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  1. #51
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    'Its LAZY coding....'

    Its 60 dollars.

    Find someone that will make something even close to that for 60 dollars. Most people will charge you that for a single HTML page.

    And its 60 dollars that get you up and running on day one, and can make sales from day one, and if there is reason for a lack of sales, at least 'does my site look amateurish' is not going to one of them.

  2. #52
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    Quote Originally Posted by fairestcape View Post

    Our most successful site to date (made over $2 million in its first 2 years, before the business was sold for a good profit) was little more than a re-coloured CLASSIC zencart template, which took about three hours to construct.

    .
    Think how much it could have turned over if you had put some effort into it.

  3. #53
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    Quote Originally Posted by fairestcape View Post

    Novice webshop owners are often seduced by radical graphics. They think that by being DIFFERENT, they will IMPRESS customers. In many cases, the opposite is true. People who arrive at a website and who are faced with radically different navigation layouts, and different site behaviour will start to feel uncomfortable. They will EXPECT certain website behaviours, and when they don't get that behaviour, they get frustrated. Many will simply abandon the site.

    .
    Unfortunately none of this is true as everyone is impressed by glossy professionalism. No one mentioned radically different navigation layouts, just how they look.

    If you sent anyone you know to TM, and said pick a template to use on a website, 99% of them are not going to choose a clean, simple basic layout - they will all be impressed by the slick stylised designs.

    I wonder who you call 'novice webshop owners'. There are probably TM owners running more traffic than your own site, so I think when you're at that level of a successful e-commerce business then your comments have validity.

  4. #54
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    Er... I think it is true.

    And the research quoted is not our research, but that of one of the most respected internet research companies in the world.

    Additionally, we do not "run our own webshop", but build webshops for others (over 300 done on Zencart alone, since 2004). There have been spectacular successes in these 300 sites, as well as a number of dismal failures, and the reasons for success/failure are mostly due to factors outside of the sites themselves (bad/good business models, good marketing, good/bad pricing and other market forces).

    Interestingly, the sites we have built that are extremely successful all have very plain and conventional templates, very simple designs, and follow Nielsen's USABILITY structures. They have succeeded because they are being run by people with good business sense, who focus on product presentation and a slick, fast and efficient user interface.

    At our last client convention (held in London in January 2012), we were happy to report the total turnover of our "a-list" clients (comprising just over 15% of clients), amounted to just over £4.5 million for 2011. Gross turnover for ALL clients (including those that shut down their sites in 2011) was £12.5 million, indicating a mean average turnover per client of about £42,000 for 2011.

    Our company staff have a collective 120 year's marketing experience, and we have staff (and other consultants) with considerable online marketing knowledge, so I feel that we do actually do most things right. We do focus on good graphical design (we have 2 highly experienced graphic designers on board, using Adobe MasterSuite software on an AppleMac network.

    Our Creative Director has worked on projects for Walkers Crisps, Branston Pickles, Jacobs Creek Wines, Bang & Olufsen, Chivas Regal, Cardies, and many other well-known UK high-street bands. I have worked with: South African Airways, Old Mutual, Standard Bank, BMW, Nandos Chicken, Sony, Liberty Life, Pearson PLC, Wessex Water, Microsoft, The African National Congress, and have done consulting for the following advertising agencies: TBWA, J Walter Thompson, BBDO, DDB Needham, WPP, Oglivy & Mather, and many more... going back to 1987.

    So I think we do have a little bit of knowledge in issues relating to marketing and advertising...

    Readers of this thread (inluding dgent) are free to accept or ignore our advice, and if their businesses are in competition to those of our clients, we would hope that they ignore it.

  5. #55
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    Quote Originally Posted by fairestcape View Post
    Er... I think it is true.

    And the research quoted is not our research, but that of one of the most respected internet research companies in the world.

    Additionally, we do not "run our own webshop", but build webshops for others (over 300 done on Zencart alone, since 2004). There have been spectacular successes in these 300 sites, as well as a number of dismal failures, and the reasons for success/failure are mostly due to factors outside of the sites themselves (bad/good business models, good marketing, good/bad pricing and other market forces).

    Interestingly, the sites we have built that are extremely successful all have very plain and conventional templates, very simple designs, and follow Nielsen's USABILITY structures. They have succeeded because they are being run by people with good business sense, who focus on product presentation and a slick, fast and efficient user interface.

    At our last client convention (held in London in January 2012), we were happy to report the total turnover of our "a-list" clients (comprising just over 15% of clients), amounted to just over £4.5 million for 2011. Gross turnover for ALL clients (including those that shut down their sites in 2011) was £12.5 million, indicating a mean average turnover per client of about £42,000 for 2011.

    Our company staff have a collective 120 year's marketing experience, and we have staff (and other consultants) with considerable online marketing knowledge, so I feel that we do actually do most things right. We do focus on good graphical design (we have 2 highly experienced graphic designers on board, using Adobe MasterSuite software on an AppleMac network.

    Our Creative Director has worked on projects for Walkers Crisps, Branston Pickles, Jacobs Creek Wines, Bang & Olufsen, Chivas Regal, Cardies, and many other well-known UK high-street bands. I have worked with: South African Airways, Old Mutual, Standard Bank, BMW, Nandos Chicken, Sony, Liberty Life, Pearson PLC, Wessex Water, Microsoft, The African National Congress, and have done consulting for the following advertising agencies: TBWA, J Walter Thompson, BBDO, DDB Needham, WPP, Oglivy & Mather, and many more... going back to 1987.

