# Website posted - Need opinions



## yellowtruck75 (Jan 1, 2010)

Just updated my website and I need opinions on it. I used Iweb on my Mac Book to create the website. Still don't know how to integrate e-mail so that users can use a message box for e-mails. I also don't know how to add a counter so that I can track how many visitors there are.

www.lostcreekwoodworking.com

Thanks
YT75


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## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

Here goes my impressions:

First page I always look at is the about us page. You need to expand more. give more info about how you got started, why you do this and who are you. I couldn't find your name until the last page. On the about page, you want to create the same feeling as if you are introducing a potential customer to your shop . I hope that you tell them more than what your page says. It doesn't need to be formal, just make it friendly and reflect you. Remember that your website host doesn't charge by the word.

Product pages: Expand your descriptions more. Give the customer a feel for what you are doing. You do a great job of listing what it is made from but the majority of buying decisions are made by women. So you need to connect with them. They like a story, what motivated you to create this one and more descriptions other than just the basics. This may sound dumb but it worked for me. Talk to some women about your product, see what questions they ask. Then ask them to write a description of your product. It may look dumb to you but you are not trying to connect with yourself but with other people.

List the different sizes on each product page as well with prices. I really liked the height recommendations. Put them on the product pages as well.

If possible, put your contact info on every page. This way someone cannot use the excuse of not finding your info to give you an order.

Just my opinion.


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## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

Forgot to mention. About the counter, who cares how many people visit your sight. You can get that number from your metrics. As far as your customers, if the number is low, the response could be "Is that all the people that see his sight?" Could be a negative or a positive. Never give them a reason to have a negative impression.

The most important number is how many people contacted you and made a purchase. 
That is the number that matters the most.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

IMHO, you should get you a professionally made template for your website since it is a business. They are not that expensive. You should also consider taking some short courses on how to set up and maintain websites because, even if you don't design it yourself, it is good to know at least a working knowledge of how web sites work and what you can do with them if you are going to use them in your business. Take a look at Lynda.com because they have some excellent courses that you can take over several weeks that are in video format. You do have to join but it's only month to month and you can learn a lot in a month just in 7 hours a week. If you really get into web sites you can spend years at Lynda.com and not take all of her courses. I only belong to her site and get nothing for this, but I have taken a good many of her courses and they are excellent. Good luck with your web site.


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## mtkate (Apr 18, 2009)

Agree with the first comments. The first page - we need to know who you are and where you are and how to contact you. Make it more about finding you first. There are lots of Lost Creeks out there!

Example - take some of the content in your "about us" and put it right on the front page.

The page loads fast, so keep it simple and everyone will appreciate that.

You are just starting out on this so you will build it as you go… look at other websites for ideas but the most important thing is keep it simple and easy to navigate so folks can find prices and examples quickly.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

I'll weigh in! I really enjoyed looking at your chairs and I'd echo the suggestions above. But before I get to that, your chairs seem very underpriced compared to those for sale in my area. There about 50% of the ones I consider for purchase here in WV and surrounding areas. Perhaps I just found a new place to buy chairs!

I would beef up the "about me" section. Put a picture of yourself in your shop, hard at work. Avoid allowing your sheetsized Timeshaver to make it into the photo; you with a shop dog and chisel will scream one-man-shop and demand a premium (in my eyes, at least).

Maybe dedicate an area that focuses up close on your complicated joinery. Explain why you chose these joints and what makes them special to you. You could have a section about the local woods that you choose and why. You could even include a section upon why you so value a hand-crafted chair. It may be touchy-feeley, but it's why a lot of people (like me) invest in hand crafted furniture.

You might want to de-clutter the photos on your main page a bit. I'm no expert here, but I'm sure you'll get some great advice below.

I left the site feeling like I met a wonderful craftsman. I left wanting to know MORE about him and his particular craft. Good luck! Al


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## rhett (May 11, 2008)

First off, if you are going to promote a website, make it an active link. You need to add "http://" in front of the www. This goes for signature lines also, other LJ members.

Second, your prices are ridiculously low. Love making chairs or not, that type of drastic underpricing for your skill and workmanship would make Sam role over. Even if all your wood, electricity and overhead were free, you would still be selling yourself short. People who know this style and actively look for it, expect to pay for it. Your pricing could actually drive away potential customers. JMHO

Nice looking chairs.


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## GregD (Oct 24, 2009)

Very cool chairs.

Your URL gets re-directed to a rather funky one:
http://www.lostcreekwoodworking.com/www.lostcreekwoodworking/Lost_Creek_Woodworking.html
A bit repetative!

I have dabbled in web sites off and on for more than 10 years. Getting the techology to work is much easier for me than getting a professional quality design. Very different skill sets. I would consider hiring a professional designer to help make it look good.

If you are going to DIY it, maybe browse this site of free designs. At a minimum lots of ideas for making it more visually interesting. You have high-end chairs that would look great in the right setting.


