Finally got someone waving a sign for me. Been going 5 hours and have had 4 people come in from it directly. I'd say that's money well spent. Cause who knows how many people will come in during the week from seeing the sign today but were too busy to stop.
Adventures with Corndog: Corndog's Fish Store
- Thread starter Corndog
- Start date
I'm wondering if anyone knows the answer as it seems I can't put the right string of words together for google to answer it for me. If I put a logo for my business on the back window of my car, do I need to get commercial business insurance? This vehicle just takes me from home to work etc.
I wouldn't think so.
This is from the esurance (Allstate) website
Do you need commercial car insurance?
car
If you can answer "yes" to any of the following questions, you may need commercial car insurance:
Are any of your vehicles used for pickup or delivery of goods, including supplies, materials, newspaper, pizza, other food items, or for messenger services?
Are any of your vehicles used for limousine, taxi service, or other livery service?
Are any of your vehicles owned or leased by a partnership or corporation?
Are any of your vehicles registered or titled to a business, corporation, partnership, or DBA (Doing Business As)?
Do any employees or non-listed drivers drive any of your vehicles on a regular or occasional basis?
Are any of your vehicles leased or rented to others?
Are any of your vehicles a pickup, van, or utility vehicle with a gross weight exceeding 10,000 pounds, or do any of your vehicles have a rated load capacity over 2,000 pounds?
Are any of your vehicles equipped with snowplowing equipment, cooking or catering equipment, bathrooms, altered suspensions, hydraulic lifts, or racing equipment?
Do any of your vehicles have equipment installed such as ladder racks or permanent toolboxes that are used to support a business?
I don't think a sticker falls under any of those categories.http://www.esurance.com/insurance-re...insurance-myth
You can always call your agent and ask them too.
This is from the esurance (Allstate) website
Do you need commercial car insurance?
car
If you can answer "yes" to any of the following questions, you may need commercial car insurance:
Are any of your vehicles used for pickup or delivery of goods, including supplies, materials, newspaper, pizza, other food items, or for messenger services?
Are any of your vehicles used for limousine, taxi service, or other livery service?
Are any of your vehicles owned or leased by a partnership or corporation?
Are any of your vehicles registered or titled to a business, corporation, partnership, or DBA (Doing Business As)?
Do any employees or non-listed drivers drive any of your vehicles on a regular or occasional basis?
Are any of your vehicles leased or rented to others?
Are any of your vehicles a pickup, van, or utility vehicle with a gross weight exceeding 10,000 pounds, or do any of your vehicles have a rated load capacity over 2,000 pounds?
Are any of your vehicles equipped with snowplowing equipment, cooking or catering equipment, bathrooms, altered suspensions, hydraulic lifts, or racing equipment?
Do any of your vehicles have equipment installed such as ladder racks or permanent toolboxes that are used to support a business?
I don't think a sticker falls under any of those categories.http://www.esurance.com/insurance-re...insurance-myth
You can always call your agent and ask them too.
In OK you do not need commercial insurance for a personal vehicle with a logo, not sure about other states.
Halfway point on the month. I'm on track to match last month. I was trying to increase by 2k, so far I'm behind that. However the weather has been really good. In previous years at the other store I managed, summer months = way less income.
For Adwords It's only spent $50 so far. 30 clicks. 7k impressions. I'm wondering if this is fine due to my field, or if I need to just simply add more key words. I'm target 43 different strings of words. My average cost per click is 1.05 and my average position is 2.5.
I suppose I could offer up more cash for clicks, but will it yield more clicks or just me paying more for clicks?
I'm looking into stickers to put on cars to hand out to customers etc. Trying to figure out which size. 4x4 seems kinda small etc. But I do believe customers would like to put my log on their car. I've run it by a few of them and they said yeah totally.
Still been posting on craigslist every other day. Still bringing in new customers.
