Really? I want to hear about Royanna being somebody before 2007 - what is this?
I also think there is a whole lot going on! I can't tell you how many sales were in my inbox this last week from designer store closings and who are moving somewhere. And one is Snips and Snails...if you tell me she's going to SSD I'll faint dead away!
If Nicole has been thinking of selling since January, why did she bring 'everyday life' or whatever she calls it to TDC?
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I think she's still going to be running it. The strange part about TYS is that it doesn't seem to be linked to TDC at all. I kept wondering why she hadn't linked it to the site the way THC is, but that may be explained now. Possibly she's been planning all along on taking it with her when she leaves TDC?
Has anyone heard what is going on at the Digichick? I see Nicole announced she sold it, and its been said that she and that Mari Kron..whatever are going to SSD. I see that not only is Danielle Engebretson is guesting at SBG, so is Viva Artistry. I heard that two others are leaving also. What is up with this? Anyone know? ---------- You HEARD that two others are leaving? Why be secretive about it? Who?
By the way, does anyone care about DSP? Just wondering - I am not really happy with them right now, but I was just wondering if they even matter in the scheme of scrapbooking sites.
Um no. Couldn't care less, and hadn't visited that site in years until you mentioned it just now and when I checked it I only recognize the names of maybe 3 designers. Poked through the store for 2 minutes and couldn't find anything interesting and the site itself is hideously ugly and looks like it's stuck in a timewarp 2 decades ago. I'll pass.
Will someone please give me the quick backstory on OSD? It would appear that I missed it before, or else am missing something now. Who's the owner? Why are we anxiously awaiting its opening? Seems to me it's just going to be yet one more digital store on the web *yawn*
#12 - I see one person anxiously awaiting for the opening. I think the rest of us don't give a crap. Lauren Reid is the owner and she's been at more stores than I've had hot dinners. I think the only thing some of us care about is how long the store will be around, before it closes. It eerily reminds me of WAS.
#10 - considering that DSP is still going strong, I'd say that people care out it.
#11 gotta agree DSP is looking dated and worse the prices for kits are ridiculous. it was a good intro to digi in 04 but most scrappers move on after they discover other sites with better designers!!
I'm honestly not sure how accurate a tool like this is, but it lists DSP as doing pretty well:
http://www.statshow.com/digitalscrapbookplace.com Website Worth: $15,446.80 Monthly Pageviews: 453,450 digitalscrapbookplace.com has a global rank of #69,471 which puts itself among the top 100,000 most popular websites worldwide. digitalscrapbookplace.com rank has increased 11% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/sweetshoppedesigns.com Website Worth: $5,840.00 Daily Pageviews: 5,715 sweetshoppedesigns.com has a global rank of #183,712 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. sweetshoppedesigns.com rank has decreased -1% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/scrapbookgraphics.com Website Worth: $9,406.05 Monthly Pageviews: 276,090 scrapbookgraphics.com has a global rank of #114,075 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. scrapbookgraphics.com rank has decreased -4% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/oscraps.com/ Website Worth: $2,982.05 Monthly Pageviews: 87,510 oscraps.com has a global rank of #360,074 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. oscraps.com rank has decreased -27% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/afterfivedesigns.com/ Website Worth: $2,153.50 Monthly Pageviews: 63,150 afterfivedesigns.com has a global rank of #498,759 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. afterfivedesigns.com rank has increased 13% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/sugarhillco.com Website Worth: $1,784.85 Monthly Pageviews: 52,410 sugarhillco.com has a global rank of #600,997 which puts itself among the top 1 million most popular websites worldwide. sugarhillco.com rank has decreased -40% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/scraporchard.com/ Website Worth: $4,098.95 Monthly Pageviews: 120,300 scraporchard.com has a global rank of #261,898 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. scraporchard.com rank has decreased -13% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/catscrap.com/ Website Worth: $1,675.35 Monthly Pageviews: 49,200 catscrap.com has a global rank of #640,057 which puts itself among the top 1 million most popular websites worldwide. catscrap.com rank has decreased -4% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/theshabbyshoppe.com Website Worth: $3,347.05 Monthly Pageviews: 98,250 theshabbyshoppe.com has a global rank of #320,621 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. theshabbyshoppe.com rank has decreased -14% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/the-lilypad.com Website Worth: $4,084.35 Monthly Pageviews: 119,910 the-lilypad.com has a global rank of #262,734 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. the-lilypad.com rank has increased 113% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/thedigichick.com Website Worth: $5,883.80 Monthly Pageviews: 172,680 thedigichick.com has a global rank of #182,391 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. thedigichick.com rank has decreased -8% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/designhousedigital.com/ Website Worth: $3,080.60 Monthly Pageviews: 90,450 designhousedigital.com has a global rank of #348,186 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. designhousedigital.com rank has decreased -23% over the last 3 months.
Why does every single stat for the stores above show a monthly pageview estimate, except for SSD and that shows a daily pageview estimate?
I'd assume (safely, I think) that the website worth stat is useless. Who determines that? Only the owner and any subsequent seller. Those numbers have no basis in reality. But the pageview stat is much more telling. It would seem to indicate the following:
Interestingly, that site has given me 2 very different results for my site within a few minutes (and i mean one value was 3x the other). I am wondering how accurate it can me. Still interesting if you are curious.
#22 - I have two thoughts on this. One being that when I tried visiting the site to run a few searches just now, my browser warned me that it was a reported attack site and potentially unsafe to visit. I never get warnings like that, and so my guess is that the site itself isn't really set up to run those stats, but instead to spread something undesirable to the computers of users who visit it (virus, spam, who knows). As such, the results aren't likely very reliable, as you also just found.
My second thought, though, is that looking at the ordered list #20 created is interesting, because it seems like it might be semi-accurate. I'm not at all surprised to see that SBG, SSD, and TDC are near the top, while smaller and/or more eclectic sites like Catscrap, A5, and Oscraps are near the bottom, in terms of traffic to the site. The top few are definitely sites that cater to a greater range of customers/scrappers, while the bottom few are definitely targeted at a certain type of scrapper, and thus a smaller audience.
So while those numbers may not be accurate completely and based on anything exact, I think the list actually does show a semi-accurate view of those sites when compared to each other. Interesting.
Did you ever try to check those Webiste worth estimators? I checked my site with 3 of those: once it is worth roughly $1,200, on one it is worth $550, and on the other it is worth a whooping $4! Take your pick!
I'm the one that originally posted the stats thing. Yeah I got the attack notice too when I visited, I think I'll be fine since my computer is pretty well protected, but I've used that site many times in the past and it's the first time I've gotten that message. I am not really sure how accurate it is, I don't really care about the "worth" of the site, I think they're basing the worth on possible ad revenue if you monetized it with google ads or something like that. As for why Sweet Shoppe is a daily number and not a monthly, it's because that site does some extremely annoying then where it randomly either gives you the page views in daily, monthly or yearly, and when I go to copy paste it it randomly changed it again, I got sick of wrestling with it and just left it as daily.
