My little Jewishop

[Alice]

It's been quite a long time since I last been here, well, actually, I'm pretty much around here, but on the side line.
Anyhow, knowing that you are all computer/internet savvies I now need a bit of advice.
I opened a webstore some days ago and I'm now wondering how can I bring people in. Anyone has any practical ideas about viral marketing or anything else I can use to let people know I'm there? How about the website itself, are there things that should be changed? Is it working properly?
I'm completely open to any sugestions/advice.

https://www.thejewishop.com

Cheers to all
Alice

[Nowhere]

For any possible hints about viral marketing I'd need to know what the site is about...and I can't even view it at the moment - no flash here, and I'm guessing the site is made in flash.

Flash site = broken (mostly) site. Limits your audience somewhat, is harder for websearch spiders, individual pages can't be linked to (there goes large part of "viral" possibilities, also somewhat limits websearch spiders)

[cjolley]

I agree about the flash aspect.
The site looks very good, but I had to fiddle with my script permissions in Firefox to get it working completely.
In fact it worked just fine right out of the box, but it was the size of a postage stamp


Also, I had never heard of a Mezuzah before.
You might want to add an explanatory page for us Jewish knowledge disabled types, it was pretty interesting when I looked it up.
And if it's OK to sell the covers (cases?) for non-Mezuzah decorative purposes, you might be able to expand your market.

Chuck

[High_Jumbllama]

It worked fine here on Windows XPSP3 running Firefox 3.06.

[DukeP]

Same here. Looks nice and extreeeemly girly.


Make a robot spider text with content and search words, or buy a couple of months worth of searh on google.

~~DukeP~~

[Fat Tone]

Or advertise it on murc!

[Wulfman]

get some kind of good-morning tv-show to feature them. know any reporters?

mfg
wulfman

[Alice]

Thank you all for the help. First of all, I ought to clear up what is a mezuzah.

Basically, it's a case that contains a parchment with an important prayer from the Torah (the jewish holy scripture). There's a commandment for any jewish person to put a mezuzah in every doorpost of his home (except the bathroom).
More religious jews might have a different answer for this, but for most people, it serves as a reminder of God and also as a sign that in that particular house, there are jewish people (with everything that comes with it, religion-wise). For some, it's an amulet and not having one (or one that was poorly written) means bad luck.
The Torah also says that this sign should be embellished, because after all, it contains something precious. This pretty much sums it up, to me at least.

The second issue is Flash.
This site was actually done with Wix.com. It's an engine that lets you make a flash website very intuitively and very quickly (for free). I was very impressed until I realized that Flash is like a closed system. You can't toy with it.

What's a robot spider?

[Nowhere]

Websearch robot/spider is a mechanism by which websearch engines (such as Google) crawl through the Internet (basically...reading all of it) to categorise sites/etc. Some time ago this was impossible to do with pure flashsite, lately I've heard (not sure, I don't deal with Flash, mostly) the situation is improving somewhat, though it's still not perfect.

What DukeP proposes helps, but is still not as good as HTML...many websearch engines depend on other people linking to your site, and in case of Flash site those people can basically link only to mainpage, not to particular one (which also limits viral aspect a bit...it can work better when, for example, people can link their friends directly to particular page, instead of "go to this domain, click here, here, here and here")

[Alice]

And if it's OK to sell the covers (cases?) for non-Mezuzah decorative purposes, you might be able to expand your market.

Chuck

A mezuzah case is pretty much useless for anything else. But I see what you mean.
I might give the option for people to have other objects decorated.
Thanks!

[cjolley]

Hey, don't sell yourself short.
Those are nice designs.

For example, I don't know what the red string signifies in Jewish culture, but google "red thread and Chinese adoption" for a marketable subject that would be amenable to similar designs.

[Alice]

Wow Chuck, this is strangely similar to the red string in judaism. I'm still trying to find more information about it, just out of curiosity.
The red string in Jewish culture is associated to the kabbalah. It symbolizes a circle around someone's life, a ward against evil eye and such. People wear it around the wrist, like an amulet.

[Lizzard[MPE]]

these are fantastic Alice! I will tell all of my jewish friends and family asap!

[cjolley]

I'm still trying to find more information about it, just out of curiosity.

This is the best short explanation I've seen.


There is also a tradition in Chinese adoption of considering ladybugs as lucky.
It has a funny history though.
Many, many foreign adopters of Chinese children have gone to China and while there mentioned lucky ladybugs or asked about the Chinese tradition of lucky ladybugs only to be greeted by blank stares and confusion.
The fact is that ladybugs became a traditional sign of luck about 10 years ago when an American woman noticed a large number of them in her garden the day she received some long awaited paperwork by courier and told the story on an adoption internet group from where, of course, it spread without context.
The ladybug became a symbol of luck to Adopting families that way and has never been any kind of symbol to the Chinese.

[Alice]

Thanks liz!