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Is DIY Hurting your business? #2


beck180

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I greatly appreciate this thread although I am dumb as a box of rocks on some of this stuff. I would like to know exactly what I'm looking for on OSCommerce. I went to their website but don't know for sure what I should be doing there.

With this crap that has come up with HCM I am really bummed and my site isn't getting the traffic I was/am hoping it would.

OMG!!!Ladysj:laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2: You mean there are others out there like me? You sound just like me! lol, lol

I've been following this post (this is chapter #2 thread right)?

I'm really thoroughly now confused! With all this computer lingo I'm really lost...I don't know what a HCM user is all the way to a bot to a code to a meta thing is...And then Mozilla and Safari? What in the world is that? A place to go on vacation? You mean you have to know what all this greek mumbo jumbo is b/4 you even get a website up? I do know what a link is though! lol

I have been thinking for a long time now of having my own website and have made lots of notes of things I would like in my website one day. Even when I'm just browsing the internet and come to a site that I really love, I'll make a note of it and what I liked about that particular site like the presentation, the colorway, the way of the easiness of navigating around the site and even the buttons. I read on this thread that is now going, that frames (not quite sure what they are), buttons, etc could hurt your site from someone visting your site as far as the search engine goes...But then again there are sites that I absolutely love and they are right up there on page #1 of the google search and they all have these things....Probably because they pay to be #1 right?

With all you computer experts here on this thread right now, my question is just this and its in plain laymans english words that we all can understand....

For the person who would like to attempt a website where do you suggest a start and who do you recommend?

I guess the biggie question is what should we know before we hire someone or try ourselves?

How do we know that the company we hire or even a DIY site is going to get us up in lights on a google search and how do we stay there and maintain our site so we can at least be in the pickings for the person googling under maybe these words: Soy Candles

:laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:

I probably look pretty stupid here posting these questions, but I'm thinking, are there any others out there like me who know nothing about the computer world and basically all they know is to hit the on/off switch to their computer and surf! :confused: But I'm a good listener and learner...

Trappeur

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Hey Trapp, I'm working with a fellow CTer to help her learn how to build from the ground up for a site. With a penchant to learn, it can be taught. It's hard to tell someone where to start without knowing what you want. Do you want a showcase or a cart? Do you want someone else to do the work and you maintain or do you want to learn from scratch?

I pay absolutely nothing to be close to the top on some of my searches - but here's the "trick". You'll never be number one with a straight "soy candle" search. Same with paraffin, etc. You need to find unique tags and crazy tags and then link back to yourself. For example, some of my searchers that came to me and one turned into a sale was "rattan", being for the reeds for my diffusers.

You can't know with a DIY site, that you'll get very far. Because while it's user friendly - it's not as customizable as doing your own site. You get trade offs depending on what you want out of it. Doing your own site takes more work, but can be done if you are willing to learn. You don't have to depend on other people, or wait for support to fix something.

Getting a DIY that's drag and drop building or very simple is great for those who don't want to mess with the time involved, and can be a great supplement to a person who does mostly shows. But you lose some customizing - you pay for features you would get normally. You'll have to stick with only templates, etc.

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Hi Mary,

Thanks for such a quick response...Oh, I would definitely be interested in help...As far as a showcase or a cart? Whats the difference?:laugh2: I did say in my post I was not computer literate! lol I think I'm very capable of doing my own, will take time I know but like I said I'm good learner...I have looked at so many sites who build them for you and DIY shops but have never came across anything whatsoever of the type design I have in my head....but then that leads to custom and I know you pay for custom but the prices vary and I don't know if that is all they do and how do you get up on the google search....

If you could email me, that would be wonderful! Thankyou for even offering to help me....

Trappeur

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Hey MissMary - maybe you could do a tutorial so that all the members could learn... ;)

No matter who does our hosting, we all have something to learn about ranking. I don't see any CT member in the #1 Google slot.

So yes, Mary, I agree with Stella. A tutorial would be a fantastic thing to do. To avoid having it be the longest, most convoluted thread in the history of CT, perhaps you could categorize it.

Great idea!

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I've spent a lot of time on tags for Bugtussle and it's a DIY.

Google #2 on "6 oz candle tin"

#3 on "6 oz candle tins"

Google #1 & 2 on "candle tureens"

#4 on "candle tureen"

If you research, I think you can get good results with DIYs.

