Life of an Online Business – My Pillow place

Last Year in October, we literally only had 2 sales.  We made so little that month that we didn’t even cover our meager operating costs.  Then we added an 800 number to My Pillow Place and the very next day things started advancing.  We think people started to feel more secure about buying from us because they could now call if they had any questions or problems.

11 days into October 2007, we’re doing a lot better than the October of last year.  Again, more exposure, trust and products have allowed us to get more traffic and sales.

We’ve been contacting new companies to try and get some new products on our site before the holidays hit.  We’ve added a new line of washable and long lasting bed pillows.  The company sent us some samples and these pillows are nice.  They are guaranteed to never flatten.

As it has come to pass, we have limited the exposure of bed pillows on our site and concentrated more on pillows that can function as furniture and decoration.  We watched a competitor of ours go out of business because all he sold was different kinds of bed pillows.  There just wasn’t a sustainable market for that line of products.  We want to be able to sell a few bed pillows here and there while we become a successful business moving in the direction of soft furniture.

I read an article in Yahoo today about how retailers saw poor sales in September.  High energy prices and the poor housing market have lead to people being more cautious as to where their disposable income is going.

 I don’t blame them.  I’ve watched as my Chicago area political leaders are proposing sales tax increases and property tax increases…increases on bottled water and alchohol…soon Chicagoland will be the most expensive place to live and its ridiculous. But I digress.

 I am still watching my keyword positions go wacky in Yahoo and Google….up and down….I’m always trying to get the top spot…my bean bag page has been listed as high as 13 and as low as 20 in the last 2 weeks…just move up to the first page, will ya?  And stay there.

All in all, our goal is to get more product on the site and maybe branch out into other soft furniture areas.  We’re looking at new companies to supply us with various products.  We’re also looking to change the background of our site because I’m sick of looking that those clouds.  I think it would give our site a more comtemporary look if we ditched the clouds.  What do you think?