TheGoStore.com - Building a scooter store for my Dad

Umm... why can't I publish?

2006-06-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Umm... why can't I publish?

Changes made (just keeping track)

2006-06-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

CHANGES MADE:
5-19-06 Sales went down (well, still $300 profit, and only 2 days)

5-18-06 After two weeks of unprecedent sales, one day making over $2000, a bottom line balance of over $9000, added Google Analytics (got inivited) and am hoping it doesn't screw anythign up-- this is finally becoming what it was meant to be.

5-2-6 figure out sales problem: 1-800-833-0364 wasn't hooked up right, went to "call announce" usring which many probably hung up. Fixed and sales returned. KILLING TANKS-- BUT keeping Viza Tank on site as unorderable and suggesting another scooter. Why - because our viza tank page is the NUMBER ONE NATURAL GOOGLE RESULT for search "viza tank scooter" and we JUST got a 150cc touring order from someone that originally searched on that!

5-2-06 After three days where orders/customer suddenly PLUMMETED (it had jumped to .004 after adding the 1800#, now is .001?!?) noticed in click trails some people reading the articles and jumping away. Removing articles section to see if it changes things.

4-25-05 Took "moped scooter" off Motor Scooter campaign -- seems to big sucking up a huge share of the ad costs

4-24-05 After one bad day following many good days (adwrofdss oddly droipping itself to $75 instead of $157?) Took off the typosquatting "gad scooter" stuff

4-18-05 After two GREAT days of sales, added "Remind" Me buttons to Dirt Dog and CityBugn as a test.

4-15-06 Revamped order process, added 800 number. Adwords: pausing the X360 only account (Over 4-10 to 4-14 sold 4 x360s for profit $353 but that account cost $328 over that time period-- lower ROI that big account.) LEAVING it as the bulk words trick.

4-15-06 REMOVING SIDEBAR during order process-- less ways to bag out of order. Guy on http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum22/4525-2-10.htm said: "We reduced the number of links that lead to other sections of our web site within the order pages. "

4-13-6 Turning secure basket off (blogger said it reduced sales 50%) also removed negative languag on checkout. AND HIDING THE ORDER REVIEW (confirmation) PAGE to one less step ordering!
4-6-6 Pausing MiniBike -- it took up $47 of the budget by 10am!!
No sales by 11:17am- switching back to secure basket (I know, I know)
4-5-6 signed up on ExactSeek $36 for 3 months
4-5-06 Resumed SkaterX ad group since we've sold 3 of those
Resumed Urban touring and minibike and mobilty tgroups
Switched to insecure basket
4-4-06 Temporarily pausing Motor Scooters on adwords
3-29-06 SHUTTING DOWN AIRSOFT: In end, after refunds (MANY) and after ads and monthly website rental, profits about $2.50 per order after 319 orders and $800 profit in 7 months (Will be less now without AGF.) NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE.

3-29-06 Changed back to secure basket. Changed Adwords- kept budget optimizer and $4700/month budget, but changed max cost per click to .5 (somehow was 1.03)

3-26-06 Changed: select https secure mode checkout (yes) to no on all stores (a2armory does this. Checkout is still secure https) Also fixed other stores order button. Switched bakc, then switched again next day.

3-20-06 NOTE: Checkout is multipage right now, so they can see shipping costs before entering credit card info. Might try single page-- although it asks for credit card infor before giving shipping costs, maybe they will be more likely to go "oh, okay, I've already typed it in." Actually heck-- as a test, I'm switching it to single page now.
Also changed first line of index.php to be www. instead of store.

3-19-06: took "scooter" off gas scooter keywords since during time frame Feb25-Mar09 when Orders/customer was .004 (double what it is now) the keyword "scooter" (no quotes) under gas had no hits. (Also note during that time: www was store, but also amt/day was 100, raised to 120 on 03-07 and then to 150 on 03-11
Revenue was also double during time it was $100 - seasonal? Or way Adowrds works?
Also taking "scooter" off all since "In Googles own words: "General or broad keywords will generate many impressions with few results" and "generally clicks
from general words convert to sales far less often than clicks from specific terms"
Also put all colors available on urban touring -- can get from ECS if necessary
SWITCHING TO OPTIMIZER $3600 over 30 days

3/17/06: Daily Adwords budget reduced from $150 to $120
3-17-05: turned off content ads
3-15-06: Added X360, VizaTank and UrbanTourign ad groups, with content ads and phone
3-14-06: Took "scooter" off motor scooters and set it as .35 in elec and gas
3/12/06 Daily Adwords budget increased from $120 to $150
3/10/06 switched to domains www.thegostore.com, Ytools froogle signup
3/07/06 Added webring codes --- see if they reduce or increase sales
Check sales/customer changes and # customer changes

Adding Google Analytics

2006-05-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of unprecedent sales, one day making more profit than any time in our history, a bottom line higher than ever before, added Google Analytics (got inivited) and am hoping it doesn't screw anythign up-- this is finally becoming what it was meant to be.

