Looking for constructive criticism

I checked it out, and I like the layout and simple approach. I don’t see anything that needs to change.
I did not register or go thru the checkout process.

2 weeks is probably not enough time to expect much response.

-- rick

I don’t think it’s your site as much as the rankings within the search engines (Google). I did a search for turning blanks for sale and didn’t see your site on the first page. Only after adding “pace” to the search, I found your information but that was from your information on Wordpress.

Lew

-- Lew- Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Do you take pay pal?

If you do, do I have to put an item in the shopping cart, go to checkout to find out?

They’re getting ready to layoff 144 cops in my town. The economy is still bad. Lots of people just aren’t buying anything except gas and groceries.

Your webpage looks good to me.

Good luck!

-- It must be jelly baby, cause jam don't shake like that...

A few thoughts and, as you asked, I will be blunt – -

If I buy on e-bay I can usually see the very piece I am buying and often I can see it from a couple of different angles. With your site, all I know is that I am ordering a “generic turning blank”.

You’re not telling me if the turning blanks are green or dry and it green are they sealed.

You’re not telling me anything about the quality code of the hard wood boards (i.e. S&B)

Sycamore is a neat wood, but most people don’t know how neat it is. You need some close-ups of the grain or (better yet) some pictures of a finished bowl that really shows off what the wood can do.

It took me a while to figure out how your pricing works. It took a while to figure out what the (+xx) beside the sizes meant. It was not intuitively obvious.

You have a dilemma. You really need more selection but I am sure you don’t want to add more until you get some sales.

I wish you well.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

I’d agree with Rick. The site looks fairly clean and easy to navigate. A quick search on Google for turning blanks gives you about 186,000 hits, however, so I imagine your competition is pretty tough.

And yeah, 2 weeks isn’t a lot of time. Usually if a business invests in a web site store front, it either has an existing customer base that is better served using it instead of more traditional methods, or they spend serious time, effort, and in some cases, cash promoting their new site.

In either case, marketing determines the amount of traffic and sales from your site. Can’t say that I know anything about the turners market, so whether your competitive or not, it’s not for me to say, so hopefully, it’s just a marketing thing you’re looking at.

If you haven’t been promoting your site by using search engines and advertising to their fullest you might start there. At least getting a better ranking in Google searches might help and that’s something you can do for free. Google Ads or ads with woodworking magazines might be another avenue to look into as well.

There’s a reason Woodcraft shows up in the margins of most woodworking sites. They spend a lot of time and money making sure that happens.

If it were my business, I would continue to invest in it, but carefully, and not try to rely on it’s sales for income at least until it was showing a good measure of success.

good luck.

-- http://www.pearcewoodworking.com

I viewed the site and was impressed with the layout but as stated by Rich you need to give more information about the wood. IE: is is green, dry etc.
Also it would be helpful to know what your normal shipping method is so a customer could estimate his shipping costs.

-- Walt Wilmington Delaware, http://waltlumley@yahoo.com

I’d postulate that your main problem is only 150 hits in 2 weeks. As mentioned before you are competing with 186,000 other places. When I look for something, I rarely go deeper than 5 pages.

-- Joe

you may be able to sell turning blanks through mailorder, but your milled lumber is going to be local pickup (i assume). make sure you have your location in the main site’s title or site search keywords. this way if someone is duing a location specific search for a sawyer you’ll show up in the results.

i do like how you’ve set up the store, with a picture and price in plain view. it would be nice though that if when you click on an item, there’s more description and multiple views.

It’s difficult to start up a postal service for wood which is bought blind . I know I would be hesitant to send off money to an untried company for air dried wood.It does happen though. I should spend more time cultivating some customers in your own area who want good timber.Then they can come pick and argue price.No one wants to open their package when it arrives to be disappointed and therefore not many are willing to gamble.Also get some more pics in there with actual wood for sale and the stuff will fly away.Even though we are in a recession people need wood I won’t be going for the next five years to my shop without the wood I need so you may not sell big bundles to each customer so keep them small and offer discount for bulk buying and for goodness sake keep your prices down to get them in the door.
Once your established that’s a different matter word of mouth will keep you ticking along.Keep your spirits up, and keep going if you lived next door to me I’d be your biggest customer so long as you offered real bargains .Good quality wood will always sell ,so have a bit more faith in your stock .In my opinion people will buy wood everyday of the week if your clever, and don’t get greedy .That’s my advice and I have been in my own business most of my working life. Better to sell cheap and often than expensive and never. Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Sell on eBay. When you pack your order put information about your website in it, include a coupon to use when ordering on your website. If the customer is happy with your product they will want to order more. The coupon and advertising will hopefully drive them to your website. Just remember, you can not mention your domain in the auction, so make sure to use an e-mail address @pacecustomsawing.com to help get customers there.

Also, use more meta tags to increase your hits. Right now you only have: turning blanks, stump burl, air dried lumber

Add a boat load more such as: pen turning blanks, bowl turning blanks, burls, wood burls, cherry turning blanks, poplar turning blanks…using the woods and products you can probably add over 100 more meta tags easy.

-Jeremy

well, I am not a turner, but when I look at a lumber site, I know what I am looking for. clear pictures of individual special wood, clearly priced and of reasonable thickness. I want to search by species and burl, and an indication if the specific piece may suit my needs of shop sawn veneer(ie soundness, checking)
btw, I have never gone to a lumber site looking for poplar.
knowing the location is very helpful, and you should have it prominent on the homepage

-- Junior -Quality is never an accident-it is the reward for the effort involved.

Knowing how to read your web logs statistics might help you to determine where the visitors come from, if they are robots or search engines and how many of those hits are website hits or individual page hits. Give it time, it’ll happen.

-- http://www.jordanstraker.com

I dont know a ton about turning or turning blanks but my business background would tell me that clicks per minute is the driver behind internet sales. You need to direct people to your website. What I would do personally, is head off to craft shows, woodworking expos, lumberyards, tools stores, etc. and hand out some free pens (turned of course), small tape measures, pencils, with a business card to direct peopole to your site. This way they have all ready had a tangible experience with your products and know you personally.

Internet statistics say that most people dont ever get past the first 2 pages of an internet search. All though the internet is probably the cheapest way to begin a business, you must generate clients to make some money.

In business school i learned a great way to analyize your business. It’s called the SWOT analysis, an acronym standing for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats. Google that and run your businees through the exercise examining all of those topics. Once you have figured out the answers to those questions it will be much easier to identify your target market. Once you have identified your target market you can figure out how to get a hold of them. From there its shaking hands and kissin babies, get the word out!

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

As others have said, your biggest problem is your visibility on the net. Many folks think that it’s like the field of dreams…”build it and they will come”...but it doesn’t work that way. You need to build a presence on the net…I’m in the process of that for my wife’s wedding photography business right now.

First, make sure your content is quality content…Rich’s comments will go far in this regard.
Second, make sure your webmaster knows what he’s doing with regard to search engine ranking. Google loves text, rich with keywords but not overstuffed. More importantly, make sure your title is proper.
Third, in the short term you may try paying for the advertising on the right side of Google search. This gets you traffic until Google places you in the rankings.
4th, two weeks is not long enough for Google to even begin considering your site, give it some time to index.
5th, and last (but not least) , use your existing customer base to spread the word you’re online…use business cards, online only deals, etc.

It looks fine to me.. I’ll be sharing the address :)