Fuck Up story: how I was disappointed in digital services for business and had done my job (well, almost)
It was a glorious hunt.
My life has been dedicated to IT. I was an engineer who created interesting products for large industrial companies. My geography was all of Russia, I saw the live workshops of KAMAZ, VAZ and other auto giants. But everything in our destiny is the limit, and I burned out. I will tell you about the reasons some other time. The main thing is that I, an experienced developer and technician, left for free bread and, since I had a family, I decided to do business - my own store for children, according to special principles. In general, like many of the programmers, do what I’m missing from the offers on the market. And you know what? I found out that it is very difficult to find the simplest, basic, necessary professional contractors. A million freelancers and firms, and the exhaust ... It was a quest, and I had to tell the world about it. Do not walk on my rake.
This is the best thing that described my condition.
Important disclaimers.
')
So, as I created an online store, I was a fool, I was looking for contractors and I considered myself almost Bezos, but in the end there were still worn jeans, work and a dream.
Naturally, the idea was born before I left work. What did not suit me in the existing one hundred million children's goods stores?
Of course, the quality of supply. If it is cheap, it is almost always bad, if it is expensive - not a guarantee of quality. I studied the price system, revealed extra charges, talked to wholesalers, understood the law of the market: profit from a cheap product is higher. Business is business, but I would like for the low-income and middle segment of parents not to sit around the sites for days, and once they can buy, trusting in quality. Why? Young parents are in a state of fuss, psycho-emotional load, many of the goods need right now right now, so they just part with the money. And this is despite the fact that finances have already been cleared up: medicine, a wheelchair, a cot, rugs, clothes, diapers, powders and curds with meatlets.
Technical aspects: creepy call-action games in half the screen, tearful pink interfaces, lots of advertisements, poor search, vague feedback systems (really can’t be copied from giants and make the choice easier!), Complex and slow filters, etc.
These two factors settled in my engineering brain, and I developed the first prototype - a pen on paper. The paper flew into the trash. But after a month there was a concept, and he liked me and everyone with whom I shared my thoughts. I needed a designer. I contacted a dozen freelancers, whose portfolios seemed to me the most attractive, spoke about the idea, even offered to become partners. What turned out?
So, the design stalled with the design, although during these twists and turns I managed to write a nice backend of the site in pure PHP, made an ugly but working front-end, bought a nice domain ...
By the way, about the domain. Be sure to pronounce all the options out loud and punch through the English translations of the selected name - imagine how the domain name for the site “Shield and Mail” will sound. I had a lot of funny moments, especially considering the fact that the words “baby”, “toy”, “baby” have such an interesting double bottom that even though the history of the browser is clean. It also struck that even the most seemingly perverted options were already taken.
Let's return to the site and unfortunate design. I didn’t find a designer, but I didn’t have money for a cool studio (for a not so cool one too). Therefore, I have sinned against humanity and made my online store to a very pleasant and, as it turned out, quite convenient CMS 1C-Bitrix . It turned out, of course, not the site of the retailer Eldorado, but quite a good solution, similar to what I wanted.
The attentive reader probably thought: “Stop, but what about the site that has already been written - some kind, and made by the developer, a lot of work? Why was he abandoned? ”Frankly, at that moment I asked myself these questions. But I had motives, and this is another important lesson.
The site was ugly. Probably selling on such a chip or goods for geeks would be quite possible: photo, description, discussion, price, discount, delivery. But I was aware that the core of my audience would be girls, young mothers, who are spoiled by bright interfaces and are used to some standard moves with a basket and a card. It was the first message to choose a ready-made, honed solution.
There were bugs on my site and I saw them. With some I could not cope, town crutches. And I understood that all this jumble could collapse. There was a problem including security - I broke the test database myself with a simple SQL injection. Web development was not my profile, and I was afraid to launch a production site with amateur errors.
I liked Beatrix. I reviewed a few more options, it was not that. Yes, it is also imperfect, and even on Habré there are stories about numerous problems with this CMS, but from a heap of evils ...
