Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I truly do appeciate the ideas, comments and suggestions from the members here at SUN.

Since GoTruckStop.com, http://GoTruckStop.com/contest.htm, is in the midst or a re-design of our HTML pages .... lets make this  fun and exciting!!!

This will also be a great way for the lurkers to come out from the shadows and participate too.

Come visit GoTruckStop.com, http://GoTruckStop.com/contest.htm ,    browse through the site, and offer your suggestions, comments (both good and bad) and ideas.Tells us what items within the store you like, love, or hate ... (well, maybe not hate, but wouldn`t purchase). Tell how you like the shopping cart, the images (large and thumbnails), the checkout process.

In other words, praise the site, tear it apart, offer suggestions or just tell us to shut the thing down. Your paper is blank ... write to your hearts content.

Submit your comments using our Feedback page ... (make sure you include your email address, so we can contact the winners)...

and (3) lucky entrants  (randomly drawn) will each WIN a $50 Gift Certificate to GoTruckStop.com. And (1) GRAND PRIZE Winner will receive a $250 Gift Certificate  to GoTruckStop.com.(random drawing)

The winners will be notified via email, and also posted here at SUN ... if thats OK with management.

Entries must be submitted by 5/07/06 1800 MST. Contest drawing date will be 5/7/05. (No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Gift Certificates will have no cash value. Good towards the purchase of items at GoTruckStop.com only.)

Good luck everyone

OK - you asked for it:-))

I absolutely hate those talking pseudo-cartoon videos - to the point that I couldn`t even look at the rest of your site because they were so annoying!!  Therefore, you might have the world`s best website, but I wouldn`t know it since I had to click off as quickly as possible.

The second item you should be very careful about is your above offer of a random prize for doing something.

This is strictly governed by the Attorney General of each State and all the laws are different, but I think you can run into significant trouble especially since you don`t have any official Contest Rules posted.

I know about these problems since we just ran a contest called The Home Office From Hell contest and we spent about $15,000 in legal fees to comply with the various laws and regulations governing contests and sweepstakes!!

My advise would be to recind that offer and if we ever meet, you can buy me a beer:-))

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Offices2share.com® operates a Web site that focuses exclusively on short-term, ready-to-use office space nationwide, featuring thousands of offices in hundreds of American cities.

Well thank you for the comments ... and the suggestions. I`m also very appreciative that you took the time to post ... but could not take the time to spend some time on the site. I`m confident that with your expertise, that you would have found some other areas that you would have commented on. Remember, this post was designed to make evaulating a site ... fun and exciting. (We are all here to help each other prosper, aren`t we?)

However the contest stands. If you don`t wish to participate,  for whatever reason, please don`t put a damper on other members desire to participate. I would greatly appreciate it if you edited your post regarding rescinding the contest ... as it served its purpose and is kindly noted.

But the contest stands !!

 

I will go back and take a look at the rest of your site and then give you my honest opinion about the rest of it.

My recommendation about the contest was out of concern for you, not to put a damper on anyone`s enthusiasm - I`m happy to do it without the offer of a prize.  I just don`t want to see you get into an expensive legal problem if some Attorney General finds out about it and decides to fine you or worse.  From what I understand, contests and sweepstakes are very touchy points.

 

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Offices2share.com® operates a Web site that focuses exclusively on short-term, ready-to-use office space nationwide, featuring thousands of offices in hundreds of American cities.

     You know I love your site!  I think it is very well done.  It is attractive, interesting, easy to navigate and displays professionalism and makes the customer feel they are appreciated and important to you.  I like that you carry a variety of products.  For me to say which products I don`t like will not really benefit you because, what I may not like the next person might love!   I will say I do love the Tommy Truck toys, what a wonderful product line and I can`t wait to see more!  I also like the message in a bottle, very unique gift idea!

     Okay, now for what I don`t like.  I am not a fan of websites that talk to me or play music.  It makes it hard for me to concentrate on what I am looking for or when I am trying to read information on a site.  The sound features makes it very distracting. 

    On the Naviagtion Bar on my screen which is a 13" screen, the last word on the bar on the Homepage which is the word "Life" ends up in the center of the bar under the rest of the wording and consequently in the dark portion of the navigation bar where it is also hard to see.  This happens again when I am actually in the store and teh words "Informed | Tell A Friend" end up in the same precarious position on the bar.  I am using Internet Explorer 6.0.

      Overall your site gets an A+ with me!  Good luck with your revamping!  I will also submit this info into your Feedback on your site in hopes of winning one of the GCs you are so generously offering!       