I think the rankings and monthly traffic are probably fairly accurate. I have heard in the past DSP say how they rank better than anyone else in keywords, if they've put in the time to make their SEO top notch then I'm not surprised that they get the lion's share of the traffic. It should reflect in their sales I would think, if you have twice the views I would guess your sales probably reflect that. So while people on this blog and people who might post on DST (does anyone anymore?) etc might find DSP irrelevant, casual Google searchers are hitting that store first and probably buying there as well.
Ok here's the Alexa ratings, I think Alexa is probably a lot more accurate, these are their page RANKINGS not views, and these are global rankings compared to all websites. I used my old bookmarks to fill this in and also went to DST and randomly clicked on a few previews to find a few new stores to add to the list, not sure if anything else needs to be on this or not. I'm surprised that there's such a HUGE difference between last place and second to last!
Digitalscrapbookplace 80,976 Scrapgirls 84,887 Designer Digitals: 100,262 Jessica Sprague: 115,171 Scrapbookgraphics: 174,575 Design house digital: 180,302 Sweet Shoppe 183,712 The lilypad: 223,485 Scrap Orchard 239,843 oscraps 288,057 The Digi Chick 290,937 the shabby shoppe: 360,786 After 5: 373,842 Gingerscraps: 397,631 Peppermint Creative: 398,893 Pickleberrypop: 435,686 Go Digital Scrapbooking: 437,164 Scrapmatters: 449,439 Gotta Pixel: 476,297 Mscraps: 552,699 Sugarhillco 603,250 Scrapbook Elements: 619,598 Scrappity Doo Dah: 688,257 Scrapbook-bytes: 754,111 Deviant Scrap: 972,495 catscrap: 981,056 Shabby Pickle: 1,042,722 Plain Digital Wrapper: 1,285,995 Weeds and Wildflowers: 1,649,355 zig zag scrap: 1,791,041 Funky playground: 2,079,854 Shabby Miss Jenn: 2,645,710 Me So Scrappy: 3,518,197 Polkadotplum: 7,230,140
I'm honestly not really sure, because the page rankings will be influenced by things like blog posts etc. But then again, blog posts would increase the page views which *should* increase the sales, just not necessarily. Also it depends on the quality of the page views, if you have a blog post about something like McDonalds, and you get people coming to your site to read about McDonalds, those people are not going to buy digital scrapbooking supplies. And a store like Sugarhillco might not rely too much on Google traffic since their targetted clientele are probably people who would know about them through other means. And would someone buying CU spend more money in the store than someone buying for PU? I honestly have no idea. I am guessing that beginning designers who think that it's SO EASY and who are very excited to start probably spend a lot of money on CU thinking they'd make that money back.
I would guess that generally speaking though, yes if you get double the page views of another store you are probably making more money, maybe not exactly twice as much but probably around that ballpark. Going by this list I'd guess that the designers at DSP and ScrapGirls must be making more money than we'd think.
Interesting that Shabby Miss Jenn's ranking is so much lower than similar counterparts like Shabby Princess and Peppermint Creative (similar = individual and yet well-known designers w/ their own storefront). It surprises me because it always appears that she does a good job of producing regularly (whereas SP does not), she seems to price her new releases in a way that encourages bulk sales (whereas PC and SP do not), and she's very well-known in common advertising arenas like Facebook (whereas SP is not), with literally triple the followers of your average digi store.
By the way, does anyone care about DSP? Just wondering - I am not really happy with them right now, but I was just wondering if they even matter in the scheme of scrapbooking sites. Mar 25, 2012 7:33:00 AM ----------------------------- What is your beef with DSP? Maybe you should contact customer service if there is an issue??
The rankings are not useless, they don't tell the whole story but a store that has more page views than ANY OTHER digital scrapbooking store is far from "not going strong anymore". It's true that page views don't tell the whole story but they do tell part of the story, and it's a pretty big part of the story. They more people you have clicking around your site, the more potential clients. Is it possible that they have super high page views and super low sales? It's possible. However it's not *probable*. They likely have the sales that their page views would indicate. Just like you can tell how successful a TV show is by poling a tiny percentage of television watchers, you can likely tell how well a store is doing by seeing how many people visit it. It may be off in some cases but I'd bet that 99% of the time it's accurate.
^^^ This. When I was in sales there were averages that you could literally bank on. For every x number of cold calls you made, you could bank on y% of those turning into sales. Obviously, with qualified leads, that y% went up. I'm sure there's a statistical average for website traffic to sales too. It's all a numbers game.
Nothing is 99% accurate, ever. And the TV show polling is a very bad example. I can think of quite a few shows that were canceled and had to come back.
What I find interesting is that Scrapgirls & Designer Digitals are both at the top of the Alexa website rankings, & yet they are almost never mentioned here. (which is great for them).
So while many people here are debating who is a middle or top tier store, ScrapGirls & Designer Digitals are succeeding at the top of the rankings without being part of any drama.
Same with DigitalScrapbookPlace - they might not be popular with the scrappers here & they might not sell the trendiest supplies, but they obviously have a huge customer base regularly visiting their store. My guess is that a lot of stores would love to have their number of visitors.
The rankings are not useless, they don't tell the whole story but a store that has more page views than ANY OTHER digital scrapbooking store is far from "not going strong anymore". It's true that page views don't tell the whole story but they do tell part of the story, and it's a pretty big part of the story. They more people you have clicking around your site, the more potential clients. Is it possible that they have super high page views and super low sales? It's possible. However it's not *probable*. They likely have the sales that their page views would indicate. Just like you can tell how successful a TV show is by poling a tiny percentage of television watchers, you can likely tell how well a store is doing by seeing how many people visit it. It may be off in some cases but I'd bet that 99% of the time it's accurate.
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I can tell you for sure that a lot of the info on these stats is WAY off. If you go to that site and look at all of the info, it is obvious that it isn't anywhere near correct. Personally, I have sold or guested at four of the sites listed above, and I went and looked at the stats on all four of them. In all four cases, the average estimated monthly revenue is FAR below what is correct because my own personal monthly sales have exceeded what it estimates the entire store to have, and I'm not even a designer that makes a lot of money. It may track site hits, but that would probably be about the only thing on there that is close to accurate.
Furthermore, just because a site has hits, doesn't mean it has sales. I've gone to tons of sites because some link or another took me there, just to close right back out immediately or soon after because nothing appealed to me.
In its heyday, Designer Digitals grossed over 1 million in total sales per year. One designer I know made $50,000 in one year. The customers there like the 'flat' look...and things ready to throw on a page. Its why you see so much of that there. Sales have dropped..and Katie Pertiet can be a bitch to get along with. Believe it or not...sales there are still relatively good, because a market for it exists, and Katie has great marketing skills along with Ali Edwards.
Interesting that Shabby Miss Jenn's ranking is so much lower than similar counterparts like Shabby Princess and Peppermint Creative
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Not really, Shabby Princess and Peppermint Creative have tons of freebie traffic. SP is some of the very first stuff I ever scrapped with because it was free.
