Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am no stranger to the entrepreneurial front, however I am still a small potato in a crop of established ones.  Make sense?  I started a candle business.  It took me a good year to research the candle biz and learn the ins and outs and my hubby and I started a product line of candles.  We did everything from the manufacturing of the candles, photographing of the product, and designing of our site.  We had to learn a LOT because we don`t have the funds to pay someone else to do it.  So that said, I want to see if anyone could offer any tips/ criticisms.  We are a small mom and pop operation with big corporation dreams.  Since our dad lost his job we were hoping this would be a good income generator.  PLEASE let me know what you all think about our site.  Thanks so much !  www.purbliss.com

-Mary Bence



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Business should be all FUN and not work.

Soy Candles by Purbliss Candle Co

CB Photography

Thanks, Mike.

I really appreciate the feedback!  I know there are a lot of non-professional elements that we definitely need to work on.  I had been `fighting` with my hubby with the retail aspect of the site.  It still lacks some info and `retail-esq` feel and I`m sort of going through a creative block.  You`re right about the lack of text.  It needs some love...

I never thought it would be this difficult.  Thanks again!



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Business should be all FUN and not work.

Soy Candles by Purbliss Candle Co

CB Photography

Hi Mary,

Hi Mary,
I took a look at the site (http://www.purbliss.com/) and concur with the above, that there`s not enough selling going on. It`s that "retail" sense you mentioned in your intro.

One big problem is that the whole front page is in graphic images. First of all, it loads in a jigsaw pattern and is distracting to viewers. Secondly, because the search engines can`t read words as graphic images, that`s where the SEO disadvantages begin.

From a semantic perspective, I think it`d make sense if you have a way to link the word "bliss" with "candles." Already, you`re going to have a lot of people reading "purr bliss" and not see the "pure" part of it. So that gets people wondering, "What`s purr bliss?"

I`m thinking perhaps a nice tag line would help, right up there where everyone can see it. What`s the single most important part of your business, would you say? You have 10 words. :-) Give it a shot, and maybe we can brainstorm.

Another very advantageous part of a Web site is the page titles. For whatever reason, your home page title isn`t showing. It`s possible that the meta tag isn`t correct?
   (meta name-equiv="TITLE" content="...etc.....")
I`m not sure that "name-equiv" is a valid tag.

On your product photography, again on the home page, with the pictures being dead-on from the front, I have to say they look more like plastic buckets you`d find in a hardware store.

Again, because of the lack of connection between Purbliss and "candle," it`s not immediately obvious what you`re trying to sell. What I`d like to see would be something more three-dimensional, so people can see that these are candles. And perhaps having the flame would be nice.

But overall, the main problem is the lack of a quick "grabber" on the main page. The rest of the site all works off that initial interest. And, again, because so much of the site is only in graphic format, none of the search engines are going to notice much of any content.

Hi fotogirl,

A soy candle lover myself, I am always buying online. One thing I look for is the size of the jar.  Are your larger candles 10oz? 16oz? Also, I always look for the scent descriptions.

Good luck

Lisa

Hi Glynns,

Thank you for the much needed feedback!  I will take a look at the websitegrader...I`ve never heard of that one!  I told my hubby that that the graphics were too dominant with too little text he agreed.  Every single slice / image in the site has alt tags with text that should trigger the webcrawlers to find relevance to the site.  Do you think that would even help or work?  We definitely need to add a blog to it to make it more updated.  We should also add more tags to each product.

I agree with the candles page...that was bugging me.  I need to streamline it.  We have decided that it will be deleted.  It`s too much.  We also just posted candles on shopping.com, amazon.com, and we`re going to do etsy.com.  Fun stuff!

Since we are still a small start-up, what do you think PR will cost?  We are funding it ourselves and don`t have a ton of money to toss into it and I don`t know if we should ask for investor funds yet.  Maybe we will to get it going.  Is there a way to get it going myself?  I`m going to check out your site more thoroughly and I`m sure I`ll be able to get a good footing.  I noticed your site offers quite a bit of what we were looking for.  Thanks so much for taking the time to sending  me in the right direction.  

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Business should be all FUN and not work.

Soy Candles by Purbliss Candle Co

CB Photography

Alt text tags for each image are an excellent way to get extra help in the SEO area. The problem is that from what we`ve seen, it`ll get you indexed in the Google Images area, not the main Google search window.

That`s not at all a bad thing, you understand. But most people when they`re looking for something start with searching the Web. And that`s where a 150-character meta description and your page title tags provide the search results. The content (in text) is what helps improve your relevance to a search. Alt text tags don`t really do so much in that relevance area.

Craig,

There is a reason why I had to ask you because you give it to the people straight!  I certainly appreciate it!  We are trying to figure out how to take out the choppy loading job.  It wasn`t designed in HTML format which I now understand why most would.  That is definitely something that I tried to overcome but since you mentioned it...it`s bothering me again.  I think it`s time to hire a web person to do that.  Also, I did all the copy myself and I`m not a writer so that needs to be addressed.  There are actually a lot of tags attached to the images but we will be adding a blog to keep up with the webcrawlers.

I actually like the ambiguity of the purbliss name because it causes to people to think about it.  You obviously figured out it was `pure` rather than `purr` so I`m sure it will be fine.  Since there is a pronunctiation key over the `u` that should further aid the reader to get it.  I`ve already dumped money into the trademark, domain, and phone # so it`s not changing.  I agree with the adding of candles somewhere in there because we are a candle business...makes sense!  I`m wondering if I should implement my philosophy somewhere on the homepage rather than having a whole separate page for it.  Would that help with summing it up?  It`s more than 10 words so maybe I can shorten it.  Do you think that would work?

I know we have a lot to reshoot.  I want it to have more going on as far as candle-ness is concerned.  I have some lifestyle shots I want to do with some lit and some in actual homes.  It`s a time issue.  PLUS I`m sick so that doesn`t help.  Time is flying and I need to get this going! 

I will have to let my web guy (hubby) know about the alt tags.  I had no idea!  Time to hire the right people I think.  I just wonder if it`s too soon to get a PR firm to rep us.  We still seem a little green but we need to expose us quickly since Dad`s out of a job.  It`s amazing how unemployment drives people to be business oriented! 

Thanks again, Craig.  :)  I will be taking all your advice and apply it!



-------------------------

Business should be all FUN and not work.

Soy Candles by Purbliss Candle Co

CB Photography

Hi Lisa,

I`m so glad you got the soy candle itch :)  Our descriptions are there along with a scent descipt and pic.  Thanks!



-------------------------

Business should be all FUN and not work.

Soy Candles by Purbliss Candle Co

CB Photography