Let it snow!

December 01, 2009 · by Michelle Lambert

For months I've been patiently waiting. I've been avoiding the heat of Utah by escaping to the mountains to hike. But it’s getting colder, and snowier, and finally this past weekend, I bought my season pass and started to ski. Ahhhhh... this is why I moved here. This is what it's all about for me. The fresh air, the powder, a great lunch outside by the fire, and then heading home thoroughly exhausted and happy. I love winter.

Oddly enough, December is my least favorite month for the site. It's our slowest month online. This whole cyber Monday thing makes me laugh every year. I saw on the news today that Overstock.com moved enough merchandise today to fill half a football field! Sigh.. I’d be happy with just half of the bathroom floor.

We just don’t do a lot of business right now. But we should be! Why not?

I'm quite sure that my demographic (women over 50) are just too busy shopping for everyone else. We don't seem to have ever broken through to the gift-givers with any success.

We've tried turning on the search engines to attract the holiday shoppers. It just has never given us the results we are looking for. We only convert enough to break even. (However, this is a way to move inventory, and one we have to consider.) Since we've diversified our product line by introducing the new breast cancer shirts, we have decided to turn on the engines to attract a more targeted, very different audience. But it’s been a very frustrating process.

For the first time I've been having some problems with Google's Adwords. I set up the campaign, waited for it to become 'eligible', and sat back and waited for the traffic.... but NO TRAFFIC! I checked all of my keywords, rechecked my links for my ad, etc. The help section suggested that I wait 24 hours, and that sometimes ads just take longer to start running. I waited.. but no ADS!

Today I went back in to recheck everything and my keywords are all gone…my ad is gone! I've been using Adwords for years now without any issues. It's always been straightforward. So I'll retry. I'm just annoyed with the work I put into it, and that time I wasted setting it up. Do you ever feel like you are banging your head against that wall? Like everything you try only sort of works? That after years you don’t know your customers?

So in an effort to be optimistic, I will tell you that we tend to do better in January and February. I believe that many red hatters, especially those snowbirds, upon relocating to warmer climates get the fever to wear their hats and celebrate. Our site rebounds a bit in a time that traditionally others lag a bit. We certainly don’t do anything worthy of excitement, but we pick up and breathe a little easier.

Some days I get so discouraged, and today is one of those days. After 5 years in business we should be on autopilot and doing well. We’ve certainly put the time in. I have hope with the new tshirt line. I know if I market them well, they have appeal. I just need to get that rolling and add to that product line.

I am still grateful for this business, and I’m happy it’s mine. I just wish it wasn’t so frustrating sometimes and the answers came easier. I’ll spend the rest of this week developing the breast cancer shirt line, and getting my ads up again on Google. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get some traffic from that.

I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that we get some snow here in Utah. I intend to play hooky on Thursday and shoot up for a little skiing and to blow off some steam. I’ve been waiting for this all summer and the snowfall so far has been pitiful. Only 6% of Snowbird Ski Resort (where I ski) is open, which accounts for about 5 trails maybe. That’s enough believe it or not, to still have a little fun and cut loose. And I need it right now, so let it snow!

This post is filed under Staying in the eCommerce Game and has the following keyword tags: Adwords, Search Engines.

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