I would recommend a public relations campaign. This is a unique gift idea which should generate a lot of interest especially around holidays.

Can you arrange to do "demonstrations" at craft fairs, bank openings, or other events? Perhaps donate your services to a cause or event which is giving away cash prizes in return for publicity.

Hope this helps!

All the best,
Merlyn

Merlyn S. also suggests this expert on this topic:

• Shama K.

posted August 26, 2008

Sue, at first glance, I would suggest a call to action...a reason to buy now. I hope this helps, thnak you. Jim

posted August 26, 2008

Sue, I looked at your site, and I'm thinking maybe they are just to cool to unfold and spend!

I think Neil Smiths idea suggestion to sell a book is the best one here - and you can sell it on your website, on amazon, on ebay . . . and at craft fairs, in person.

posted August 26, 2008

Hey Sue!

I think what you have is a very unique idea for cash gifts. So many people find it difficult to give cash as a present, as it used to be considered very rude! But occasions such as graduations, weddings, some birthdays and tooth fairy visits demand a cash gift.

If and when you redesign the site, take a look at these tip sheets. Also, Look at other sites that you like and make a list of what you like or don't like before contacting developers. I recommend that anyone looking for an SEO firm do AS MUCH RESEARCH AS POSSIBLE before hiring a company.

I noticed a lot of people have said that they don't like the branding of the site - but I think that's really a matter of taste, and sometimes branding that evokes a "down-to-earth" feeling can work well. Your site really makes me think about my extended family gatherings and events outside of Indianapolis, and there's something very sweet about it.

Another example is Donald Trump. He brings in a lot of revenue from his seminars but I always thought his branding was ridiculously cheesy and over the top.

I will agree with the other linked in users: It may be time to retire the "Ordering is so easy" section, as many of your visitors will already know how to order from a web site, and you should use that space for content that's relevant to what your selling (cash-gift solutions for graduation, etc.)

also: BLOG! just do it.

Links:

• http://www.marcelmedia.com/tipsheet/6-unintentional.php
• http://www.marcelmedia.com/tipsheet/how-to-select-SEO-firm.php

posted August 27, 2008

My website is giving away a free ebook on marketing. That's helped me drive tons of traffic to the site. Feel free to download it. Perhaps it will have some help for you. www.getredz.com/goland1/linkedin

Scott

posted August 27, 2008

If you are getting traffic but not sales, I suggest a usability review. Sit down with 5 or 6 target users and have them try to do some simple tasks. See where they are having issues. Ask lots of questions - most importantly - why would you (or would you not) buy my product. You may find it's not a product your users want to begin with.

posted August 26, 2008

A lot of the answers already provided are fine. But the really answer is creating a better marketing strategy that is supported by the website. If you are getting a lot of hits and visits, you might not be saying what your visitors need to hear to engage with you and do business.

Links:

• http://www.square2marketing.com
• http://www.realitymarketingrevolution.com

posted August 26, 2008

I saw two issues with the website

1. The moment I visit your website, it starts buffering the media player. I would suggest putting a flash video instead. Or better still host the video on you-tube and just embedd it on your page. But even better is, see if you can avoid the video altogether.

2. It took me time to really understand what the website is about. My first impression was it is some kinda Money sucking websites that we often get as popups or those websites that claim to give you lots of money.

posted August 26, 2008

A. It deserves a better User Interface design. Your website is your face online, an attractive and well designed website not only sets you apart visually but sets the authority and credibility in the visitors' mind. As someone already mentioned, " My first impression was it is some kinda Money sucking websites that we often get as popups or those websites that claim to give you lots of money". Yours is a creative product, be creative with the website too, and not just yet another website in the crowd.

B. Needs appealing call of action in order to sell.

Links:

• http://www.webworxworld.com
• http://www.ideatoinception.com/

posted August 26, 2008

I also advice you to forget about the streaming media and use flash player instead of it. Visitors have to wait for the video but media player is not a good option for a web site.

I guess that is niche marketing, what will be the penetration of the internet users that it is interested with this business&product.

Finally my last advice; if you are not a scientist that created a supernatural product do not try to create your own e-business with your domain. Just try to use amazon.com, ebay.com, alibaba.com.

You should find money holders, before you let them find you!

Sincerely,

Evrim

posted August 26, 2008

Most people don't buy products on a website because the website seems unprofessional and not trustworthy. Your website has a few issues that will instantly detract from someone taking you seriously.

- The pages don't look the same throughout the site so there is no consistency.

- You have an OSCommerce store - that should be used as your entire site. I've done several stores using OSCommerce and if your primary goal is to sell then make it your entire website, add your about us pages, company pages, etc. within the design.

