# what do you find to be the most effective way to get return traffic to your website?



## mcchate (Jan 24, 2009)

Although we currently have a fair amount of traffic to our website (about 150 to 200 visitors a day) the majority of them are unique or new visitors. I would like to establish a bigger return traffic. What have you found to be your best ways of achieving this?

thanks


----------



## GraduateClothing (Feb 22, 2009)

im in the same boat as you... excpet i was usually getting 150-200 now its like 50-100 need to find a way to get the people coming back.


----------



## Gearhead (Mar 25, 2009)

Simple answer: Capture their email address and start building a list. 

Offer a %-off coupon, special coupon code or something of value for simply opting in. 

But seeing that your site is like a t-shirt gateway of sorts... you probably can't easily offer discounts for other people's stores.

I see you've got a free shirt raffle, so that's along the same lines. Another idea is a weekly newsletter showcasing the latest or best designs that come through your site.

In marketing, your "house list" plays a major part in building relationships and getting people to come back to buy from you (or through you) over going elsewhere.

It takes skill to build a strong list and maximize its potential. But not having one is the folly of many businesses, online and off. 

Tim


----------



## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

What's there that would make people want to come back? 

Right now you've got a bunch of pictures, not high quality, of various shirts, and some Google ads down one side of the page. Most of your text is aimed at getting people to upload their t-shirt pictures, not at people who are looking for t-shirts. 

It really depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to get more lookers who want to become buyers, than a lot of what Gearhead said is right on the money. Capture those people's e-mail addresses and offer them a reason to come back. Make your blog more prominent. Have a best t-shirt of the week contest and let your visitors vote. 

If you're looking to get more people to add their shirts to your site, you have to do things a little differently. First, and most important, you have to prove to them there's value in doing that. Get some testimonials from people who've used your site and had success. I'd also think about enforcing some basic photo quality rules. Right now, some of those photos are terrible. 

Mostly I'd work on adding more to the site, or emphasizing the content that is there more. One thing you might do is spotlight a t-shirt each week and write a brief bio of the company or designer. The more content you have the more likely people will come back to see what's new.


----------



## mcchate (Jan 24, 2009)

thanks these are all great ideas enmartian and gearhead, i will see how many of the them i can use. The photo quality is kind of a problem because although our site has lots of shirts posted by t-shirt mfgs alot are also from businesses in which the shirt is an advertising product for them (they have not put alot of time and effort into the photos of the shirts). I need to find a happy medium to deal with these people as this is what sets a site appart from one specifically for t-shirt mfg. That being said we will get to the drawing board .Thanks for the constructive critcism and comments as we always welcome it. If you can think of anything else please dont hesitate to let us know.


----------



## Gearhead (Mar 25, 2009)

EnMartian said:


> Most of your text is aimed at getting people to upload their t-shirt pictures, not at people who are looking for t-shirts.


This is one thing I thought about, but left out in my first post.

EnMartian's right about determining who you're really going after and your goals.

If it were me, I'd focus the home page and main thrust of the site toward getting the buyers to browse and buy the shirts posted.

Then I'd set up a section dedicated for manufacturers who wanted to add their shirts to the site. This is where I'd shift the focus to them and, at the same time, use it as a way to weed out or qualify those who want to post their shirts (so you can help eliminate poor image quality, etc.).


