywords right now, and there can be a huge difference between page 1 & 2 listings on Google.

Pet jewelry is a booming business. I know someone who developed this site: http://store.petglitter.com
You should take a look at it. It might give you some design ideas. I think your site would be more attractive if you lightened up a bit and made it easier on the eyes, as well as added support for accessibility (screen readers, color blind, etc). That's the only problem that I see with it now. It's not very friendly in terms of a fun layout for pet gifts.