- Don't require people to register to shop at your site, people are leery of registering online. Provide them with a one page checkout that will allow them to create an account as part of the checkout process. Also, having it all on one page makes people want to buy and proceed. There's no chance for them to abandon after they have submitted the first page. One page checkouts with OSCommerce are very rare because of how OSCommerce is set up but I've done them with great sales results.

- Your color scheme is very bland. I understand the idea of using money colors but if it's a fun site add some depth, that's where a designer will come in.

- Fonts: you have several fonts on the page, keep it simple - use one or two plus your logo image. People prefer to read Arial onscreen at around .8em or 12 px. Preferably in ems as that allows them to change the text size.

- Photo clarity: your photos should all be very crisp whether they are a thumbnail or the full size image. OSCommerce offers that option in their cart system but it takes some tweaking by an expert to get it working correctly.

- Have photos of the people involved in the company, it personalizes it and gives people someone they can hold accountable - and who they can praise.

- Have a testimonials area (OSCommerce has this as well) so previous customers can tell new customers how great your product is.

There are several other things you can do to your site to make it a powerhouse for selling - and more importantly make it easy for people to find and professional so they trust you going in. I think a professional designer and developer, ideally with experience with OSCommerce would be your first step, marketing is important but if you don't have a site people want to stay at and that they trust then marketing won't help. Once the site is redone then you can tailor your marketing to brand match it and further enforce your company.

posted August 26, 2008

I would suggest that first you figure out where people are dropping off of your site. Are they visiting the homepage and then leaving? Are they going down the ordering path and then balking? Understanding where they leave is as important if not more important than getting them there.

Secondly I would put yourself in your prospective customer's shoes. What would you need to know to feel comfortable buying from the store? I would tell you that when I went to the site, I thought the pictures were interesting and the background of the story was cute but I needed way more information. Information like:
• how will it be packed?
• do you have any testimonials? (currently the testimonials are buried in the ordering page when it should be highlighted in the main navigation)
• is the store secure?

Next, I would think about the technical aspect of your site. I agree with some of the other comments, the embed video player causes the site to load very slowly.

Finally, you need to think about value. Why would someone pay $67.95 for a folded $50 bill when they can find the origami directions for free on the internet? What will your company provide that would make someone feel comfortable with paying a premium?

posted August 26, 2008

First. I suggest to think to you about the redesign of the Web because at first he is not attractive and much less friendly to the visitor. In second term, once redesigned the web site I suggest to think about a SEO strategy and to promote the site in Blogs and communities Web.

posted August 26, 2008

There is one Great Big Problem with your site. Suppose I want to buy something. I click on "Order Today!". I am immediately presented with a registration form. I go away, because I'm not going to give my personal details before seeing what's available.

My suggestion would be to remove the "Order Today!" link entirely and change "Browse the Artist Gallery" to "Browse and Buy". After that you can work on the design, which is a little bland but probably isn't going to put off somebody who's interested in the product in the first place (I'm assuming you don't have an awful lot of competition!).

posted August 26, 2008

The following is just some constructive criticism.

General E-Commerce
I searched for the term "shirt" on your site and was told there are no products matching those criteria. If your search feature does not work, then why have it?

Your website is 3 pages and then the ordering system. You provide no address, no phone number, and no contact information unless I take the time to review your shipping policy. You do not even provide an email address to contact you at, only a form. You link to FaceBook, but then all you have there is a name? How does that help your site? The website does not look very credible.

I would personally never give you my credit card information and all the personal information you ask for. Even to register in order to place an order requires me to provide my gender and date of birth. Why do you need that information? Also you list an incredible amount of countries, but you only have the site in English (with an American flag) and then say you only accept US currency. If you do not ship any other currency (maybe you do?) then why even list all the other countries?

You offer one method of shipping and will not track the order unless I pay for priority or express shipping. It is cash being sent through the U.S. Postal Service - even they tell you never to do this. There are no returns or exchanges; you are not responsible for lost or misdirected shipments.

Product Questions:
1. There are 456,000 Google search results for "how to fold money". My question is what is the value you are offering and why should I not just do it myself? That is a rhetorical question as you need to explain that to people when they come to your site.
2. Is the money still usable? Like the house - do you glue those windows on?
3. There are product and service questions which you do not answer. You may offer a very unique service, but the basic value proposition must be explained better.

Basic SEO:
1. Title Tags: Every page says "Foldin' Money - A new and unique way to give.....", Does that really mean anything to a search engine? Unique gift idea should be in the first 5 words I would think.
2. Meta Tags: You use the "description" tag twice, but have no "keyword" tag.
3. Alt tags: You do not have any.
4. Image file names - "holidayshirtmale_OOO" does not help.

Links:

• http://www.google.com/analytics/

posted August 26, 2008

I'll be brutally frank here, and it may sound like I'm knocking your business, but keep going I think I have a new idea for you......