I get website copied really often (especially on Home page) and I just take it as flattery. The proof is in the puddin and I'll put my candle tins and tureens up against anyone. Carole

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It's my understanding that a lot of it is simply time. Just time. Proper tagging and TIME.

Good for you, Bug! That's awesome.

Ranking is a whole career in and of itself. I sometimes think a person could easily spend far more time with ranking than they did building their site.

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I've spent a lot of time on tags for Bugtussle and it's a DIY.

Google #2 on "6 oz candle tin"

#3 on "6 oz candle tins"

Google #1 & 2 on "candle tureens"

#4 on "candle tureen"

If you research, I think you can get good results with DIYs.

I get website copied really often (especially on Home page) and I just take it as flattery. The proof is in the puddin and I'll put my candle tins and tureens up against anyone. Carole

That's great!

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] Ranking is a whole career in and of itself. I sometimes think a person could easily spend far more time with ranking than they did building their site.

OH NOOOOOOOO!! I have been working on my business website for so long, I'll be DEAD at 100+ before I master ranking... *faint*

Carole, OUTSTANDING work! :bow:

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OMG!!!Ladysj:laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2: You mean there are others out there like me? You sound just like me! lol, lol

I've been following this post (this is chapter #2 thread right)?

I'm really thoroughly now confused! With all this computer lingo I'm really lost...

I think the single biggest mistake made in web design today is just over thinking too much. Just a nice page with the ability to get to products fast and a quick way to check out is all that is really needed! The cleaner the the design the better off you will be all the way around.

The days of the heavily coded graphic intensive sites are falling to clean code and CSS design that makes the whole web a better place.

I think some tutorials on this site would be perfect and I'd be willing to bet things would start to cheer up a little here as a result.

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I'm actually working with some members, but I'm teaching them how to build a cart site from the ground up with support, videos and doing the designing for their layouts, so I'm asking for a bit of compensation in it, especially for the designing part and the ongoing support.

So technically, there is a tutorial. :P

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I've spent a lot of time on tags for Bugtussle and it's a DIY.

Google #2 on "6 oz candle tin"

#3 on "6 oz candle tins"

Google #1 & 2 on "candle tureens"

#4 on "candle tureen"

If you research, I think you can get good results with DIYs.

I get website copied really often (especially on Home page) and I just take it as flattery. The proof is in the puddin and I'll put my candle tins and tureens up against anyone. Carole

You might just try again. :P You are a bit different than that! But as a side note - your server is REALLLLLLLLLLY slow... not sure if it's time or day or if it's always like that. I tried to click and it took about 10-15 seconds to come up on a cable connection.

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But as a side note - your server is REALLLLLLLLLLY slow... not sure if it's time or day or if it's always like that. I tried to click and it took about 10-15 seconds to come up on a cable connection.

When I was with DIY, it was slower than molasses on a sub-zero day. It's why I left them. There were tooooo many times I couldn't even work on my site because it timed out. I can guarantee you customers aren't going to wait around for that.

I complained about it on the DIY forum but they had all kinds of excuses. I did every little thing they told me to do to speed up my site, to no avail. They finally took the server down to see what the problem was. Problem with that was they took a bunch of sites down in November, I believe it was. Just in time to lose holiday sales. I couldn't believe it. Still can't. I boogied right on out of there. That was the last straw.

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Miss Mary, I'm not sure what this means "You might just try again. :P You are a bit different than that!"

If you're talking about Google, that is what my google gives me now at this very moment.

I'm not sure about your DSL, but my wireless modem (Verizon) is instantaneous.

Since you're taking very critical looks at all of us, pls give us a chance to see your website. Do you have one? Carole

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Miss Mary, I'm not sure what this means "You might just try again. :P You are a bit different than that!"

If you're talking about Google, that is what my google gives me now at this very moment.

I'm not sure about your DSL, but my wireless modem (Verizon) is instantaneous.

Since you're taking very critical looks at all of us, pls give us a chance to see your website. Do you have one? Carole

Actually, I meant that your rankings is was BETTER than what you posted. Geesh - calm down and have a latte. I was just mentioning the site activity, because that's what it was for me. And again, I don't have DSL, I have CABLE. It's actually faster than DSL. I also said it could be the time of day.

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