# Traffic



## DickTees.net (Apr 5, 2005)

I was wondering what sort of traffic any of the store owners on here are experiencing. We started our store up about two months ago... over the last two weeks our traffic has quadrupled (still only averaging 200 hits a day) and our sales have doubled (we just sold our 100th shirt). Is this a pretty good growth for a two month period? Just wanted to hear from some "old-timers".


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## frugalmcdougal (Apr 22, 2005)

Jay
my website has been up and running for 9 months and after two months I had sold about 40 tees so 200 is good going in relation to mine. I still only average aroung 50-60 hits per day. Have you got any tips for getting the website 'out there'.

Marky B


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

Well in the last couple of weeks Google has had an update which you could have benefited from (some didn't). 

Obviously, you can experience higher traffic depending on the amount of advertising you do. I have a similar aged website that is getting more traffic but is using adwords, it's doing well in google, yahoo and msn and has some nice link exchanges.

Remember your t-shirts are also funny as well as "offensive" which is a high traffic search term. Just a tip.

I'm an "old timer" btw - you seem to be on to a good start if we are just basing this on search engine traffic. Keep at your content, your quality link exchanges and you will continue to improve.

Are these hits or uniques? Across site traffic, or just home page traffic?

Have a look at ways to improve conversion rates with the traffic you have got. It's not always the easiest thing to increase sales by increasing traffic, but there are some very _simple_ ways to increase sales just by tinkering with how your website and shopping cart perform. Webmasterworld is excellent for these tips.


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## FatHamsterGirl (May 21, 2005)

DickTees.net said:


> I was wondering what sort of traffic any of the store owners on here are experiencing. We started our store up about two months ago... over the last two weeks our traffic has quadrupled (still only averaging 200 hits a day) and our sales have doubled (we just sold our 100th shirt). Is this a pretty good growth for a two month period? Just wanted to hear from some "old-timers".


Wow that's super! Might you have any tips for a broke girl trying to get her tees to sell? I know they're a bit pricey now but I'm going for sort of the upper young market....those who like to spend money 

How did you quadruple your sales so quickly?


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## fatdoug (May 15, 2005)

I get about 150 uniques a day now with about 30 or so coming from Google AdWords and the rest coming from search engines and t-shirt ranking sites.


I am also getting about 10 hits from Bravenet exchange but I getting rid of that shortly because those pop-ups get annoying.

Hope that helps.


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## DickTees.net (Apr 5, 2005)

kingkwong said:


> Hey Jay, that's awesome that you are doing so well so soon!


We have been spending a percentage of our proceeds on advertisements and trading links. I have some key words that are bringing in some targeted traffic from search engines. Those numbers seem to increase daily. We've gone from getting 40 or 50 search engine hits a week to 200 to 250 a week over the course of the last two months. Patience is key and figuring out how to play the optimization game. One day last week we got over 800 hits from an ad I placed. I went to yahoo and did a specific search and we were in the top 20. An identical search on MSN and we are top 5. The same search in Google and we are buried like 50 down on the list. It is a bit confounding as to how to pop to the top. But I am beginning to think that search terms do nothing for you if you are not already generating some major traffic to your site. I may be wrong on this but it seems as though it is difficult to rise to the top if you are not getting hits.

BTW... your stuff is incredible!!! I do not stroke egos unless they are worth of being stroked and let me tell you Doug your shirts are top notch, the Frosty Cream Animation is top notch, the overall design of the site is nice as well. With that being said, let me render a tad bit of advice if I may. Twinge is partially correct. I would consider reworking your site using a html/flash hybrid. Hit me up in a PM if you care for me to elaborate.


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## DickTees.net (Apr 5, 2005)

kingkwong said:


> Quick question- has anyone had success in driving traffic to their site through Ebay sales?


I have had luck doing this, although they are becomming increasingly greedy. I think as long as you do not advertise that you have merchandise available on your site, it is ok to have a link to your site. They ended my auctions a few weeks ago siting that I was advertising merchandise availability on my site. One particular shirt I had listed on eBay got over 500 views and I have to speculate that 10% of those viewers were clicking through to my site.


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## photodiver (Apr 27, 2005)

Hi people..

Ebay pulled 4 of my auctions last fall because there were links to my web site. I can remember a time when you could put as many links as you liked. Not anymore. 

