Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I just started my own website and would greatly appreciate any feedback or helpful info. I am new to this internet and computer world and  learning as I go. I designed my own website with the Yahoo Sitebuilder software. Now I need info. on how to get it out to the rest of the world. Good or bad , any info. will help. I am also new to Startupnation so I any pointers anyone has will be helpful.  www.rusticcreationsbyrandy.com

I really like your product. I think you would do well to do some in-person sales as well, such as craft fairs.

The site is distracting for me though ... it lacks focus. (The graphics are not the best, but as you`re doing it yourself ... I`m just going to ignore that for the time being.) What I`d like to see is a more sales-oriented front page. In the menu bar, create pages that say "Shop now!", "About our Products" (not sure I like that title but you get the concept), "Our Story", "Events" (where you will announce those fairs you`re going to!!), and "Contact Us". Instead of having a lot of words on every page, you should stay on topic on each page .... shop just has products and descriptions with buy now buttons. About the products has the Butternut Birds story. Our Story has your history and future projects, and details about contracting you for a custom piece with examples. (Or, custom work could be it`s own "Services" or "Custom Projects" page.) And so on.

For what it`s worth ... when you get some sales going, it would not be hard to get someone to make you a custom theme for your site .... or to help you with a better template setup, which would be considerably less expensive than getting a whole site designed.

Randy, how are you currently getting the word out?

You need to have a better structure to the site, visually but mainly informatively.  Nikole is right that you should have better defined sections of the site.  This you can work on over time and keep improving.  And yes, you should work up to the point where you can have someone help you with the visual aspect of it, like working with a template.

One quick fix you might do is put a photo of your product at the top of the homepage, rather than a photo of the nuts in the tree.  People visit the site to see what you do, not what a tree looks like.

And yep, you would do well to sell these at festivals and fairs.  I`ve done a little bit selling in festivals and it is a great way to not just make sales, but to get the word out!  You will want your website to support your festival marketing as well.

Great start, keep going!

What I like right away is that you have the intro and story; it`s short and to the point, and even on my 19" panel, it`s comfortable to read.

Where I think it loses the focus people above have mentioned, is that the rest of the content continues below the main story. It should be divided into chapters, like a good novel.

One way to do that would be to look at the front page content, find the "break points" and create separate pages. So, for example, one would be the images and descriptions of the birds themselves. Instead of "About Us," you could have "Our Birds."

Another option is to keep the content as is, but put page breaks with a "Next Page" link. Make it a sort of static slide show, using whole Web pages for each "slide" in the presentation.

Yet another option, short term, would be to at least put the same navigation tabs you have at the top, down at the bottom. That way, when people scroll to the bottom of long pages, they don`t have to go all the way back to the top just to see the next "thing."

Cool product, though...! Very creative, and unusual. Now you need a good way to produce an order form or shopping cart experience. I didn`t see any obvious way to order one of the birds.

Randy,

My only comment is make sure you havea  way for people to contact you.  I had trouble finding that.