'Tip Toe Dancewear.com Interview'

Tip Toe Dancewear.com Interview

By Interviewer at 09/03/07 15:45

Name of your website?

Tip Toe Dancewear.com

Your name?

Barbara Prokopovich

Your Location (city, etc)

West Brookfield

Please give us a short summary of your website?

Tip Toe Dancewear - You won't be overlooked in dancewear from Tip Toe, where dance shoes for tap, ballet, jazz and ballroom are discounted, as well as dance leotards, tights, jazz pants and ballet skirts.

What inspired you to launch your own website?

I had owned a brick and mortar store for 15 years and wanted to expand beyond my local customer base.

When did you launch your first website, and what was it?

This is it, my one and only website. It has been running almost 2 years.

How did you decide on a name for your website?

Advice after a study of appropriate names.

What makes it different from other, similar offerings?

We try to limit our offerings to the best products available, listing quirky size info directly on the screen. The site is not all junked up with useless nonsense that confuses the buyer.

What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)

Keep it.

How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?

As with any start-up business, the third year indicates financial success or failure. Next year will be the proof. It is heading in the right direction.

If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?

I would spend more on images, invest in software that zoomed into details.

If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?

For quite awhile.

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

SEO costs.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Understanding ranking.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

SEO

How has running your website differed from your expectations?

Because of the inability to project a personality through the internet process, it is difficult to gain the trust and respect that is easily achieved through a face to face meeting. People are not willing to seek you out until they have a problem with their prior provider because they basically have no reason to.

How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?

Running almost 2 years, decide in another year.

How much a part of successful internet sales is a companion catalog mailing?

I am wondering whether the images that consumers look at are where they begin or are where they end. If I see an item in a catalog I never call to order it, I go online and place my order. Is the e-tailer who sends a catalog gaining enough revenue through additional sales to cover the costs of the publication?

What is your website address?

Tip Toe Dancewear.com

Tiptoedancewear.com is probably one of the easiest sites to use I've ever experienced. The items are described with additional suggestions for sizing. I needed a pair of character shoes and didn't have to phone the company to ask how they compared in size to street shoe, the info was listed right on the page.

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