It was hard to give up the custom code - there was a feeling that they were solving for me, I didn’t affect every line of code, but I was sure that the solution was standard and stable. Compromise. Alas, but you need to be able to give up your decision in the direction of a professional, not to imagine yourself to be the king of the world and the god of engineering. In addition, I found the possibility of applying my experiences - you can write modules for your store, for example, complex calculators. It was not necessary for me, but for the construction business or the wholesale trade it is excellent.
By the time I quit and worked part-time, I wrote code for one foreign company. The time seemed beautiful: the dream is getting closer, there is money, there are interesting colleagues from all over the world, and most importantly, I am at home and do not spend time on these # @ $ # traffic jams.
Well-designed product cards with beautiful descriptions and even tips from experienced young parents (me, wife, brother, and family of a friend) appeared on the site. The first orders from China, USA, Russia and Kyrgyzstan went “to the warehouse”. At the same time, the girls insisted on creating a section of goods for mothers and joint procurement. I liked the idea, but I was in no hurry - I screwed in the payment system, opened the IP (eventually I chose LLC) and prepared the advertisement in Direct for the early placement.
Start took place. From the first advertisement (20 000 p. Per week - and this is a penny, the children's subject is hell expensive) I was able to sell almost the entire first batch of goods, get a bunch of reviews, two complaints, one powerful bug in the registration system (the fool himself). It was decided to divide all the money received to order a new product and promotion - especially since I realized that some types of products are better than others and it is better to expand their range for now. Something from the untapped went on sale with a minimum margin.
The part for which this article was intended. Because to create an online store on Bitrix, or to develop everything within the power of many smart guys and girls from Habr, but how to promote - a forest of woods and dense. I walked through this forest with a machete, received branches on my forehead and was ready to become your guide.
So, advertising is offline and online. And for the online store too.
So, you already understood that the site came out simple and intelligible. I liked it and absolutely did not want to give up on it don’t leave pop-up, requests to leave the phone and windows that promise discounts and extort an email address for mailings. But there was a nuance: I am a man with an engineering mindset who does not tolerate all these thingies and windows, and the site was mostly designed for women. And I compromised:
I was aware that the subject of children's and low-cost women's goods requires a close work with social networks: Instagram, Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki. I myself was not even registered in them, so my view was limited to thoughts about communities, cats, and some vague segments. I repent, I was old and stupid - social networks for B2C are the strongest advertising platforms covering all segments: from very poor people to very rich. By the way, VC evangelist Alexandra Cherkas was inspired and inspired by VC advertising, or rather, her video - this was the first . And I think that these sites could be interesting for habrovans who make games, software for individuals, applications, etc., therefore I will briefly describe them.
I'll tell you a peeped phrase once on Habré with the same phrase: if you are not in Direct, you are not in Russia. Yes, he is expensive, a bit greedy for the money of a novice advertiser, but he really works. So, if you need the market of the Russian Federation, take the legs in your hands, hang the Metric and pay Direct. By the way, it is better to hang the Metric at the time of the site creation - so you will have all the data from the first click.
What is important to remember?
Google AdWords only seems to be difficult to set up - after a month of setting up and creating ad groups, I got used to it insanely, I got used to convenience and logic (by the way, there is also an offline editor). The rules are about the same, with the difference that support works well for a very long time. And judging by the communication with other entrepreneurs, I'm not alone here. Google has an amazing online AdWords school that is worth watching and revising - there are a lot of honest and useful insights. There is also a huge community with questions and answers in Russian. With experience comes a deep understanding of logic and you can even earn money with it :-)
By the way, the lists from the Calltouch service helped me: for Google AdWords , for analytics , for Yandex.Direct .
Forums are dead, and those that are not dead, they make big money and conditions for the right to just be mentioned there.
Blogs and sites are alive, but expensive. We managed to integrate for free into a couple of locals thanks to extremely cool content. In general, I have to tell you that the promotion of expert texts is the coolest thing in advertising today, but for this you need either money or a lot of expertise. Learn to write, and work on the content.
