Results 1 to 12 of 12
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    332

    * 6 Months and orders stop? What am i doing wrong?

    Ok i started out great and everything went well, I have several customers who love my service. I then went on to buy another hosting company and ran into some bad luck but sales continued to come in pretty steadily.

    Now for the past two weeks i have had no new clients and only one design job from a local person. I still have most of my customers and there are pretty much no complaints and support tickets are very low. I am averaging about 75-100 visits per day, and maybe 50 uniques... But 80 percent stay for 0-30sec?

    I do my own advertising locally, on twitter, facebook, digg, i submit articles, and do blog posts, and forums posts, as well as craigslist. I take a professional and slightly personal approach to clients. I also have banners on related forums and have over 4000 links from directories and such. I am also rated 5 stars at webhostingstuff.com and I have no bad reviews as far as i know.

    I really try hard and my clients is my priority, I do this as mostly a hobby at the moment bacause i have a lot of free time, but i take it very seriously and i let clients call or text me directly to my cell phone if they want to.

    What am i doing wrong, my site is in my signature.
    MarkusTenghamn.com - Web, Tech, Startups and More!
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    79
    Sometimes these things just happen. About 8 months ago we had a month where no matter what we did, we got no one. We were offering crazy discounts and still nothing.... The next month everything was back to normal.

    Your site looks nice in my opinion, though personally I find some of the images in the top half of your site a little too templatish/iStockPhotish. That's the only thing I can think of... At the end of the day I think you just got stick it out. Take the time to implement some changes your customers will love or even consolidate your customer relationships.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    332
    Quote Originally Posted by envisage View Post
    Sometimes these things just happen. About 8 months ago we had a month where no matter what we did, we got no one. We were offering crazy discounts and still nothing.... The next month everything was back to normal.

    Your site looks nice in my opinion, though personally I find some of the images in the top half of your site a little too templatish/iStockPhotish. That's the only thing I can think of... At the end of the day I think you just got stick it out. Take the time to implement some changes your customers will love or even consolidate your customer relationships.

    Thanks, I am actually trying to look back at the small things on my site to see what i can make better, i have no problem holding out as long as the current customers stay and after that we have plenty of cash stocked up to keep everything going so i am not worried at all, but it surprises me that orders stopped just like that?
    MarkusTenghamn.com - Web, Tech, Startups and More!
    Anveto.com - Design, Development, SEO, Analytics and more!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    United States
    Posts
    1,405
    Yes, it sometime happens like that. Don't worry! Just provide good services, you will keep your current customers and getting more shortly!
    Tommy Tran - tommy @ vinax.net ::: VINAX, LLC ::: http://vinax.net ::: Since 2004
    Premium Dedicated Servers and Colocation in downtown Chicago (350 E. Cermak Rd)
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    The Kingdom of LLAMEDOS
    Posts
    2,881
    Prob. the best thing you could do is to say:

    "The 2nd half of October is going to be 'quiet' so I'm going to take some time out !.

    Try it, it will cost nothing and either it will or it will not work.
    _____________________________________________________________
    - There are many types of Marmalade -

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Above The Clouds
    Posts
    7,223
    Your traffic sources must be poor. That is why your bounce rate is so high. People aren't visiting your site looking for hosting - they are mostly taking a quick look to see why a link to it was posted somewhere. That is a big issue with Social Media traffic.
    Laurence Flynn @ HostNEXUS.com
    Managed WordPress Hosting Solutions
    Focused on speed. Obsessed with security.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,028
    Have you considered rewarding current clients with anything if they refer people to your company? What about branching out to some professionals that would refer people for free? I had a small town designer sending me clients left right and center once. I lucked into him completely.

  8. #8
    A well funded affiliate program can be a great source of new business. Other than that you should be closely watching your traffic sources to see which ones are driving quality leads and focus on that area. Another possibility is its just a slow period, I've seen it happen several times where sales nearly stop for a month or two.

  9. #9
    Don't forget that you have not been through a full annual sales cycle yet.

    There is a natural ebb and flow in traffic that is caused by whatever else is going on in the world.

    In this case, the back to school period may have come into play. Usually, it starts the last week of August and can last a couple of weeks. Then, if it is hosting they are after, it might take even longer as they settle in.

    Mondays during football season, forget about it.

    That does not mean that you should ignore your site though.

    Think back, have you made any changes at all?

    Sometimes the wording or the placement of a single sentence can make a huge difference in conversion.
    edgedirector.com
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    332
    Yea, i know...

    Most of my traffic is from review sites like webhostingstuff, bookmarks, forums like this one and digitalpoint etc. then blogs, and after that comes twitter, articles, and soo on

    So i think most of my traffic is somewhat targeted, i dont just go posting links wherever i can, i do it on related websites and to related people who want or are interested in web hosting related things.
    MarkusTenghamn.com - Web, Tech, Startups and More!
    Anveto.com - Design, Development, SEO, Analytics and more!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    4,332
    Well firstly the hosting market is getting more saturated each day, which may limit your target audience.

    Secondly, your website design may need some revamping for it to become attractive and professional.

    Thirdly, you should have some proper branding in place, eg. have your own private namesevers instead of using your reseller provider, HG's nameservers. Not all clients are comfortable in purchasing hosting services with a reseller.
    [ James Lee - Cloud & Web Hosting Specialist 10+ Years WHT Veteran]

    [ Magento Performance Consultation by Magento Master ]

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    332
    Quote Originally Posted by JLHC View Post
    Well firstly the hosting market is getting more saturated each day, which may limit your target audience.

    Secondly, your website design may need some revamping for it to become attractive and professional.

    Thirdly, you should have some proper branding in place, eg. have your own private namesevers instead of using your reseller provider, HG's nameservers. Not all clients are comfortable in purchasing hosting services with a reseller.
    thanks for that, i started out as a reseller and i still have my account with hostgator, i now have my own servers however and i will make sure to change them tomorrow morning, i never thought of that
    MarkusTenghamn.com - Web, Tech, Startups and More!
    Anveto.com - Design, Development, SEO, Analytics and more!

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