(Many times in the past when things were going well I've made some minor change to Google Adwords - such as INCREASING the amount per day- and yet seen sales suddenly DROP OFF after that!)

The BIGGEST day in the history of the company!

2006-05-18T00:08:00.000-07:00

Earlier today when we hit 10 orders, totalling over $1700 in profit, Dad emailed me saying he wanted to get over $2000 in profit (remember, this is as my system computes it-- the money in MINUS the money out to buy the scooters MINUS the amount out to ads MINUS the expected credit card fees MINUS the expected end of the month Yahoo fee. So actual, final profit (although epople could return scooters and get refunds, but profit barring any future developments.) I called Dad and said "Gee, remember when $1000 in profit in a day was good?" (he said "I remember when breaking even was good!!")

Anyway, after I watched "Lost" and the season final of "invasion" I found there WERE three more orders, one of which Dad must have entered, because he put in the notes:

Yahoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! We did it! Over $2000 in one day

...and we REALLY did it. Final tally for today:
Intial Profit = $2,875.35
Ad costs = $166.04
Final Profit = $2,709.31
ROI = 1,731.7%

$2700 profit in a single day. Yahoo, indeed!

Hey! This blog generated a sale!

2006-05-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

(Didn't think anyone actually read these things!) Summer season is upon us, meaning lots of people buying scooters buy on the downside; had to keep inventory! Importers and suppliers running out, sometimes have to wait a week for stuff to get in (and - several times now, had to comlpetely refund an irate customer because some supplier sold the scooter we paid for to someone else!) With the gas crunch on and gas at $3.50 a gallon, EVERYBODY wants to big 50cc and 150cc Scooters. Good for sales, but also worrisome (some of these people you just KNOW are going to say "I ordered Grey and got an Silver Scooter-- I've done a chargeback on my credit card (and am keeping the scooter)" - that's stealing, folks!)

But..on to the good news: the 1800 number (plus spring and the gas prices) have given a huge boost to sales (oddly, sales-per-customer rose to .004 then DROPPED BACK to .002, even though revenue is way higher. I guess fewer "sales" but more "Sale of a big scooter which should really count as 2 sales." The stats on Yahoo Store Manager should have some way to account for profit, not just revenue, per sale.)

Anyhoo, I said on this Blog that if you called Dad (1-800-833-0364) and ordered a scooter and mentioned this Blog I'd knock 10% off the price, and that's exactly what happened! (10% does cut into our profit, a LOT, but then again it's a sale with NO advertising cost, so it shouldn't be too much of a loss.) And it's a another customer and maybe another link to our site, which is the real boost in the long run.

Hey, speaking of which, if you want to do us a solid and add a link to our store on your website/blog/whatever (and get 10% any scooter you buy) do this (with our new snazzy banner) and accept our thanks!:

banner:

Banner Dimensions: 468 x 60,
Direct Link: http://site.thegostore.com/images/GoLogo468x60.gif )
title: Gas & Electric Scooters and Mopeds
description: The GO! Store: Electric & Gas Scooters, Motor Scooters, Mopeds, MiniBikes & More!
link to: http://www.thegostore.com

Or use the following linking code:


<a
href="http://www.thegostore.com"
<img alt="The GO! Store: Electric &amp; Gas Scooters, Motor Scooters, Mopeds, MiniBikes &amp; More!"
src="http://site.thegostore.com/images/GoLogo468x60.gif"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 468px; height: 60px;"></a>

2006-05-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

CHANGES MADE:
4-25-05 Took "moped scooter" off Motor Scooter campaign -- seems to big sucking up a huge share of the ad costs

4-24-05 After one bad day following many good days (adwrofdss oddly droipping itself to $75 instead of $157?) Took off the typosquatting "gad scooter" stuff

4-18-05 After two GREAT days of sales, added "Remind" Me buttons to Dirt Dog and CityBugn as a test.