I find ebay is becoming less of a valuable marketing tool as far as driving traffic to your site goes. 

I have found linking to similar but not competitive sites works to increase traffic. But the question I would ask is, do you want lots of hits or do you want lots of qualified hits? 

Just a thought....


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## justinjdean (May 15, 2005)

Our first month we didn't do too well, but ever since I listed our shirts on Froogle our sales have skyrocketed. Its free to list and we get tons of hits. We've paid for adwords and used Overture.com but you have to spend a ton of money before you see real results from there. 

Start with Froogle, make some money and go from there. Thats what we are doing, and in our third month we are getting over 200 unique visitors a day and we sell 2-3 shirts a day on average. And we currently are not paying for advertising anywhere.


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

>We've paid for adwords and used Overture.com but you have to spend a ton of money >before you see real results from there.

Not true mate.  That is great that you are getting such good results from Froogle, congratulations.


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## BurnTees (Aug 10, 2005)

DickTees.net said:


> I was wondering what sort of traffic any of the store owners on here are experiencing. We started our store up about two months ago... over the last two weeks our traffic has quadrupled (still only averaging 200 hits a day) and our sales have doubled (we just sold our 100th shirt). Is this a pretty good growth for a two month period? Just wanted to hear from some "old-timers".


that's so awesome. we also opened about 2 months ago...we've had over 12,000 unique hits, but only have sold a little over 20 shirts. I feel like we're getting the hits, but just not converting them into sales. I know it's being kind of impatient, but when I hear stories like yours, I know it's completely possible. Where have you been advertising?


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## mothertongues (Aug 8, 2005)

Yes eBay gets me traffic (it is my main place of selling right now, with Printmojo as a backup), but not necessarily sales. I've signed up for Froogle, do Adwords, but don't really know if that is bringing in a lot of sales. I've read recently that using blogs to promote your site works for some people - you can update the blog indexes instantly, so you don't have to wait for search engines to "find" you. 
Michelle


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## DickTees.net (Apr 5, 2005)

BurnTees said:


> that's so awesome. we also opened about 2 months ago...we've had over 12,000 unique hits, but only have sold a little over 20 shirts. I feel like we're getting the hits, but just not converting them into sales. I know it's being kind of impatient, but when I hear stories like yours, I know it's completely possible. Where have you been advertising?


Well we have been at it for about 5 months now. The next shipment I will send off will mark sales of just over 300 shirts. Things seemed to have tapered off a little over the summer, but we are looking for increased sales with the onset of fall and people being in front of their computers more. I find interesting places to place add. Where they will be in front of the eyes of people who I think might be interested in our style of garments. Ad Engage and Ad Brite might be a good place for you to start. Word to the wise, don't always believe what a site moderator's traffic claims. Check a sites ranking with www.alexa.com before you spend any money advertising. I rarely advertise on a site with less than a ranking of 50,000.


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## BurnTees (Aug 10, 2005)

thanks Dick 

i just heard about alexa today. can someone explain to me more what exactly it is? my site doesn't even come up on it...which can't be good of course.


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## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

That would mean that you dont get enough hits for it to record you.


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## DickTees.net (Apr 5, 2005)

BurnTees said:


> thanks Dick
> 
> i just heard about alexa today. can someone explain to me more what exactly it is? my site doesn't even come up on it...which can't be good of course.


I am not certain about this, but Cafepress sites might not be ranked with alexa because they are a product of a much larger ranked site. If this is wrong I'd welcome a correction.


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## sackwear.com (Jul 2, 2005)

We opened about seven weeks ago. So far we've had a little over 18,000 unique visitors. 

We recently got some press (not an ad) and the site skyrocketed to 3,000 hits a day. This has come down to about 1,000 visitors a day, which is higher than where we were. Getting PR love is key.

We were actually thinking that fall would be a slow period. Anyone else experience seasonal highs and lows?


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## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

> We opened about seven weeks ago. So far we've had a little over 18,000 unique visitors.
> 
> We recently got some press (not an ad) and the site skyrocketed to 3,000 hits a day. This has come down to about 1,000 visitors a day, which is higher than where we were. Getting PR love is key.
> 
> We were actually thinking that fall would be a slow period. Anyone else experience seasonal highs and lows?


Wow, you are having a very quick start. For me, sales do not trickle off by seaseon. It is actually the opposite for me, with people being by their computers more (especially college kids). 

