Create A Shoppe Plus DIY website & store builder ~Do it yourself

5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 00:13:13 +0000

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:
1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox
When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a blog
Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys
Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games
Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content
Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

Adding the Pinterest “Pin It” button to your website products and pages

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:58:58 +0000

Those that use Pinterest regularly are familiar with the “Pin It” browser add-on that lets you automatically pin just about anything you find while searching the web to a board on your Pinterest account. This is the best way to pin from a website and most Pinterest users will use this method but for those that would like to have a pin it button on their website pages or for their products here is a tutorial on how to do this.

This tutorial is slightly advanced. It will require you to edit your website template code.

First bring up your website in a browser window.. then in another window bring up the Pinterest website.

Creating the Pin It button

Step 1: Login to your Pinterest account

Step 2: Hold your mouse over About in the right hand corner of the Pinterest page and click the Pin It Button link in the drop down menu.

Step 3: Scroll down the page till you see “Pin It button for websites”.

Step 4: View your site and go to the page you are creating this pin it button for. Copy the URL in the browser address bar.

Step 5: View the Pinterest page again and paste the url you just copied into the “URL of the page the pin is on” space.

Step 6: Go back to your website, right click on the image you want to show when a user pins this page or item and choose “copy image url”

Step 7: View Pinterest again and paste this url into the “URL of the image to be pinned” space.

Step 8: Enter a description if you like (optional)

Step 9: Choose how you want the Pin Count to appear.

Step 10: Copy the code Pinterest creates for you in the first box.

Step 11: Login to your storeadmin and edit the page or product you set the button up for, click in the content area and click the <> symbol or html to view the code and paste your Pinterest code. Click <> or html to switch back.

Step 12: Save your changes.

The steps below will only need to be done ONCE. You DO NOT need to do this for each Pin it button you add to your site. Pasting this code in your template will work for every button you add after.

Step 13: Go back to Pinterest and copy the code in the second box that requires you to “Paste above the tag” in your website

Step 14: If you do not already know what template number you are using go to Template in your storeadmin and check. Once you know then you will need to login to the CPANEL for your website.

Step 15: In cpanel go to File Manager and then into public_html and into the Template folder. Edit the number template you are using.

Step 16: Scroll down through the code very close to the bottom and look for Paste your Pinterest code just above that. Save.

At this time if all steps were completed correctly your new pin it button will be working on your website.

If you are using a custom template and the code is available in your storeadmin in the custom template area then you can add this second code before there and you can skip logging into cpanel. Be VERY careful modifying custom template code. If you are not sure of what you are doing it may be a good idea to contact your template designer and ask them to add the code for you.

Adding a Pinterest “Follow Button” to your website

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:58:16 +0000

We ❤ Pinterest! For those of you who love it too and have setup your account you’ve probably wondered how to add a button on your website that links to your Pinterest page. It’s easy.. and here’s how!

Grabbing the Pinterest Follow button
Step 1: Login to your Pinterest account
Step 2: Hold your mouse over About in the right hand corner of the Pinterest page and click the Pin It Button link in the drop down menu.
Step 3: Scroll down the page till you see “Follow Button” for Websites. Click the button you like and the code will appear beside it. Right click on the code and select Copy. Now you are ready to add the code to your website.

Add the Pinterest Follow button to a page or pages on your website
Step 1: Login to your storeadmin
Step 2: Click Pages in the menu to your left
Step 3: Click the edit link for the page you would like to add the Pinterest button to.
Step 4: Click the <> icon in the toolbar above the content box for the page.
Step 5: Locate in the code where you would like to place the button and right click and select paste.
Step 6: That’s it! Save your changes and preview your website to see your new Pinterest follow button!

Be sure to follow us on Pinterest too!

How to Promote Your Online Store and Generate More Sales

admin — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 22:37:27 +0000

When I first opened my own online store, I listed a few of my products and expected to immediately make sales. This is impossible because a brand new store has no traffic. People can’t buy from a store that they don’t even know exists. In order to become a successful online store owner, you must promote your store by getting the word out.

A good way to start is by having your products show up in the search engines. This unfortunately takes time but if you are serious about your new store, it is well worth the time. You can submit your store manually or wait for the search engines to find you. I will not go into detail about submitting your site to search engines because there are numerous articles online about this.

After submitting your store to the search engines, I recommend looking into free shopping comparison sites. These sites might bring in more targeted leads than search engines because the majority of people that use these sites are buyers. For example, someone that searches for a plant in a shopping comparison site is more likely looking to buy a plant. Meanwhile someone that is searching for a plant in a search engine, may just be looking for information about plants. Therefore, shopping comparison sites are well worth the time. Some of the more popular free shopping comparison sites are Google shopping, Bing shopping, TheFind and ShopWiki.

Another good way to attract targeted leads is through online forums. Forums are great because most of them focus on single topics. For instance, if you sell plants, it would be a good idea to look for a forum about plants. Once you’ve found the forum, you can contribute to the discussion and include your store’s link in the signature of your posts. Just remember to contribute valuable information to the forum because no one likes a spammer. If you go in there just to advertise your site, you may receive negative reactions from the community and it might even get you banned.

