By Paul Lang, Editor, Sell It!
September 6th, 2000

See Also   Terrence Sherry and 1 World Sarongs   Andrew Bridgeman and eART-originals   Mark Annett and Scruplestore.com   David Sabot and Cheaphumidors.com   William Waite and Nemmelgeb Murr   Mary Lu Wason and LampLink   Michael Campbell and Cellwest   Bob Rankin and Flowers Fast   Louis Jay and Health4Her.com   Jeff Swearingen and TheGift.com   Bill Broadbent the T-Shirt King   Jim Goodbody and PlanetLearn   Todd Mogren and coastaltool.com   John D. Einhorn and CapShack.com   Beverley Wood and the Gift Ship   Sgt. David Hack and US Wings   Brenda Do and MindFood Media.com   Rory O'Connor and Shopirish.com

[This is the second part of a two part article. The first part can be read here].

Lang: What methods have you used to try and promote your store?

Sabot: I have tried it all, from newsletter sponsorships to banner ads. To be honest none of it worked well. So I never really spent a lot of money on promoting the site.

The biggest thing I have done, and continue to do is to publish a newsletter that goes out weekly to over 10,000 cigar smokers. A large proportion of my traffic comes from this source.

I decided a long time ago that I wanted to stay in contact with my customers. I knew that sending an email to them with specials would be ok but just wouldn't give them a great reason to join the newsletter. I contacted a number of cigar Web sites and asked them to send me weekly specials via email. Every Sunday I compiled the email specials and sent them to my list of names. The sponsor of this newsletter, now called, The Cigar Bargains Newsletter, is of course Cheaphumidors.com.

The list started to grow as more and more people learnt about it and I branched the newsletter off to a site called Cigarbargains.com. That site has migrated into what I now call Cigarsites.com. The site is a directory listing of hundreds of cigar and cigar related Internet merchants. People can rate and review merchants based on their experiences. These ratings and reviews are available for the world to see.

Lang: Why did you choose to launch an affiliate program and why did you choose ClickTrade to run it?

Sabot: I wanted to get my site listed on as many sites as possible. When I started out I went from site to site asking if they would link to me. The response was dismal. I found that Webmasters didn't have the time or knowledge to update their site, especially when they received no benefit from it. So I decided to start an affiliate program after the success of Amazon.

I looked around for a provider and came to ClickTrade. I chose them because the price was the most affordable and my shopping cart provider informed me that he could integrate with their system. In a matter of a few days I was up and running and started to get affiliates. I have a few hundred affiliates now, but like most affiliate programs, only a small percentage make up the majority of sales I receive. I would say that 30% of my orders and 50% of my site traffic come from affiliates.

Lang: What made you decide to install HumanClick? Has it proved successful?

Sabot: I have always been looking for a way to interact with my customers in real time. The cost of such systems always was beyond my reach. When HumanClick came out I learned of it and tried it out.

The system works pretty well and has the added benefit of allowing you to watch people surf your site, live. I found this the most interesting feature as it allowed me to see where people were going. I have had HumanClick on my site for about 2 months now and have engaged in about 50 chats. Of the people that I talk to who are looking for product information, about 60% end up purchasing. People really love the live help function.

Lang: What are your plans to develop the store?

Sabot: I would like to expand the FAQ section to include many more questions and answers, even a knowledge base for beginning smokers if possible. I would also like to create a downloadable e-book on cigars and smoking for new smokers. I think this would not only be valuable but might be something that they pass to friends thereby creating a viral marketing effect. I would like to organize the products better according to what customers are looking for and even create a calculator so people could figure out how many of the types of cigars they smoke could fit in a humidor.

Lang: Finally, what are your top tips for anyone considering opening their own Web store?

Sabot:

• If you want to open your own Web store you have to stop thinking about it and just do it. I started with $45 and really no idea what I was doing and I have been very successful.

• Don't go after the big guys. Nobody is going to go to your online bookstore to buy a book or your online CD store to buy a CD. You need to find a niche and exploit it. If you want to sell books or CDs, find a theme - maybe you sell magic books, or jazz CD's. Maybe you have the Internets largest collection of knitting needles. The point is that you will never make it if you take the mainstream route. There are too many players and too much money involved. If you start with a niche and build it, you will do well.

• Don't spend tons of money on site design and hosting. There are so many places where you can get free templates to help you build your site. Give it a try yourself at first. But most of all don't be afraid to get started. So many people ask me my advice and I give it to them, but then they never do anything. Don't be scared, just do it!