Name of your website?Personalized Engraved Gift
Your name?
Casey Stinchcombe
Your Location (city, etc)
Hamilton
Please give us a short summary of your website?
My website features personalized engraved gifts for all occasions sold online.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I went to a seminar where they talked about making passive income. I was always interested in the internet and thought that making a website was one option for passive income that I could learn and afford to start while still working a full time job.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website was launched in 2005 and was suppose to be about aromatherapy products.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I thought you really had to get your key words in your domain name for it to be successful in the search engines. Personalize Engraved Gifts was already taken so I got Personalized Engraved Gift. Probably not the best domain name, it's to long.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
I try to make the website fun and not so plain or business like. I'm pretty competitive with my prices, I try to have the lowest prices compared to others selling the same products. I figure my overhead costs are very low with an online store so I can afford to pass the savings on to the customer.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My eventual goal is for my fiance and myself to be able to quit our full time jobs and work 100% online.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I have invested some much time and money learning, teaching myself and trying to figure out internet marketing, but when you go away for a weekend and come back home to see you made $300 - $400 while you were out having fun, it's an awesome feeling and then I know all the investments are worth it.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I have some limitations with my hosting provider where there are some options I just can't change. If I had an unlimited development budget I think I would hire a developer to recreate my site from scratch on my own server, so I could make any adjustments that I wanted.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes, my fiance has been a great help, he does all the order processing and customer relations. If the site got really big, really fast I think both of us working on orders and customer relations we could keep up with the demands.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
My first hosting company didn't really have the option to included boxes where people could type in their different personalization options. All I could do it offer one big text box for customers to type in. Many times people didn't really read the option for an item which might have said you can only have 15 characters engraved. I would get so many order with 25 -30 characters requested for an item that could only have 15. I would have to email the customer, alot of times they wouldn't reply, so they you have to phone them. It was just a big headache. Now with my new hosting company I have the proper boxes and the customer is not able to type in any more characters then the item allows.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Staying positive. I can be very impatient and even though my traffic to my site is increasing it never seems to be fast enough. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm doing a great job.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
I really like using Squidoo.com and submitting my products to Google Base (which use to be call Froggle).
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I thought having a business on the internet I wouldn't have to talk to people, I could just email them (and I didn't think I would have to do that very often). People love to phone me, I think maybe just to make sure I'm a really business. I'm learning to love talking with customers now.
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?
I started Personalized-Engraved-Gift.com in June 2006. I will continue to keep it up for ever because I will not quit. Eventually I will get the big gains in traffic, income and popularity.
Are your family and friends supportive of your online business?
They try to be, I think it's hard for them because most people find it hard to understand. Most of my family and friends feel right away that it's over their heads and they won't understand so they never really ask me about my business. It's hard because all I want to do it talk about what I'm doing, and what I've learned, but I just end up getting this blank stare.
What is your website address?
Personalized Engraved Gift