For Adwords It's only spent $50 so far. 30 clicks. 7k impressions. I'm wondering if this is fine due to my field, or if I need to just simply add more key words. I'm target 43 different strings of words. My average cost per click is 1.05 and my average position is 2.5.
I suppose I could offer up more cash for clicks, but will it yield more clicks or just me paying more for clicks?
I'm looking into stickers to put on cars to hand out to customers etc. Trying to figure out which size. 4x4 seems kinda small etc. But I do believe customers would like to put my log on their car. I've run it by a few of them and they said yeah totally.
Still been posting on craigslist every other day. Still bringing in new customers.
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 5,538
- 791
How many customers can you track to adwords? I'm all for spending the money (hence my $10k a month ad budget), but I only do something if it brings results. Right now, I'm spending $25 a customer with that 10k budget, and I know where they are coming from (we ask every customer how they heard about us). If something isn't working after 90 days, we cut it. It takes time for some advertising to work.
I ask every customer that comes through the door also. Now in fact I've run into people who've been in before and I've asked them twice. I guess that's part of the problem of retail is LOTS of customers as opposed to fewer customers who spend more with your business.
There have definitely been people in already who have said they found me on google. The problem is the question like this. "May I ask how you heard about us?" "I think I saw you on the internet somewhere."
So then the problem is, I've been hitting the fish forums hard to promote, I'm advertised on the local fish club website, I'm on Yelp, and I'm on google. The next question goes "oh did you find us on google?" they reply something kind of ambiguious like "yeah I think so, or maybe it was yelp." "Or Craigslist".
There have been people who have said they searched on google. But for the most part it seems like google search might be part of it. LIke they find the website link from a google ads, then check out yelp etc.
So overall I'd say it's working, esp for the little money I'm spending. I'm more just wondering from others, how does the ranking average? Does it mean I show on page 2-3 with a ranking of 2.5. Or does it mean my ads only show then the 2 people in front of me run out of money?
There have definitely been people in already who have said they found me on google. The problem is the question like this. "May I ask how you heard about us?" "I think I saw you on the internet somewhere."
So then the problem is, I've been hitting the fish forums hard to promote, I'm advertised on the local fish club website, I'm on Yelp, and I'm on google. The next question goes "oh did you find us on google?" they reply something kind of ambiguious like "yeah I think so, or maybe it was yelp." "Or Craigslist".
There have been people who have said they searched on google. But for the most part it seems like google search might be part of it. LIke they find the website link from a google ads, then check out yelp etc.
So overall I'd say it's working, esp for the little money I'm spending. I'm more just wondering from others, how does the ranking average? Does it mean I show on page 2-3 with a ranking of 2.5. Or does it mean my ads only show then the 2 people in front of me run out of money?
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 5,538
- 791
It's 2.5 ranking on the first page. Google says to be #1 or go home. I think my Google Rep claimed that #1 got five times the traffic than 2 and 3. I may be wrong about that, but they do claim that traffic is significantly higher.
What was your click through rate? I believe that 1% is the goal, I'm at .6%.
What was your click through rate? I believe that 1% is the goal, I'm at .6%.
My overall click through rate is 0.46%
Some of my keywords are obscure and have like 10% click through rates. Where as something like Portland Aquarium is being shown to a shit ton of people but the click rate is very low. That is skewing the results pretty badly.
Does the clicking system work like ebay. If I bid $3 for a click, will it just bid high enough to win it say $1.57 or will it cost $3?
Some of my keywords are obscure and have like 10% click through rates. Where as something like Portland Aquarium is being shown to a shit ton of people but the click rate is very low. That is skewing the results pretty badly.
Does the clicking system work like ebay. If I bid $3 for a click, will it just bid high enough to win it say $1.57 or will it cost $3?
Shonuff
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 5,538
- 791
There are different ways to set it up. Google advised me to set rates for each keyword so I could move up to the #1 spot, and it worked. You can look on adwords and see what competitors are bidding. There are some words that my competitors have bid to $10 a click, that I say no way. I'm not paying $10 a click at a 1% CTR, those numbers don't add up.
Tmac
Adventurer
- 10,287
- 17,954
That's about right. I think, around 75% of people click the first result and the rest are split up amongs the next 4 results with only like .5% for the bottom result.
Being number one is king when it comes to Google.
This isorganicresults though. I doubt they would release the results for ads. We can only assume they're the same.
Wondering what you guys think on this situation. A product line I carry has a a rewards program of sorts. I currently carry 31 products of their line. At 70 products of their line. I get 3 "store use" items per quarter. At 101 products I get 6 per quarter. The store use products have a retail value of lets say 50-75 bucks each.
I have to have the 101 different skus in stock each quarter. To bring my 31 skus to 101 skus. It'll cost me $400. However with 6 items, at a conservative $50 each. That's $300 the first quarter. So if I never sell a single one of those other items I bring in which is unlikely. It'll generate $1200 a year conservatively. It seems like a no brainer. There's a lot of fluff in their line that I'm not sure would even make it to my shelves. However there are probably 50 products I would carry either way.
I have to have the 101 different skus in stock each quarter. To bring my 31 skus to 101 skus. It'll cost me $400. However with 6 items, at a conservative $50 each. That's $300 the first quarter. So if I never sell a single one of those other items I bring in which is unlikely. It'll generate $1200 a year conservatively. It seems like a no brainer. There's a lot of fluff in their line that I'm not sure would even make it to my shelves. However there are probably 50 products I would carry either way.
Keep your SKUs to what your customers want/profitable to sell, not what you can generate a measly yearly $1200 from. Also, won't it make your store potentially more cluttered and alter the shopping experience?
Edit: 50% useful products, 50% garbage, seems like a nobrainer to me
Except the products don't have to be on the shelf. They can be sitting in a box in the back room.Keep your SKUs to what your customers want/profitable to sell, not what you can generate a measly yearly $1200 from. Also, won't it make your store potentially more cluttered and alter the shopping experience?
Edit: 50% useful products, 50% garbage, seems like a nobrainer to me
That sounds like when my stepmom was selling Mary Kay. I only have to buy 10 more of this and I get a free that. They both ended up sitting.
Remember cash flow is still king. Inventory doesn't appreciate.
Remember cash flow is still king. Inventory doesn't appreciate.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
- 3,078
- 5
Are the freebies something you would be buying for your store should you not get them for free?
Seems to be the only way it would even make sense, otherwise, as others have said, all that extra inventory sitting in the back is dead money. Find a way to use the space that you would use to store those items to help generate sales instead. Will be worth more to your business in the long run.
Seems to be the only way it would even make sense, otherwise, as others have said, all that extra inventory sitting in the back is dead money. Find a way to use the space that you would use to store those items to help generate sales instead. Will be worth more to your business in the long run.
The free items are very liquid. For instance I can get 6 of these every 3 months.http://www.amazon.com/Seachem-439-Pr...1+gallon+prime
As for selling the products. if they sell I'd have to reorder them as I need to have them around to be scanned each quarter. If I get full retail for the 6 bottles each quarter, that's $450 a quarter and $1800 a year. For a $400 investment at the beginning. So in 5 years, it's a $400 investment for $9000 return. You don't have to keep buying. They simply want more stores to have their product in stores. So that if someone wants to buy a bottle of a chemical, it's likely they'll find it at a local fish store.
As for selling the products. if they sell I'd have to reorder them as I need to have them around to be scanned each quarter. If I get full retail for the 6 bottles each quarter, that's $450 a quarter and $1800 a year. For a $400 investment at the beginning. So in 5 years, it's a $400 investment for $9000 return. You don't have to keep buying. They simply want more stores to have their product in stores. So that if someone wants to buy a bottle of a chemical, it's likely they'll find it at a local fish store.
Borzak
Silver Baron of the Realm
- 26,646
- 35,472