Name of your website?CosmeticDiva
Your name?
Carol Boyd
Your Location (city, etc)
Enniskillen
Please give us a short summary of your website?
My Website is a UK Online Shop selling Beauty Products, Cosmetics, Skin Care Products, Scented Bath Bombs, Natural Soaps, Perfumes and Fragrances. CosmeticDiva provides its customers with a range of discounted Brand Name beauty products including Elizabeth Arden, Bourjois, Maybelline, Revlon, Gale Hayman, Go Cosmetics, L'Oreal, W7 Cosmetics.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I had been, and still am, an Ebay retailer in the UK. Ebay provided an excellent way to startup an Internet based Business. I have always been interested in cosmetics - what woman isn't - so that seemed the ideal commodity to trade online with. Years ago I ran a successful local boutique and that business experience has been of great benefit in setting up an online shop. My brother is in IT - that helps too.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
CosmeticDiva is my first website if you dont count my Ebay shop. The experience of setting up on Ebay helped give me the confidence to set up a dedicated website. I started on Ebay about three years ago.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The name was suggested by my daughter and it just seemed to suggest the sort of theme I wanted for the website. I am a great believer in going with your first impression.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
I have always had one golden rule in business and that is to try and provide the customer with exactly the shopping experience I would want if I were the customer. CosmeticDiva is intended to provide a friendly and reasonably priced online cosmetics shop where the stock is accurately described. Thats what I would want!
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I would like CosmticDiva to provide me with a good income for doing the things I like doing. Its all about having control of your own life.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Lots of work and slow gradual success. Building an internet business takes time and effort. But that makes it more rewarding! There is a lot of satisfaction from having done most of the work yourself.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I'd employ people to do a lot of the SEO and marketing. Thats the really time consuming bit. But if I outsourced all the design and layout I think that would take some of the personal fulfilment out of the project. A big budget would definitely mean faster growth. I would also develop other related projects like a dedicated tips and advice website to compliment the commercial site.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I would hope it wouldnt grow that quickly. Steady organic growth is best. Really quick growth can be a bad thing in that you can lose sight of your original objective. If things really took off then I would probably bring other family members into the business and we would cope with the demand.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The biggest problem is sourcing good quality stock that suits the customer's taste. I wont compromise on quality and the cosmetic industry is always changing to the new fashion or fad. There is a lot of updating to do to make sure new stock is well presented on the website.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Juggling work and home responsibilies. Thats always the working woman's biggest challenge.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Article submission seems to be the way to go regarding promotion so I think I will concentrate my efforts on that for the near future.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Not that much actually. Running an ebay shop was a good relevant experience. The biggest challenge with an independant website is getting up the search engine ratings with Google etc. That's proving a bit harder than I expected but articles like this help a lot.
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?
CosmeticDiva has been running for six or seven months now and I will stick at it until its successful. We are making steady progress and I think it will take another year before I know wether all our marketing and SEO efforts have been successful.
And in an ideal world?
In an ideal world I should have set up my own website ten years ago. Ask me that question again in ten years time.
What is your website address?
CosmeticDiva
