Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Looking for some assistance in a couple of areas.

Site is: www.pamspantry.net

Our main goal for this next year is to increase traffic and sales at our site. We are located in Michigan and 98% of all our sales come from Michigan. People who have sampled our products, return to the site and buy. The problem is, how to get those who have not tried us, to buy. There are 49 other states, I just need to figure out how to tap into them.

We have had the current site for almost one year. It was designed and put together completely by myself with the help of a friend and a $0 budget (YIKES!) and no background or idea of what we were doing! While we have had some very nice compliments from customers, we haven`t had much input from the "pros".

Currently we are "tweaking", redoing current pages and will be adding some more pages. One thing we are in the process of adding is more photos. We currently completed photos of each of our mixes and they will all be available soon. We have 2 of them on the site as of this moment on the product page. This was to test to see if they appeared to look and work well. We are redoing the home page, we feel it is to wordy, the logo needs fixed and also needs some photos.

I decided not to wait until we make the changes we feel are necessary but to go ahead and post here as we may receive some good recommendations that we can put in place as we work to make it better.

I am hoping that visually, the layout and colors are appealing and in regards to usability, that visitors find it easy to navigate and find what they are after.

Any ideas or comments would be most welcome!

 

 

DipLady-
Considering no prior web development experience I think you have done a terrific job. Here are a few of my observations:

1- A consistent set of navigation is a must. It is extremely confusing to a user if on your HP the left navigation is very prominent but then disappears as you enter in a section. What compounds this issue is that the only links out of these sections are in the footer.

2. Don`t underestimate the importance of typography. Be consistent with use of fonts and font style. Take a look at ways to limit content and lay out text in a appealing manor around imagery.

3. Make sure the tone of your content an appropriate message to your clients.

4. Make sure the site is 100% up to date (ie events and contest).

Good luck,
Howard

 


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ourmonmouth.com Full-Service Internet Solution Provider and Business/Community directory of Monmouth County New Jersey.

I liked it enough that i bought some of your dip mixes!! Can`t wait to try them. I think you did a fine job! More dip pictures would be great! I wish you Success!

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Here`s an article I wrote on copywriting. Hope this helps!

http://www.startupnation.com/pages/community/forum_posts.asp ?TID=3637&PN=1

 

Hi Diplady, if you need any website inspiration take a look at some sites I`ve recently put together, hopefully you can borrow a couple design elements:
http://www.337design.com/our_portfolio.php


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Ben Grinnell - 337 Design - Web Design & HD Video Production

Quite honestly, I would not purchase from this site. The "homemade" look to it makes me weary about giving you my credit card number.

Your navigation is not making a lot of sense ... what are "jury pictures"?
And the location of the navigation, at the very bottom of the page, is awkward ... and it`s a different color depending on the page ...
I`d consider putting it higher.
Why is the page so narrow, too? You`re wasting a lot of "real estate" there.

The content is good. It`s just the look and feel that has problems.

Your story needs to be worked on a bit.

Mostly, I think the use of the "welcome to" in the heading makes the copywriting seem amateur. Using a "welcome" instead of a headline that communicates about your business is the number one mistake made by amateur copywriters.

I don`t necessarily view the homespun vibe as a negative.

The first thing I saw was "Located in the heart of Grand Ledge, Michigan." Then below that, "Home of the Ledges."

So? At first I thought it was a shelving company. :-) And so what if it`s in Michigan? Does that mean only people in Michigan can buy whatever it is?

The "whatever it is" is the problem. See? I don`t know what you`re selling in the first 4-10 seconds of staring at your home page. It`s interesting that you`re in the same line of business as entreprenerd, here on the community. I believe she too started out with nothing and developed her own site.

Note that on that site, photographs very quickly establish a food of some sort. On your site, it looks like you`re selling kitchen shelves, and the "ledge" tends to corroborate the impression. See?

You definitely need the menu bar to stay on all pages, consistently, so people can navigate between pages. It`s not good to have to jump back to "home" every time.

I`d take the top half of the "Products" page, and move it to the home page. THAT`s where you`re making a fast statement about what it is you`re selling. The product catalog doesn`t need any intro content, as the menu item already explains it.

Example in products: When I click on the thumbnail for #50105, I`d prefer that either it opens a small "view" window, or better, that it gives me a way to click "Add to cart" from the expanded description. Likewise, I`d like to get to the same expansion when I click on "Bac`n & Onion." Same link as the picture. The text in the column description was too hard for me to read in my high-resolution monitor.

It`s getting there...and there`s a great initial organization. :-) That`s way better than having a nearly useless site that needs a total overhaul. This needs only some tweaking, so you`re WAY ahead of the game!

Thanks a ton guys, this is great feedback for us. I didn`t dream there would be so many good responses so quickly! Cookie and 337 I will definitely be taking a look at the info you linked back to me, as soon as I can see straight. . .LOL. Left the house early, EARLY, early this morning, and just walked back in the door from a tradeshow. Have to be back on site tomorrow morning at 8:30 and we are over 1 hour away.

Some of the changes we are already working on is to redo the home page entirely. Craig, funny you should mention the "in the heart of Grand Ledge" blurb. . .that is coming off. I want to get out of Michigan, and, you are right, who cares where we are. When we first put that together, I was thinking very small, community minded, but we have grown so much that I realize no one but people in my own community knows what "home of the Ledges" Means. It is definitely coming off! We are also going to adjust and move the logo and add pictures so the first thing you see is the logo and photos and a small blurb about the products, not the long winded welcome. Hopefully this will be better.

We are working on the menu items to get them more strategically aligned and will try to keep their placement more consistent on each page.

Nhgnikole, thanks also for the note! Jury Pictures are photos of our product in process and photos of our booth setups for shows. The majority of our business is done at craft shows in Michigan and a few bordering states. This page is on the site for the promoters to be able to "JURY" me into their show. Many of these shows only allow handmade items and I have to prove that my products are handmade, this allows their jury committee access to our photos at all times. In regards to the wasted space, I believe that the program that we used only allowed for a certain width, we may not be using a very good design program and as my friends does all this, I can`t even tell you what was used.

I will definitely be looking around at the sites and info provided here, thanks to all of you for taking the time to look things over and for providing some really appreciated recommendations!

P.S. Stonesledge, thanks for the order!