anyone willing to check out my site?????

I have had a few people tell me that my site is a bit over whelming!
That I should tone down my opening page and I have too much on each
page. I know you can't please everyone, but if anyone has a few min. to
spare I would appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know
if you agree. I am totally new to selling like this, have always done
juried shows and just custom orders, have a photo album, so if it can
use a make over I could use honest opinions! Thanks rezbeader (Anna)

rezbeader wrote:
I have had a few people tell me that my site is a bit over whelming!
That I should tone down my opening page and I have too much on each
page. I know you can't please everyone, but if anyone has a few min. to
spare I would appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know
if you agree. I am totally new to selling like this, have always done
juried shows and just custom orders, have a photo album, so if it can
use a make over I could use honest opinions! Thanks rezbeader (Anna)

It would help if you gave us a link.

Arondelle
--
"Supermodels. Hah! Nothing 'super' about them - spoiled, stupid little
stick figures with poofy lips who think only about themselves.

"Feh! I used to design for GODS!"

Edna Mode: "The Incredibles"

Arondelle wrote:
rezbeader wrote:

I have had a few people tell me that my site is a bit over whelming!
That I should tone down my opening page and I have too much on each
page. I know you can't please everyone, but if anyone has a few min. to
spare I would appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know
if you agree. I am totally new to selling like this, have always done
juried shows and just custom orders, have a photo album, so if it can
use a make over I could use honest opinions! Thanks rezbeader (Anna)


It would help if you gave us a link.

Its http://www.beadfuldelights.com



--
Polly

--
don't spook my groove...
icq 13968113
http://saxoncreek.com/

Anna, you have great work! But I think I do agree that you could use
more pages with less info. Like maybe you could move all those
beautiful necklaces on to another necklace page!

Pura vida!
JC
www.jcherrellglass.com
http://stores.ebay.com/JC-Herrell-Glass

I think Sterling Silver is .925 not .975.
Just for the sake of accuracy.
Armand

rezbeader wrote:
I have had a few people tell me that my site is a bit over whelming!
That I should tone down my opening page and I have too much on each
page. I know you can't please everyone, but if anyone has a few min. to
spare I would appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know
if you agree. I am totally new to selling like this, have always done
juried shows and just custom orders, have a photo album, so if it can
use a make over I could use honest opinions! Thanks rezbeader (Anna)

You have some beautiful work on your site!

My recommendations, FWIW:

Make more use of thumbnails, and make them smaller. You can show a
smaller portion of a photo in a thumbnail - you don't have to reduce
the entire necklace, only a part of it - e.g., just show the stone
and a little of the beadwork around it in the thumbnail.

With its huge photo, the first page must take a very long time to
load for people who don't have a broadband connection. As beautiful
as it is, I would not put it on the first page, and I'd reduce it
considerably if you show the whole thing elsewhere. You don't want
to lose customers before they get a chance to see your stuff.

Retake the photos that look greyed out. What happened with these,
no flash? It doesn't help to say that the photo doesn't do the item
justice - better to get a photo that comes closer.

Fix the html/script or whatever that's broken on your Order Info page.

Fix the broken links to the Welcome page.

I don't really see what I would do to place an order... list the
item number in the Comments field? Or would this be obvious when
the scripting is fixed? I think you'd be more successful in getting
orders if you incorporated some "shopping cart" software - I think
that most people expect to be able to click and buy these days.

I don't mean to lean on you, but I'm a firm believer in testing out
a web site thoroughly before "going public," checking out all the
links and placing some fake orders. It's just good business. As a
user, I'm much more likely to walk away from a site that has broken
bits than I am from a site that looks "polished", and I suspect I'm
not alone in this.

HTH -

Carol in NM

--
"Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning."
- T. S. Eliot

To reply, unleash the dog

rezbeader wrote:
I have had a few people tell me that my site is a bit over whelming!
That I should tone down my opening page and I have too much on each
page. I know you can't please everyone, but if anyone has a few min.
to
spare I would appreciate it if you could take a look and let me know
if you agree. I am totally new to selling like this, have always done
juried shows and just custom orders, have a photo album, so if it can
use a make over I could use honest opinions! Thanks rezbeader
(Anna)

Anna-

The main page was a bit too much for me. The swirling pink theme at the
top with the darker pink text suddenly giving way to bold black text
was confusing to the eye. It looks too cluttered and clunky. The same
with the pictures..the big picture was so large that I had to scroll
sideways to see it all, and it looks out of place. I'd suggest
shrinking the image and perhaps placing it on a different part of the
site, or using that for the banner.

The hardwood background used for some of the necklaces is also a bit
distracting. The glare from the camera flash on the wood draws
attention away from the necklaces. Some of the pictures are blurry,
others (the ones with grey backgrounds in particular) look washed out,
like the brightness/contrast was upped too much in a photo editing
program. The necklaces are lovely, but the photos really detract from
them. Especially when the close-up isn't clear.

I'd suggest making a main front page, with buttons or links to the
pages for your necklaces.

For the "more necklaces" page, perhaps you could thumbnail the pictures
of the necklaces, with their title underneath the image. Link to a
larger picture that includes the description, so the page doesn't look
so cluttered. There's also a vast amount of blank scroll space at the
bottom.

You do beautiful work, but the site and the photographs don't do it
justice. Most of all, good photos are important when you want to sell
your work.

-Amber.

Besides what others have said here about using thumbnails, maybe a
color scheme that's harder to clash with than pink. I ended up using
black and white for that reason.

I recommend Paypal shopping cart as being free and easy to implement.
Another thing to look into if you don't like to design html is a
program like Net Objects or just look up "site templates" on the
internet. You can look at how designers have put together site
templates to get some ideas on how people ideally expect it to look.
Then of course do your own thing anyway ;-). Don't get discouraged
though, I think your website will do well.

Ingrid