SheIsCheap.com Is Launched

Sep 012010

About 10 days ago, I wrote that I ordered my first e-commerce Amazon Affiliate website from SiteDepot. As I said before and saying it again, their work on SheIsCheap.com exceeded my expectations.

Here were the sequence of events that happened leading up to the launch of SheISCheap.com.

1. Mike Cohen of SiteDepot wrote me an email to confirm that I wanted them to host the website for me. If so, have me goto my Domain registrar account that happen to be GoDaddy and set the name server to the names provided by SiteDepot. With Godaddy, it is simple. Just login to your account and select the domain name by placing a check mark next to the name and click on the Nameservers icon located on the top towards the center panel->Set Nameservers->Choose “I have specific nameservers for my domains”->key in the names provided into field 1 & 2. Click okay and you are done!

2. SiteDepot starts developing the website. A couple days later, I get an email notified me to check the website and let them know if I needed any changes. Here is the first iteration of SheIsCheap.com:

Well, lets just say I wanted a few changes. I wrote back to Mike requesting for the following changes:

Hi Mike,

Thanks for all your hard work. It’s looking good. But, I would like to request for a few changes if possible.

1. Can you get rid of the widget on the center page?

2. Can the page be re-size depending on the user’s computer screen size? Your other website, Mens-Razors.com, is able to fit on both standard & wide screen.

3. Can I have a BRIGHT RED (sales sign red) and blue color scheme?

4. Change Tab description – Instead of “For Her Husband”, can you can it to “For Him”,

b. Change “Games & Toys For Her Kids” to “Toys”

c. Change “Handbags & Purses for Her” to “Handbags”

5. The Top Right Widget – Can you change it to Best Selling Toys? I like the one in Mens-Razors.com. It doesn’t have the annoying “get widget” text..can you do it just like that?

On left column – In place of “Best Selling Toys” change it to “Best Selling Shoes”.

I don’t care for search box widgets.

6. Lastly, can you add 2 more Header Tabs – Electronics, and Computers? I would really like this.

I think that’s about it.

Thank you very much for your help.

Now that was quite a quite of changes. Don’t you agree?  A few days past while I was anxiously waiting and having doubts that whether SiteDepot can deliver. At this point, my expectations were pretty low. I was just hoping that they didn’t screw up what they delivery to me on the first iteration. Finally a simple email arrived from Mike.

We made the requested changes. Hope you are satisfied now :)

I took a look at the website…it fits my screen, the annoying center widget gone, the color changed to bright red, the incorporation of the right box with “Best Sellers” products tie to each top category tab. Man I couldn’t be happier. I was one happy camper!!

Please visit SheIsCheap.com and let me know what you think. Buy some stuff just in case you were planning on making a purchase with Amazon anyway. :)

Today, SiteDepot zip up the site for me into a folder which I downloaded and have it in my possession in case I choose to self-host in the future.  It’s all done now. Thank you, SiteDepot!!!

 

Getting Ready for Christmas – Wants More Deal Websites

Aug 302010

 

A few posts back, I announced that I placed an order with SiteDepot to help me develop an e-commerce-like Amazon affiliate website. It is nearly completed. SiteDepot did a great job. They have exceeded my expectations and I am very happy and grateful for their hard work. You can check out the website here. Please comment and let me know what you think.

Christmas is just right around the corner.  I am researching to see whether I can get another deal website created before Christmas  is here so that I have more products to market. I finally received a response from Epik tonight that they have reviewed the few domain names I submitted and would like to work with me to get them tested for possible website development for a price of $20/domain name. I am grateful for the response and is excited for the opportunity to work with them. More on this later.

Tonight, while I was researching for a few more “product” domain names to buy I came across a website that peak my interest. I did a search on the key words “New Purses” because I own the name HotNewPurses.com and wanted to see how it is rank. I saw a sponsored ad on the side panel by Best-Deal.com. I got creative and thought that I would solicit the owner to buy HotNewPurses.com. The website happen to be a full blown deal site. It looked really clean…exactly like something I’d love to own. Dig a little bit deeper, I found a sister site, Best-Price.com. These websites seem to be own by a Germany company who also own News.de and Cheap-Hit.com.

Although, I am a web newbie, I have done enough research to know that having multiple websites in the same niche category is a great way to built traffic, but what amazes me were the amount of traffic these websites have. I would love to know who these guys are, and whether I can buy a website just like it. Probably can’t afford it though. :)

Traffic based on Compete data:

Best-Deal.com - 327,000 Unique Visitors for the month of July. This site just came alive this year. Top referrers include: yahoo, seekquest.net, local, pronto, and google. A total of 266 referring websites.

Best-Price.com – Almost 9 millions!!! Unique Visitors for the month of July. Top referrers include: google, yahoo, ebay, ask, and shopzilla. A total of 3,700 referring websites.

Anyone know who they are? I think they are very talented. Would love to learn from them.

SheIsCheap.com: Ordered my First Amazon Affiliate E-Commerce Site

Aug 252010

 

I have been reading a lot about e-commerce sites from various blogs and finally decided to place an order to have SiteDepot.com build one for me. From my understanding, the site will contain 100% Amazon affiliate links. It will have the look and feel of an e-commerce site. But, Amazon will be processing and filling the orders.

I have been an Amazon affiliate for about 2 years now, but I haven’t had much success. In preparation for the up coming Christmas season, I wanted to make sure I have enough deals (with affiliate links) so that I can concentrate on marketing. Maybe this will be the year I finally make some money with Amazon. In my previous post, I mention the challenge of posting deals on my site. Over the years, I have learned that there are various automate tools to help speed up the process. But in the end, I found doing it manually yields the best result. That’s why I continue to admire a site like deals2buy.com. There are plenty of big budget deal sites out there, but this is the only site I actually use to look for deals.

The regular price for 1 site is $150, but with a 25% promotion discount, I am only paying $112.50, and the turn around time is between 1 to 3 days. I just placed the order tonight, so I should have my site ready by the end of the week. Here is my site spec.

My site spec and desired result as follows:

1. This is a site with multiple unrelated categories.

2. The domain name I’d like to use for this site is SheIsCheap.com. The target audience is moms with multiple pre-school children (3 & 5 year old).
a. She likes to shop for Games/toys for her kids, specifically pretend play toys
b. She likes to shop for Watches for herself & her husband
c. She likes to shop for Shoes for herself & her husband
d. She likes to shop for purses/hand bags.

3. The above categories are must have. If you allow for additional categories. I would like the following additions.
a. Expand on the Games/toys category to add Train Sets, RC cars/helicopters, Electronic Learning Toys, and Battery-Operated Riding toys.
b. Nice to have categories include: Household item, Exercise equipment, Music Instruments, Electronic, and computers. These categories don’t need to be on the home page if it is too cluttered.

4. I’d like to take advantage of your free life time hosting for this site.

5. If possible I’d like to have a banner ad (468×60) place holder next to the site logo, and the header including the category tab to be no more than 1/4 of the screen length.

6. Please give me the codes, images, etc in my possession so that I can self host in the future if I choose to.