My Muse Needs A Little Help...

[HalfSwede]

Greetings!

I have a fully functional e-commerce site built and launched within the past year that sells gift certificates that can be used at spas and B&Bs across the U.S. (we also have a couple of golf courses signed up and a few restaurants). Many folks have told us (my partner and I) that it is a great concept because it is a unique gift certificate and because it gives the gift certificate recipient choices. There are similar sites, but they only sell gift certs for one industry (e.g. spas or B&Bs, but not both).

We put a lot of time and effort into the web site and it works very well. We have additional ideas that we would like to implement in Phase II. We launched just before Christmas and made some sales using PPC. The conversion rate, however, wasn't high enough...and the cost per click was too high...to continue using PPC. I have been busy with some other business since the beginning of the year, so really haven't put too much effort into selling more gift certificates. My other business venture is now slowing down so I would like to now get back to focusing on the gift cert business and "ramping up" sales.

I believe the business is a very viable muse as it is strictly web-based and the order fulfillment (sending the gift certs) can be outsourced once we have a "critical mass" of sales. My dream is to be laying on a beach in Aruba or traveling elsewhere and checking in once a week to see how many gift certs were sold that week.

Additionally, as we see it, there are really two channels for sales: individual sales through the web site (in which case we really need to do some SEO so that we can be found on the search engines), or, selling B2B, for example, to business owners and sales managers that could use the gift certs as a sales incentive or a "thank you" gift to client.

Here's my dilemma...I am still quite confident that the site is economically "viable" (in spite of lower than expected initial sales). However, although I was the person behind the original idea and immensely enjoyed creating the web site and all of the collateral, I am not sure I am the best person to drive the sales machine (i.e. contacting businesses that can buy 25, 50, or more gift certs per year).

So, my questions are...
Any suggestions to rapidly "ramp up" the sales machine short of having to cold call on sales managers myself?

I was thinking about outsourcing the telemarketing to India, but not sure how sales managers would respond to an "off shore" telemarketing cold call.

I have also considered giving away an equity position in the company for someone that can successfully bring in sales.

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

Cheers,
HalfSwede

[cornflower]

Have you thought about doing some kind of revenue share with affiliates?

This could also work with the spas and B&B's you have already lined up. e.g. Getting the restaurants that you have signed up to advertise on the bottom of their menus etc. These are folks that you already have a relationship with, so they may be more open to firstly pushing the gift certificates to get more business for themselves, and as an addition benefit promoting your site and therefore other businesses.

[HalfSwede]

If I understand the suggestion correctly, I don't think it would work...at least not on a large scale. Most B&Bs and spas (and restaurants) sell their own gift certificates. I'm not sure there is any incentive for them to advertise our gift cert program (where we are taking a % of the value of the gift cert as a fee for our service) vs. selling their own gift cert where they keep 100%.

[cornflower]

OK.. that makes sense.. have you thought about affiliates on the internet? Such as using www.cj.com? The thing I like about these affiliate networks is that you only pay your affiliate when you have made a sale, not like PPC where you pay regardless.

[Vince]

Rather than pouring more money into PPC, learn Article Marketing! By writing "pre-selling" articles with a bio/resource box at the bottom pointing to your Web site, you can get free traffic.

Check out EzineArticles.com -- they are the #1 article directory. Ezine publishers go there for content and republish your articles for their readers. Plus, since ezinearticles.com has a Google PR of 6, your articles will often end up on the first page of Google SERP's for organic search, too.

Now, you cannot use purely self-promoting content in your articles and no links are allowed in the first half of the article (above the fold, so to speak). read carefully their TOS for more info. It's often best to create two part articles -- part one for the article directory and part two on your Web site.

You can also outsource the article writing -- cautiously, at first. Don't go cheap here, or you'll end up with Borat's cousin writing you "Most Glorious Make Happy Coupon Spa & BB's" articles. :eek:

There's plenty of free information and a database of searchable posts on this subject at The Warrior Forum (http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/) for Internet Marketers. It's free and I don't make a dime if you check it out! Search for "Bum Marketing" -- article marketing so simple and free, a bum off the street could do it!

HTH

[Trancender]

HalfSwede,

As you read through all the suggestions above, I wonder if you discovered the one thing everyone else should have advised you to do but didn't. If not - don't worry, because when you do you'll be even more excited when you read it in my next reply/post.

Meanwhile, I would be cautious about taking any advice from someone unless they were already demonstrating the results (monthly income levels, lifestyle etc.) that you are seeking. And never take advice from someone at or below your current level of income and/or accomplishment.

...just my $0.02

[cornflower]

oh pul-eeze. :rolleyes: