Profiles of Success Issue #79 : AllPiercings.com

Profiles of Success Issue #79 : AllPiercings.com One Year Later

by: Tiffany Banks

Beginning with issue # 28 (see http://www.homebusinessnetwork.com/profiles28.html) we profiled a brandnew internet startup called AllPiercings.com. )http://www.allpiercings.com) A couple (Erik & Dawn Olsen) were launching their first venture selling กphysical productsก online, and allowed us a glimpse into their thoughts and challenges involved in starting such a business on a shoestring. This is a followup one year after launch…

Tiffany: Well, Erik…youกve lasted a whole year (which is itself an accomplishment for a new business)…how are things going?

Erik: Super! We completely blew away our firstyear goals and are currently gearing up for our 2nd holiday season. Considering our sales shot up roughly 400% for the month prior to Christmas (and the fact that we have about 390 more designs than last year), we’re pretty excited to see this yearกs holiday numbers.

Tiffany: Thatกs great! But…there can’t be all sunshine, right? What are some of the กchallengesก you’re having to overcome?

Erik: There are a number of them. Right now, the biggest is our free search engine rankings. For the first three months or so after we launched, we were steadily climbing in the SERPS (ed: search engine result pages), but at the end of march, we suddenly fell like a rock. Although there hasn’t been a penalty, and we still get allot of free traffic (about 2000 visitors a day), our rankings are just now starting to climb back our of the cellar.

Tiffany: Iกm sure that problem is common to almost all online business owners. What are you doing to improve your rankings?

Erik: Well…a number of things. About 4 months ago, we started a very selective linking campaign to trade links to sites that tightly fit our focus (i.e. body jewelry, and/or the jewelry industry). This has had a twopronged benefit. One, it has started to give our site a boost in the SERPS, and two, weกve actually been getting sales as a direct result of those links.

Tiffany: Not to get too specific, but how are the numbers? You know our readers REALLY want to know about the $$$.

Erik: Specifics aside, we tripled our first year goals. Iกll leave it at that.

Tiffany: Fair enough. What other challenges have you been up against?

Erik: To be honest, our biggest challenge this year hasn’t even come from the business. Weกve had a rather nasty medical problem crop up in my immediate family which has been dominating my time for several months now. This has made me realize having a home business, while a blessing, can also be a doubleedged sword. When you run your own business, thereกs no one to กpick up the slackก for you. Iกve been doing as much as I can with the business via laptop from a hospital, and shuttling back and forth handling orders. Itกs been a real challenge, but I think thereกs light at the end of the tunnel. In six months or so, I hope that things will be back to กnormalก.

Tiffany: Definitely sounds like youกve had your hands full. Ok…aside from all the bumps in the road, youกve obviously got a hit on your hands. what are your plans for year #2?

Erik: They are almost too many to mention. Further expansion of our affiliate program (through the recruiting of specific partners), increased search engine traffic (which of course leads to more sales), a HUGE expanse of our product line (weกve got over 1000 new designs on order already), as well as expanding into other related product lines.

Thatกs just a few…as for the others…there are a number of marketing ideas Iกve some up with that no one in the industry has tried yet, so I hesitate to name them here, as I know they will be กadoptedก by my competitors.

Tiffany: That brings up a good point. Is competition a problem?

Erik: Yes and no. There are a few (and I mean only a few) competitors our there who are giving us a run for our money, but I don’t really see them as a problem. Unfortunately, some of the areas where we innovated in the sales process have been latently copied by those competitors.

Tiffany: For example..?

Erik: For example: We offer free shipping on orders over $25. That in itself is not such a revolutionary thing However, when I was having our system custom built from the ground up, I had our developers add a feature that would กencourageก a customer to spend at least $25 by telling the กSpend just $X more and get free shippingก. This feature didn’t appear on a single other body jewelry retailers site. Low and behold…a few months after we started gaining market share, this feature was quietly กaddedก to a competitors site. I guess imitation is the best form of flattery. Aside from that, the only กcompetitionก come from people building dozens of sites all pointing to the same product database. The good news is this is against Googleกs (and other) guidelines, and weกve been very successful in reporting these กnetworksก of sites, which has resulted in their getting banned from the engine(s). Iกve got no problem with competition, as long as they play by the same rules that we do. If they’re trying to game the engines by setting multiple keywordbased domains, weกll report them for as long as it takes to get them banned.

Tiffany: So…with your first year under your belt, what advice would you give to anyone who was considering ‘taking the plungeก into their first home business?

Erik: RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. Know the market you want to get involved in. Our niche was VERY crowded when we launched (and remains so). The only reason we were able to capture the kind of market share we have now is because we had both the USP (ed. Unique Selling Point) and the finances to both act and look like a player from day one. The days of putting up a site that looks like it was designed by your paperboy are long gone. If you want to compete, you have to LOOK like you can compete. In this day and age, no one want to purchase something from a site that APPEARS to be run from a garage. The good news is, with just a bit of startup capital (Iกd say $5000 is a good number to have on hand), you can build a site that from day one gives the perception that it can deliver the goods. Perception is everything.

Follow that up with awesome customer service (not a single support email has gone more than 18 hours before being answered), some great marketing twists (we sent over 200 Tshirts out a couple of months ago, which generated 3times their cost in sales), and a strong affiliate program (ours now generates over 50% of our sales), and youกll have a winner.

Tiffany: Thatกs great, Erik. Thanks for ‘talkingก to us, and weกll definitely check back in 6 months!

Note: Weกll be following up on Erik & Dawnกs progress in the coming monthกs. Stay tuned!

Note: You can visit the site referenced in this article at http://www.allpiercings.com

About The Author

Tiffany Bankกs is the Editor in Chief of the Home Business Network website.

http://www.homebusinessnetwork.com

This article was posted on September 24, 2004

by Tiffany Banks

Profiles of Success Issue #47 : AllPiercings.com F

Profiles of Success Issue #47 : AllPiercings.com FollowUp

by: Tiffany Banks

In issue # 28 (see http://www.homebusinessnetwork.com/profiles28.html) we profiled a brandnew internet startup called AllPiercings.com. A couple (Erik & Dawn Olsen) were launching their first venture selling กphysical productsก online, and allowed us a glimpse into their thoughts and challenges involved in starting such a business on a shoestring. This is a followup roughly six months later…

Tiffany: Well Erik, how are things going at www.AllPiercings.com ?

Erik: Much better than I anticipated! The last 6 months or so have been a real learning experience, and weกve made a few mistakes here and there, not to mention wasting some time and money with suppliers that couldn’t deliver, but I think weกve now begun building a real head of steam, and each month is exceeding the previous month in terms of overall sales.

Tiffany: Thatกs great! You mentioned that you made a few mistakes and กwasted some time and moneyก. What kind of mistakes did you make?

Erik: One of the biggest mistakes was in terms of some of the suppliers we were using. When you spend $1000$2000 on an initial order with an overseas supplier (which many of the larger ones require as a minimum buy), and that supplier doesn’t deliver (in terms of quality and sometimes even the actual stuff we ordered), most of the time you’re left holding the bag. It was hit and miss for awhile in terms of finding suppliers that delivered the kind of quality goods we’re comfortable selling. All in all, our กquestก to find good suppliers resulted in about $7000$8000 in unsellable merchandise we essentially had to throw away. At this point, I kind of chalked that up to the กcost of doing businessก, and Iกm simply glad that we finally found 45 suppliers that can deliver consistently highquality goods.

Tiffany: WOW….$8000 is an expensive กlessonก indeed. Is that your only mistake?

Erik: Ha! Far from it! No, thatกs just the one that actually กcostก us the most in terms of actual definable dollars. Other mistakes included poorly กoptimizedก pages, streamlining our product photography (a HUGELY time consuming process for an amateur), among dozens of other small ‘tweaksก that have needed to be done over the last 6 months or so. Having said that, I think weกve finally got all the major kinks worked out within the last 78 weeks, and things have really begun to roll!

Tiffany: กBegun to Rollก, huh? Ok mister, letกs hear some numbers!

Erik: Ok…not to be too specific, but…Between direct sales, repeat customers, and affiliate referrals, we’re now averaging (for the last 3 months) roughly $400 per day in sales.

Tiffany: $400 a day? Thatกs great!

Erik: Yeah, we’re pretty happy. But thereกs a great deal of room for improvement, and weกve sunk every last cent weกve earned right back into it, and probably will for the next 23 years or so.

Tiffany: You mentioned กaffiliate referralsก as part of your sales numbers. What are those?

Erik: Basically, I included an กaffiliate programก in our system that allows other website owners/operators to sign up with us and earn 20% commission on any sales they refer to us. As of today, we have just over 400 affiliates. Iกll probably be closing the program to new affiliates soon though.

Tiffany: Why would you close it? If 400 affiliates is good, wouldn’t 4000 be even better?

Erik: Maybe for some programs in other markets, but I don’t think so for ours. We’re pretty picky about the affiliates we approve (itกs not an automatic process), and our niche is small enough that I don’t want to dilute the value of the program to the current (producing) affiliates.

Tiffany: You mentioned กroom for improvementก. What kind of improvements are you going to be making?

Erik: For starters…more new designs and more product lines. Weกve just added a line of กbarefoot sandalsก that are selling very well, and plan on adding other types of body jewelry as the year goes on. Weกve also put a deposit down on some retail space at our local mall which will be available in late October. Hopefully weกll be ready to go there prior to the holiday shopping season! Other improvements include some upgrades to our system that will simply make the shopping experience more streamlined for the customer, as well as a few streamlined admin functions for us.

Tiffany: In our first issue, we didn’t really talk about goals. What are your goals this year for AllPiercings?

Erik: Itกs funny, but as our sales continually improve, I seem to keep moving the bar a little higher. Seriously though, weกve honestly exceeded my goals to this point, but in terms of just raw numbers, Iกd like to see us at a consistent $1500$2000 per day in sale within the next 18 months. A lot can happen between now and then of course, but thatกs a goal I think is attainable.

Tiffany: Sounds great! Well, I for one am very happy for your success, and weกll be checking back in with you in a few months! Good Luck!

Note: Weกll be following up on Erik & Dawnกs progress in the coming monthกs. Stay tuned!

Note: You can visit the site referenced in this article at http://www.allpiercings.com

About The Author

Tiffany Bankกs is the Editor in Chief of the Home Business Network website.

http://www.homebusinessnetwork.com

This article was posted on March 30, 2004

by Tiffany Banks