     

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Beth Downey
BoxerHaus.com
The Ultimate Boxer Shopping Experience!
www.BoxerHaus.com

I`ve reviewed your site, but first your sweepstakes must have official rules. I`ve spent the last 7 years in the promotions biz and Jeff is exactly right. You are opening yourself up to litigation and liability. There are professional sweeps players who prey on stuff like this. I did a sweeps once for a large multi-national and there was a misprint in the rules. It ended up costing us $15k in a settlement.

The site -

It`s pretty good. Couple of things I don`t like. When you turn off the gal who talks on the homepage and navigate around she talks when you go back to the homepage. I didn`t like that I had to turn her off again.

I should also let you know I am on a mac (using Safari) and the homepage has a graphics error to the right of the free shipping map.

If there is a way to show all the items on one screen (without scrolling) and then click on items for more detail you may make shopping easier for potential customers.

Good luck and congrats for starting it up!

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Fist of all, thank you for visiting and browsing the site.

In regards to your browser, Safari by Apple ...I checked our Browser stats ...

1. MSIE      93.4%
2. Firefox      4.3%
3. Netscape   0.5%
4. Safari          0.4%

I can understand and appreciate your comments about the images. Safari deals with web sites differently than most browsers. In fact, as we speak, my design team is seeing if there is an update from Apple, on the site builder side, to address your issue. However, with Safari users being such a small percentage of  our viewers, if the update is not available there is little we can do.

In regards to your viewing the items in the store ... our data base allows us to "build" the store .... with very little effort.

The data base allows you to shop the way YOU want  to ... not the way that a store requires. (Isn`t that the success of the Internet, its YOU that has the abilty to shop, when where and how you want. You are not dictated by the confines of a "bricks and mortar store".)

If you had found this page, http://www.gotruckstop.com/acart/search.html , you would have noticed that the data base allows you to "search" for an item the way you want. Just like shopping at Nordstoms, we bring the items to you ... rather than you having to "search" through page after page ... like many sites require. (This "search block" will also be included in our revised site also.)

The data base is so dynamic that we can even rearrange the store, changing the order of items, so that we can do a store "re-set" in just a few minutes. If the store was an .asp or .php type store ... the store design would be limited in the way it displays items.

And best of all, the data base is entirely OFF LINE. I can be sitting at the pool, or in an airport, or in a hotel  room... re-arrange the order of items, do price changes to multiple items or entire categories, feature sale items .. and with one click .. upload the entire "new" store layout to the site.

Thank you for the comments.

 

Well...I`m not a web designer but I figure I`ll give my two cents worth...(and not just because of a contest, just because I`m opnionated):

Anyhow - the homepage doesn`t stand out to me one way or the other.  When I pull up a site and see the standard logo in the banner across the top (header), navigation along the side and then some scrolling text or products in the open area left, it just seems canned to me...the same things I see everywhere else.

As for the talking cartoons...I think they are creepy, and even though I have the sound muted so I didn`t actually have to listen to them, it did cause some hiccups on my PC if I didn`t turn them off.

The store itself - my suggestion would be to put the drop downs (for the subcategories) under Online Store without the scrolling list of all the products...I didn`t see those at the top right away because I immediately was pulled to the first product.  If you had a page that was just the drop down`s to make your selection then go to that list of products with an option to view all, I think it would make it clearer.  Also, once I picked a listing, it doesn`t say which listing I was on and after viewing the items I couldn`t remember if I was in bunk items or cab items and picked the same one again - that was frustrating.  I`d suggest either setting it up so the filter is set on the one that you are showing or have a header at the beginning of the products saying "Bunk Items", "Cab Items", etc.

There are a TON of products on your site - and only a fraction of them are really trucker items (not really sure how Message in a Bottle is a trucker specific item)...I think that you may want to create a more generic site for the other products and then limit this to the trucker specific products.  For example, when I click on Gifts For Women (assuming women truck drivers - which I know)...I don`t see the Ginger Vase as being something they would be driving around with in their cab - but the Washer Fluid Heater is something I could see as a trucker gift.  People who go to the site are looking for gift ideas for someone who`s probably hard to buy for - they are looking for a gift unique to truckers - and this site doesn`t really narrow the scope.

Good luck with your contest.

TJ says:

First of all, thank you for taking the time to not only visit the site, but to also post here. In response to this first comment, I believe several other members have addressed your "observation and desire to think outside the box" regarding web design. I`ll leave it to those posters, since there is no reason to beat a dead horse. (All that I can say is that many years of researching website design has brought forth the conventional wisdom that "top left logo / left or top navigation formats are successful on the web.)

As for this site being canned ... the answer is NO. It is a fully custom written site. Just the top headers for both the "new" HTML pages ... and the new header for the store area took over 1 week of design time to create.

It appears that we are split currently between those that find our "video hostess" appealing and informative and those that do not. (I guess the jury is still out; however, the benefits far outweigh the negatives, as long as we provide a mute button on the player.

