Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Y`know, although there are the Office Max and Office Depot mega-stores, I`m still seeing the mom-and-pop independent office and art supply stores. In Geneva (IL), we have a single-owner store like that, and they have regular office-school supplies on the main floor, and art supplies downstairs.

I`ve been looking into the independent bookstore distribution lines for self-publishing, and I wonder; couldn`t you maybe find some of these independent office/art supply stores and send product information direct to them? There`s got to be a directory or some organized listing of those types of stores....somewhere, right?

Hey Jen and Craig,

One of things I need to do next is to send information to buyers of art supply stores.  I will try Michael`s Craft Store and the Dick Blick Art Store.  But I never heard of Daniel Smith before, but will be sure to include it in my list of supply stores.  And yes, I will try independent mom and pop stores too! I will be grateful to any store willing to stock my product. 

I`m sure there`s a list or directory for art supply stores.  I just need to check it out online. 

Thanks for writing back!

 

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Dear Kathy,

Thanks for taking the time out to search art stores for me!

As for you betting that the art store will be interested in my product, I REALLY hope that you`ll win that bet!!  -  for my sake!!  hahhah. 

 

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Not to say CraigL is wrong, but I didn’t have any trouble identifying the photo of a dirty hand as such.  As I continued reading the posts, I did think the advice on marketing angles was great.  Good Luck!

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

What about Switchboard.com. Put in "art supplies" or something in the Business type or category line, and it`ll give you a listing of every business related to your query, their address, and how far from the city or address.

As for the picture, I`m only saying that glancing at it (and I do see with a lisp!), it just looked weird. Sort of like a big bruise on someone`s hand. There`s gotta be a more focused way to show a smudge and distinguish it from a bruise, right? :-)

Yes, I agree with Vincent - all marketing angles ARE great!  This community is so nice!

Craig, I bookmarked Switchboard.  That will really come in handy!  Thanks so much!

Really appreciate all your great feedback! I value every bit of it!

Jeannie

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I like the site very much. It is very user friendly and what a great product! The colour scheme is unobtrusive and the whole feelof the site is neat and clean. It`s nice on the eye and easy to navigate.

Makes you kind of wanting to order one of those guards. I had to hide my vallet.

Tell your friend job well done!

Monika

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MLMReview WordPress Blog

Hey Monika,

Thanks for your nice comments!  I will defiinitely tell my friend to read all of the comments posted here and that he`s done a nice job!

Hey... when you say it kinda makes you want to order... You know....Xmas is only around the corner..   Got any left-handed friends or right-handed artistic friends on your list? I`m having an introductory price of only 99 cents going on right now! ....... Just kidding around with you.

Just wanted to see if I could persuade you to unhide your wallet! hehehe.

Jeannie

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Hi Jeannie,

First off, as an artist I have to say that your product concept is brilliant. My hand has had that tell-tale smudge for well over a decade now.

You and your friend did a nice job putting your site together.

I would suggest that you do some cross browser compatibility testing... as a Firefox user, I noticed a problem right away (the unwanted smudges image cuts into the header text above it). While a lot of people use Internet Explorer, a growing number of people prefer to use Firefox, Opera, or (for Mac users) Safari.  If you are marketing to artists, (a demographic that tends to use Safari or Firefox more often), it is very important to make sure that your site appears as it should when they view it with their preferred browser.

You might also want to consider bringing your promotional messages ($0.99 sale for example) up into the top fold. People are lazy... they prefer not to scroll, and you want your most important (and call to action) messages to hit them first, before they flip on to something else.

Centering the site on the screen is also a nice aesthetic touch - while standards dictate we still design for the 800x600 resolution viewers, the vast majority of people have much larger screens nowadays (again, particularly artists).  If you were to give the site clean borders and center it on the page, it would look more professional and aesthetically balanced.

Again, great product. With the right marketing I am sure you will be successful.

Chanie


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Sage Media :: Full Service Graphic Design Firm    |   Portfolio     |   Blog

Dear Chanie,

Since my friend and I have no prior experience with creating a website, we really didn`t think of doing cross browser compatibility testing.  So you say the smudged hand image cuts right into the header where it says, "Are you a student"?  Wow.. I will need to check into that. 

And I will follow your great suggestion to put the 99 cents offer at the top! Don`t want the lazy people to miss this offer!  Thanks! 

As for the centering, I totally agree with you that it would look more professional and balanced.  But when I mentioned this problem to my friend, to see if he could close off the gap on the right side of the page, he wasn`t sure how to do that without having to change all the data around. Would it be simple to center it?  I will ask him again.

Thanks for your feedback! I feel so lucky to be getting all kinds of responses  from everyone here at SUN.  It`s just what I needed! Thanks again!

Jeannie

 

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