Also, do those results just take into account people who have visited the site? If DSP is the first result, it may get a ton of hits, but that doesn't mean any of those people stayed there.
can tell you for sure that a lot of the info on these stats is WAY off. If you go to that site and look at all of the info, it is obvious that it isn't anywhere near correct. Personally, I have sold or guested at four of the sites listed above, and I went and looked at the stats on all four of them. In all four cases, the average estimated monthly revenue is FAR below what is correct because my own personal monthly sales have exceeded what it estimates the entire store to have, and I'm not even a designer that makes a lot of money. It may track site hits, but that would probably be about the only thing on there that is close to accurate.
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That's because you are not understanding the "value" they're giving the website. They're not guessing at the amount of sales you make, they have no idea if your site is even an e-commerce site or not. They're putting a value on your web traffic is all, if you were to put ads on your website and you had a million visitors a year, you would make X amount of money. This has NOTHING to do with the fact that you're selling scrap supplies or car tires or selling anything at all. Now, I'm not sure if it's "smart" enough to analyze key words and put values on those keywords and then put a value on the website.
But the Alexa page rankings? Those are considered pretty accurate. If DSP is in first place of all scrapbooking sites per Alexa, it's because DSP is in first place of all the scrapbooking sites for page views. That's it.
Also, do those results just take into account people who have visited the site? If DSP is the first result, it may get a ton of hits, but that doesn't mean any of those people stayed there. ====================================
Also this is true! This is the bounce rate. For DSP, the bounce rate is about 75%. That means 75% of the traffic it gets does not view more than one page.
Designerdigitals has a bounce rate of 29%. Scrapgirls 43%. Scrapbookgraphics 40%. Sweet Shoppe 40%.
I guess this may move Designerdigitals or Scrapgirls into first place for $$$$?
Hmmm I think my previous post didn't post. I was commenting on the "I can tell you for sure that a lot of the info on these stats is WAY off. If you go to that site and look at all of the info, it is obvious that it isn't anywhere near correct. "
I don't think you're understanding the value they put on the website, it has nothing to do with the sales your site might make, they don't differentiate between e-commerce and other sites. They're saying that if you get 1 million views a year that's worth X dollars of traffic, that's all... so it's entirely possible to make way more money than they estimate in a month, because sales are a completely different thing.
I don't think you're understanding the value they put on the website, it has nothing to do with the sales your site might make, they don't differentiate between e-commerce and other sites. They're saying that if you get 1 million views a year that's worth X dollars of traffic, that's all... so it's entirely possible to make way more money than they estimate in a month, because sales are a completely different thing. -------------------- This.
Whoever posted #41 is an idiot. The worth of each site listed on that first list of rankings doesn't have shit to do with sales. It has to do with what the site itself is potentially worth, based on internet stats. The sites themselves probably gross 100x that much in a year. But if the owner of the site wanted to sell, they wouldn't be selling it for that much. Nor do their designers make as little as the ranking for worth.
I think there is one very interesting site you missed on your list -- how about Divine? I heard her numbers are off the charts.
What's the story of Scrap Girls? I have been there several times, but I don't get it. The site design is odd (ugly) for people selling graphics for one thing, and I can never click on anything because of the mouse hovers they use. I can barely figure out what they're selling, but I see it's (mostly?) a subscription site, but as I said, I don't get it at all. It looks like they have a million designers - can anybody tell me the names of some good designers there, and also some who are bad?
Their designer list has gone way done and the new designers they have taken on are quite good. I like Scrapgirls, always have and I just don't get the bashing.
I think I want to apply to be a Scrapgirl designer. Despite the snobbery on this blog, I think they do quite well.
DivineDigital has an Alexa rank of 1,225,229, so they'd rank just above Plain Digital Wrapper, in the bottom third or fourth of stores.
As for how Alexa rates websites, it is pretty much like the Nielsen ratings for television. It tracks the activity of those who have the Alexa cookie and extrapolate the data from there. Alexa measures how many pages they load on that site and if they stay on site and browse or leave immediately. It would appear that DSP has a higher than average bounce rate meaning that while they have VERY good SEO and get the initial traffic, they don't hold on to that traffic very well. The next few spots down the ranking list have better (lower) bounce rates meaning they're retaining more of their traffic, so probably actually doing better than DSP. It's hard to see because I can't figure out how to get actual page views from Alexa, only a percentage of how many page views they got against the global traffic. Then again, the bounce rate is built into the Alexa rank so maybe DSP are still really coming out ahead in spite of their higher than average bounce rate. Less bounce rate would increase their rating even more.
The demographics data it has on some sites is strange...
Example, Scrapgirls.com, they get the most traffic from the 25-34 age bracket, and then 45-54. About an even split of with and without kids. More traffic in the 100k-150k salary range. More college grads. Mostly caucasian.
Designerdigitals.com, a big bump from the 25-34 age bracket, but a lot from 35-44 too. Most of their clients have kids, and a big majority make between 0-50k, and either no college or grad school. Also overwhelmingly caucasian. So they attract a less wealthy crowd than Scrapgirls.
Scrapbookgraphics gets the most hits from the "under 18" category, followed by 55-64, then 25-34. The bigger share of visitors makes 50-100k, followed by 0-50k. The bigger part of their traffic shows Grad School. They have more people who are marked as "other" than caucasian.
No idea what their sample size is to extrapolate that data though. I'm guessing that's a lot less accurate than the other things they've measured!
On the DSP, there is something kind of odd about their website that might affect the bounce rate: whenever you click on anything, go to checkout, or are shopping and go to a new item, or ANYTHING, it opens a new tab. Most other sites use the same tab for most things and you use your back button. I can be at DSP for 5 minutes and have 7 or 8 pages open when I leave.
Glad you mentioned the sample size issue at the end of your post, #51, because I was going to bring it up. Those demographics mean nothing to me at all, because the sample size could be 2 people. Think about it. What are the odds that someone w/ the Alexa cookie is a digital scrapbooker? Yes, there are surely some, obviously. But it's probably rather rare. Have you ever known anyone who is an Alexa participant? I'm web savvy and I haven't. The sample size issue totally invalidates a lot of the info shown above, because I simply can't imagine that it would be broad enough of a sample to paint an accurate picture.
That said, it's certainly interesting to see the info above and speculate, given that this is a smack blog and it was getting boring around here last week.
#52, bounce rate shouldn't be affected by the tabs. It gets calculated by whether you click within the site or whether you don't click. Clicking on a link is clicking on a link, regardless of the browser target.
Yes the sample size is small, but so are Nielsen ratings households vs regular households, and the television companies put enough stock into those ratings to keep or drop shows, give raises etc. There are other ranking sites out there other than Alexa, they all have their own methods, some get the data directly from ISPs, some track users (like Alexa)... I have never really looked into tracking companies so I am not sure if one is considered more accurate than another. I wouldn't put too much stock into "this site's people are rich and this site's people have low income and this one has a lot of hispanics" because those are probably not very useful to know. The estimated site visits though are probably off on the actual number of visitors but the ORDER of the sites is probably fairly accurate, if a site is at the very bottom of the rankings then they probably ARE at the very bottom.
