#1 Do you think it’s better to use a developer that specializes in sites for particular industries or any field?  I’m bothered by sameness and yet maybe that’s an advantage to customers.

#2 Do you all charge monthly fees beyond the initial setup? Obviously I expect to pay for hosting and shoping cart but The florist ones also charge an average of $100 per month and some of them charge per order you receive.

#3 My site is with bigcommerce and I really don’t want to start from scratch. Is it possible to pay (say less than $500) someone to improve (greatly) it?  I know I need at lot more work on seo and user experience is lacking.

Any advise is appreciated thanks

try      http://www.studiopress.com/   @jeniferswanson

@JeniferSwanson
Hi Jenifer

Joan has some good ideas there.  If you don’t have good SEO from the get go, it is sometimes hard to get that done.  Most developers and website designers don’t have the experience to build in great SEO from the beginning.  This is where a good SEO consultant may come into play. 

What to look for:  Someone with many years of experience. See, a consultant by definition is “a specialist who gives expert advice or information“.  When searching online you’ll find thousands of folks who proclaim expert status.  But if that person has a degree that is less than say, 10 years old?  Where is the hands on experience? Ten years seems like a lot to ask, but in the online arena this much experience is quite necessary.

It takes untold hours of research into your industry marketplace online to successfully optimize any website.  Anyone who says this is not necessary, is not an expert in the field. Period. If they say they can do the job without all the research do NOT hire them.

Also, $500 is a meager amount when you consider what would happen if suddenly you were on page one of Google for a dozen different industry specific keywords.  Many consultants won’t consider taking a job at less than $1,000 per page.  And, this is not asking to much. The cheapest really GOOD consultant I know charges $50 an hour. With a 10 hour up front fee to begin with.  That’s a $500.00 retainer. You do get the first 10 hours, but most of that has to be used up in research.

Here is one thing you can do, get an experienced SEO webmaster, who knows how to run a site successfully. Pay that person a decent wage to monitor and improve your site as a part time or full time job. Here is the thing, if your site is rolling in orders, you owe the people or person who put it in, and keeps it in, that enviable position.

Anyone who is eager and doesn’t have the experience I talk about, will take your $500 and work for a few weeks, show no results and disappear.

I’m working with a company now that is out thousands of dollars because I am the fourth (4th) consultant they’ve hired. They have had no considerable help from the previous consultants.  This happens to almost everyone. If you don’t have the money to hire a real consultant, please, don’t hire someone because they are cheap. Cheap is NOT GOOD when it comes to this particular arena.

I don’t know if I’ve really helped you here. I suppose this is a warning for you: “Don’t separate yourself from your money, until you KNOW who you are dealing with.”

.02

Hi Jenifer! I’m a web developer and I’ve done some work in vertical markets (automotive, auto parts, travel, etc.). I’ll answer with some of my thoughts:

#1 Do you think it’s better to use a developer that specializes in sites for particular industries or any field?  I’ll probably go both ways on this one. Sometimes an outsider doesn’t understand specific requirements of your industry. For instance the auto dealership industry have their own XML format for submitting individual auto listings that account for items like the VIN number. If the dealer ever works with Cars.com or Autotrader, they’ll need to be able to provide these tags in an RSS feed. 

If your industry has unique data or needs, someone who’s familiar with your industry might be best. 

That being said, I understand your question. Developers locked into an industry have a tendency to look only within the vertical segment and don’t really create anything new. A little research might point you to somebody being creative.

#2 Do you all charge monthly fees beyond the initial setup? It depends. For instance I have a product that I sell both as a single license and as a recurring monthly fee. Let’s say I sell the one-time license for $2500, but only charge $49 per month for ongoing use (with a $200 set-up fee). The advantage to the end user for the monthly package is less up-front fees and on-going updates without charge.

#3 My site is with bigcommerce and I really don’t want to start from scratch. Two variables here: How much customization does bigcommerce allow and how much needs to be done. I’m sure you can find someone to do the work, but be careful. In my business $500 isn’t a LOT of money and usually the people who take these jobs aren’t really well versed in SEO. I guess you get what you pay for.

Good luck and let me know if I can help!