----------



## mcchate (Jan 24, 2009)

Gearhead here is my dilema. The site is actually geared toward the buyers and the sellers both equally,when someone comes to the site i have about 2 seconds to let people know alot of info in a space about 2inches by 8 inches lol.I agree with the fact i should address the buyers first but the problem is i also have to let the sellers know that it is free to post there shirts or they will assume that there is a fee (this is naturally someone first thought, the watchs the catch theory) so i have to try to clear this up immediately! then i have to let the buyers know that we are not selling the shirts only directing people to the website or contact info to get the shirts they are interested in so that they understand that there is a broad spectrum of shirts here rather than a limited number of vendors. The problem with the quality of the pictures is one i am just going to have to deal with reason being is i dont want to exclude anyone from posting (although all shirts are approved by us before being posted as to keep out pornographic or other images we do not want displayed) because as i stated before there are companies that do no more than just snap a quick photo of their shirt and although the picture sucks there are people who may like that particular shirt. So as you can see I agree with what your saying its just that its just as important for me to communicate with the vendors in the first few seconds as it is to communicate with the buyers, this has been our biggest dilema since we started the site. All of your ideas are great i just really need to set down and see how best to incorporate them into the site. I guess its the same with everything trial and error. If you have anymore ideas please let us know.
ps: i dont want to come across as asking for ideas and then trying to tell you that they are wrong because there not, all of them are great ideas! We just need to figure out the best way to incorporate them. I really like the testimonials, vote for favorite,mailing list and featured vendor ideas.

thanks


----------



## Artsplace-CBR (Feb 22, 2007)

How do get 150 to 200 visitors a day, I don't even come close to that. How do you do it.

Art


----------



## Gearhead (Mar 25, 2009)

Hey Scott, here are 2 simple things you can do right now to help direct your 2 different sources of traffic.

1) Revisit your header.

Your header is the headline of your site, and right now, you're not telling them much. 

Also, when you read "Don't forget to bookmark this page! It's FREE!" without knowing what the site's about, it just sounds like your telling them that bookmarking is free to do, not that it's free to post t-shirts on the site. 

Make the header a little taller, redesign it and add in some descriptive elements to help define the site for new visitors.

Something to the effect of a line saying: "Your one-stop source for the best designs of the web. New shirts added daily."


2) Take your "This Site is Free! Post Your T's Here" on the left and move it to the right, above your AdSense ads. (Actually, I'd change the phrase to something like "Vendors -- Post Your T's Here. It's Free!")

Next, include a "Get Started"-type button for vendors to click on, linking them to the vendor-dedicated section of the site that explains how it works.


Essentially, you're communicating with the buyers in the header, and the vendors to the right (eye studies and testing show this area to get high viewership, and is therefore a great place to call for an immediate action, be it a clickthrough or an opt in.)

Buyers should be your first focus. Without them, vendors have little incentive to bother (at least it's free). 

Tim

P.S. Get your search bar to the top position on the left with a title above it ("Search T's:", followed by your categories and newest T's. "My Favorites" should be last since it requires the extra work of registering and being a member.


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

mcchate said:


> I agree with the fact i should address the buyers first but the problem is i also have to let the sellers know that it is free to post there shirts or they will assume that there is a fee (this is naturally someone first thought, the watchs the catch theory) so i have to try to clear this up immediately!


I'm not so sure about this for two reasons,

1) The first thing you need to do is convey that the site is quality. If you succeed at that, people will want to know more. If they wouldn't even stop long enough to consider participating (free or not) there's probably larger problems. 
2) So much of the web is a free advertising based model, I'm not so sure people's first assumption is that joining a web directory will cost money.


----------



## mcchate (Jan 24, 2009)

the comment i made is solely based on the fact that thats the number one question that we receive "whats the catch" or "whats in it for you" I understand where people are coming from as i would probably ask the same question. Im not faulting them, just trying to establish a way of letting vendors know that there is no catch! alot of times easier said than done 
thanks for the input


----------



## mcchate (Jan 24, 2009)

All great ideas gearhead Thanks!!! we are working on putting some of them in place now!
youve been a big help


----------



## mcchate (Jan 24, 2009)

Gearhead and Enmartian took some of your advice fixed somethings up on our site, when you get a chance take a look and let us know what you think.

thanks for the input


----------



## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Since this thread has pretty much just become a site review, I'll close it to keep all the responses in one place.

Scott's site review thread can be found here:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/site-reviews-design-reviews/t80454.html


----------