While I definitely agree that page views and traffic are important, I think it's even more important that your style fits in the store where you sell. Certain stores have certain styles, and those styles attract a certain customer. If you're in the wrong store, those page views aren't going to mean anything to your bottom line.
Know what would be funny? If someone ran the stats on where this blog falls in the ordered list of digi sites up above. And what it might be worth. And its bounce rate. And whether we're all in the wrong place and how it affects our bottom line.
Know what would be funny? If someone ran the stats on where this blog falls in the ordered list of digi sites up above. And what it might be worth. And its bounce rate. And whether we're all in the wrong place and how it affects our bottom line. -------------------------
LOL That would just prove how many of us have more fun being assholes than scrapping, designing, or marketing our businesses!
I don't know who really cares about the numbers? The stores and designers that don't necessarily do well go under. Other designers have left because the market is so oversaturated their bottom lines have dropped to where it wasn't worth sticking around. Stores like DSP are probably still around because there is a market for their product as well as other stores mentioned. When a store owner winds up having to put more money in her store and not take anything out for herself the store tends to fold. The older stores have established clients who have stuck with those stores for a long time. Some just don't venture out much to see what else is around. Some designers have opened their own personal store so they don't have to share the money with anyone-some do well and others have folded. There's something out there for everyone's tastes. I'm just surprised that the stores whose designers' kits all look the same do well. How many look alikes can a scrapper buy?? I think that's probably why Scrap Girls and other do well. Not everything looks alike.
The only people who care are the ones making or losing money. Everyday scrappers could care less whose site is better than whose. It's where you feel comfortable and where you find designs you like well enough to purchase.
On the DSP, there is something kind of odd about their website that might affect the bounce rate: whenever you click on anything, go to checkout, or are shopping and go to a new item, or ANYTHING, it opens a new tab. Most other sites use the same tab for most things and you use your back button. I can be at DSP for 5 minutes and have 7 or 8 pages open when I leave. Mar 27, 2012 8:47:00 AM ------------------------------------
Aren't some of those page views just robots crawling the web?
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Even if that were true, and even if it were a significant number of hits, it would also be true for any of the other sites mentioned above. It's a factor that would affect all sites relatively equally, so it would therefore be a non-factor.
That's funny. I was actually just thinking that it would be nice to get some honest, constructive feedback on my designs... but not for $40.00. And not from Chelle-- I'm sure she's a nice person, but she's certainly not a design authority. I guess you have to give her credit for being confident in her abilities.
You have GOT to be kidding me! Chelle who has so many stray pixels and quality errors in not only her personal use, but commercial use items that I stopped buying from her.
#70 I don't know Chelle but her prices to check out a kit and give feed back are rediculous. I would be surprised if she had many or any takers. There are others out there that do this kind of thing for a whole lot less money and a whole lot more experience. All one has to do is ask.
Ha. I asked (someone I considered a personal friend) and she said no. The funny thing is, now she has a "class" where she offers to do it for other people.
I've bought plenty of CU from Chelle and I've never had a problem. Her CU is fantastic quality and her tutorials are really helpful, not to mention she has great CS when you need to ask questions. And yes, I'm just a customer, not affiliated with her in any way.
75/76 here... sorry I wasn't clear. I wasn't talking about Chelle, I was responding to 74 saying that there were a lot of others who would do it, but you just had to ask.
Nope, not wondering that at all. Of course they knew. I cannot imagine that she waited until today to tell Kami that she's leaving SO. If she did, wow just wow. Bad business.
So obviously whoever posted the names a month ago is a behind the scenes person (CT? admin? designer?) at SSD. Rather an asshole maneuver if you ask me.
Did anyone else receive and read the newsletter? Did it seem to you as though Robin was almost trying too hard to justify her choices in the writeups she did about each new girl? It almost sounded like she was writing to the audience at this blog. Wouldn't it be funny if Robin herself was a regular contributor here at this blog? I wouldn't put it past her at all.
Is anyone else wondering if SO knew that Yari was going to SSD when they took her to their event? Mar 31, 2012 12:05:00 AM
I'm sure they did, but your post makes it sound like they paid her way. Is that the case?
Also, about SSD. It's pretty common knowledge that at least one CTM there (Laura) posts here on a regular basis. I'm sure it was leaked on purpose to see the reactions.
692 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 601 – 692 of 692 Newer› Newest»Really? I want to hear about Royanna being somebody before 2007 - what is this?
I also think there is a whole lot going on! I can't tell you how many sales were in my inbox this last week from designer store closings and who are moving somewhere. And one is Snips and Snails...if you tell me she's going to SSD I'll faint dead away!
You get Snips and Snails news sent to your e-mail? Wow, just wow.
Nah I've seen it quieter than this plenty of times. I find it hard to believe that most of the posters here are from SO.
^^^^
Ditto
If Nicole has been thinking of selling since January, why did she bring 'everyday life' or whatever she calls it to TDC?
^^^
Yeah, I know, weird, right? I was asking that a few posts back.
If Nicole has been thinking of selling since January, why did she bring 'everyday life' or whatever she calls it to TDC?
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I think she's still going to be running it. The strange part about TYS is that it doesn't seem to be linked to TDC at all. I kept wondering why she hadn't linked it to the site the way THC is, but that may be explained now. Possibly she's been planning all along on taking it with her when she leaves TDC?
Has anyone heard what is going on at the Digichick? I see Nicole announced she sold it, and its been said that she and that Mari Kron..whatever are going to SSD. I see that not only is Danielle Engebretson is guesting at SBG, so is Viva Artistry. I heard that two others are leaving also. What is up with this? Anyone know?
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You HEARD that two others are leaving? Why be secretive about it? Who?
Anyone know who the new designers will be at OSD and when they are opening?
By the way, does anyone care about DSP? Just wondering - I am not really happy with them right now, but I was just wondering if they even matter in the scheme of scrapbooking sites.
^^^
Um no. Couldn't care less, and hadn't visited that site in years until you mentioned it just now and when I checked it I only recognize the names of maybe 3 designers. Poked through the store for 2 minutes and couldn't find anything interesting and the site itself is hideously ugly and looks like it's stuck in a timewarp 2 decades ago. I'll pass.
Will someone please give me the quick backstory on OSD? It would appear that I missed it before, or else am missing something now. Who's the owner? Why are we anxiously awaiting its opening? Seems to me it's just going to be yet one more digital store on the web *yawn*
Lauren Reid is the owner.
#12 - I see one person anxiously awaiting for the opening. I think the rest of us don't give a crap. Lauren Reid is the owner and she's been at more stores than I've had hot dinners. I think the only thing some of us care about is how long the store will be around, before it closes. It eerily reminds me of WAS.
#10 - considering that DSP is still going strong, I'd say that people care out it.
