A friend of mine has been doing alterations as a home business for a number of years, and has a pretty good business. About six months ago while having lunch I asked her if she had a website. Her immediate answer was “of course not — how would I get alteration business over the internet?” She has a computer, orders some of her supplies through the internet, prepares shipping labels through Fed Ex online, but never felt like she needed a website herself.
WOW! I couldn’t believe my ears! First of all, she’s been teaching classes at various women’s groups about lingerie, how to make various garments, what to look for in knits, spandex, etc. She passes out information sheets to the attendees and does all the right things.
I started telling her why she can’t afford NOT to have a website! Even if it didn’t bring alteration customers to her, and it very possibly could reach some of the hometown folks, she could surely set up a simple website page and start to sell some craft items and use up some of the scraps she has. In addition she buys some types of tricot in bulk for her sewing, and gets it much cheaper that way — duh! Another item she could put on the website to sell.
And, I mentioned to her that all that information she’s been giving out to the classes she’d been teaching could be written up and submitted to the various article directory sites. These articles, while not getting immediate dollars for them, could send readers to the site and create sales.
Another method of getting traffic to the site is through two way linking, or reciprocal linking. She knows that I have a website, so I could be the first one to do a reciprocal link, and she has other friends who also have websites.
Another thing I told her is to look up some sewing / alteration forums and register with them. There are always categories that would fit just about any area of information that she, or you, would have knowledge about and could answer questions, pose your own question or give information in general about. Many times your email address or website address are in your “signature” at the forums, so people could readily click on it and visit the website. In addition, forums are normally spidered by search engines regularly, so if somebody is doing a search regarding your business items, your website name could very well pop up and additional traffic would be sent your way.
I did let her know, however that by doing these things, she should not expect to be flooded with traffic and orders immediately. It does take time to get the website out to the public. There is no quick and easy method for building website traffic, however the most important lesson is simply to let the site grow overtime — put in a little time, lots of effort and never forget perservance!!
Do YOU have a website for YOUR business. Just about everyone has a computer – does a lot of “surfing”, and buys from various sites, including eBay, Amazon, etc, but sometimes it just doesn’t register that YOUR site could be making sales too. If you don’t have one now, think seriously about getting one set up. If you DO have one, think about the methods of getting additional traffic to the site that we discussed in this post.
While you’re “surfing”, check out our two main websites — SewWithSarah and ShopperStrategy — you’ll find lots of goodies and information at both websites! OR if you’re in our area, or thinking of traveling to the Gulf Coast (Pensacola, FL to be exact), check out the super website DoPensacola.com – “Everything to see and do in Pensacola”!
Leave a Reply