I wanted to start with this painful topic, but she suppressed me so much that even here I blotted out a week to finish this part. I understand that SEO is still moving the world, I realize that it can be different and I wanted to play fair in a very busy category of sites. Then I did not know what awaits me.
First aid was rendered to me by an excellent familiar copywriter - he worked with the largest companies in Russia and did not do SEO himself, but wrote optimized texts on technical tasks. From the texts of the TK, he made conclusions - on the points that invariably coincided in the technical tasks from different companies:
Based on these principles, we began by creating descriptions for exclusive products (which I delivered at low prices) and from blogging, to which the “joint purchasers” joined on a voluntary basis (but I was ashamed and, as a bonus, I canceled a number of restrictions and organizational fees, also for them the delivery of single parcels was at our expense).
The effect of SEO was on 7 products from the required at least 50, the blog, of course, could not penetrate the numerous mamoforums and thematic sites. But the traffic increased to 100 people per day - 2 times, for me it was very good. But you understand that for an online store these are cat tears? I also understood.
I need a super SEO-Schnick I decided and went to cry, poke and eat a cactus, namely, turned to freelancers. The responses were just a sea, I did not have time to sift out the portfolios and people without a portfolio that were already familiar to me with a carbon copy. However, the rest could not offer anything worthwhile, all their strategies gave mothballs - even I learned to understand it.
Since parallel online advertising brought me sales, I was ready to pay for an SEO company. Therefore, I began to look for my own. I must say, some companies surprised me by the fact that at some point they disappeared, did not make contact or did not hear me, but stupidly tried to smelt their services. Those who did not try to make up the TZ or conduct a survey, but shouted joyfully that in a month I would wake up in the top 3, too, were rejected - I don’t believe in fairy tales. Who stayed and helped?
So, I had links, text SEO on my knee and I didn’t have enough for a top agency (well, no wonder). I began to go to the sites of St. Petersburg studios and methodically read, telephoned, compared prices - I knew what to look for. The solution came from where it was not expected: at the same time, I was looking for a project management system and on Habré I came across a huge comparison of those . Reading it, I just came to the free version of Bitrix24, which I used, but, as I said above, I did not come to the paid one. And everything would be fine, but in the author's profile I saw the inscription “SEO”. Of course, I thought it was a typo and should be the CEO, because this is a corporate blog, but what the hell is not joking ... The devil was not joking. I wrote to the author and a few days later I received an answer - that SEO and not just SEO, but in St. Petersburg, only the company is called not Ptysh, but DFaktorand they have two more cool posts on Habré: a checklist about SEO in Yandex and checklists for online advertising . Sometimes as a reader I will say: Habr, you are space.
I was a little embarrassed by the simplicity of their site, but Dmitry’s professional and simple approach (that is the name of the author) inclined me, who was already incredulous of seeing the price list. I fit. The last wedge in my brain was scored by marketing, but not confused and relevant among modern services chip: all major work is done in one month and no monthly subscription fee is required. Of course, after all the throwings, I was sure that little would come out. And in vain: my site for the month did not hit the top, butfrom the ass RunetFrom the fourth page went over higher. But for me, of course, a more significant indicator was the fact that traffic increased and the number of leads increased. By the way, by the Metric, at that time I already knew that my visitors by 71% were Yandex. Along the way, we corrected a bunch of bugs and weaknesses in usability in my online store that has already collected statistics on views and transitions.
Somehow my height in Yandex looked like this.
By the way, I hope Dmitry will forgive me, but after working with him I realized that having a lot of time and a sensible head, you can set up SEO yourself. Moreover, when I started, there was no this section on the site about what is important for SEO in e-commerce , but now you can guess a lot. Do not be lazy to work with your head; on the Internet, everything secret is almost obvious!
Offline flyers and advertisements in elevators worked perfectly. It was laid out everywhere: in polyclinics (quickly cleaned), in parks, on grounds, by mailboxes. The advice is simple: if you have a massive but still Internet offer, sculpt a QR code everywhere , it is easier to scan it than remember the address of the site.