    So I think we do have a little bit of knowledge in issues relating to marketing and advertising...

    Readers of this thread (inluding dgent) are free to accept or ignore our advice, and if their businesses are in competition to those of our clients, we would hope that they ignore it.
    Yet the site in your signature doesn't rank anywhere on Google, or Bing for its relevant keywords, even after looking through 20 pages of results. And no PPC campains running to it either.

    I rank number 1 or 2, globally for the relevant high traffic keywords.

    The proof is in the eating, not what you write on a forum...

  6. #56
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    Quote Originally Posted by fairestcape View Post

    At our last client convention (held in London in January 2012), we were happy to report the total turnover of our "a-list" clients (comprising just over 15% of clients), amounted to just over £4.5 million for 2011. Gross turnover for ALL clients (including those that shut down their sites in 2011) was £12.5 million, indicating a mean average turnover per client of about £42,000 for 2011.

    Our company staff have a collective 120 year's marketing experience, and we have staff (and other consultants) with considerable online marketing knowledge, so I feel that we do actually do most things right. We do focus on good graphical design (we have 2 highly experienced graphic designers on board, using Adobe MasterSuite software on an AppleMac network.

    Our Creative Director has worked on projects for Walkers Crisps, Branston Pickles, Jacobs Creek Wines, Bang & Olufsen, Chivas Regal, Cardies, and many other well-known UK high-street bands. I have worked with: South African Airways, Old Mutual, Standard Bank, BMW, Nandos Chicken, Sony, Liberty Life, Pearson PLC, Wessex Water, Microsoft, The African National Congress, and have done consulting for the following advertising agencies: TBWA, J Walter Thompson, BBDO, DDB Needham, WPP, Oglivy & Mather, and many more... going back to 1987.
    This is not a d!ck measuring competition. Ive been doing this for only 4 years, I do everything on my own, and all my projects rank first page, and my biggest client does over £11 million a year on its own with 7 Zencart stores for their products, with over 1.5 million customers. So that blows all of yours out of the water - but its irrelevant as im not making out I know everything, as you and your colleague come across.

  7. #57
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    What has Google ranking got to do with it? That site turns over a five-figure sum every month. We do not worship the "Google God", but rely on good, traditional marketing advice for our clients.

    I frankly do not care if other sites use TM templates or not, or whether they rank 1 on Google or not. What matters most is this: "Are these businesses successful?"

    We employ appropriate techniques for our clients, based on sound marketing practices, and we measure their success by revenue and profits.

    Some sites will rank strongly on Google (Search Google UK for "refurbished domestic heating spares" and see who comes up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. That is one of our client sites, and they get to #1 on Google for a large number of keyphrases relative to their industry/business).

    This is my last word on this: Your comments are starting to get very irritating, are largely irrelevant and ill-conceived, and I am not sure what you are out to prove, other than the fact that you are plainly ignorant of what constitutes good retail marketing practice.

  8. #58
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    Quote Originally Posted by fairestcape View Post
    What has Google ranking got to do with it? That site turns over a five-figure sum every month. We do not worship the "Google God", but rely on good, traditional marketing advice for our clients.

    I frankly do not care if other sites use TM templates or not, or whether they rank 1 on Google or not. What matters most is this: "Are these businesses successful?"

    We employ appropriate techniques for our clients, based on sound marketing practices, and we measure their success by revenue and profits.

    Some sites will rank strongly on Google (Search Google UK for "refurbished domestic heating spares" and see who comes up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. That is one of our client sites, and they get to #1 on Google for a large number of keyphrases relative to their industry/business).

    This is my last word on this: Your comments are starting to get very irritating, are largely irrelevant and ill-conceived, and I am not sure what you are out to prove, other than the fact that you are plainly ignorant of what constitutes good retail marketing practice.
    'refurbished domestic heating spares' is not a common keyword people would type in. Thats a long tail specific, and a very rare one.



    Your OfficeFrog is 'office furniture' - You even have this as your main title text - Type that into Google and you are no where to be seen, or other search engines.

  9. #59
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    Quote Originally Posted by dgent View Post
    'Its LAZY coding....'

    Its 60 dollars.

    Find someone that will make something even close to that for 60 dollars. Most people will charge you that for a single HTML page.

    And its 60 dollars that get you up and running on day one, and can make sales from day one, and if there is reason for a lack of sales, at least 'does my site look amateurish' is not going to one of them.
    and its STILL lazy coding.. and again.. there are OPTIONS that "get you up and running on day one, and can make sales from day one" without using lazy coding techniques..


    Quote Originally Posted by fairestcape View Post
    I frankly do not care if other sites use TM templates or not, or whether they rank 1 on Google or not. What matters most is this: "Are these businesses successful?"
    **nods in agreement**
    Last edited by DivaVocals; 27 Apr 2012 at 02:39 PM.
    My Site - Zen Cart & WordPress integration specialist
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  10. #60
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    Default Re: Using Old Templates On New Versions

    **deleted**

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