#8 - she may not know, she may have just heard that two are leaving. You know how it is with things people hear.
#11 gotta agree DSP is looking dated and worse the prices for kits are ridiculous.
it was a good intro to digi in 04 but most scrappers move on after they discover other sites with better designers!!
14 - DSP isn't going so strong anymore - still going , but not strong
16 - I agree - definitely good for intro and a bit of nostalgia, but there is so much that is better out there!
I'm honestly not sure how accurate a tool like this is, but it lists DSP as doing pretty well:
http://www.statshow.com/digitalscrapbookplace.com
Website Worth: $15,446.80
Monthly Pageviews: 453,450
digitalscrapbookplace.com has a global rank of #69,471 which puts itself among the top 100,000 most popular websites worldwide. digitalscrapbookplace.com rank has increased 11% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/sweetshoppedesigns.com
Website Worth: $5,840.00
Daily Pageviews: 5,715
sweetshoppedesigns.com has a global rank of #183,712 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. sweetshoppedesigns.com rank has decreased -1% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/scrapbookgraphics.com
Website Worth: $9,406.05
Monthly Pageviews: 276,090
scrapbookgraphics.com has a global rank of #114,075 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. scrapbookgraphics.com rank has decreased -4% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/oscraps.com/
Website Worth: $2,982.05
Monthly Pageviews: 87,510
oscraps.com has a global rank of #360,074 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. oscraps.com rank has decreased -27% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/afterfivedesigns.com/
Website Worth: $2,153.50
Monthly Pageviews: 63,150
afterfivedesigns.com has a global rank of #498,759 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. afterfivedesigns.com rank has increased 13% over the last 3 months.
Some more:
http://www.statshow.com/sugarhillco.com
Website Worth: $1,784.85
Monthly Pageviews: 52,410
sugarhillco.com has a global rank of #600,997 which puts itself among the top 1 million most popular websites worldwide. sugarhillco.com rank has decreased -40% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/scraporchard.com/
Website Worth: $4,098.95
Monthly Pageviews: 120,300
scraporchard.com has a global rank of #261,898 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. scraporchard.com rank has decreased -13% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/catscrap.com/
Website Worth: $1,675.35
Monthly Pageviews: 49,200
catscrap.com has a global rank of #640,057 which puts itself among the top 1 million most popular websites worldwide. catscrap.com rank has decreased -4% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/theshabbyshoppe.com
Website Worth: $3,347.05
Monthly Pageviews: 98,250
theshabbyshoppe.com has a global rank of #320,621 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. theshabbyshoppe.com rank has decreased -14% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/the-lilypad.com
Website Worth: $4,084.35
Monthly Pageviews: 119,910
the-lilypad.com has a global rank of #262,734 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. the-lilypad.com rank has increased 113% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/thedigichick.com
Website Worth: $5,883.80
Monthly Pageviews: 172,680
thedigichick.com has a global rank of #182,391 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. thedigichick.com rank has decreased -8% over the last 3 months.
http://www.statshow.com/designhousedigital.com/
Website Worth: $3,080.60
Monthly Pageviews: 90,450
designhousedigital.com has a global rank of #348,186 which puts itself among the top 500,000 most popular websites worldwide. designhousedigital.com rank has decreased -23% over the last 3 months.
Why does every single stat for the stores above show a monthly pageview estimate, except for SSD and that shows a daily pageview estimate?
I'd assume (safely, I think) that the website worth stat is useless. Who determines that? Only the owner and any subsequent seller. Those numbers have no basis in reality. But the pageview stat is much more telling. It would seem to indicate the following:
digitalscrapbookplace.com - 453,450 monthly views
scrapbookgraphics.com - 276,090 monthly views
sweetshoppedesigns.com - 173,831* monthly views
thedigichick.com - 172,680 monthly views
scraporchard.com - 120,300 monthly views
the-lilypad.com - 119,910 monthly views
theshabbyshoppe.com - 98,250 monthly views
designhousedigital.com - 90,450 monthly views
oscraps.com - 87,510 monthly views
afterfivedesigns.com - 63,150 monthly views
sugarhillco.com - 52,410 monthly views
catscrap.com - 49,200 monthly views
*determined this by using the daily pageview stat of 5715, multiplying it times 365 days, and dividing by 12 months
sorry, subsequent seller (above) should have read: subsequent BUYER. need coffee.
Interestingly, that site has given me 2 very different results for my site within a few minutes (and i mean one value was 3x the other). I am wondering how accurate it can me. Still interesting if you are curious.
#22 - I have two thoughts on this. One being that when I tried visiting the site to run a few searches just now, my browser warned me that it was a reported attack site and potentially unsafe to visit. I never get warnings like that, and so my guess is that the site itself isn't really set up to run those stats, but instead to spread something undesirable to the computers of users who visit it (virus, spam, who knows). As such, the results aren't likely very reliable, as you also just found.
My second thought, though, is that looking at the ordered list #20 created is interesting, because it seems like it might be semi-accurate. I'm not at all surprised to see that SBG, SSD, and TDC are near the top, while smaller and/or more eclectic sites like Catscrap, A5, and Oscraps are near the bottom, in terms of traffic to the site. The top few are definitely sites that cater to a greater range of customers/scrappers, while the bottom few are definitely targeted at a certain type of scrapper, and thus a smaller audience.
So while those numbers may not be accurate completely and based on anything exact, I think the list actually does show a semi-accurate view of those sites when compared to each other. Interesting.
Did you ever try to check those Webiste worth estimators? I checked my site with 3 of those: once it is worth roughly $1,200, on one it is worth $550, and on the other it is worth a whooping $4! Take your pick!
I just checked a fourth estimator: my site is now worth $4,000. That is nice! I'll take that estimation when I try to sell my site! LOL
I'm the one that originally posted the stats thing. Yeah I got the attack notice too when I visited, I think I'll be fine since my computer is pretty well protected, but I've used that site many times in the past and it's the first time I've gotten that message. I am not really sure how accurate it is, I don't really care about the "worth" of the site, I think they're basing the worth on possible ad revenue if you monetized it with google ads or something like that. As for why Sweet Shoppe is a daily number and not a monthly, it's because that site does some extremely annoying then where it randomly either gives you the page views in daily, monthly or yearly, and when I go to copy paste it it randomly changed it again, I got sick of wrestling with it and just left it as daily.
I think the rankings and monthly traffic are probably fairly accurate. I have heard in the past DSP say how they rank better than anyone else in keywords, if they've put in the time to make their SEO top notch then I'm not surprised that they get the lion's share of the traffic. It should reflect in their sales I would think, if you have twice the views I would guess your sales probably reflect that. So while people on this blog and people who might post on DST (does anyone anymore?) etc might find DSP irrelevant, casual Google searchers are hitting that store first and probably buying there as well.