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## Dcase (Jul 7, 2010)

I don't think anyone has said this yet but I would suggest better pictures of the chairs. Your photos are not bad and probably the best you can get with your camera but I think some professional photos would really make a big difference. It might be worth it to have a professional camera place come out and shoot the photos for you. They will know the best backgrounds, lighting and best shots to take. Photos are the first thing that people will look at so IMO thats the most important.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

^Greg's (and Dan got in there while I was typing) got a fantastic point. A few hundred bucks to a photographer might give you photos that will last the rest of your career. Not that your pictures are bad by any stretch, but their true glory could be revealed by someone who specializes in this. One of my good friends owns this company:

http://www.spearedpeanut.com/

He's likely far beyond what even the most wealthy woodworker would be likely to spend, but he's a very nice artist who'd certainly respond to an e-mail regarding budget web design or photography. Do you have a local community college? I had a class plaster a room in my home once for the cost of pizza and beer. They usually have photography departments. I'm just brainstorming.


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## GregD (Oct 24, 2009)

I also think the photography isn't doing as much for your chairs as it could. I am a newbie at that. It is better if nothing in the background distracts from your subject, so make the background bland and/or out of focus. It is also better if the lighting is just right - the lightest and darkest spots on the subject that you want to see end up being the lightest and darkest spots on the picture that you can see. One trick for shooting during a day with strong sunshine is to put the subject just inside a shadow looking out toward the sunshine, and shoot with the sun to your back. That way the subject is illuminated with a lot of indirect light.


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## GregD (Oct 24, 2009)

I see I'm slow on the typing. Some people on this site take great photos. When you see a picture that looks especially good and appropriate for your work, ask the poster how it was shot.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

I apologize for my bad manners on not commenting on your chairs because they are the very thing that I noticed. I could tell right off that you have a legitimate product and you should be able to sell them on the internet because they seem to be very good quality chairs. However, the quality of your merchandise is exactly why you should have a professional looking web site which is why I made my comment. You can get a template that is designed by a professional web site designer for as little as $10 although I would go on and spend as much as $50. You can get hosting with all the features that you will ever want for $100 a year and also have room for many more sites than just the one you are wanting to put up. Once you get your site up that's just the starters. You will then have to promote it and submit it to all of the search engines so people can find it. You can have a beautiful site about woodworking but if no one knows about it it will be pretty useless. You can pay people to do this for you or you can do it yourself.

I use a webmaster who is an older gentleman who works out of his home and has little overhead and charges around $200 to build a small business site with a good many pages. He includes the template but will make modifications to the template at this price. He will add a shopping cart for around $50 to $100. He doesn't own a hosting company but leases a lot of space from a good hosting company and subleases space to the client. I've been using him for 7 years. He charges 100 per year for your space (you will never run out of room) and will do search engine work for a nominal charge. What I like about him most is that I have developed a good relationship with him and know him to be honest and caring.

The point is you can have a professional web site for your business for 2 0r 3 hundred dollars and 1 hundred a year for hosting. Considering what a web site can do for a small business I think that it is an absolute bargain.

If you want to save money and do it yourself then I can assure you that it is not that difficult to do - especially if you buy a template. Even modifying a template is not that difficult. You can learn more than you need to know by joining Lynda.com for a month and taking several strategic courses and they are comprehensive courses but are not that difficult to master. So you have a number of ways to go.

I have used Webnet77.com and hostica.com for hosting and they have some good packages. They also have a lot of training videos to help you do whatever you want to with your web site so take a look at them if you like.

Webnet77 will host business' and organizations' and is not just for Christians. They just don't host questionable things. However, they are top notch IMHO.

I haven't touched a website in over a year. It's just a hobby to me and I love to play around with them. They are fascinating to me and I have spent probably 1500 - 2000 hours playing with them over the years. I'm certainly not a professional. You could never learn everything there is to know about web sites because the technology keeps changing at a rapid pace. But you can learn what you need to know to do your own web site in a nice way. I hope this helps. Good luck with your web site.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

I've got a bare-bones frontpage site that I made in a weekend (with no prior knowledge) and I haven't updated it in two years (lazy). I use Verio for hosting at $11/month with gigs of space and features that I don't even pretend to understand. My site e-mail is redirected to my PDA. I don't sell anything on my site (or in real life, for that matter) but your's is a very different situation. A few sales and you've paid for your investment for a few years. Get a pro to take a look and charge more for your chairs! I should buy a few before they catch on


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

I think that photography is very important as well but with a good camera, a tripod, a background, some portable lighting, and some care and patience most people can take a clear picture. There is no doubt that a professional photographer will do it better.

Incidentally, lynda.com has quite a number of courses on digital photography, video photography, film editing, digital art, and many, many software training programs. I'm very fond of her website and it's a whole lot cheaper than going to a college and a whole lot more practical.


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## mrg (Mar 10, 2010)

Yellowtruck,

You are going in the right direction with your sight. Everyone has made some good points. The web address looks like your directory has been set up a bit funky. That is an easy fix though. You should give a bit more in the descriptions, tell more about yourself and the chairs. Give the potential customer a bit more to go on. You have to be a bit more enthusiastic, engage the potential client. You don't need a web page counter on the front end low counts shy people away. You can set up a mailto link it should be pretty simple using Macs web software. The hosting service you are using has tools to track how many hits you are getting. Also you have to do SEO (search engine optimization) every couple of weeks to move up on the page ranks when someone does a web search.