Thanks @enbrown, if the orders rolled in I would be happy to pay lol.  My fear is it’s a small town – with 4 florists and we’re all on page 1 of google. Sounds like Seo expert might  be the best starting point.  @paulwylie thankyou, for clarifying the money – several “florist” specific providers charge monthly on top of the hosting and ecommerce.  I’m paying about $60 monthly now for the bigcommerce and creditcard processing. While i’ve had profit every month am still only averaging 8 to 10 orders monthly. Thankyou also Mark and John – big commerce allows a lot of customization, I just find it so frustrating being a non-geeky old lady

Thanks @markjohnson, could you give me the link for that florist to check it out?  I would rather grow my daily business – I love funeral work and we do it very well. Our wedding business is growing but I have mixed feelings about that.  Lots of stress and it’s tough to make a profit.  If you guys think i’m trying to be cheap, you should sit through a couple bridal consultations.

@jeniferswanson  As a SEO expert/Webmaster it sounds like you may need to go basic with this and actually go offline. I know I’m probably cutting my own throat with this one … but not all marketing is on-line and not all demographic markets look on-line for services.

Sounds like you have a good funeral market … have you partnered with all the funeral parlors and cemeteries in the area? Are you cross promoting them on your site by showing arrangements that you’ve made for funerals at their locations and linking to their locations? Are you a preferred vendor for them? Do they all have your printed material available for people that use their services?

Are you partnering with the local hospitals at all? Are you advertising in their waiting rooms and lobbies? 

Do the local churches know who you are? Have you offered them volume discounts if they order from you every week?

Are you sending out a monthly email with specials and interesting facts about the flowers that are in season? This is the very best way to stay in the front of peoples minds so that when they need your services, they’ll come to you.

One of the things that more on-line marketing specialists do is get stuck in the on-line marketing box. At some point you’ve got to go face to face to get the sales.

Wow thanks @amyhall and @jimlodico – I appreciate your honesty. I’m a little surprised you would both suggest going offline but agree to a point. I’m constantly being told to treat the website as a second store and should be getting equal amounts of orders and it’s the ONLY future growth blah, blah, blah.  @carissacoles it’s http://www.kaberfloral.com.  Sorry i’ve been away from the club and need to do some catching up.  Hope everyone is busy and enjoying this early spring! I’m thinking about buying a megamillions or powerball ticket today – 300+ million would be a hell of a payday!

@jeniferswanson @supereb , don’t expend money on tonight’s megamillion, I already got the good one

Jenifer, also check on the Chamber of Commerce in your area, google has been doing a tour visiting several cities, and helping the small business to get online. I went yesterdar  and they gave us a free domain name & web site for one year, also there were trainned people helping with the basic problems that usually take us several days to understand. They have specific days for each city.

The best developer is someone who has already created something similar to what you want. Someone who is up with the play (so to speak), but it really all depends what you want (sounds cliche) but its true.  You need to know clearly what you want, want your objectives and expectations are.

@vincentedwards All I want is a couple hundred orders a month lol is that asking too much?@enbrown, i’m pretty much doing it myself now and big commerce makes it easier by not needing to know code. I’m just not a tech person and always worry i’m missing the forest because of the trees.

@jeniferswanson go offline as some of the other posters suggested.  People keep thinking that social media will solve their business problems but it doesn’t solve the fundamental issues. Figure out where the customers are.  If you like funeral work, work with the senior groups, churches, nursing homes, mortuaries, etc…

Build relationships with people who can refer you when a tragedy occurs.  I know that for our last funeral a few months ago, we just used the florist that the mortuary suggested.  Thinking of which vendor to use was the last thing on our minds. 

Research how people make the decision to buy flowers in your town.  Look for hotels or larger businesses in the area.  Bid or fight for those contracts.

@jeniferswanson Having a read through this I immediately thought of Pinterest. Flowers are visually appealing so they work well with photo’s and your market is primarily women – which Pinterest seems to be very successful with. Perhaps take pics of flowers in stock, seasonal bouquets, anything to get your customers more ideas of how they can use your products or services. Let them see what you have in stock or what’s coming in soon. Also great advice from  @Jim Lodico &  @amyhallbiz on having a holistic marketing plan.