Okay, here`s what I`m seeing. (First, though, welcome to Startup Nation
where everyone`s pretty much focused on how to build a home business!)
:-D
Perhaps the most important question anyone should ask themselves
whenever they create ANYthing, is, "What am I trying to say?" Life is
all about creation and communication, producing a "show" for the world
at large. Whether or not you`re building a bridge, figuring out quarks,
understanding lightning, or fashioning a product to sell, you`re
essentially "saying" something about life, your self, who you are, and
how you see the world.
Going along direclty with the first question is the implied foundation,
"What`s the point?" What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
Few people put a Web site together, particularly an e-commerce site,
which says, "I want your money because I don`t want to work for someone
else. Give me as much of that money as you can, thank you." :-) Sure,
some places do that, but it doesn`t work all that well.
Yet that`s one of the core elements of any e-commerce site. The second
core element is, "If you give me your money, I`ll give you this in
exchange. I think it`s worth your money because....."
Your site doesn`t do this very well. It`s a craft-type site, selling
interesting jewelry, embroidery, and whatever else, yet on the main
landing page there isn`t a single picture. As you know, "a picture is
worth a thousand words!" Particularly when you`re trying to sell Things.
When I clicked off the Home page onto the "Showroom," I *still* didn`t
see pictures! Instead, I saw this massive "Clearance Sale" sign, taking
up most of my 19" LCD panel screen! On a more typical 17" monitor, that
would go beyond the margins of the screen! For what? To tell people
you`re going out of business?
So I clicked the first product menu tab, which I would have thought
would be under the Showroom. At last I saw some pictures, but again,
there was so much not-to-the-point information on the page, the
pictures almost were lost.
That brings up the third core element to a Web site, in my opinion: Navigation.
A conversation not only has a reason to exist and a point to make, it
also has a "thread" of comprehension. When there`s a disjointed
discussion, hard to follow, we have the term "non sequitur," like I was
saying about coffee---do we really need a lot of sugar? (See, that`s a
non sequitur.)
Your pages are "scrambled," and don`t offer the visitor a logical
pathway, each click having a reason for its existence. You can pare
down the side menu to the left, removing most of the tabs that ought to
be under "Products" or "Showroom."
The individual pictures you`re showing are too big for the page, making
the viewer have to scroll down to notice where to click in order to buy
something. But there`s a "View Cart" up at the top, putting the cart
before the horse, so to speak.
All in all, it looks as if you have some interesting ideas in your
products, but they`re being buried by a whole lot of extraneous stuff.
I`ve suggested this before, and it works: Lay out all your products on
the floor(s) of your home. Start at the front door, and at first, just
toss everything on the floor.
Then, starting from the front door, see if you can work out a "customer
journey." What would you like to show your visitor first. Put that on
the floor by the door. Then think about where they would want to go
next, assuming they`re just looking and they`re not yet ready to buy.
Make a note of the questions you have, as you walk through the door and
see this "mess" on the floor. Isn`t the first one, "What is all this
stuff?" :-) You explain that on the home page, without showing me "the
stuff," but your explanation really isn`t very good. Frankly, I don`t
care that Agnes is a self-starter, and I`d take issue with her having
very creative inspiration and ideas. Compared to whom? Shakespeare?
Jesus? Winston Churchill? :-D
I`m not downplaying your creative ideas; just suggesting that you tone
down the rhetoric and hyperbole a bit, and focus more on what you have
to offer. Right now you`re not even focused on what you have to sell or
what it is you`re doing. Neither of those matters as much as "What I`ll
give you in exchange for your money." See?
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