As you have found, marketing a web site is not as easy as it sounds. It takes continuous effort. Especially so with a new site.

Another strategy to try is writing articles. Write some articles about jewlery or accessories or fashion, and submit to article directories. They will be picked up by other web sites and your site will gain more exposure. You will add a short bio at the bottom of your articles with your web site address.

Sylvia
http://businessplanmentor.com
Business plan and start up resources

Mdegills,

Two months? Considering what you've done so far, you are on the right track.

There is very little you can do in the form of "instant gratification" when it comes to website traffic - except for one thing. I'll explain more on that a little later.

Sending an e-mail to your family and friends is the right thing to do; however, word-of-mouth spreads very slowly.

Search engine submission is a good idea, but it does not bring you instant traffic. Search engine submission simply lets a search engine know that you exist. It does not mean that the engine will stop by your website and index it. If the search engine decides to index your site, it will take a while before it actually does.

Let's take Google for example. On average, it takes about 6 weeks before Google visits your site after submission. Once visited, it can take another couple of weeks before you show up in their index. So now, we're already talking about two months.

Now, assuming... and I'm making a HUGE assumption here... that your website has been optimized with proper search terms, only then will you start to see some results. Natural search ranking traffic takes a long time to develop.

The word is patience, my friend.

Because natural search traffic takes a long time to develop, something called "pay-per-click" advertising or "sponsored advertising" was invented. Once you set up an advertising account and dedicate a traffic budget to it, you will then almost instantaneously receive traffic.

If you'd like more information on sponsored advertising or more information on search engine marketing in general, check out this special page located at http://www.patrickhardy.com/cafesem or call me at 1-800-896-4022.

Let me know if this helps you.


Regards,

Pat Hardy
P Hardy Technologies, Inc.
Retail and Internet Consulting Solutions.
50 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. #400, Uniondale, NY 11553
1-800-896-4022 (phone) 516-342-4825 (fax)

Looking for higher profits this holiday season? Visit:
www.phardy.com/ideacafe for more information.

I took a look at your website. There are a number of issues I see right away that optimizing will not help with. You can call me at the numbers below and we can go over the issues I see.

Tip #1: Consider your visiting demographics -- gather information from them in exchange for something free (like a newsletter or coupon for a 2-for-1 deal).
Tip #2: Consider the gender of your visitors -- if more women than men visit your site, cater to them with a feminine look and feel, and vice versa.

Regards,
Bill Topp
Owner
JMC Consultants
269-341-9263
269-744-1509

Keep on working. It doesn't happen overnight. A couple of things you can do is to write and submit articles. Be sure you post the articles on your site as well (more content). Links are like roads leading into your site. Check the bottom of the sites you visit and many will have something about links or add url. One of my sites has one you can check out. http://www.infoworthsharing.com then check out the link page.

Forums like this one can provide links if you use your signature option. Craigs list is free but be sure to follow the rules. When you add a blog (free too) you can post and link to your own site.

If you want to pay, google adwords (ppc) be sure you learn more first.

These are just a few ways you can get some more traffic. Also, there are lots of ebooks on the subject of SEO.

Again, just keep working.
Ocha

Ocha

Website:
http://www.potpourriemporium.com
http://www.infoesource.com
Blog:
http://www.potpourriemporium.blogspot.com

Hi Mdegills,

Like many other people are saying, traffic doesn't happen overnight. Here are a few things to consider to generate traffic to your website:

1 - Word of mouth.

2 - Participating in online bulletin board discussions.

3 - Hand out flyers.

4 - Include your business information in your email signature.

5 - Sponsored (pay-per-click) advertising.

6 - Search engine optimization.

7 - Networking on websites such as Idea Cafe, LinkedIn, and Ryze.

8 - Writing articles on your area of expertise.

9 - Include your contact information on your stationary.

Others may have additional ideas.


Regards,

Pat Hardy
P Hardy Technologies, Inc.
Retail and Internet Consulting Solutions.
50 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. #400, Uniondale, NY 11553
1-800-896-4022 (phone) 516-342-4825 (fax)

Looking for higher profits this holiday season? Visit:
http://www.phardy.com/ideacafe for more information.

hello-
i certainly understand this issue. it was for me to.
do you have a tracker on your website? that is very helpful.
passing out biz cards and fliers was the key for me. i went to libraries, barnes & nobles, etc (any established business that relates to your market) and put them on cars or walked around in the businesses. it takes hard work, really. but i saw a significant increase in my website traffic after i did that.

hope this helps.

www.hurtnpoet.com

aleasia hurt, CEO
HURTNPOET, LLC

It does take time to generate a lot of traffic, and it takes an ongoing effort. Put your URL on everything. Order some really inexpensive promotional items with your URL. Pens are great because they're so cheap and they get passed around.

You mentioned sending an email to family and friends. Send them some pens and ask them to pass them out for you. If they're all in different cities, that's even better.

Another good place for URLs is on a bumper sticker.

One of the best ways to increase traffic is to do everything you can do encourage repeat visits, especially since they're the ones who will eventually refer your site to others. For your site, a good way to do this might be to sign up people for a newsletter alerting them on special deals.

Nancy
http://www.CreateYourMarket.com
A Resource for the Home-Based Entrepreneur

Traffic to a website does take time, but can be jump started with many of the suggestions listed in your replies. My first indication that something is going wrong is with the search engine submission by earthlink.

Submitting your site only gets your site indexed by search engines, so now they know your there.

What you have not done is tell them what your site is about: There is no content (text). You are using images for content. As a web developer and Search Engine Optimizer what you are doing is not separating Design from content, by doing this you are not "telling" Search engines what your website is about.

Dan La Bate
Creative Director/SEM
engines of creation web design
518.693.7451
sales@enginesofcreation.com
http://www.enginesofcreation.com

I've been reading alot lately about web site marketing and Internet marketing and it's been repeated everywhere: content, content, content. You need to have worthy text in your web site that people will want to read about and link to. It's definately tough and alot of work coming up with the content, but it's supposed to be one of the keys to success.

Another thing that I have been reading about is link exhanges. Have quality links as opposed to quantity and irrelavant links that point to your web site. I would have to say that most webmasters do not respond to emails and it gets quite discouraging, but it should generate traffic if you are successful.

Good luck! Know that you are not the only one struggling!

P.S. I saw your web site and I do have a few pointers. Make your product descriptions more elaborate like when you read a catalog with sizes and some more text with details about the product. It's also confusing to navigate through like when you have to scroll down the page to find how to get back to the home page.

FileHawk - The File Organizer
www.filehawk.com