Name of your website?Tom & Bella online shop
Your name?
Janice
Your Location (city, etc)
Cape Town
We sell nursery linen and decor and baby gifts online
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Having young children and working from home keeps you busy - shopping online saves time and is convenient. And - i dont like to always send flowers when a friend has a baby - Tom & Bella products are so much nicer than flowers.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Launched www.tomandbella.co.za info site in 2007
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Name of our business is related to the names of my biz partner and my first child
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Beautiful, unique, sophisticated products
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To keep it for income
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
At the moment - not great - just started and need to be patient
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Only add better photos
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
High min commission and all the different vendors involved like site developers, payment gateway, bank merchant service etc
What has been your biggest challenge?
balancing cash flow and stock
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Google adsense
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
slow sales
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?
only 3 weeks so far ... give it 6 months or so
Replace this with a question of your own
What pitfalls would you warn a new site owner about?
What is your website address?
Tom & Bella online shop
