website feedback

[Stella_Omega]

Every time I've built a commerce site for anyone, I've been asked to get rid of the splash page.

Commerce wants to see the product, right up front and in your face, in a grid-- On the first page you can feature a few things from each category, if you want, but don't pretend your object is not to sell stuff.

 

[Keroin]

Every time I've built a commerce site for anyone, I've been asked to get rid of the splash page.

Commerce wants to see the product, right up front and in your face, in a grid-- On the first page you can feature a few things from each category, if you want, but don't pretend your object is not to sell stuff.

Agreed. Splash pages are kind of useless and sometimes annoying. I find them annoying, as a consumer. Just take me to the damn page!!!

 

[where]

but but but... I like it!

but I'll ditch it. tomorrow night.

 

[where]

OK, I've dumped the splash page, changed copy and even put a bit of colour in. there's still a flickr slide show but until I get my castings sorted and I'm selling on etsy I'm going to leave it.

again feedback welcomed (as are orders! )

 

[Stella_Omega]

Much better!

 

[where]

Much better!

Phew!

I still can't get the alt tags to work though

 

[Keroin]

Yep, looking better. Good to see you ditched the splash page.

BTW, your link for Dendrophil didn't work for me.


Something you may also want to consider now is working on internal links. A good place for this is in the FAQ section. For example: "fingerprint jewellry" can link to the page for that jewellry. Etc.

Internal links are good for SEO.

Also, external links to your site are a good thing.

 

[where]

Yep, looking better. Good to see you ditched the splash page.

BTW, your link for Dendrophil didn't work for me.


Something you may also want to consider now is working on internal links. A good place for this is in the FAQ section. For example: "fingerprint jewellry" can link to the page for that jewellry. Etc.

Internal links are good for SEO.

Also, external links to your site are a good thing.

Yay! (I still liked my opening page tho! )

weird. it worked before. maybe stella can confirm it's the right page? http://dendrophil.com/?

(OK just remembered... there was a typo in the link and I fixed the typo which must have busted the link.)

I can do more internal links, but how do I get external links to my page? It's linked here (via my sig and profile) and on fetlife.

 

[BiBunny]

Yay! (I still liked my opening page tho! )

weird. it worked before. maybe stella can confirm it's the right page? http://dendrophil.com/?

(OK just remembered... there was a typo in the link and I fixed the typo which must have busted the link.)

I can do more internal links, but how do I get external links to my page? It's linked here (via my sig and profile) and on fetlife.

Blogs!

Also, link trades, but reciprocal links are not quite as good as non-reciprocal ones.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Dendrophil is down for now, due to productivity issues.

I'll link to you from http://probablepossible.com, and would also like to have you do a guest blog there-- please?

 

[midwestyankee]

Dropping the splash page is a big improvement.

Now, and this may be entirely personal taste, but I really dislike centered text in paragraphs. You have centered text on your product display pages but use left-justified text on the measuring/faq type pages. From a consistency-of-design standpoint, it might be better to pick one text form and stick with it. And my preference would be to use left-justified throughout.

Oh, and can you do something about all those alien and useless "u" letters sprinkled in amongst your words?

 

[Keroin]

I can do more internal links, but how do I get external links to my page? It's linked here (via my sig and profile) and on fetlife.

The ideal external link, as BB mentioned, is a non-reciprocal link from someone else's website to yours (non-reciprocal = you do not have a link from your website to theirs). The prominence of the website that links you is also important but as an indie start-up you'll probably have to take what you can get. For example, I have a list of links of websites that I like on my blog - some belong to friends who have businesses.

Failing that, reciprocal links are also good. (Someone puts a link to your site and in return you put a link to theirs).

AVOID link farms. These are websites that just specialize in links to other websites. Google will actually penalize you if you use these.

 

[Keroin]

Dropping the splash page is a big improvement.

Now, and this may be entirely personal taste, but I really dislike centered text in paragraphs. You have centered text on your product display pages but use left-justified text on the measuring/faq type pages. From a consistency-of-design standpoint, it might be better to pick one text form and stick with it. And my preference would be to use left-justified throughout.