After five months, I closed my online store - simply because I had never worked so much and did not get so tired. I was at home, but I wasn’t there: calls, correspondence, meetings, round-the-clock conversations with suppliers from the USA and China in other time zones, throwing these suppliers. At the same time, I had a little more than my former wage, when I could get home by 7:00 p.m. – 8: 00 p.m. and roll a daughter, take a drink with my brother, talk to my wife, call my parents. I do not know if I will return to my business and whether I was created for business. I received offers to sell my online store as a ready-made business - I refused and will refuse, because this is my concept, my mistake history and who knows ... life is long.
Now I’m Senior Java Developer, team leader in a small company on a big salary. I quietly move away from that stress and enjoy life at work and outside it. I no longer have sloppy Chinese speakers and sloppy me talking to Americans. I have the experience of self-swimming, and it helps me coolly to communicate with people. I have been writing this post for a long time, maybe it is torn in places, but it should be on Habré - for those who think that business is simple and beautiful. No, this is hell of continuous work.
In parting, I want to repeat the main conclusions that I have made - be sure to consider them before diving into the Russian digital market.
Here is such a little nervous-pathos story I have turned out. I hope everything was not in vain. At least everything was for the sake of this article.
My life has been dedicated to IT. I was an engineer who created interesting products for large industrial companies. My geography was all of Russia, I saw the live workshops of KAMAZ, VAZ and other auto giants. But everything in our destiny is the limit, and I burned out. I will tell you about the reasons some other time. The main thing is that I, an experienced developer and technician, left for free bread and, since I had a family, I decided to do business - my own store for children, according to special principles. In general, like many of the programmers, do what I’m missing from the offers on the market. And you know what? I found out that it is very difficult to find the simplest, basic, necessary professional contractors. A million freelancers and firms, and the exhaust ... It was a quest, and I had to tell the world about it. Do not walk on my rake.
This is the best thing that described my condition.
Important disclaimers.
')
- I froze the site, and the link to it will break the rules of Habr regarding advertising. I think one day I will find a way to tell the world about it.
- The article will mention companies and services that were able to help me. To spoil the reputation of those who could not, I will not - probably, I also somewhere turned out to be a bad customer. I think these links to help such as I do not consider advertising.
- I foresee the question of what I live. While I got a job as a programmer in a warm and cozy project, plus I take tasks to order (sometimes). And this is very good - you will agree, IT will not allow to starve.
So, as I created an online store, I was a fool, I was looking for contractors and I considered myself almost Bezos, but in the end there were still worn jeans, work and a dream.
My personal toy story
Naturally, the idea was born before I left work. What did not suit me in the existing one hundred million children's goods stores?
Of course, the quality of supply. If it is cheap, it is almost always bad, if it is expensive - not a guarantee of quality. I studied the price system, revealed extra charges, talked to wholesalers, understood the law of the market: profit from a cheap product is higher. Business is business, but I would like for the low-income and middle segment of parents not to sit around the sites for days, and once they can buy, trusting in quality. Why? Young parents are in a state of fuss, psycho-emotional load, many of the goods need right now right now, so they just part with the money. And this is despite the fact that finances have already been cleared up: medicine, a wheelchair, a cot, rugs, clothes, diapers, powders and curds with meatlets.
Technical aspects: creepy call-action games in half the screen, tearful pink interfaces, lots of advertisements, poor search, vague feedback systems (really can’t be copied from giants and make the choice easier!), Complex and slow filters, etc.
These two factors settled in my engineering brain, and I developed the first prototype - a pen on paper. The paper flew into the trash. But after a month there was a concept, and he liked me and everyone with whom I shared my thoughts. I needed a designer. I contacted a dozen freelancers, whose portfolios seemed to me the most attractive, spoke about the idea, even offered to become partners. What turned out?
- As soon as the freelancer understands that you are doing not just a project, but “muddle” the business, he immediately changes the course of the conversation and calls this price tag as if he had just left Lebedev’s studio.