Ok here's the Alexa ratings, I think Alexa is probably a lot more accurate, these are their page RANKINGS not views, and these are global rankings compared to all websites. I used my old bookmarks to fill this in and also went to DST and randomly clicked on a few previews to find a few new stores to add to the list, not sure if anything else needs to be on this or not. I'm surprised that there's such a HUGE difference between last place and second to last!
Digitalscrapbookplace 80,976
Scrapgirls 84,887
Designer Digitals: 100,262
Jessica Sprague: 115,171
Scrapbookgraphics: 174,575
Design house digital: 180,302
Sweet Shoppe 183,712
The lilypad: 223,485
Scrap Orchard 239,843
oscraps 288,057
The Digi Chick 290,937
the shabby shoppe: 360,786
After 5: 373,842
Gingerscraps: 397,631
Peppermint Creative: 398,893
Pickleberrypop: 435,686
Go Digital Scrapbooking: 437,164
Scrapmatters: 449,439
Gotta Pixel: 476,297
Mscraps: 552,699
Sugarhillco 603,250
Scrapbook Elements: 619,598
Scrappity Doo Dah: 688,257
Scrapbook-bytes: 754,111
Deviant Scrap: 972,495
catscrap: 981,056
Shabby Pickle: 1,042,722
Plain Digital Wrapper: 1,285,995
Weeds and Wildflowers: 1,649,355
zig zag scrap: 1,791,041
Funky playground: 2,079,854
Shabby Miss Jenn: 2,645,710
Me So Scrappy: 3,518,197
Polkadotplum: 7,230,140
So, in that last one the lower numbers are better, correct? Because they're the rankings?
Very interesting. How closely do you think the sales follow these numbers?
I'm honestly not really sure, because the page rankings will be influenced by things like blog posts etc. But then again, blog posts would increase the page views which *should* increase the sales, just not necessarily. Also it depends on the quality of the page views, if you have a blog post about something like McDonalds, and you get people coming to your site to read about McDonalds, those people are not going to buy digital scrapbooking supplies. And a store like Sugarhillco might not rely too much on Google traffic since their targetted clientele are probably people who would know about them through other means. And would someone buying CU spend more money in the store than someone buying for PU? I honestly have no idea. I am guessing that beginning designers who think that it's SO EASY and who are very excited to start probably spend a lot of money on CU thinking they'd make that money back.
I would guess that generally speaking though, yes if you get double the page views of another store you are probably making more money, maybe not exactly twice as much but probably around that ballpark. Going by this list I'd guess that the designers at DSP and ScrapGirls must be making more money than we'd think.
Oh and yes to answer your question, lower number in this list = better.
Interesting that Shabby Miss Jenn's ranking is so much lower than similar counterparts like Shabby Princess and Peppermint Creative (similar = individual and yet well-known designers w/ their own storefront). It surprises me because it always appears that she does a good job of producing regularly (whereas SP does not), she seems to price her new releases in a way that encourages bulk sales (whereas PC and SP do not), and she's very well-known in common advertising arenas like Facebook (whereas SP is not), with literally triple the followers of your average digi store.
Julie Bullock is closing her store at Scrap Orchard.
http://scraporchard.com/forum/showthread.php/42294-I-m-Taking-A-Break....You-Save-40
By the way, does anyone care about DSP? Just wondering - I am not really happy with them right now, but I was just wondering if they even matter in the scheme of scrapbooking sites.
Mar 25, 2012 7:33:00 AM
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What is your beef with DSP? Maybe you should contact customer service if there is an issue??
I think all those ranking sites etc are completely useless.
None of them equal sales. It's just number crunching and we all know that's bullshit.
so I think I know why Aly changed her design name.... so she could sell at STS
Guest Designer Alyssa with Aly DeMoraes
http://stufftoscrap.com/forums/showthread.php?8592-Welcome-to-our-NEW-Designers
The rankings are not useless, they don't tell the whole story but a store that has more page views than ANY OTHER digital scrapbooking store is far from "not going strong anymore". It's true that page views don't tell the whole story but they do tell part of the story, and it's a pretty big part of the story. They more people you have clicking around your site, the more potential clients. Is it possible that they have super high page views and super low sales? It's possible. However it's not *probable*. They likely have the sales that their page views would indicate. Just like you can tell how successful a TV show is by poling a tiny percentage of television watchers, you can likely tell how well a store is doing by seeing how many people visit it. It may be off in some cases but I'd bet that 99% of the time it's accurate.
^^^
This. When I was in sales there were averages that you could literally bank on. For every x number of cold calls you made, you could bank on y% of those turning into sales. Obviously, with qualified leads, that y% went up. I'm sure there's a statistical average for website traffic to sales too. It's all a numbers game.
Nothing is 99% accurate, ever. And the TV show polling is a very bad example. I can think of quite a few shows that were canceled and had to come back.
It is a numbers game, the key word being game.
What I find interesting is that Scrapgirls & Designer Digitals are both at the top of the Alexa website rankings, & yet they are almost never mentioned here. (which is great for them).
So while many people here are debating who is a middle or top tier store, ScrapGirls & Designer Digitals are succeeding at the top of the rankings without being part of any drama.
Same with DigitalScrapbookPlace - they might not be popular with the scrappers here & they might not sell the trendiest supplies, but they obviously have a huge customer base regularly visiting their store. My guess is that a lot of stores would love to have their number of visitors.
Scrap Girls does have its own drama. It's just not mentioned here.
And I think many places, like those you list, have their own cult-like followings, where people stay there and don't venture out much.
The rankings are not useless, they don't tell the whole story but a store that has more page views than ANY OTHER digital scrapbooking store is far from "not going strong anymore". It's true that page views don't tell the whole story but they do tell part of the story, and it's a pretty big part of the story. They more people you have clicking around your site, the more potential clients. Is it possible that they have super high page views and super low sales? It's possible. However it's not *probable*. They likely have the sales that their page views would indicate. Just like you can tell how successful a TV show is by poling a tiny percentage of television watchers, you can likely tell how well a store is doing by seeing how many people visit it. It may be off in some cases but I'd bet that 99% of the time it's accurate.
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I can tell you for sure that a lot of the info on these stats is WAY off. If you go to that site and look at all of the info, it is obvious that it isn't anywhere near correct. Personally, I have sold or guested at four of the sites listed above, and I went and looked at the stats on all four of them. In all four cases, the average estimated monthly revenue is FAR below what is correct because my own personal monthly sales have exceeded what it estimates the entire store to have, and I'm not even a designer that makes a lot of money. It may track site hits, but that would probably be about the only thing on there that is close to accurate.
Furthermore, just because a site has hits, doesn't mean it has sales. I've gone to tons of sites because some link or another took me there, just to close right back out immediately or soon after because nothing appealed to me.
In its heyday, Designer Digitals grossed over 1 million in total sales per year. One designer I know made $50,000 in one year. The customers there like the 'flat' look...and things ready to throw on a page. Its why you see so much of that there. Sales have dropped..and Katie Pertiet can be a bitch to get along with. Believe it or not...sales there are still relatively good, because a market for it exists, and Katie has great marketing skills along with Ali Edwards.