Left-justified, from a usability standpoint, is always best.

Oh, and can you do something about all those alien and useless "u" letters sprinkled in amongst your words?

Bite your tongue!

 

[Netzach]

Two things I do for traffic

I do use banner/link toplists but adult is totally different - you should do guest blog posts and handmade giveaways of small objects for promotion - hook in to the etsy universe to find out about these things. Super traffic engine - a short youtube demonstrating process or tip.

1. Wordpress blog, self hosted, on a separate site directory

2. Blogger blog, keyword rich bad writing links into my online empires

All of my sites, well almost all are now self-hosted WP installations. I can't recommend wordpress enough as a way to manage content - with the exception of carts, which are a biatch in WP and a biatch altogether. Hate carts. Just hired me a designer for a cart.

If you aren't incurring the headache of selling adult downloadable shite, like me, I recommend Bigcartel.com no affiliation. Holy shit, it rocks. I'd use it as a fairly inexpensive backup/secondary because mine always got super traffic and I hardly did much to make that happen.

 

[where]

Blogs!

Also, link trades, but reciprocal links are not quite as good as non-reciprocal ones.

I can't even keep up with a facebook page, let alone a blog!

Dendrophil is down for now, due to productivity issues.

I'll link to you from http://probablepossible.com, and would also like to have you do a guest blog there-- please?

*melts* of course I'll do a blog for you! Ignore what I just said!

first you have to tell me what you want though.

Dropping the splash page is a big improvement.

Now, and this may be entirely personal taste, but I really dislike centered text in paragraphs. You have centered text on your product display pages but use left-justified text on the measuring/faq type pages. From a consistency-of-design standpoint, it might be better to pick one text form and stick with it. And my preference would be to use left-justified throughout.

Oh, and can you do something about all those alien and useless "u" letters sprinkled in amongst your words?

OK, will change to left justified. It's more accessible from a disability standpoint anyway.

and I'm sorry about the spelling. one day you may learn proper english but intil then you will have to suffer with spelling stuff like 'kwik! turn out the lite!'

The ideal external link, as BB mentioned, is a non-reciprocal link from someone else's website to yours (non-reciprocal = you do not have a link from your website to theirs). The prominence of the website that links you is also important but as an indie start-up you'll probably have to take what you can get. For example, I have a list of links of websites that I like on my blog - some belong to friends who have businesses.

Failing that, reciprocal links are also good. (Someone puts a link to your site and in return you put a link to theirs).

AVOID link farms. These are websites that just specialize in links to other websites. Google will actually penalize you if you use these.

more blogging? *sobs* I'll have no time to post on lit!

I'll try and get my lovely CAD man to link me on his site.

Left-justified, from a usability standpoint, is always best.



Bite your tongue!

heehee!

Two things I do for traffic

I do use banner/link toplists but adult is totally different - you should do guest blog posts and handmade giveaways of small objects for promotion - hook in to the etsy universe to find out about these things. Super traffic engine - a short youtube demonstrating process or tip.give aways are too damn expensive. the stuff I do is time consuming and the materials cost a bomb, though I might offer the fingerprint plectrums as a gift type thing.

1. Wordpress blog, self hosted, on a separate site directory by this do you mean NOT on gentle-medusa.com?

2. Blogger blog, keyword rich bad writing links into my online empires so I can just blog rubbish but as long as it has the right keywords and a link it is good?

All of my sites, well almost all are now self-hosted WP installations. I can't recommend wordpress enough as a way to manage content - with the exception of carts, which are a biatch in WP and a biatch altogether. Hate carts. Just hired me a designer for a cart. you are suggesting I dump my site and domain name? *cries*

If you aren't incurring the headache of selling adult downloadable shite, like me, I recommend Bigcartel.com no affiliation. Holy shit, it rocks. I'd use it as a fairly inexpensive backup/secondary because mine always got super traffic and I hardly did much to make that happen.