- Some freelancers give out other people's work for their own. It turned out funny - two on one resource sent links to the same portfolio, which in fact belongs to the third. Another one gave a link to the work that I was not too lazy to find and saw that this was done by an agency to which the guy had never had a relationship. The advice is simple: as soon as you see the portfolio, punch through the site names. image services, etc. Such a lie at the start indicates a deliberately failing job.
- Freelancers for the most part are not ready for contracts, receipts and other evidence of delivery of prepayment to them. I heard one thing: “You will have an extract in a mobile bank stating that you have transferred money to me”. Well, you understand that this is legally untenable.
- Freelancers actively “finish selling”: I was immediately offered both design, and PHP uncle programmer, director-girl, and SEO-brother. Family row! Of course, this was not in my plans.
So, the design stalled with the design, although during these twists and turns I managed to write a nice backend of the site in pure PHP, made an ugly but working front-end, bought a nice domain ...
By the way, about the domain. Be sure to pronounce all the options out loud and punch through the English translations of the selected name - imagine how the domain name for the site “Shield and Mail” will sound. I had a lot of funny moments, especially considering the fact that the words “baby”, “toy”, “baby” have such an interesting double bottom that even though the history of the browser is clean. It also struck that even the most seemingly perverted options were already taken.
Let's return to the site and unfortunate design. I didn’t find a designer, but I didn’t have money for a cool studio (for a not so cool one too). Therefore, I have sinned against humanity and made my online store to a very pleasant and, as it turned out, quite convenient CMS 1C-Bitrix . It turned out, of course, not the site of the retailer Eldorado, but quite a good solution, similar to what I wanted.
The attentive reader probably thought: “Stop, but what about the site that has already been written - some kind, and made by the developer, a lot of work? Why was he abandoned? ”Frankly, at that moment I asked myself these questions. But I had motives, and this is another important lesson.
The site was ugly. Probably selling on such a chip or goods for geeks would be quite possible: photo, description, discussion, price, discount, delivery. But I was aware that the core of my audience would be girls, young mothers, who are spoiled by bright interfaces and are used to some standard moves with a basket and a card. It was the first message to choose a ready-made, honed solution.
There were bugs on my site and I saw them. With some I could not cope, town crutches. And I understood that all this jumble could collapse. There was a problem including security - I broke the test database myself with a simple SQL injection. Web development was not my profile, and I was afraid to launch a production site with amateur errors.
I liked Beatrix. I reviewed a few more options, it was not that. Yes, it is also imperfect, and even on Habré there are stories about numerous problems with this CMS, but from a heap of evils ...
It was hard to give up the custom code - there was a feeling that they were solving for me, I didn’t affect every line of code, but I was sure that the solution was standard and stable. Compromise. Alas, but you need to be able to give up your decision in the direction of a professional, not to imagine yourself to be the king of the world and the god of engineering. In addition, I found the possibility of applying my experiences - you can write modules for your store, for example, complex calculators. It was not necessary for me, but for the construction business or the wholesale trade it is excellent.
By the time I quit and worked part-time, I wrote code for one foreign company. The time seemed beautiful: the dream is getting closer, there is money, there are interesting colleagues from all over the world, and most importantly, I am at home and do not spend time on these # @ $ # traffic jams.
Well-designed product cards with beautiful descriptions and even tips from experienced young parents (me, wife, brother, and family of a friend) appeared on the site. The first orders from China, USA, Russia and Kyrgyzstan went “to the warehouse”. At the same time, the girls insisted on creating a section of goods for mothers and joint procurement. I liked the idea, but I was in no hurry - I screwed in the payment system, opened the IP (eventually I chose LLC) and prepared the advertisement in Direct for the early placement.
Start took place. From the first advertisement (20 000 p. Per week - and this is a penny, the children's subject is hell expensive) I was able to sell almost the entire first batch of goods, get a bunch of reviews, two complaints, one powerful bug in the registration system (the fool himself). It was decided to divide all the money received to order a new product and promotion - especially since I realized that some types of products are better than others and it is better to expand their range for now. Something from the untapped went on sale with a minimum margin.