Looking at your website though, I think that your hits may trickle off a bit if you dont continue to get press, or advertise because your google rank is a 0. That is what will ultimately bring in your most targeted hits.


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## bluefishtees (Aug 21, 2005)

DickTees.net said:


> I am not certain about this, but Cafepress sites might not be ranked with alexa because they are a product of a much larger ranked site. If this is wrong I'd welcome a correction.


Alexa ranks by the direct domain name. So cafepress.com/shop1238859595 or whatever will not be ranked, but rather cafepress.com will only be ranked.

If you want to get ranked you have to buy your own domain, which you can redirect to go to your cafe shop.

[removed rude comment]


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## BurnTees (Aug 10, 2005)

bluefishtees said:


> Alexa ranks by the direct domain name. So cafepress.com/shop1238859595 or whatever will not be ranked, but rather cafepress.com will only be ranked.
> 
> If you want to get ranked you have to buy your own domain, which you can redirect to go to your cafe shop.
> 
> Or you can just ditcht he cafe shop becase they suck a$$.


i do own my own domain... www.burntees.com

and why does cafepress suck a$$? i had no money to invest in starting this up, so CP was the perfect choice.


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## BurnTees (Aug 10, 2005)

sackwear.com said:


> We opened about seven weeks ago. So far we've had a little over 18,000 unique visitors.
> 
> We recently got some press (not an ad) and the site skyrocketed to 3,000 hits a day. This has come down to about 1,000 visitors a day, which is higher than where we were. Getting PR love is key.
> 
> We were actually thinking that fall would be a slow period. Anyone else experience seasonal highs and lows?


that's awesome. what kind of press did you get that got you all these hits? and kept them coming? we've been open since june 5th and we're still only averaging around 200 hits a day. we haven't done a ton of advertising yet, but i'd still love some advice as to how i can bring more visitors in.


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## bluefishtees (Aug 21, 2005)

Man we've been dying to get some press like that. I'm curiuos too as to what kind you got. Even bad press is good press. Tshirthell.com always gets bad press but it results in millions of hits and sales. I keep reading all these news articles on t shirt companies just like mine and wonder how they found these people.


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## sackwear.com (Jul 2, 2005)

We got press just through distributing press releases. A few people picked us up.

Also, lots of bloggers have been posting our shirts on their sites. 

It hasn't been one thing, though. It's been a combination of press, bloggers, google ad words, print ads, tshirtcountdown, people forwarding emails around, friends, family, etc.

We seem to hit traffic plateaus and sit for a week or so, then traffic spikes up, repeating the cycle, and so on.


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## BurnTees (Aug 10, 2005)

sackwear.com said:


> We got press just through distributing press releases. A few people picked us up.
> 
> Also, lots of bloggers have been posting our shirts on their sites.
> 
> ...


that's awesome, congrats
2 questions:
if you don't mind me asking, how much have you spent on advertising so far? 
and what kind of press release did you send out? and who did you send it to?


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## sackwear.com (Jul 2, 2005)

We did some ads in Rolling Stone's "The Store." I can't quote you their prices, but feel free to contact them via their website. BTW, you can find other posts on this site where print ads have been discussed.

For press releases, you just need something newsworthy (and it's always arguable as to what is newsworthy). For us, it was the opening of our site. We researched people who might be interested and sent it to them. This was the hard work part. Depending on your site, you can find other sites with parallel interests/customers.

The old cliche about promotion/advertising is that half of it works and half of it doesn't. It's just hard to determine which half works.


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## AeonTees (Jul 9, 2005)

sackwear.com said:


> We did some ads in Rolling Stone's "The Store." I can't quote you their prices, but feel free to contact them via their website. BTW, you can find other posts on this site where print ads have been discussed.
> 
> For press releases, you just need something newsworthy (and it's always arguable as to what is newsworthy). For us, it was the opening of our site. We researched people who might be interested and sent it to them. This was the hard work part. Depending on your site, you can find other sites with parallel interests/customers.
> 
> The old cliche about promotion/advertising is that half of it works and half of it doesn't. It's just hard to determine which half works.


Just out of curiosity, where do you submit the press releases? I have a writer friend who drew something up for me on my site but I have no idea what to do with it other than have it linked from the homepage.

Cheers,
Chris


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