Name of your website?QumranShop
Your name?
Motti
Your Location (city, etc)
North Dead Sea area, next to Jerusalem
Please give us a short summary of your website?
This is a site to promote Dead Sea Products. It provides information about the special qualities of the Dead Sea minerals for beauty and health, and offers online purchase of the best Dead Sea products at best prices
What inspired you to launch your own website?
We have a store that offers Dead Sea products to visitors in the Dead Sea area and we want to provide our satisfied customers the option of continue buying these products after returning to their home counties.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website was a personal page describing who I am and what I do
How did you decide on a name for your website?
We are located in the Dead Sea just next to the Qumran caves, where Dead Sea scrolls were found. Qumran is the name of the site where our non-virtual shop is located. The com ending seemed to be important, so the name was chosen according to the available options that includes both the Qumran, and the desired com ending. The functional description shop seems apt although it is too practical. It decreases the spiritual atmosphere we are looking for
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
There are no quite similar offering. We are the only online store that offers Dead Sea products and is authentically linked to the Dead Sea area. We provide a very wide variety of products from various suppliers, selected according to their integrity (products which are indeed based on Dead Sea minerals) and quality. We offer a wide variety of best Dead Sea products for best prices. We also have special offers.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To keep it both for income and for providing services to our customers all over the world
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I have started promoting the site only recently, and I am not an expert. In 2 months I managed to multiply by 4 the amount of visitors per month, but it is still far from my long term expectations.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would have created several connected sites much better graphically designed, each site with a different focus (health in one, beauty in the other, etc) all linked to the products pages, all with a similar stylistic line, yet each one with a different spiritual athmosphere and different emphasis
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I still have many available products that are not yet online, but in terms of providing the customers demands - most definitely yes.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The shipment system is not good enough and I have just ordered a development of a better shipment system that can automatically calculate the final cost of each shipment according to the destination and the actual weight of the purchased items.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Building a reservoir of loyal customers, maintaining constant relations with them and keeping them happy.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
SEO oriented content editing, and making the site more dynamic by adding content on a regular basis.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
So far it is on the right trail yet I wish the progress was faster, At first is was improving rapidly, yet now the improvement is much slower. Yet according to the given financial investment I am doing fine.
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?
the site was there but not as an active tool. I started promoting it 4 months ago. The site is here to stay. the only question is how much effort energy and money will be directed to its development in the future. I cannot tell. I intend to grow, translate it to our languages, etc, but I really don't know to what extant
What parts of maintaining the site will be out-sourced in the future?
I suppose I will turn to using pay-pal soon for online charging, content additions might be done in the future not by me, customers club might be managed by an out-source company if I'll find a proffesional yet caring body that can do it, translations updates of course, and maybe even the actual site organic promotion.
What is your website address?
QumranShop
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