Promotion
The part for which this article was intended. Because to create an online store on Bitrix, or to develop everything within the power of many smart guys and girls from Habr, but how to promote - a forest of woods and dense. I walked through this forest with a machete, received branches on my forehead and was ready to become your guide.
So, advertising is offline and online. And for the online store too.
Online
Chats and catch-up - I'm sorry, but a compromise
So, you already understood that the site came out simple and intelligible. I liked it and absolutely did not want to give up on it don’t leave pop-up, requests to leave the phone and windows that promise discounts and extort an email address for mailings. But there was a nuance: I am a man with an engineering mindset who does not tolerate all these thingies and windows, and the site was mostly designed for women. And I compromised:
- Left a window that would pop up when leaving the site. He was asked to stay and get a 10% discount and a choice of chocolates. All this was offered by the sweetest and most ridiculous bear cub (chosen for Depositphotos ). In general, I am proud of this banner, which I was able to create without the help of a designer. Well, embed in the site - IT business. And yes, surprisingly, it stopped many from leaving the site, the discount coupon worked. I think this is again a matter of the specifics of the audience.
- I connected the Jivosite chat, in which there were no bots, but there were two live girls - my wife and my friend's wife. A little later, I planned to develop social networks (well, sacred for my subject!) And connect the live lines from Bitrix, but it did not come to that, I did not have time to buy their system.
- He created not just the pursuit of a “you forgot in the basket” type mailing list, but put on content and sent a useful letter with a valuable discount (second time), and the first time - useful reminder. The conversion was 10%. Not bad, believe me.
Advertising in social networks and groups - attack bots?
I was aware that the subject of children's and low-cost women's goods requires a close work with social networks: Instagram, Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki. I myself was not even registered in them, so my view was limited to thoughts about communities, cats, and some vague segments. I repent, I was old and stupid - social networks for B2C are the strongest advertising platforms covering all segments: from very poor people to very rich. By the way, VC evangelist Alexandra Cherkas was inspired and inspired by VC advertising, or rather, her video - this was the first . And I think that these sites could be interesting for habrovans who make games, software for individuals, applications, etc., therefore I will briefly describe them.
- VKontakte is a good, lively and, surprisingly, rather adult audience. I would rate it as solvent, 23-35 years. Advertising worked well, there were such quick purchases that even did not have to search for them by analytics: it was clear that the person came from the public and immediately bought, there is no need to track the path to the goal (conversion) in Google Analytics. There was no activity in public, only lazy huskies. There are enough bots, but with a certain skill and proper targeting, you will quickly forget about them.
- Facebook is a very special phenomenon. Here the audience is very difficult to catch, almost unreal. Maybe it is more business or less popular with the target audience. Some memes in advertisements came in, but in general, I did not feel any special effect.
- Instagram, albeit a "subfeistbook" case, worked very well. This is a pretty “female” social network with a bunch of advertising opportunities. Pictures with text went best for them, videos were not very good. I wanted to try to integrate into blogger accounts, but it was somehow very expensive, and the characters I chose were not ready to prove effectiveness or show effectiveness on numbers. Noodles in the form of "Yes, I myself was placed L'Etual" on the old engineer does not hang, I'm not Letual, I have so much money at risk.
- Classmates - in short: yes, send these bots in a given direction! The real feeling of a half-dead botnet. Maybe I tried hard.
Yandex and Google advertising effectively
I'll tell you a peeped phrase once on Habré with the same phrase: if you are not in Direct, you are not in Russia. Yes, he is expensive, a bit greedy for the money of a novice advertiser, but he really works. So, if you need the market of the Russian Federation, take the legs in your hands, hang the Metric and pay Direct. By the way, it is better to hang the Metric at the time of the site creation - so you will have all the data from the first click.
What is important to remember?
- Some products require a letter of guarantee - take care of the list in advance. I ran into this with some ointments and powders that are not medicine, but were moderated by the moderators. After the letter, everything works like a clock.
