Joe Hussar
Candywebster@aol.com
http://www.candylandcrafts.com/
My daughter & son in law have owned a retail cake decorating, candy making and soap making craft store in central NJ, since 1980. It has been very successful, occupies
over 4000 sq. ft. and stocks over 10,000 products. In early 1999, they asked an acquaintance who was web knowledgeable to build a web site for them. To make a long story short, by mid
summer they had a few basic web pages and an Internet address. It was virtually impossible to make any real progress towards a "full fledged" ecommerce site, because the person had lost
all interest in the project.
That August my wife and I (both retired) were visiting "the kids" and we all were lamenting on how sad it was. In a moment of fatherly enthusiasm I said, "you know, it
really can't be that difficult.................let me do it for you". Of course everyone was wildly enthusiastic, Dad was also self impressed with his
proclamation..................after all, what are Dad's for?
As soon as we returned home, I started looking around on the Internet for "how to" stuff, then the magnitude of it all began to sink in. (HTML? What does that stand
for?...........my God, what have I done!) I knew how to turn the computer on and off, that was it. To make another very long story very short, I became a preferred customer of both
Barnes & Noble and Border's. From early August until late October, studying & practicing, 10 hours a day (us older people learn slower too!). Beginning with a primer on HTML (So that's
what it means!), by November I had covered most of the 16 books I accumulated. I then began building the web site in earnest.
Never in my working career did I feel as much heat (self imposed) or feel such a rush of accomplishment when something actually worked/looked good. I also contacted a
couple of local computer instructors/trainers for guidance, and found that Front Page was a good choice for putting ideas into practice (I have 5 different instruction books on Front
Page). By now the web site was perhaps 50 pages, it WAS a going concern, we were getting maybe 2 orders a week. I knew I had to face the music and go for a shopping cart, which was done
in early Jan. 2000. Now if you are having enough difficulty figuring out how to get a Front Page table to look like it's supposed to, try implementing a shopping cart, when you still
aren't sure "how forms work". Yikes!
Most of 2000 was what we (my wife and I) lovingly refer to as "grunt work"..............trying to get all the important products/product lines on the web site. By
Sept/Oct the site was running pretty good (everything worked........my definition of good), but incoming orders were only increasing slowly, too slowly, we were getting maybe 15 to 20
orders a week.
NOW I had to get involved in an area I was intuitively suspicious of.......MARKETING. When I was working I was in manufacturing, and it is an axiom of a manufacturing
persons' philosophy that the purpose of Marketing is to sell products at impossibly low prices, in lead times that average half the actual manufacturing cycle and with infinitely low
failure rates. Really scary stuff. So I bought the book: "101 Ways to Promote Your Site", and dug in. Another whole world.........where do you start? I'm not sure how, but I did, and
over the next year the business (thank the dear Lord) blossomed. We continued to expand the site and now are over 350 pages and keeping up with the orders is a major (but nice) chore
for my beautiful daughter and her husband. I also find that there is a need for continuous maintenance to keep the web site at "optimum".
I wish I could make some profound observations as a result of this ongoing experience. The most important principle is an old fashioned one: "persistence and
determination conquers all". Not a great discovery by any means, but a simple true fact.
My personal lessons include the following (not listed in any special order, except the first one, which is first):
You can do it! You have to be committed to it. You don't have to be a genius. Learn a good imaging program like Paint Shop Pro (good graphics makes a huge difference). PPC search words pay off, but you need good data and good maintenance Don't waste time with affiliate programs Join several webmaster forums. Best source of accurate answers. Use Anti-virus programs and fire walls for your computer Protect your web site Spend serious time investigating what your competitors are up to Develop and maintain key statistics for your web ebusiness and update weekly Use an ISP who really has 99%+ uptime and who gives 24/7 tech support
Item 7 has special significance. I never though about this as a serious issue until I discovered (only 3 weeks ago) that virtually my entire web site (product
descriptions, web page layouts, product tables, pricing (yes!) and even part numbers) was copied. The %$#*!!@!! pirate changed the colors and some of the font, and is in business on the
Internet. As we speak I am in the midst of efforts to get their web site shut down. When you spend 2 plus years trying to put together a site and then have someone "take it" it feels
just like someone came into your house and held you up. So I strongly recommend that anyone with a serious web site be fully prepared for the possibility that they might find someone
else with "their" site under a different name!
I forgot to mention the most important thing of all. The feeling that you contributed and the thrill of your kids saying "thanks for the help Dad"!!
Joe Hussar
Candywebster@aol.com
http://www.candylandcrafts.com/
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