WEB DESIGN: Lao Kicks
How have you been productive during the lockdown? A lot of people have picked back up old hobbies from back in the day. For me, I've been drawing a lot and have made two websites.
My friend here in Luang Prabang, Laos let me crash with him when I was dead broke so I promised him I'd make a website for his shoe store. I feel like Don Draper from Mad Men coming up with the name, Lao Kicks. It took more time to draw the logo than it did to set up the site. I honestly wasn't sure if I could make a website, but I promised I would so I gave it a go.
I tried to create a Shopify store a few years ago. That was a total failure. I dropped about $2,000 on fees, advertising, and other random charges that they would pop up with. I tried using Square Space because I saw Keauna Reeves do an ad about it, but it wasn't that good of an experience. I then gave GoDaddy a try, but they were worse. I recommend staying away from them. They are so sneaky and kept coming back with fees and secret little charges even a year after I canceled everything. Their website looks like it was made by someone with 1999 web design skills. I hate GoDaddy with a passion and hope they go bankrupt.
I met a guy from England a few months ago and he was running a gambling website and suggested I use https://Hostinger.com
It was super easy to set up my site. The support staff would chat with me anytime I had a problem and it wasn't expensive or giving me sneaky charges like those other web creation sites. I paid $9 for the domain name and about $100 to host it for four years. Hostinger truly made it easy for me and I highly recommend them. What web hosting service do you suggest?
All the Youtube videos I've ever seen say you need a call to action. I tried a few like KICK IT WITH US or TOP FOOTWEAR, but GET IN THE GAME from Splinterlands seemed the most natural for selling shoes that may be worn for sports. I've been getting people to play it since it was called, SteemMonsters, so I hope they don't mind me jacking their call to action. I figured most people would be looking at the site on a mobile device so I made the shoes fill the whole screen and the exact image that customers will see when they click and are redirected to Amazon
Have you ever tried a boosted board? If I go back to the states, this will be my vehicle of choice. It can go up to 22 mph and has a range of about 12 miles. They cost about $1,000 so if someone does buy one from my site, that would be a nice commission from Amazon, but it hasn't happened yet.
SEO
This is a catchy word that can get you hired, but I honestly didn't know much about it until I made this site. Google has a nice tool to help you get your score up. If you put your site address here:
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Google will give you an SEO score and recommendations on how to fix it. Most of the free plugins on Wordpress will get the job done. I've been able to get my score up to 90% at times, but it likes to drop down over time even though I've made zero changes to the site.
You need a blog with natural language to help people find your site. I was very happy to see that I could straight up copy and paste my posts from here pictures and all and Wordpress makes it look the same.
Advertising
Creating a Facebook page is super easy, but they always deny my attempts to boost my posts. I think because we are in Laos, they assume we are selling knockoff shoes, but all the pictures on my site are just affiliate links to the real deal on Amazon. It's easy to gain followers on Facebook, but it hasn't really been helping with sales yet.
Instagram always denies my attempts to advertise as well. Why are they such a pain? I've never liked or been into Instagram. I always think it's funny when young people think they're above the whole Facebook thing and they ask if you have IG like some kind of elitist until I show them that I actually get paid for my pictures on this blockchain.
Google Ads can get a lot of eyeballs, but few conversions. I feel like I've made a nice site, the social media accounts are looking good, but I've only made one sale in the last two months. It's like I've got a new car, but no gas. What do you think I'm doing wrong? What are some good blockchain advertising options? Thank you for reading about my website creation of https://LaoKicks.com. I'm looking forward to reading any advice you may have in the comments.