NO LINKS, JUST SCREENSHOTS
I’ve created a website and good bit ago, and I wanted to hear your guys criticism (as you guys have given some really good advice before). I’m just basing it off of design and formatting, along with suggestions any of you have:
If you want to sell direct you have to do three things.
Notice that how good the website looks doesn’t make the list.
It’s great that you took the initiative to build a site but I would say that’s the easiest part by far. Driving traffic to a website like this is extraordinarily hard. You have to have some of the best inventory in the hobby to make it work. And even then you might have to put money towards google ads.
People gripe about ebay but there’s a reason everyone still uses it. Because all you have to focus on is listing and shipping items. The rest is figured out by ebay for you.
You can continue work on the website but I’d recommend adjusting your expectations on the success of this venture.
Are you looking for feedback solely about the design/layout of the site in these screenshots? Or other aspects as well, like the viability of this business or the copy writing?
From a design standpoint, the images should not be cropped, and need to be consistent — some of your card images show the full card, some do not.
Additionally, the card images are bright while the rest of the site (where the copy appears) is much darker. They need balance. Look up web accessibility standards to see how much contrast is needed between your site background and the text that appears on top of it.
The most important question…what kind of cards are you trying to sell?
If you have a niche like a website with a bunch of mid era Korean cards, it will take off.
Your website would need inventory of cards that you can’t find on eBay, TCGPlayer, Cardmarket, Buyee, etc.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, if selling English cards, just use a big platform where people will actually be able to find your cards for sale.
There are so many things that I can’t do:
Create quality videos for my channel, nor be able to do a fesible livestream.
I can’t purchase much of anything, so I just have to use the cards I have.
I can’t get paid ads, so I only have to use organic advertising.
I can only work at school hours, due to the limits of doing this at homes.
The likelyhood of me getting one sale is next to none, but I have nothing else to do.
Also my site isn’t getting indexed at all.
I’m only selling english cards rn and can’t really get any other ones…
I’m not wanting to be a buzzkill here although, after your Kangaskhan post a couple of weeks ago it’s hard not to be. I can only recommend that you continue to sell on eBay for a few years to gain experience before even attempting something like this.
On the contrary it’s great to see young spirit and motivation, so don’t let me stop you!
Yeah the only thing that came out of that kangaskhan post was a 5 star review saying “Great card for a great price.” Somehow that hurt. Also the motivation is dwindling fast as I realize the likelyhood of getting 1 singular deal is less than 0.1%
Can I “derail” this thread for a moment and ask - what is your #1 goal right now?
What are you trying to achieve?
My #1 goal right now is to acheive happiness without friends, which is what I’m trying to acheive by starting this business. Making money and doing something like a business will help not only become successful, but will replace my inability to make friends rn.
Basically without this business, I’m just a teenager with no friends, a struggling home life, no money and nothing of value to anyone.
I think this post answered all your questions. I know people who could do all the things you just said you couldn’t, and they still failed. Keep in mind places like Probstein who do 100 million in revenue annually use eBay. Even sperm of the sperm whales like me with a bit of presence still use eBay and pwcc. Today it makes more sense to plug into an already established website.
As someone who has a business website and sells inventory for a living, pfm is on the money here. Professional visuals are important, but they’re not the most important by far. Driving traffic to your website, especially since you can find everything you’re selling on eBay, CardMarket, or TCGPlayer is going to be difficult. Getting someone to put their card information in and actually purchase something from a non-household name is even harder.
I have do have an active platform in my target audience, and I still have to work very very hard to advertise and drive people to my website. I appreciate the enthusiasm, and it’s great to see! But as others have said, I’d focus on selling on eBay for the time being to get your foot in the door, so to speak.
Sorry bro, but dang you’re dark.
It’s been this way for over 4 years now, at that time you just eventually come to terms with it.
Nothing wrong with a goal and the motivation to make it there. Its your life and you gotta handle it the way you can so I try not to say much unsolicited. Keep moving on and i hope you pass the hill and can start really getting to the left side of that image.
Good luck with sales and with a business. I wish i was as motivated and interested in it at your age with the resources of today.
Edit: By the way, if you did need to vent or talk you can always send a chat to me and i can talk person to person to the best of my ability, no judgements. Im not a therapist but sometimes having a sympathetic ear there can be helpful too.
My enthusiasim has gone straight through the gutter and withstood 4 hours of torture, I don’t think it’s gonna last for much longer.
Scott said it best. For what you’re trying to do (sell English cards to a domestic audience) it makes more sense to plug into an established platform.
Creating your own site doesn’t solve any problems for what you’re trying to achieve. It actually introduces more.
Please don’t take this as dumping on the site you created—you’ve been able to create a better website than I could! Is it perfect? No. Did you at least ship something and ask for feedback from a qualified audience? Yes, and that’s not nothing.
Off topic but we’ve all been there dude.
I’m in Philly for work this week and this morning I heard a homeless man shout “FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS”. Struck a chord with me…
Also take this site, for E4 to work, I put everything into it. I’ve been online day in day out since 2010. Constantly mentioning it for years in videos. Hell even doing videos is something I have to push myself to do, as I’m naturally shy, but I know it helped many people find the site. My point is success requires sacrifice. Anyone can create a website, very few have what it takes to build and maintain one.
with all the handicaps I have, it’s looking bleak rn, but I REALLY want to make it successful, but it looks like the only way I really can is to try REALLY REALLY hard on my youtube channel and just pray that luck is on my side rn.