Blogs are also great if you know a lot about the products that you are selling. If you are selling plant seeds, a tutorial about growing specific plants would be a great way to attract gardeners. In the tutorial you would want to create a list of things that a gardener would need to grow this specific plant. In the list, include a link to the seeds that you are selling. Also try to keep the blog up to date for readers so that they come back for more information.

Videos are great because there is nothing better than being able to show people how to do things. As in our blog example, we can create a video about growing plants and in the video we can discuss some of the things we need to grow our plants and where to get them. If you plan to upload your video to Youtube, you may want to include a link in the description area to your blog. You can write something like, for more tips on growing plants, please visit ‘your URL’. This is a great way to promote your blog and ultimately get leads to your store.

While there are many ways to generate traffic to your store, social media is currently being used the most these days because it’s the easiest way to spread the word about your business. When a person follows you or likes your business page on these sites, it becomes known to that person’s followers, friends, family, co-workers etc. Then these followers, friends, family and co-workers may decide to check out your store and ultimately buy something from you.

Additionally, online selling does involve other skills besides building a presence. This article is aimed at people that have sold things before on an online marketplace or auction and just need assistance with selling products through their own online store. Just like any business, your store won’t succeed without dedication and building a reputation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_J._Weiss
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6206735

Adding a Facebook Like button to your website

admin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 03:33:03 +0000

We get the question “How do I add a Facebook link to my website?” quite often so we decided to put together a quick tutorial for Create A Shoppe users.

*This tutorial assumes you have already setup a Facebook Business Page

Step 1: Finding your Facebook page URL
You can find your facebook URL by logging to your facebook account and going to your business page (not the wall for your account). Once you’ve arrived at your Facebook page take your mouse up to your browser address bar highlight the address with your mouse, right click and copy the address.

Step 2: Setting up the button code
Go to: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/ When the page loads you will see Step 1 and a form to complete (see example below). Click in the white box below “URL to Like”, right click and paste your business page URL you copied in Step 1. Fill out the additional settings as you like and click “GET CODE” to copy. Choose the IFrame code to copy.

Step 3: Adding the button code to your website
Login to your storeadmin (www.yourdomain.com/storeadmin) and click on Pages. Click the edit link for index.php (assuming you want to add the button to your homepage). Click in the white content box where you would like the button to display and click the icon above in the toolbar that looks like <> to switch to code view, now right click and choose paste to paste the code you just copied from Facebook. Click <> again to switch back to normal view and save your changes. It is now recommended you preview your website to and test the button to make sure everything went successfully.

Video demonstration

Phone calls from Create A Shoppe.. Please read!

admin — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:53:05 +0000

It has been brought to our attention again that Create A Shoppe clients are receiving calls from a company offering SEO and other website related services. If you receive a call from anyone representing themselves as a Create A Shoppe employee or affiliate of any sort and you did not ask us to call you.. HANG UP! We will never call you to sell you any service. If we are offering something new and want to let you know about it we will post it here in the blog, on the website, helpdesk, facebook, twitter or send out an email. Again, we will NOT call you! The only instance anyone from Create A Shoppe might call is if you have called us first and left a voicemail regarding an issue with your website and asked for a return call and even in that case we will most likely reply via email.

It is important to note also that we NEVER sell, trade or giveaway your information to anyone. Any information you’ve provided is available only to us and used only for the purpose of providing you with website service.

We suspect that this company may be getting phone numbers from domain registrations. If you register a domain and do not register it as private your name, phone number, address, and where your website is hosted along with other information is available to anyone. If you would like to see what information displays for your domain go www.diydomainshoppe.com or www.godaddy.com or any registrar and look up your domain. Most places will allow you the option to make your info private for a small additional fee each year.

If you have received one of these calls and have any information regarding the company etc. please drop us an email and let us know so we can work to hopefully put a stop to them! support@createashoppeplus.com

Video Tutorials on the way!

admin — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 06:35:52 +0000

We will be working over the next few weeks to add “how to” videos to our Video Tutorials page. Do you have a specific video you feel would be helpful? Please drop us an Email and let us know!

*Need a Domain?

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:20:31 +0000

We now offer Domain names starting at just $10.99 per year! Visit DIY Domain Shoppe to register yours today!

COUNTRY WHIMS

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:40:50 +0000

I wanted to just say “thank you” for the excellent service that your company provides!!! My website it back to its old self, working great and fast loading!! I truly appreciate that your company is on top of any issues that may arise and that you also take action to correct them. And I speak form experience when I say that not all the web hosting companies out there do that…… Again, thank you so much. I have and will continue to highly recommend your company!!”

~Jaime, www.country-whims.com

RODEO RITZ

admin — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:34:51 +0000

“Create A Shoppe is always so quick to get back to me with questions and issues. I’m very happy with your customer service!”
~Holly, www.RodeoRitz.com