4-15-06 Revamped order process, added 800 number. Adwords: pausing the X360 only account (Over 4-10 to 4-14 sold 4 x360s for profit $353 but that account cost $328 over that time period-- lower ROI that big account.) LEAVING it as the bulk words trick.

Dumbest of the Dumb

2006-04-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, we have our contact info on every page of our scooter store. Every. Single. Page. All over the place has "The GO! Store, 1-800-833-0364, 487 Schrock Rd, Columbus, OH 43229, sales@thegostore.com" Why? Well, I thought it was standard to do so. But... many scooter stores don't. Why? Because they are sending out shit (or nothing at all) and need to hide from thier customers. We WANT people to get a hold of us (well, actually, Dad, he answers all phone calls.)

But.... sometime this invites dumb people to call. Very, very dumb people.

TRUE story:

A woman called Dad yesterday. Asked where the hell her scooter was- she ordered it a week ago! Dad asks for her name. Tries to look her up in our order database, has trouble- can't find her. Asks "Do you happen to know your order number, or have the email our system send you when you ordered?"

And she says, "Well, I didn't order it from your store."

Literally. She calls asking where (the hell) the scooter she ordered from SOMEONE ELSE is. Dad asks, "Have you tried calling them?" And she said she couldn't-- they didn't list a phone number. So she searched for scooter stores, ours came up and she called and where the hell is her scooter?

Dad, being nice to a fault, then tries to find out what kind of scooter he can find the manfacturer and maybe they'll know the dealer. I said, "Dad, we aren't paying for 800 number calls as an information service for irate morons!"

I told he should've said either:

A) "Go outside, flag down the first car you see. The driver of that car? He knows where your scooter is. Hurry!"

B) "Miss, I will tell you where you scooter is AFTER my pizza arrives. Now I ordered it an hour ago-- now lady, for the last time, where the hell is my pizza?!?"

C) "You scooter has been delivered and is sititng in your garage right now... but hey, a group of vandals are walking around it, looking at it-- wait, no, now they're picking it up. Hey! They're running off with it! Run! You might still be able to catch them!"

D) -click-

2006-04-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

4-18-05 After two GREAT days of sales, added "Remind" Me buttons to Dirt Dog and CityBugn as a test.

4-15-06 Revamped order process, added 800 number. Adwords: pausing the X360 only account (Over 4-10 to 4-14 sold 4 x360s for profit $353 but that account cost $328 over that time period-- lower ROI that big account.) LEAVING it as the bulk words set.

4-14-06 REMOVING SIDEBAR during order process-- then changed mind and re-added. Guy on http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum22/4525-2-10.htm said: "We reduced the number of links that lead to other sections of our web site within the order pages. "

Lots of changes today....

2006-04-16T03:40:00.000-07:00

I know, I haven't said yet what I've done to set up the store, but another purpose of this blog is to keep track of what I've changed and when to see if it increases scooter scales.
SO... today I:

Streamlined the order checkout process, made it single page, edited the CSS custom so the background colors at checkout don't change.

Added on our new 1-800 number and set that up!

Re-edited the order buttons so they appear at the top of the page (looks best on our electric scooters, check 'em out.)
Re-edited the logo to have a simple background and the 800 number.
Also streamlined the adwords campaign, decided to bag the specific on (since It's our best seller, I had decided to try a campaign specific to the X-360 Electric Scooter but it didn't pay off better than the main one.

I'm also considering bagging the sidebar stuff I worked so hard to add into the order page. A guy on another Yahoo! Store blog said it reduced conversions. Hmm....

A little bit about my Dad

2006-04-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Welll, this is going to get a little deep, so buckle up.

There was recently a tragedy in the family, and it got me thinking about death and life and where we go after we die and all the Big Questions. And I kind of settled it a little bit by considering my Dad.

So I'm just going to reprint here what I wrote to myself after the tragedy happened. In case you're wondering WHY I went through all the trouble I'm going to document on these pages of the time and effort it took to create and maintain The GO! Store, this might explain it a little:

My Father

I don't know for sure if there is life after death, or if there is a God, or, if there is, whether He loves us or we're just all his playthings. But whatever the real big picture is, I can't help but think it's probably pretty good.

Why?

