Really nice article. I’m a web entrepreneur who’s parents run their own antique store Booksabalia, whom forwarded me this article.

About Lenore’s situation, it depends on her goal on whether or not it is a mistake. Creating an informational website would be successful if her goal is to educate existing customers, not successful if her goal is to attract new customers and more sales – it depends what her goal is. For instance, my parent’s store booksabalia, they have an information website, as that their goal is not to become big, so in their eyes, it is a success.

From your eyes, I can see how it is a missed opportunity for massive growth and sales, which is the goal for your own website. On the topic of your abysmal sales, just getting a website up and content out there is great for accomplishing the outcome of BEING ABLE to sell online, but not great for the outcome of ATTRACTING NEW CUSTOMERS AND MORE SALES – you need more work than just a website. A website provides the ability, you (or someone you delegate to) needs to put time and hard work into attracting new customers and increasing conversion. This is the field of marketing and management.

The SEO tactics you’ve mentioned about moving to twitter or facebook, or your new idea of holding monthly skype meetups are also good at creating new customers and locking in new ones. But, how are you planning to measure it’s success? It’s conversion rates? It’s ability to increase sales? Is it the most effective way to increase sales and create a profitable business? Do you have a framework in place to answer these questions? This is where the management side comes in.

Let’s recap for a moment:
Website = ability to do something / more reading: 37Signals – Getting Started
Marketing = ability to increase numbers / more reading: Gary Vaynerchuck – Crush it
Management = ability to measure success and value / more reading: Eric Ries – Lean Startup

And here’s some followup questions to leave with:

- Would holding monthly skype meetups, or google+ hangouts, or livestream sessions be more successful?
- Would getting on twitter, or facebook, or google+ be more successful?
- How would you make those decisions?
- How would you measure their success? / If they are actually working, or helping accomplish your goals?
- Are your goals actually serving you well?

Here’s some follow up links:

- Google+ – http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/
- LiveSteam – http://www.livestream.com/
- Lean Startup – http://theleanstartup.com/
- Getting Started – http://gettingreal.37signals.com/
- Crush It – http://crushitbook.com/

Definitely let me know if this post has added value, or how I could improve it so it does :-) The best way to do that would be contacting me on skype (username balupton) or email b@lupton.cc

Cheers Harry, and good luck with your ventures! I wish you well.