You can do your sight yourself it is just time consuming to do and keep up with it. Your photo's are not bad and with a little bit of work you can get them looking great. Easy low cost way to get great pictures, white sheet, poster board that has a bit of a gloss on it, a few of the clip on work lights with 100 watt cfl daylight bulbs and a tripod for your camera. Or shoot as you did out doors but with a neutral background.

If you have any questions on hosting or web design drop me a note and I will answer your questions for you. I maintained a large website for a company I worked for and we did it on a shoestring budget and got great results.


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## jtworkshop (Feb 9, 2011)

I think your products look very high end and quality. the site should reflect that….and the suggestions that advised professional photography have motivated me. I think I may try to get a professional to go and photo my stuff as well so I'll have higher quality photos. (although my own site I designed on webs.com purely as a portfolio…not as a retail website. here it is: http://www.jtowerworkshop.webs.com )

and the comment about not putting a counter visible on the site I have to agree with that. good luck and success to you!


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

I think there are some helpful comments here. I'm anxious to see the final product.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Wow. You've got real low prices.

Underpricing your work will hurt you in the long run.

Also it hurts the whole trade when artisans sell work at 
give-away prices.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

^couldn't agree more with Loren (as usual). You're due for a price increase.


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## shangrila (Apr 5, 2007)

As a high end furniture/chairmaker I have to say your prices are upsetting.They are way!!!! too low .I know we can't make what Sam made on a rocker but your prices bring down the value on fine furniture.Your trying to sell art ,craftmenship etc. not competing with IKEA .Also I think you should give some thought to the guys you bought templates from look at Morrison's prices and Hal Taylors it hardly seems fair to them.It looks like you are trying to do nice enough work get rewarded for it.


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## yellowtruck75 (Jan 1, 2010)

I made some updates as far as layout, some pictures, and descriptions. I still need to take more detail shots of certain chair parts that I have described. I have changes my prices slightly. The reason that they are so low right now is the local market that I am in can't currently support high end prices. I have a big 2 day art show at the end of August that will dictate my new pricing. Don't get me wrong I want to be able to charge more but I am also a realist with what I can market in my current area.

http://www.lostcreekwoodworking.com


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## shangrila (Apr 5, 2007)

The market can sustain a higher price the key is to find the right clients/collectors/people who appreciate fine craftsmanship, your customer base for high end furniture are not comaparing your pricing to the big box stores.You can't get much of a lower market place than were i'm at in New Mexico that's why I travel, do internet etc. to reach those people.I know what goes into your work your lucky if you are making 10 dollars and hour.What does your local plumber,electrician ,mechanic,high end artist like a painter making ?


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## DonnyBahama (Jun 21, 2011)

YT75- I'm an experienced web designer. I don't do template-based sites; everything is custom-built and individually tailored. If you like, maybe I can help. (It may not even cost you much) Have a look at my portfolio if you're interested.

The comments here are very good. You need better photos and more(/welcoming) content. I would also suggest a change in color scheme. Black backgrounds make for a nice, high-contrast site, but they're not welcoming-and they're overused. You can still achieve high contrast with a very dark brown - and now you're in the color spectrum of *wood* - which is much more appropriate for your site.

You might try advertising for a photographer on Craigslist. There are some very talented amateurs out there (plenty of hacks, too, though!) who are looking for more/better exposure. You can probably find someone who will take some good pics and charge you nothing more than a "photography by" credit and a link back to their website. A local community college is another excellent source for finding such a person. If there's one in your area, contact the instructor(s) for the creative photography classes and explain what you're looking for. S/he'll probably be willing to put up a notice or make an announcement to the class on your behalf. Alternatively, load up one of everything and take it out to the countryside. Find a pretty little creek or a clearing in a forest (make sure you have good light!) as a background. Have a look at the photos of Jeffro's projects for some inspiration.

As for the content/copy (text), Puzzleman hit the nail on the head. You want to shoot for something that's informal, conversational, welcoming. Give the reader more info/details - but do it in the same way that you'd show a friend of a friend around your shop.

The pricing and terms pages are the low points of your site. Why use images for this content? Search engine crawlers can't index this content. And the white background with bold, blurry text is stark and imposing. 86 those images and type in the content within styled div tags. Use a ul list if you want bullets, but lose the X'd checkboxes.


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## DonnyBahama (Jun 21, 2011)

One other thing I forgot to mention - posting your @ddress with a mailto link is a bad idea. Harvest bots will have you on so many spam lists that you'll soon have trouble separating the legitimate emails from all the junk. You need to obfuscate your email address using javascript and ROT13 - or use a contact form with keyword filtering (because even contact forms can be used to spam you).


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## yellowtruck75 (Jan 1, 2010)

Made a few adjustments to the Pricing and Terms page. Changed text and a bit on pricing.


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## DonnyBahama (Jun 21, 2011)

Did you check them after uploading them? You're using black text on a black background. It looks like there's nothing there.


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