I took one look and thought "neat idea, but I'm not gonna pay $17.95 for someone to fold money up - I'll get fresh bills from the bank and figure out how to do it myself, it could be fun"

Probably a large number of your website visitors are taking a look at the site, printing out a blow up of your photos, and figuring out how to make their own. I don't think you really have a USP that is worth $17.95 of my foldin stuff....nice idea, but too easy to copy and nothing in it that you could copyright.

You may make a better business by showing pictures of your designs on the website and then selling books of patterns showing how to make them - a lot of people who wouldn't pay $17.95 for a single example may well pay $50 for the book and have years of fun with it. The upside is that you can print and sell the books in bulk whereas the folding looks like there is a lot of manual work involved. Your profit margin on the book should be much higher.

Another spin on the business may be to use odd foreign currencies that few of your customers could readily get hold of (but you could get cheap in bulk if you pick low value currencies) - these "special editions" would be harder to copy, and collectible. One example could be African wild animals made from Zimbabwean dollars.

The way I see it, many more people buy cookbooks from famous chefs than will ever eat in their restaurants.....I look forward to seeing you on the Amazon best sellers list some time soon. Good luck!

posted August 26, 2008

All the answers below are good ones, but I think the single greatest challenge the site has is credibility. Frankly, there is no reason given for any user to feel comfortable parting with their money.

Overall, the site look and feel does little to inspire consumer confidence, and there is absolutely no content which speaks to the issue. The suggestion of a PR campaign is a good one - with the clippings serving as the basis for an "In the News" section. These mainstream media insertions can help build your "street cred" and your "web cred" at the same time.

If you are going to show video on the site (regardless the type of video), put it deeper in your site, where the user has to make a clear decision to get your media - particularly if it takes a bit to load.

And 100% agree with the other comments - few brands in the world have the strength to require users to register before they buy. In an ideal world, you want to shorten the path from consideration-to-decision-to-action: fewer and less cumbersome steps is better.

You made no mention of where in the process your users were abandoning the buying process - and if you don't have this information at hand, make sure you obtain real and accurate measured insight from a tool such as Google Analytics. If you're uncertain how to set that up, there are dozens (well, actually tens of thousands) of resources who can help you with it. It's a quick and relatively simple process, and well worth it.

Finally, and this is related to points raised by a few before me - think carefully about what is your value proposition and what is your unique selling proposition? What makes your product and service valuable enough and/or unique enough for a customer to pay the markup you are asking? Ask a lot of people this question, including your customers and (if possible) those who decline to buy (if you can identify them). Whatever the answers to those questions - highlight them on your site. The more you can anticipate the questions your users have, and provide them with an answer in a satisfactory way, the greater your chance of hanging on to that user through the conversion process.

Overall - build your credibility, and support it with good value and a clear USP.

Good luck.

posted August 26, 2008

I know how I feel about "exit surveys" but some people do fill them out. There are companies that will allow you to inplant a survey or question/comments page in which you can ask them directly why they are not buying. We'll have good answers here to help, but the people that are checking out your site and leaving will have the best reasons of all!

Links:

• http://www.websitetoolbox.com

posted August 26, 2008

Joan is part of our company and teaches eCommerce at Parson's School of Design in New York

posted August 26, 2008

First of all, consider where traffic is coming from. If visitors know where they're landing then less explanation is necessary on the home page. If they don't, then it's necessary to put a short paragraph up top explaining your products. Other things to consider:
1. the image on the right on the home page is not loading
2. you need to entice with an offer or a features and benefits explanation
3. web 2.0 is trendy today for a reason...2.0 is the process of interaction on the site. have someone create a flash file that shows how the folded money is created...this alone will create interest in the product.

I'd discuss those ideas with your web developer. Make sure to get your web stats too. You can see how long visitors are staying on your site and on which page they're leaving. If it's the checkout page, then you can be sure they don't like the price of the product or shipping or that they don't feel secure with your checkout process (SSL certificate, etc).

Hope that helps.

Jenny

posted August 26, 2008

I think the idea is clever, like origami. Perhaps the venue, the web, isn't the place. I know everyone thinks the web is the be-all-end-all, but not every idea is well suited for that environment. My first thought, and granted, I'm no expert, was 'home partyish'. Groups, some type of evolutionary growth with people paying for finished product, learning how, buying supplies - I don't think the problem in and of itself is the website, but the venue. The website should be where your downstream goes to get you, not the public.

posted August 26, 2008

Have you determined that you are in fact fulfilling a market need with your products? While site experience/usability issues that were mentioned by others could certainly be factors, you cannot rule out the product value proposition. Some product ideas will not sell in volume, irrespective of the marketing surrounding them. The reasons for this are manifold, but as someone pointed out, perhaps in your case, the end users feel that they can create similar products on their own. In such a scenario. your site would be giving them free do-it-yourself gift ideas.