For someone that does not like conventionality and has a desire to "think outside the box", I`m surprised by your commnets and suggestions. What you are describinhg is the traditional method of shopping. We, at GoTruckStop.com, offer several ways to shop or search for items. Using our drop downs , under 4 major categories, from Big Rig Accessories to Gifts by the 1000`s, to our entire Message in a Bottle line, to being able to Shop by Gender, we have allowed every shopper to be able to access the store through a multitude of aisles and entrances ... just like in a "bricks and mortar store".

If I am correct, and I think I am ... (since I`ve been a professional driver for over 14 years) there are several entrances to a traditional truckstop. An entrance for truck drivers, where trucking items are displayed and merchandised. Another entrance is for the general and traveling public, where gift items, childrens gifts and other gifts including cut glass and sculptures are displayed. And then there is normally an entrance to the restaurant area. Each entrance allows passage way freely to other marketing and merchandising areas.

GoTruckStop.com follows that same "free flow" of information, product displays, and merchandising ... as a traditional truckstop does. A truckstop, department store, Walmart or any other successful retail outlet does not have doors or barriers defining depts ... you simply stroll up and down aisles or leisurely walk from dept to dept enjoying your shopping experience. Best of all, we bring products to you with our many categories ... just like shopping at Nordstroms.

Remember, just like a traditional "brick and mortar" truckstop, GoTruckStop.com does not simply market to just  the professional trucker. Just as truckstops have other customers besides truckers, so does GoTruckStop.com. That is why we offer a wide variety of products, accessories and merchandise. Not only that, but truckers also need to buy their families and loved ones gifts too.

Even more importantly, in the traditional trucker household its the "spouse" that controls the money, controls the credit cards, has more time to surf the web, and is more apt to make an on-line purchase. Normally that "spouse" is the wife. Not only is she looking for a gift for her driver, but she also will being shopping for gifts for the kids, gifts for Aunt Sally, gifts for Grandma and Grandpa ... and also for herself.

You are correct that we have a TON of items ... currently over 850 items, some with multiple colors or sizes. You are correct that we have a limited number of "trucking" items ... currently only about 175. (if you can call that limited) It is my job, as Dir. of Sales and Marketing, to find unique, exciting, and cutting edge products that will fit well both into trucking and  for the general consumer. In fact, just next week, we will be adding an item into our Electronics Dept (as well as a few other depts) that will allow you to watch your cable TV channels right on your laptop ... anywhere in the WORLD !! Just this week we became an authorized re-seller of SlingBox, from SlingMedia. Now, how`s that for exciting?? So not only is it the next "pet rock" for truckers ... but for travelers too.

Oh, and if you are not sure how a "Message in a Bottle" is a "trucker specific" item ... ever buy flowers for someone ... you know how expensive they can be. And they only last a few days. A Message in a Bottle is a great item for drivers to send to their lovely brides, or Moms ... and it normally less than $30 too!

Also, we just added a "Big Rig Wishes" Message in a Bottle too ... just follow the link ....

http://www.gotruckstop.com/cgi-bin/acart/apple-search.pl?&am p;am p;keywords=0210tgs

Check it out amd tell me what you think.

If you also noticed we are able to create "corners" for an entire manufacturer`s product line, like when you are in sports shoe store and they feature the "Nike" or "Addidas" sections or corner. Just as an example we`ve created a "Tommys World" corner here at GoTruckStop ....

http://www.gotruckstop.com/cgi-bin/acart/apple-search.pl?&am p;am p;keywords=gt180001 

We have done the same for Cobra Electronics, Max Burton 12 Volt products, and Steering Design`s full product line of custom steering wheels. I haven`t seen many stores able to offer that in the traditional .asp or .php formats.

The amazing thing is that everyone of you can have these type features in the data base that GoTruckStop.com uses ... and a basic site designed for a rather affordable price ... less than $5000 (NO, I`m not selling web designs or data bases ... I`m just trying to get folks to "think outside the box" ... like you, LMC has asked.)

Thank you for posting your comments and opinion. They are greatfully noted and highly appreciated. (Really, they are.)  And please feel free to enter the contest, using our feedback form. (Who knows, you just might win!!)

TJ,

I personally enjoyed your site.  I think the woman that talks is cool!  Once she said her piece, you can turn her off, but I think it`s great!

I also think it`s great that you offer so many items.  Drivers are on the road all the time and if they`re looking for gifts (any gift) for a member of the family, your site has it all! It`s truly a one stop shop!

Also, with the way you can customize company logo`s on items, that opens up a whole new opportunity for driver safety awards or driver appreciation awards.  I think it`s great and I truly enjoyed viewing your site.  Congratulations!

Marcy

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Marcy Shuler
www.ScrapbookSpaceStation.com
Scrapbook Furniture and Organizers