- Read the Yandex.Direct help before you begin - this is the best thing about this topic. And now another school of Direct . In principle, this is all that is needed, but you can watch third-party videos on YouTube - there are insights about headlines, URLs, etc.
- Start at low speeds, put very low rates (CPC). Even if the recommendation is 879 rubles, bet 20-30 (well, or how much you don’t feel sorry), check all the hypotheses and make sure that you are a little motivated to raise the rates.
- Limit your daily budget.
- Watch the sites (YAN), but rather turn them off until you get to the work of the site to the end - the money goes out.
- Disable DRF - additional relevant phrases, especially in vague topics. Otherwise, you will learn what a waste budget is. This knowledge cost me 23,000 rubles.
- Split ads by region - in the capitals, the price per click is higher, you will save so much.
Use negative keywords (for example, think about which word should be the first “minus” to the query “buy a toy.” And yes, use modifiers and specify search queries. - Use offline Direct Commander, it is very convenient: you can download campaigns and make changes to groups (for example, during shares).
Google AdWords only seems to be difficult to set up - after a month of setting up and creating ad groups, I got used to it insanely, I got used to convenience and logic (by the way, there is also an offline editor). The rules are about the same, with the difference that support works well for a very long time. And judging by the communication with other entrepreneurs, I'm not alone here. Google has an amazing online AdWords school that is worth watching and revising - there are a lot of honest and useful insights. There is also a huge community with questions and answers in Russian. With experience comes a deep understanding of logic and you can even earn money with it :-)
By the way, the lists from the Calltouch service helped me: for Google AdWords , for analytics , for Yandex.Direct .
Advertising in thematic blogs and forums
Forums are dead, and those that are not dead, they make big money and conditions for the right to just be mentioned there.
Blogs and sites are alive, but expensive. We managed to integrate for free into a couple of locals thanks to extremely cool content. In general, I have to tell you that the promotion of expert texts is the coolest thing in advertising today, but for this you need either money or a lot of expertise. Learn to write, and work on the content.
SEO, his mother
I wanted to start with this painful topic, but she suppressed me so much that even here I blotted out a week to finish this part. I understand that SEO is still moving the world, I realize that it can be different and I wanted to play fair in a very busy category of sites. Then I did not know what awaits me.
First aid was rendered to me by an excellent familiar copywriter - he worked with the largest companies in Russia and did not do SEO himself, but wrote optimized texts on technical tasks. From the texts of the TK, he made conclusions - on the points that invariably coincided in the technical tasks from different companies:
- content is no longer for robots, content is for people
- keywords - in headlines, subheadings and in the first sentence
- keywords and description meta tags are not very necessary, but let them be (I originally had them)
- Any lists are desirable in the text: numbered, marked, with a dash
- no need to cram keywords with maximum density
- text size - 4-7 thousand characters without spaces (for reviews in articles and a blog). For categories, text is often not needed at all or a few hundred characters will suffice.
Based on these principles, we began by creating descriptions for exclusive products (which I delivered at low prices) and from blogging, to which the “joint purchasers” joined on a voluntary basis (but I was ashamed and, as a bonus, I canceled a number of restrictions and organizational fees, also for them the delivery of single parcels was at our expense).
The effect of SEO was on 7 products from the required at least 50, the blog, of course, could not penetrate the numerous mamoforums and thematic sites. But the traffic increased to 100 people per day - 2 times, for me it was very good. But you understand that for an online store these are cat tears? I also understood.
I need a super SEO-Schnick I decided and went to cry, poke and eat a cactus, namely, turned to freelancers. The responses were just a sea, I did not have time to sift out the portfolios and people without a portfolio that were already familiar to me with a carbon copy. However, the rest could not offer anything worthwhile, all their strategies gave mothballs - even I learned to understand it.
Since parallel online advertising brought me sales, I was ready to pay for an SEO company. Therefore, I began to look for my own. I must say, some companies surprised me by the fact that at some point they disappeared, did not make contact or did not hear me, but stupidly tried to smelt their services. Those who did not try to make up the TZ or conduct a survey, but shouted joyfully that in a month I would wake up in the top 3, too, were rejected - I don’t believe in fairy tales. Who stayed and helped?
