The Porch Swing Store Goes Higher in 2009
Mary Kueny operates a gift store in downtown Marysville, Kan., that features Laurie's Kitchen gourmet mixes along with thousands of gifts from decorative flags to elderberry juice concentrate, carved wood signs, angels, prints and entertaining accoutrements. Her store is actually just a joyful front for her real business, four internet websites, www.porchswing.com, www.spotandfriends.com (a pet-lovers' site), www.inspirationaldecorandmore.com, www.flagsrus.org, and www.porchswing.us. "I loved Laurie's Kitchen products, so I wanted to include them in my assortment and have them at wholesale for my family!"
Twelve years ago, Mary offered to help her, then, employer sell antiques on Ebay. She was hooked and began her own flag website when decorative flags were just becoming popular. "I have experienced at least 15% growth every month since then, and one month there was 40% growth--that's scary," she laughs. "That was when I figured out the right key words." Conversation about her online business centers around key words. "If you want to start an Internet business [to go with your store] and you don't have the time to spend an hour or more a day assessing how well your key words are working to bring shoppers to your online store, hire a company to do it for you." Marketing is everything according to Kueny, and key words are how you rank high on search engines and get paying customers. She also uses pay-per-click marketing, now that she knows the key words the right buyers are likely to use, and that makes pay-per-click cost effective for her. Novices could benefit from the book, Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, she says, and she stresses not to hire just anyone to build your retail shopping cart website. If you can't teach yourself, be sure to find someone who has already built a successful shopping site like you want.
Mary Kueny is not worried about the economy. I choose items that do not have much competition on the web. Regarding food, "It's not a once-a-year purchase, is every day or every week. That makes it a good choice, but don't expect people to buy a $5.00 item and pay $7.95 shipping." Laurie's Kitchen suggest online retailers set a minimum and create food groupings or gift baskets for gourmet foods. Laurie's Kitchen is proud to call Mary Kueny and The Porch Swing in Marysville, Kan., one of our best customers.
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