Name of your website?Peace Eagle Herbs and Gifts
Your name?
Charlotte and Timothy Test
Your Location (city, etc)
Roan Mountain, TN
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our website offers all the items we sell at Native American events such as powwows, festivals, demonstrations. We specialize in medicinal herbs as we are Professional Herbalists with degrees in Naturopathy, Natural Health, and Herbology. We also handmake all the crafts we sell which includes Dream Catchers, Buffalo and Buckskin pouches and bags, jewelry, prayer feathers, and pipes. We also sell smudge supplies such as sages and resins.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Our entire income comes from the sales of our herbs and crafts. The website allows us to supplement what we earn at the events and also allows our customers and clients an opportunity to reorder herbs and other items they may have purchaced from us at the events we have vended at. The website also allows us to provide information and opportunity to educate people in the areas of natural health and wellness.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
We had used a website for a wellness center we owned in another state we lived in. It was a helpful tool then as well. We launched our current website shortly after beginning our business of vending at Native American events which was approximately a year and a half ago.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The Peace Eagle is a bird people know as the vulture. In Cherokee it is suli. What it represents also represents what we try to accomplish in traveling to the Native American events, showing people how to have appreciation for their health and to take care of themselves in the most natural ways possible as it was for our ancestors.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Our website is unique in that it is the only website offering what we make, what we provide to our customers at the Native American events we set up at.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
We plan to keep our website active. We hope to expand on the information section as we go along. We also plan to add more services to offer people via online.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Since we built the website ourselves and maintain it ourselves, we have invested very little money in it. However, we have invested a lot of time into it. We believe the time and money has been worth what we get out of it.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We would improve the herb and craft shopping experience. It was set up for ease but we would like to be able to provide more information and the ability for people to learn more about what they are purchasing.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We would find a way to meet the needs of our customers. People are very important to us.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
When developing and maintaining your own website, there are always minor headaches involved. So far, nothing more than we could handle.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge is getting our website out there so that people frequently visit it. Past experience tells us that time can be the biggest factor.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
What promotes our website the most is the fact it is tied to our business instead being a strictly online business. People look for it when looking for us specifically. Word of mouth is very successful for us.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Like others during this time of recession, we had hoped to see more orders coming in than actually are. The economy has definitely had a negative effect on our sales online as well as at the events we set up at.
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?
We plan to keep the website going as long as we continue our business. We maintain it at very little expense.
What advice do you have for others in advertising with a website?
The best advice we can offer to those that want to advertise with their own website is to keep the costs down without decreasing quality as much as possible. Your website does not have to be your largest advertising expense. Learn to develope and maintain your own, many popular software packages allow you to create a webpage. Keep your site simple and easy to access. Tell everyone about it!
What is your website address?
Peace Eagle Herbs and Gifts