Because of my father. My Dad never had a whole lot of money, or a particularly easy life. Things were often tough on Dad; he lived most of his life in difficult situations, got yelled at a lot, didn't always have the greatest health, and lived in a kind of crappy part of Ohio.

And yet, throughout my entire life, I remember one constant; my Dad was, pretty much all the time, a happy guy. Dad jokes and laughs more than anyone I know. Dad was, by the account of anyone who know or even met him, a happy guy. It's just the way he was.

Now Dad isn't particularly religious (he sometimes refers to people who found religion as they neared death as "foxhole Christians", meaning once things look bleakest they decide there is help from above), and I honestly don't even know if Dad believes in God or an Afterlife.

I think that Dad, honestly, if told for sure (or somehow KNEW, for sure) that there was no God and nothing after death? He STILL wouldn't think life was a waste. And I still think he would still have lived his life as a happy man.

I don't know if you could say that for any man of faith, all the way up to the Pope. If a seriously religious, faithful person was suddenly convinced (or some magical way suddenly knew for sure) that it was all imagined? That there was nothing beyond this life, and no God above us? I think he would sink into a depression so deep that nothing would bring him out. Without his faith, would a man of faith want to live? Or even simpler than that; would he be happy? I don't think so. I think stripped of their eternal reward, the religious would fall into despair. They are often a happy lot, but I think they need to BELIEVE, to think for sure there is something Above for them to be truly happy. But not my Dad. (Heck, if there actually IS a God and a Heaven and an interesting Afterlife- hey, all the better!) But Dad never needed that to be thankful to be alive.

So whatever the BIG picture turns out to be, if there's nothing beyond this, or if there actually is, I can't help but think that whatever the Truth of the universe actually turns out to be? It's probably pretty good.

Why? Because people like my Dad exist. Happy whether or not there's a Final Reward or a Big Answer. Any system that produces people like that can't be all bad.

Hey, just realized- anyone reading this...

2006-04-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

...is basically doing me a favor (the more people that know about the store or link to it, the better my Dad does.) So here's a favor in return:

I'm the guy who actually processes all the orders at The GO! Store each night, so if you do ever buy anything on the store, put "I read the blog!" in the notes section when you order and I'll knock off 10% from the total price of whatever you bought! (For the big scooters, that's like $150 bucks!) And Thanks!

Hello, World

2006-04-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

This blog will documents the trials and travails I've had trying to build a online scooter store for my Dad.

Some background: when I was a kid Columbus, Ohio, my Dad ran a tennis store called Continental Sports in an outdoor mall was then called the Continent. I kind of grew up in that store, pretending to be working while actually playing with the rackets and tennis equipment. He lost the store as the Continent lost foot traffic and closed down (although it's had a rebirth since) and it was always a bit of a sad bit for me; Dad always seemed happiest when he had the store, and I'd wished he had one again. (It was always my dream as a kid growing up to somehow get the store back for him.)

Fast forward to 2004, two years ago: My Dad's seventy years old now, and has kinda fallen on hard times since the 1970's/early eighties when I grew up (although you'd never know it to talk to him; he's always in good spirits.) So I'm an adult now and a relatively resourceful guy, but I live out here in California and Dad is still back in Ohio. And, although at the time Dad barely knew how use a computer enough to send an email, I thought hey-- they've got online stores, Dad has selling experience, mayyybe there's something I can do long distance to give him a store after all!

So I set about trying to starup the (big plug here) The GO! Store (click here to see it website) and sell, of all things; Scooters! (Why scooters? Because Dad's current job of a mailing service had a big enough office to hold a few scooters, I thought scooters might sell well, but mainly because I'd just bought a little gas powered scooter and dadgummit I thought the thing was darn cool to zip around on.)

So.... long introduction short; this blog will document how I have (and still am) building up The GO! Store, building up Dad's computer skills, and even, maybe a little bit, building up Dad.

But before I sign off this first post, and admission; I had originally hoped just to help Dad make some money again, and have a store again, but I got a side benefit I never expected. See, I haven't been the greatest son. I moved out to California to follow my dream and concentrated so hard on it I really almost never called my Dad during the nine years between 1995 (when I left) and 2004 (when I started the store.) So the big, unexpected benefit? Starting the store, maintaining the store, dealing with problems and so on forces me to talk to my dad every... single... day! I hadn't realized how distant I had become until I was interacting with him on a daily basis again. I've gotten to know my father more than when I was a kid through this, and that above everything else, is the huge gift I've gotten back from this.