Best of luck with your venture. It would be useful to know how you eventually handle this, and what conclusions you draw from your solutions testing.

posted August 26, 2008

Sue -

I viewed your product a few weeks ago and believe it is a unique gift concept. In addition to the suggestions you have already received to revamp your website (it reminds me too much of As Seen on TV propaganda), please take into account some of the potential concerns prospective customers may have:

How quickly can you turn orders around? People ordering these kinds of gifts may be last minute seekers and afraid that it takes too long to process the order. This could be incorporated into your call to action instead of on your order sheet. Some people may not get that far. How about a rush charge for that last minute gift that is needed in one day or even two days?

People are not comfortable sending/receiving cash through the mail. How do you ease their concerns for guaranteed delivery? Again, this is not addressed until the order page and then could be a better sales feature.

What about publishing your shipping rates? I don't want to have to fill out the whole form to find out the rates when buying an online product. How reasonable are your charges (some companies make a huge profit through shipping)? Can you make them "free" by slightly repricing your product?

Hope this helps!

Tina Marker
www.windward-design.com

posted August 26, 2008

Here are my two cents:
Some visitors might dislike the automatic playing of media files.
The website could need a modernization.

A quick search on Google shows that you have no incoming links to your website. Thus I presume you might be buying your clicks with ads. That is not only expensive, but it can also be highly ineffective if your search words are too broad.

However, an even more important problem is shipping complications. How do you ensure that the package is safe? Sending all that money in cash by USPS seems like a high-risk option.

My suggestion is to find out who actually wants to buy your product, and design a website that caters to the needs and tastes to this specific target group. You can also adapt the folded cash to shapes and figures that match this target group.

posted August 26, 2008

I think I know your problem... your end client is buying money online...what? How does the person know the money is not conterfit? I would not buy something like that online. I think from my perspective as an artist it is great! Something I would sell at an art fair.

If your site was more professional looking people would be more inclined to buy.

posted August 26, 2008

Hi -

What forms of marketing and branding are you currently pursuing? First, your site is hard to see what your product really is and have you given thought to also putting your product through other websites like hipstergifts.com.

My name is Bryan Ruiz and I am a start up company as well (www.greenviewmarketing). Let me know if you need help with the future branding of your company. We specialize in search optimization, branding and restructuring, public relations and other forms of marketing.

Bryan Ruiz
Greenview Marketing

posted August 26, 2008

Hello Sue,

Sorry if someone has already answered with this info, I did not have time read all the responses. If you are getting good traffic and reviews on the site then some of the things I briefly read as far as SEO and Home Page Design are fairly irrelevant at this time.

First off the main thing I see is:
"Ordering is so EASY!!!!

* Browse The Artist Gallery
* Click Order button next to design selection
* Choose gift value: $25, $50, $75, or $100
* Click Add to Cart
* Checkout and you are DONE!"

Making a clear call to action to your products immediately will help you get better conversions. Directions on the homepage are not the best option to get your customers to go where you want them to when they are ready. Also try linking those pictures on the home page of the products directly to the shopping cart, and have a featured items area on the front page with the best selling or (most looked at in this case items).

Next up is this page /product.php really needs some layout work. It is too jumbled and your categories should be more clearly defined, in order for people to know which product categories are which. Also the description and product names are not very exciting and enticing. Some better copywriting will make your products a whole lot more interesting and irresistible.

Product pages can really use the copywriting work as well, to make the products stand out and sell. Also I don't see any of the actual products listed in the pictures since they are all $10 instead of the $25 and ones that you offer.

Once in the actual OSCommerce cart and anywhere on the site I don't see any type of security assurances, like trusted payment icons etc. etc.

Then also I never switched to an SSL (secure socket layer) that would encrypt my private information I enter.

My suggestions are to just go with the OSC cart and move it to your main directory, this will fix all your layout and product issues. Then add the customer assurance icons etc, and at least use a shared SSL with your hosting company or get a cheap GoDaddy one. These changes will increase your conversion rates guaranteed. Well that's my 5 minute take.

I listed a website I recently gave the same info to and they increased conversions from roughly 1.5% to over 4.0% with changes as I described, in less than a month. Now when we get them out of OSCommerce and into Magento then....well that's another story.

Links:

• http://defensesoap.com

posted August 26, 2008

I think Neil Smith summed it up best. While your website could use some polish, you have to evaluate the demand for your product. It is an original idea and with the holidays coming up, I think you could get this off the ground.

I would suggest two ideas. Perhaps try using an established ecommerce outlet such as ebay to sell your products at least to start.

Secondly, I think that you should identify your target market. I think using foreign currencies would be a nice twist. I would narrow the market for this type of gift to the "luxury" consumer and not the average person. I would target the people that read the Robb Report. In order to do that though, you need a more polished web presence.

Links:

• http://www.robbreport.com/

posted August 26, 2008