Interesting that Shabby Miss Jenn's ranking is so much lower than similar counterparts like Shabby Princess and Peppermint Creative
*************************
Not really, Shabby Princess and Peppermint Creative have tons of freebie traffic. SP is some of the very first stuff I ever scrapped with because it was free.
Also, do those results just take into account people who have visited the site? If DSP is the first result, it may get a ton of hits, but that doesn't mean any of those people stayed there.
can tell you for sure that a lot of the info on these stats is WAY off. If you go to that site and look at all of the info, it is obvious that it isn't anywhere near correct. Personally, I have sold or guested at four of the sites listed above, and I went and looked at the stats on all four of them. In all four cases, the average estimated monthly revenue is FAR below what is correct because my own personal monthly sales have exceeded what it estimates the entire store to have, and I'm not even a designer that makes a lot of money. It may track site hits, but that would probably be about the only thing on there that is close to accurate.
=================================
That's because you are not understanding the "value" they're giving the website. They're not guessing at the amount of sales you make, they have no idea if your site is even an e-commerce site or not. They're putting a value on your web traffic is all, if you were to put ads on your website and you had a million visitors a year, you would make X amount of money. This has NOTHING to do with the fact that you're selling scrap supplies or car tires or selling anything at all. Now, I'm not sure if it's "smart" enough to analyze key words and put values on those keywords and then put a value on the website.
But the Alexa page rankings? Those are considered pretty accurate. If DSP is in first place of all scrapbooking sites per Alexa, it's because DSP is in first place of all the scrapbooking sites for page views. That's it.
Also, do those results just take into account people who have visited the site? If DSP is the first result, it may get a ton of hits, but that doesn't mean any of those people stayed there.
====================================
Also this is true! This is the bounce rate. For DSP, the bounce rate is about 75%. That means 75% of the traffic it gets does not view more than one page.
Designerdigitals has a bounce rate of 29%. Scrapgirls 43%. Scrapbookgraphics 40%. Sweet Shoppe 40%.
I guess this may move Designerdigitals or Scrapgirls into first place for $$$$?
Hmmm I think my previous post didn't post. I was commenting on the "I can tell you for sure that a lot of the info on these stats is WAY off. If you go to that site and look at all of the info, it is obvious that it isn't anywhere near correct. "
I don't think you're understanding the value they put on the website, it has nothing to do with the sales your site might make, they don't differentiate between e-commerce and other sites. They're saying that if you get 1 million views a year that's worth X dollars of traffic, that's all... so it's entirely possible to make way more money than they estimate in a month, because sales are a completely different thing.
I don't think you're understanding the value they put on the website, it has nothing to do with the sales your site might make, they don't differentiate between e-commerce and other sites. They're saying that if you get 1 million views a year that's worth X dollars of traffic, that's all... so it's entirely possible to make way more money than they estimate in a month, because sales are a completely different thing.
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This.
Whoever posted #41 is an idiot. The worth of each site listed on that first list of rankings doesn't have shit to do with sales. It has to do with what the site itself is potentially worth, based on internet stats. The sites themselves probably gross 100x that much in a year. But if the owner of the site wanted to sell, they wouldn't be selling it for that much. Nor do their designers make as little as the ranking for worth.
How do you find out what the "Bounce Rate" is for each site? Isn't that something that only the individual website owner would have access to??
I think there is one very interesting site you missed on your list -- how about Divine? I heard her numbers are off the charts.
What's the story of Scrap Girls? I have been there several times, but I don't get it. The site design is odd (ugly) for people selling graphics for one thing, and I can never click on anything because of the mouse hovers they use. I can barely figure out what they're selling, but I see it's (mostly?) a subscription site, but as I said, I don't get it at all. It looks like they have a million designers - can anybody tell me the names of some good designers there, and also some who are bad?
^^^^
Their designer list has gone way done and the new designers they have taken on are quite good. I like Scrapgirls, always have and I just don't get the bashing.
I think I want to apply to be a Scrapgirl designer. Despite the snobbery on this blog, I think they do quite well.
DivineDigital has an Alexa rank of 1,225,229, so they'd rank just above Plain Digital Wrapper, in the bottom third or fourth of stores.
As for how Alexa rates websites, it is pretty much like the Nielsen ratings for television. It tracks the activity of those who have the Alexa cookie and extrapolate the data from there. Alexa measures how many pages they load on that site and if they stay on site and browse or leave immediately. It would appear that DSP has a higher than average bounce rate meaning that while they have VERY good SEO and get the initial traffic, they don't hold on to that traffic very well. The next few spots down the ranking list have better (lower) bounce rates meaning they're retaining more of their traffic, so probably actually doing better than DSP. It's hard to see because I can't figure out how to get actual page views from Alexa, only a percentage of how many page views they got against the global traffic. Then again, the bounce rate is built into the Alexa rank so maybe DSP are still really coming out ahead in spite of their higher than average bounce rate. Less bounce rate would increase their rating even more.
The demographics data it has on some sites is strange...
Example, Scrapgirls.com, they get the most traffic from the 25-34 age bracket, and then 45-54. About an even split of with and without kids. More traffic in the 100k-150k salary range. More college grads. Mostly caucasian.
Designerdigitals.com, a big bump from the 25-34 age bracket, but a lot from 35-44 too. Most of their clients have kids, and a big majority make between 0-50k, and either no college or grad school. Also overwhelmingly caucasian. So they attract a less wealthy crowd than Scrapgirls.
Scrapbookgraphics gets the most hits from the "under 18" category, followed by 55-64, then 25-34. The bigger share of visitors makes 50-100k, followed by 0-50k. The bigger part of their traffic shows Grad School. They have more people who are marked as "other" than caucasian.
No idea what their sample size is to extrapolate that data though. I'm guessing that's a lot less accurate than the other things they've measured!
On the DSP, there is something kind of odd about their website that might affect the bounce rate: whenever you click on anything, go to checkout, or are shopping and go to a new item, or ANYTHING, it opens a new tab. Most other sites use the same tab for most things and you use your back button. I can be at DSP for 5 minutes and have 7 or 8 pages open when I leave.
Glad you mentioned the sample size issue at the end of your post, #51, because I was going to bring it up. Those demographics mean nothing to me at all, because the sample size could be 2 people. Think about it. What are the odds that someone w/ the Alexa cookie is a digital scrapbooker? Yes, there are surely some, obviously. But it's probably rather rare. Have you ever known anyone who is an Alexa participant? I'm web savvy and I haven't. The sample size issue totally invalidates a lot of the info shown above, because I simply can't imagine that it would be broad enough of a sample to paint an accurate picture.
That said, it's certainly interesting to see the info above and speculate, given that this is a smack blog and it was getting boring around here last week.
#52, bounce rate shouldn't be affected by the tabs. It gets calculated by whether you click within the site or whether you don't click. Clicking on a link is clicking on a link, regardless of the browser target.