I don't want to have an instant cart because the cost of the silver is such that I can't afford to pay for lots of stock up front. It would be fab if I get an order for say 30 bangles from different people, but to be prepared for that eventuality, I'd have to fork out around £2000 and then spend a couple of weeks getting the bangles cleaned up and polished.

Sadly, I don't have that kind of cash at the moment. Plus so much of it is personalised, I'm not sure how easy an instant checkout would be.

But I guess big cartel would be good for the art nouveau stuff....

I'm gonna have to offer every one a discount for this help

 

[Stella_Omega]

The cool thing about guest blogging is that you just make the one post on someone else's blog. It functions as a link back to your site, you see? And your content gets picked up twice by the search engines.

 

[Etoile]

Is blogexplosion still around? That used to be a very popular way to get traffic.

 

[Primalex]

Uhm, I hate to spoil your start-up entrepreneurship, but you know that the word "Medusa" is already a registered trademark for jewellery, right? From Gianni Versace himself.

 

[Netzach]

I can't even keep up with a facebook page, let alone a blog!



*melts* of course I'll do a blog for you! Ignore what I just said!

first you have to tell me what you want though.





OK, will change to left justified. It's more accessible from a disability standpoint anyway.

and I'm sorry about the spelling. one day you may learn proper english but intil then you will have to suffer with spelling stuff like 'kwik! turn out the lite!'





more blogging? *sobs* I'll have no time to post on lit!

I'll try and get my lovely CAD man to link me on his site.



heehee!



I don't want to have an instant cart because the cost of the silver is such that I can't afford to pay for lots of stock up front. It would be fab if I get an order for say 30 bangles from different people, but to be prepared for that eventuality, I'd have to fork out around £2000 and then spend a couple of weeks getting the bangles cleaned up and polished.

Sadly, I don't have that kind of cash at the moment. Plus so much of it is personalised, I'm not sure how easy an instant checkout would be.

But I guess big cartel would be good for the art nouveau stuff....

I'm gonna have to offer every one a discount for this help

No no not tiny giveaways and not free with purchase - big ones on the indie deisgn blogs with lots of readers - ONLY those. You give away ONE good item, they pick one lucky commenter to win.

They pay for themselves - but also do NOT be afraid to email these big dogs and say "hi, would you like to review my new product?" Never hesitate. They want content, they want new people to feature. I got great press just from asking politely and sending clear photos and pitch.

I could see the brides being really into the fingerprint thing, if you can stomach it - so an alternative bride blog an indie bride blog an eco bride blog...you could spin it a lot of ways.

The blog would go like this Gentle-medusa.com/myblogthing/ - on a directory on the URL.

 

[Netzach]

Uhm, I hate to spoil your start-up entrepreneurship, but you know that the word "Medusa" is already a registered trademark for jewellery, right? From Gianni Versace himself.

It's the image of a Medusa and a specific one. It's an old motif in Jewelry and that's like saying any brass fitting of a medusa head can't be used.

That's like saying I can't use the term "strand" because Chanel did strands of pearls. There's no way on earth you'd confuse the branding.

IP is completely out of control. You simply can't trademark the word "Gold" and feel like a stud. Now if she called it "Versace" you have a point.

 

[Primalex]

It's the image of a Medusa and a specific one. It's an old motif in Jewelry and that's like saying any brass fitting of a medusa head can't be used.

The trademark is registered as word, not as image. And so, yes, you are not allowed to use the word Medusa in combination with commercial jewellery products and neither similar words or word combinations.

IP is completely out of control. You simply can't trademark the word "Gold" and feel like a stud.

Because the IPO would refuse the registration. But the word "Medusa" was successfully registered for the jewellery class. This is a fact, it's really a moot point to discuss this (unless you want to express that you don't believe me). "Medusa" was deemed unique enough for jewellery.

 

[where]

The cool thing about guest blogging is that you just make the one post on someone else's blog. It functions as a link back to your site, you see? And your content gets picked up twice by the search engines.

Oh cool! PM or email me and we can sort something out!

