Chris - e-commerce

[thebillionaire]

alright, me and my friend are thinking of selling online, we already sell to friends, fmaily and etc and mak good profit, but we are thinking of expanind online, the only problem is promoting, what is the best way to promote the site, adsense? is it better to have it html or flash? do e-commerce site get more traffic from searchengines or advertising?

Thanks

[michael_gersitz]

Why not start at eBay?

[James]

HTML. And however much traffic you get from SEs vs. Adverts depends on how much time/money you spend on each.

[Chris]

I use search engine optimization mostly. I do some advertising if it delivers a positive ROI but most of my rankings come through good SEO.

[chromate]

I think Michael's advice is right. Definitely use eBay to begin with to gage the market, then venture out from there when you're ready.

Search vs PPC advertising? Why not do both? You'll obviously make more of a profit on free organic search engine rankings. But if you can make a good return using advertising, then there's no reason not to do it. It also provides you with an alternative revenue stream if the search engines decide they don't like your site.

As for which is easier - they both require time and work to get right. You'll see faster results with PPC advertising (such as AdWords) but it will take some time to get some good campaigns setup. You'll probably lose money to start with. You don't have this risk using SEO - but it takes longer to get good rankings.

[Cutter]

Do you mind PM'ing me the products/services you want to sell?

Its also worth noting that if its something that brings customers back to buy again you can spend a lot more on advertising. With PPC you can pick and choose exactly which keywords you want. Often with SEO you just take what you get -- and those may not be the best converting keywords.

[Chris]

But the price is right. SEO = free.

[thebillionaire]

what do you mean chris, google can read prices? also is there a charge for putting products on froogle?

[Chris]

I mean PPC marketing costs money, SEO is free.

[Cutter]

The thing I like about PPC is I can get keyword traffic the day that I decide I want it. SEO certainly pays out much better in the long run.