Making use of a blog.

[Ali Dark]

I think JohnW has some really good advice above.

You're getting really good advice in general - it will be worth a lot to you.

My advice is to decided clearly what you want for your blog/s and then go from there. I'm still not sure you know quite what you are going to do with them content-purpose wise.

If I were you I'd organise 301 redirects from all copy blogs to the main one, you can get it set up so it redirects page for page.

Consider using Wordpress for your main site - you can run the blog directly off it. You can run your paypal cart off it the same way as other.

This way you can easily display your latest posts and your pages in the sidebar.

Just another option.

Ali

[JohnW]

Hi Mike,

You need to get the relevant info from your blogs into your Shopping Carts. Your "Why Us" page content layout would seem to work as a layout for publishing your blog articles.

You will need a current issue and a link to back issues. With this in place you would be republishing your blog pages on your shopping cart, linking them up then deleting them from your blog.

Some other ideas for you to consider...

Think about where people are looking on your shopping cart web pages when they visit.

Your horizontal navigation topics are visually of secondary importance, so let's organise around that fact, first.

Your "newsletter" articles are secondary so we need to make room for a link to them up there. Let’s call it "News from my Hammock" - You want "Hammock" used in link text on every page.

You want "Specials" to stick out like the proverbial - so let's move that into your right-hand column where it will stand out more.

"Testimonials" and "Guarantee" are both important but think about when they are important...

I expect most people going to a shopping cart are already researching a purchase. First, they want to see you have the product they are after and things like your guarantee and delivery info are essentially part of your product's features and benefits.

You want links to these two pages down in the area of the product pages where visitors are looking at colours or info about what they are made of etc. A prime location area is near to your “Add to Cart” buttons. Even though it may seem repetitious, I would have no problem with a text link underneath every one of these buttons to “Hammock Guarantee” & “Delivery Help”.

You have "About Us", "Why Us", "Testimonials" and "FAQs" on top of that is sorting your blog pages. Quite frankly, info in these five categories is all over the place. You urgently need to make it easier for visitors to find.

First you may want to review whether the info is really important, or are you just filling space?

If the info is product related like delivery information, lost order enquiries, damage in transit, etc. put it on one page. If it is product specific like "what's it made of", stick it on another.

About Us is important - it’s what people look at after they are satisfied you have the product they want and before they actually buy something. You need to make them feel confident about doing business with you. How long have you been in business, are you members of any recognised bodies? You've been on the Today Show and testimonials are part of this reinforcement info. You could do worse than stick that on About Us.

A final suggestion: Replicate your navigation on every page way down in your footers also include links down there to "Hammocks USA", "Hammocks Australia", "Hammocks NZ", "Hammocks SA".

Regs,

John W

[mexham]

Hi John and Ali, great suggestions thanks a lot. Definitely getting some great advice here.

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, only saw the responses now for some reason. Didn't get my notification email.


I definitely think moving the blog articles to the website is the best thing to do, and I'm working through this now. However with these, I imagine the traffic that hits these articles is slightly different from our regular shop hits - more information seeking searches, not necessarily the same as those that are 'shopping' hitting the site. Therefore I'm not sure how prominent these postings need to be for people that land on the home page.


Moving the special to make more prominent is a good idea. We have found people are purchasing yet are unware of specials that would have been available had they checked that page. Least it shows they are willing to purchase without other added incentives. It is also one of our higher hit pages though.

On the product purchasing pages, we do have links to further info at the bottom of the description. That could work further up by the buy now button as you suggest. Or though I do wonder about having too many links to draw people away from the purchase page and distract from the 'buy now' button.

The other pages you mention could do with some updating and reconsideration of content. I was using these to try and provide some product and service differentiation. So much of the site seems to have evolved from customer feedback, queries, purchases etc. So anything else that helps in that regard is great.

Good suggestions about, the about us page, and footer links aswell. I can make a few changes there.

Again, thanks a lot for all the advice. I've got a lot to keep me busy for awhile working on all of this.

[JohnW]

Hi Mike,
I came across this Google video on the topic of duplicate content:

"Duplicate content and multiple site issues"
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...iple-site.html

Regs,

John W

[mexham]

Cool, thanks John.

Good video. Google are pretty good at being open about how things work and explaining it. They put out a lot of good resources.

Cheers,
Mike

[Thrive Promotional]

Extra blog (sorry .. probably basic) question ....

Can you set up a blog using Wordpress or blogger ... and host on your own domain ? I read that traffic generated from blog will be directed to blogger and the like ... if not hosted on your own website.

[MatthewKeath]

Originally Posted by Thrive Promotional

Extra blog (sorry .. probably basic) question ....

Can you set up a blog using Wordpress or blogger ... and host on your own domain ?

Blogger no. It will need to be hosted on at yourblog.blogspot.com.

Wordpress? Yes and no. Like Blogger Wordpress.com is hosted on at yourblog.wordpress.com, however the extremely popular stand alone version Wordpress.org is completely hosted on your hosting account and domain name.

Wordpress.org is not only a powerful blogging tool but it is also a full blown CMS that can be used to run a small business website with ease.

I read that traffic generated from blog will be directed to blogger and the like ... if not hosted on your own website.

Any traffic your blog generates on blogger or wordpress.com will indeed go them and not to you, although it will be your content they will be reading.

Using a blog effectively on your domain can be great for search engine positioning, and drive good traffic.

Platforms such as blogger can create their own traffic, however, and should not be excluded automatically. Google has it's own blog (s) on Blogger, but it should be noted they own the company!

Hope this helped.

[Frank Brown]

Originally Posted by mexham

Hey guys, thanks a lot for all the comments and advice, I really appreciate all the feedback.

I think there are some things there that I can look to change and apply.

Ali - I like your thoughts on adding more personality to it, there is only so much product blogging you can do. Your pilot program sounds interesting if you need some testers let me know.

I might leave the advertising for now, I don't really want to encourage people to leave the site. Would be nice to maybe setup my own adverts on it to help with click throughs though. I'm not sure if that can be done though.

Just in relation to advertising, affiliations with other businesses may be an option and have each one cross promote. That way if you don't have something in stock, the consumer that easily go to your affiliate site and check them out to see if they have any.

It is merely an idea, but you would have to do a lot of research into it before you started. But I prefer to keep it there as an option, even though I may not use it.

Better to have one option than none at all I say.

Good luck with everything friend.

Regards,