No no not tiny giveaways and not free with purchase - big ones on the indie deisgn blogs with lots of readers - ONLY those. You give away ONE good item, they pick one lucky commenter to win.

They pay for themselves - but also do NOT be afraid to email these big dogs and say "hi, would you like to review my new product?" Never hesitate. They want content, they want new people to feature. I got great press just from asking politely and sending clear photos and pitch.

I could see the brides being really into the fingerprint thing, if you can stomach it - so an alternative bride blog an indie bride blog an eco bride blog...you could spin it a lot of ways.

The blog would go like this Gentle-medusa.com/myblogthing/ - on a directory on the URL.

OK, I think I get what you mean and yeah, the fingerprints are ideal as wedding things. I know a lot of people use them for rings and stuff, though I'm not going to because there are already loads of people doing that.

Uhm, I hate to spoil your start-up entrepreneurship, but you know that the word "Medusa" is already a registered trademark for jewellery, right? From Gianni Versace himself.

The trademark is registered as word, not as image. And so, yes, you are not allowed to use the word Medusa in combination with commercial jewellery products and neither similar words or word combinations.



Because the IPO would refuse the registration. But the word "Medusa" was successfully registered for the jewellery class. This is a fact, it's really a moot point to discuss this (unless you want to express that you don't believe me). "Medusa" was deemed unique enough for jewellery.

Not sure why Netz response didn't get quoted as well but...

there are about three dozen jewellry companies all using Medusa somewhere in the name, either as the actual trade name or as a jewellery line. But thanks for alerting me to the issue. I did a check with the UK Intellectual property office and it came up negative, so I figure I'm ok.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Don't worry your little head about it, Primalex. Kybe's site is called Gentle Medusa. That's all it takes to make it legally a different name.

no need to be a korinthenkacker.

 

[Netzach]

Uhm, I hate to spoil your start-up entrepreneurship, but you know that the word "Medusa" is already a registered trademark for jewellery, right? From Gianni Versace himself.

I also love how you think this is some kind of common knowledge but googling "medusa TM" and "versace medusa trademark" pulls up nothing in regard to IP, no "this is our trademark" nothing.

If it's a client of yours and you're in IP I think maybe they'd want to actually mention it and pursue it with the 300,000 other people in jewelry who are using a common name from Classical mythology in branding themselves. G'luck. It's a lot of cease and desists to send, but it at least might let people know, since you seem to be the one who does.

I've learned from selling online that everyone and his dog thinks they have a TM and they're out to protect everyone else's. ONLY THE HOLDER OF THE IP or their AGENTS has the right to enforce their own copyright or IP - it gets very sticky if I don't care if people take my IP and some do-gooder does.

Sanrio gets off its ass and does this, rightfully and very aggressively- if Versace can't be assed to, it's their problem and they're allowing the fact that most people are in fact ignorant of the TM to go on.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Sanrio and Disney. And MGM, if they have someone like JK Rowling to consider.

But that reminds me of a story...

years and years ago, I got a nasty email form someone who tlod me that "I had better not try to steal her designs" (for magic wands) and that "Exotic Wood wands was her trademark and if I used it i would GO TO JAIL.

I checked, in total disbelief. She did have a "pending" copyright on some generic words, which she did not get, and a trademark that was only good in her home state.

her work stunk (and still stinks. She has nothing beyond the crudest of woodworking skills and zero design sensibility) She used to have this disclaimer of about a thousand words on every page of her site, about how she was NOT a "witch" and Christian parents did not need to worry about their children getting tainted by magic-- but if they bought a toy magic wand from anyone else, they would. She also demanded that people tell her if they came across anyone stealing her designs. Most of that has gone now. Her site is still full of totally half-assededly disguised Harry Potter and LOTR references. Keeping a website is a mighty inexpensive proposition, I have no idea how well she does. But every once in a while, someone tells me about her, all worried and shit

Needless to say, i did not respond. Although I wanted to say; "Stop worrying, your dog will come back and the truck will get fixed."