Customer acquisition for online stores
mahmud: This is the site:http://www.excycle.com/index.htmlFront page gives me three options, all of equal "weight". A bad thing for an online store. Front page should dump me in a product catalog, and the "labs" and "forum" links should be in the menu-bar above, along with "About Us", "Blog", "News" and the rest of the flat pages. IOW, I shouldn't have to click "Enter". "Enter" landing pages should be used to serve disclaimers and get user agreement; i.e. what lies behind it might offend one's sensibilities. That's why flash intro applets suck."Register" is also figured in there prominently. Replace it with a sticky-note on the side inviting me to use the site "Look around, you will register when you're ready to order :-)"Over and above that, the one thing I advice you to do is GIVE YOUR SITE TO A COMMUNITY. Had to yell that out, sorry. You're a workout nut, so you're probably a member of one or more forums. How about you contact the forum owners, introduce yourself politely, offer them affiliate IDs (done transparently as readable URLs; site.com/products/list/REFID instead of the embarrassing site.com/referer.cgi?id=workoutnut.com; the first is more discreet and you would cost the forum owners face, plus they get to make a chunk of money.)Once they have their affiliate IDs and you too are sweet, don't hesitate to make a public announcement say "Hey guys, I launched a site" .. BUT, use the site owner's affiliate ID.Don't be a dick, alright? You have to break bread and you have to work with people.After that make the site open and update the forum members on any changes and news. Invite them into the circle. For a site with more than 10k users you can pretty much count on explosive growth. They're all members in multiple sites. Throw in the occasional rare product, ebook, video, even offer prizes to success stories.Cheers!