- Rookee - the most convenient service for the purchase of reference mass. I was very afraid of purchased links and pessimization on the part of search engines, but the guys are doing everything clean, high-quality, cool. I heard about them for a long time, without even touching this sphere, and this also inspired confidence. Prices did not come out too expensive, especially pleased with the transparency - I understood what was happening.
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So, I had links, text SEO on my knee and I didn’t have enough for a top agency (well, no wonder). I began to go to the sites of St. Petersburg studios and methodically read, telephoned, compared prices - I knew what to look for. The solution came from where it was not expected: at the same time, I was looking for a project management system and on Habré I came across a huge comparison of those . Reading it, I just came to the free version of Bitrix24, which I used, but, as I said above, I did not come to the paid one. And everything would be fine, but in the author's profile I saw the inscription “SEO”. Of course, I thought it was a typo and should be the CEO, because this is a corporate blog, but what the hell is not joking ... The devil was not joking. I wrote to the author and a few days later I received an answer - that SEO and not just SEO, but in St. Petersburg, only the company is called not Ptysh, but DFaktorand they have two more cool posts on Habré: a checklist about SEO in Yandex and checklists for online advertising . Sometimes as a reader I will say: Habr, you are space.
I was a little embarrassed by the simplicity of their site, but Dmitry’s professional and simple approach (that is the name of the author) inclined me, who was already incredulous of seeing the price list. I fit. The last wedge in my brain was scored by marketing, but not confused and relevant among modern services chip: all major work is done in one month and no monthly subscription fee is required. Of course, after all the throwings, I was sure that little would come out. And in vain: my site for the month did not hit the top, but
Somehow my height in Yandex looked like this.
By the way, I hope Dmitry will forgive me, but after working with him I realized that having a lot of time and a sensible head, you can set up SEO yourself. Moreover, when I started, there was no this section on the site about what is important for SEO in e-commerce , but now you can guess a lot. Do not be lazy to work with your head; on the Internet, everything secret is almost obvious!
Offline
Offline flyers and advertisements in elevators worked perfectly. It was laid out everywhere: in polyclinics (quickly cleaned), in parks, on grounds, by mailboxes. The advice is simple: if you have a massive but still Internet offer, sculpt a QR code everywhere , it is easier to scan it than remember the address of the site.
After five months, I closed my online store - simply because I had never worked so much and did not get so tired. I was at home, but I wasn’t there: calls, correspondence, meetings, round-the-clock conversations with suppliers from the USA and China in other time zones, throwing these suppliers. At the same time, I had a little more than my former wage, when I could get home by 7:00 p.m. – 8: 00 p.m. and roll a daughter, take a drink with my brother, talk to my wife, call my parents. I do not know if I will return to my business and whether I was created for business. I received offers to sell my online store as a ready-made business - I refused and will refuse, because this is my concept, my mistake history and who knows ... life is long.
Now I’m Senior Java Developer, team leader in a small company on a big salary. I quietly move away from that stress and enjoy life at work and outside it. I no longer have sloppy Chinese speakers and sloppy me talking to Americans. I have the experience of self-swimming, and it helps me coolly to communicate with people. I have been writing this post for a long time, maybe it is torn in places, but it should be on Habré - for those who think that business is simple and beautiful. No, this is hell of continuous work.
In parting, I want to repeat the main conclusions that I have made - be sure to consider them before diving into the Russian digital market.
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- And, probably, the most important thing. Do not hold on to business. If you feel that you are better or more profitable on corporate bread, close the case and be proud of your experience and your packagings. Go to work in the company and get a stable salary, time, strength, health.
- The last in the list and the first in essence: health can not be bought. Take care of him, take care of your nerves and strength, you will live for a long time.
Here is such a little nervous-pathos story I have turned out. I hope everything was not in vain. At least everything was for the sake of this article.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/431986/
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