Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

KateG,

If ultimately the new site will use the same domain name, I would start promoting it.  There isn`t much to loose by doing so.  There may be inconvenient interruptions of accessibility when the new site goes live, but hopefully that will happen at a non-demand time like 2am on a Monday.

By starting or formulating your ad campaign now, you will be that much ahead when the new site is ready.  Only do this if the domain name is the same, otherwise you could get the plan together, but you`d have to wait until it`s "live" or has a "construction page" available for potential customers to view.  You don`t want to frustrate potential customers before they have a chance to view or purchase your product. 

Hope that helps!

BTW; I will be forwarding your website and product to my sister-in-law.  She`s the decorative baker in the family.  With 9 kids between the 3 of us, ranging from 17 to >1, she`s busy at least once a month with birthday cakes.  The kids have always been able to ask her for whatever theme they want and she always comes up with something unique and creative (and tasty).  But, sometimes there have been "building projects" involved; like constructing a 3-D train cake for my nephew when he was younger.  I`m sure your product will be of great interest to her.

Thanks!

P.S.  JulioF ~ Just wanted to say Thank You for supporting your wife`s business!  Some of us aren`t so fortunate.

Kate:

All the info you`ve received thus far is excellent. I would hope there was some contractual agreement. I mean if you`re paying for anything that is going to represent your company, you should have some sort of contractual agreement between you and your contractor.

I would have to say I`m not very impressed with the work you`ve had done so far. The code is littered with errors. The images are not of the best quality. And as others have stated, this site is not optimized for web performance.

I don`t even want to know what you paid. I looked at the site of the designers you used. I would be concerned about their abilities. Everyone designs different and has different competencies, but I can tell the difference between sites that are templates and the sites they made from scratch.

This is why everyone should do heavy research into their design teams. Too many people are so focused on price. Anyone can put a website together these days. It`s so important to interview companies to make sure they are on the same page as you. If you and your design team don`t share the same vision, you`ll spend way more trying to fix your problems than you ever would had you  picked the right team.

Now off my soap box. Did you prepay for the site in whole? If not, I would seriously looking into having someone else finish the job. Because it`s a PayPal shopping cart system, I think you`re on the right track, you CAN piece one of those together yourself. Then I would consider finding another company to finish the work.

Warranty? What are they going to warranty? A true sales gimic. When you`re project is complete there should be nothing to warranty. The code, security, etc. should be done right. In my honest opinion, a design team should be obligated to fix any flaws in their work at any time.

Lastly, this goes for anyone: your website is your #1 marketing tool. I would venture to say that 90% or better, of the U.S. population does all their product research online. I would bet that websites, done right, are the most effective marketing tool around. It`s the face of your company on the internet. That is why it`s so important to have a design team that can see YOUR vision and put it to work. It`s fine if you want their creative expertise, but it`s important that your company`s brand and image resonates through your site. If it doesn`t, I think you completly miss your mark and fail your compnay, your products, and your customers miserably.

That`s all I`ve got. Thanks for letting me vent. I could barely read through your first post without feeling the overwhelming urge to post as fast and as furiously as I could. It just bugs me that any Joe on the street can put a site together with a program and charges off-the-wall prices and then can`t follow through.

Would you continue to pay the bug man after he`s missed a month or two? Tells you you`re his priority next week? If you wait for the termites to come, you`ve waited too long. My point being that web design is a service. Just like any other. The longer you let businesses like this jack you around the more money and potential sales you lose. And if your site is sub par, the less repeat customers you`ll get.

I hope you get what you`re looking for! If the end result sucks, find someone to fix it. Sorry to ramble, this topic really bugs me!

Ryan



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HYBRID Digital Media
"Providing High Quality Design Solutions"
http://www.hybriddigitalmedia.com

Ryan, 

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When-Dee Morrison
owner, Fat Cookie

http://www.fatcookie.com

Choose Dough. +Add Stuff. "Name It!"

Kate,

Insert this tag inside the <head> part of the old web page and it will redirect traffic automatically to the  new page/site or wherever you want. Copy/paste it so you get the syntax right.

<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0;url=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">

The 0 is zero, the time delay for the refresh. If you set that to zero it will be automatic. If you set it to a larger number it will display the page briefly, then redirect.

Just put the desired URL where I have www.yourwebsite.com/ and upload it to the server. You can put that on any or all pages, just in case someone has bookmarked a page on your old site.

This can be used on a Thank You page after someone completes a purchase. You can set the refresh time for 10-20 seconds, then redirect them back to your home page.

-malcolm

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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Good to hear things are getting better Kate.It`s funny because I was going to suggest trying godaddy, but it looks like you`ve already done that. Great customer service who actually answer the phone and can help you set up your own site, and cheap domain names with websites. I have been using them for almost a year now and figured you could give them a try as they have always been helpful to me in the past. Good luck with your idea, it seems like a good one(and yummy too!)

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Johnnynfl