Yes the sample size is small, but so are Nielsen ratings households vs regular households, and the television companies put enough stock into those ratings to keep or drop shows, give raises etc. There are other ranking sites out there other than Alexa, they all have their own methods, some get the data directly from ISPs, some track users (like Alexa)... I have never really looked into tracking companies so I am not sure if one is considered more accurate than another. I wouldn't put too much stock into "this site's people are rich and this site's people have low income and this one has a lot of hispanics" because those are probably not very useful to know. The estimated site visits though are probably off on the actual number of visitors but the ORDER of the sites is probably fairly accurate, if a site is at the very bottom of the rankings then they probably ARE at the very bottom.
While I definitely agree that page views and traffic are important, I think it's even more important that your style fits in the store where you sell. Certain stores have certain styles, and those styles attract a certain customer. If you're in the wrong store, those page views aren't going to mean anything to your bottom line.
Know what would be funny? If someone ran the stats on where this blog falls in the ordered list of digi sites up above. And what it might be worth. And its bounce rate. And whether we're all in the wrong place and how it affects our bottom line.
Know what would be funny? If someone ran the stats on where this blog falls in the ordered list of digi sites up above. And what it might be worth. And its bounce rate. And whether we're all in the wrong place and how it affects our bottom line.
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LOL That would just prove how many of us have more fun being assholes than scrapping, designing, or marketing our businesses!
^^^
Speak for yourself, I'm never an asshole
^^^
Speak for yourself, I'm never an asshole
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LMAO!
Of course you are, or you wouldn't have made this comment to try and make poster #58 feel like an asshole!
Oh, the irony of this! LMAO!
I don't know who really cares about the numbers? The stores and designers that don't necessarily do well go under. Other designers have left because the market is so oversaturated their bottom lines have dropped to where it wasn't worth sticking around. Stores like DSP are probably still around because there is a market for their product as well as other stores mentioned. When a store owner winds up having to put more money in her store and not take anything out for herself the store tends to fold. The older stores have established clients who have stuck with those stores for a long time. Some just don't venture out much to see what else is around. Some designers have opened their own personal store so they don't have to share the money with anyone-some do well and others have folded. There's something out there for everyone's tastes. I'm just surprised that the stores whose designers' kits all look the same do well. How many look alikes can a scrapper buy?? I think that's probably why Scrap Girls and other do well. Not everything looks alike.
The only people who care are the ones making or losing money. Everyday scrappers could care less whose site is better than whose. It's where you feel comfortable and where you find designs you like well enough to purchase.
I started this blog on 2/14, and in six weeks' time, we've had 49,368 page views.
#60 - wrong, but you are entitled to your opinion, however incorrect.
Aren't some of those page views just robots crawling the web?
Some but they wouldn't amount to very many page views, it's not like the robots are hammering the sites.
On the DSP, there is something kind of odd about their website that might affect the bounce rate: whenever you click on anything, go to checkout, or are shopping and go to a new item, or ANYTHING, it opens a new tab. Most other sites use the same tab for most things and you use your back button. I can be at DSP for 5 minutes and have 7 or 8 pages open when I leave.
Mar 27, 2012 8:47:00 AM
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That is weird, that doesn't happen for me at all.
Opening new tabs is dependent on how you have your browser set, isn't it?
Aren't some of those page views just robots crawling the web?
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Even if that were true, and even if it were a significant number of hits, it would also be true for any of the other sites mentioned above. It's a factor that would affect all sites relatively equally, so it would therefore be a non-factor.
http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=299645
So now Chelle is a selfproclaimed queen of scrap. Personally, I would rather ask Simon for a review. wait. Maybe Simon is Chelle.Hmmmmm......
That's funny. I was actually just thinking that it would be nice to get some honest, constructive feedback on my designs... but not for $40.00. And not from Chelle-- I'm sure she's a nice person, but she's certainly not a design authority. I guess you have to give her credit for being confident in her abilities.
So who do YOU consider a "design authority?"
You have GOT to be kidding me! Chelle who has so many stray pixels and quality errors in not only her personal use, but commercial use items that I stopped buying from her.
#70 I don't know Chelle but her prices to check out a kit and give feed back are rediculous. I would be surprised if she had many or any takers. There are others out there that do this kind of thing for a whole lot less money and a whole lot more experience. All one has to do is ask.
Ha. I asked (someone I considered a personal friend) and she said no. The funny thing is, now she has a "class" where she offers to do it for other people.
^Me, again. She said no because it was a "conflict of interest" since we were at two different stores. But I guess it's not one if you are paying her?
I'm confused, #75 and #76. Are you talking about Chelle or someone else?
Jady Day's NL confirms that she is leaving SO. Like we didn't all already know that.
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of Sweet Shoppe.
I've bought plenty of CU from Chelle and I've never had a problem. Her CU is fantastic quality and her tutorials are really helpful, not to mention she has great CS when you need to ask questions. And yes, I'm just a customer, not affiliated with her in any way.
75/76 here... sorry I wasn't clear. I wasn't talking about Chelle, I was responding to 74 saying that there were a lot of others who would do it, but you just had to ask.
2 Scoops
Cindy Schneider
Darcy Baldwin
Erica Zane
Eva Kipler
Heather Roselli
Jady Day Studio
Janet Phillips
Jenn Barrette
Julie Billingsley
Kristin Cronin-Barrow
Krystal Hartley
Libby Pritchett
Lliella Designs
Mari Koegelenberg
Meghan Mullens
Melissa Bennett
Misty Cato
Nettio Designs
Penny Springmann
Shawna Clingerman
Studio Basic Designs
Sugarplum Paperie
Susan Bartolini
Sweet Shoppe Designs
Traci Reed
Triple Dips
Zoe Pearn
Wow. Whoever posted their original guesses way back when obviously was in the know.
That is what I thought when I was just looking at the newsletter.
it's pretty obvious they weren't guessing.
Is anyone else wondering if SO knew that Yari was going to SSD when they took her to their event?
Nope, not wondering that at all. Of course they knew. I cannot imagine that she waited until today to tell Kami that she's leaving SO. If she did, wow just wow. Bad business.
So obviously whoever posted the names a month ago is a behind the scenes person (CT? admin? designer?) at SSD. Rather an asshole maneuver if you ask me.
Did anyone else receive and read the newsletter? Did it seem to you as though Robin was almost trying too hard to justify her choices in the writeups she did about each new girl? It almost sounded like she was writing to the audience at this blog. Wouldn't it be funny if Robin herself was a regular contributor here at this blog? I wouldn't put it past her at all.
Is anyone else wondering if SO knew that Yari was going to SSD when they took her to their event?
Mar 31, 2012 12:05:00 AM
I'm sure they did, but your post makes it sound like they paid her way. Is that the case?
Also, about SSD. It's pretty common knowledge that at least one CTM there (Laura) posts here on a regular basis. I'm sure it was leaked on purpose to see the reactions.
I don't even know most of those designers.
None of them opened with products? Just their freebies?
This isn't their Grand Opening. That's next week! They were just introduced this week.
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