Life of an Online Business – My Pillow place

As of today, I finally figured out how to customize our header logo…so now our logo reflected a similar tone to what is on our site at My Pillow Place….its actually the same header with some modifications to fit the blog header limitations.  I like it better than the default one I’ve had for many moons…however, maybe at some time I get more creative and make it even better…but for now, as I work on our next website, this one is fine.

I’ve been trading links like a mad man lately…using LinkMarket, I’ve been requesting links left and right to help get our site better regarded in Google.  I noticed that I had an error in my My Pillow Place Link Hub page.  Its frustrating because I’ve been requesting links, but I have to wait until they reply back.  I’ve got about 91 linkk trades pending and I add more each day.   Other’s take their time in responding.  I used to take my time when I had more to do.  So I understand.

This is all designed to get more Google love to pages on my site that people aren’t finding.  The more competitive keywords I seek are harder to get ranked for.

I thought we were heading towards a little recovery after our dismal month of May.  June got a little better.  But as July is 7 days old now, I’m seeing the bad economy creeping back.  You hear on the news how “consumer confidence his risen in the month of ________.”  Or “the jobless rate has fallen in the month of ________.”  And, I don’t know how many people are affected by this news.  How many people act on it…but from my point of view, when I had my Architect job and was receiving a paycheck, I spent money (doing my part to help the economy). Now that I’m unemployed, I’ve tightened my belt. 

I like spending money…but I’m not an idiot.  When I don’t have an income, I don’t spend on things I don’t need.

That aside…what is happening with My Pillow Place?  Well..we’ve been a little slow.  Sales are down a bit, though traffic is getting higher.  That I can’t explain.  I wish I knew what people wanted so I could give it to them.  What specifically are people searching for that we are not providing?  Our job is to provide great products at great prices for our visitors.  We try to do that.

I’ve been paying attention to what people are searching for to get to our site.  Our control panel shows keywords and search engines visitors used to land at My Pillow Place.  I’m seeing a trend that is bringing a variety of people to various pages on our site using different search terms.  That is good.  It is important for people to find a variety ways to get to us rather than just using one or two search terms…its like diversifying your portfolio…you never want all your eggs in one basket.

I’ve recently re-activated my adwords account to try and buy some traffic for products that should be selling well, but just aren’t getting enough love from the search engines. I’ve been testing out some new and highly specific ads that reduce the number of clicks I get, but the visitors that do come are highly targeted and hopefully potential buyers. I’ve used my Soft Foam Furniture products as the Guinea Pig.

I’ve also used our Large FUF Chairs and Small FUF Chair pages as very specific product pages to people will visit if they click those ads.  There are less, but more specific keywords that will come up as people go ahead and type those words into the Google Seach Bar.

I’m hoping for some sales out of this campaign.  We also have a 5% coupon code running until the 4th of July.  The coupon codeword is at the top of the left side navigation on every page.  We’ve already got a sale using to code.  I used a waving American Flag gif that will grab peoples attention before they make their purchase…

All of these things are geared to help us increase sales and finish June off strong and start July off the same way.  We are now 6 months through the year.  Its not hard to guess that due to the economy, we’re not matching the sales that we saw last year.  And a side by side comparison of the first 6 months of 2008 and the first 6 of 2009 are very different.  But maybe we can make up some ground if we have a strong 2nd half of 2009.

It took a week and a lot of hard work, but I’ve finally added the last item on my list of modern kids furniture products.  Our Jaxx Sphere Jr. Foam Chair was the final product on my list and now I can move forward and start working on our next site www.yourhomescape.com which will hopefully be up and running in the next week or so.  I also spent some of today creating a new Squidoo Lens to help promote our Modern Kids Funiture  products.  

I’ve worked more in the last week than I have in the last several months.  I’m excited about the possibilities of where our business can go once the economy turns around (unless we’re taxed back to the poor house).  So, even though its slow now, I’m prepping for the turnaround and just sitting here waiting for it to get going.

I know that it is only the second day of summer, but we’re seeing a tremendous jump in traffic relating to back to school items.  In light of that, its never too early to start promoting your back to school products such as dorm room furniture and accessories.  Last year I created a splash page specifically for the purpose of marketing certain products to kids going away to college.  Its always hard to determine how best to market to groups of people who you think would benefit from your products.  On the internet, its about figuring out how people search for the products they want.  So this year I am targeting a group going “Back to School” rather than “people searching for Dorm Furniture.”

In addition to my new marketing push, I’ve adding to my modern kids furniture lineup…in the last two days, I’ve added our Kids Lounger and Kids Foam Chair products.  Both quality products that we’re excited about.  I’m almost done adding product to our site for awhile and then I can concentrate on some other website projects that I’ve been planning.  All in all, in spite of the poor economy and my job loss, working on our internet business has been fun and exciting.