Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

When discussing progress on a website with friends and family it is difficult to know if they are being honest or if the are supporting what ever you produce. Based on this i`m asking your opinion. So, what do you think? www.bedawear.com I am aware of the limited product line and am currently designing more, Im more interested in your opinion on structure, use ability, appearence etc... Thanks for your help.....

Bedaone,

First thing I see is that you menu isn`t very intuitive.  What I mean about that is that you ahve the menu across the top, and the same menu down the side.  You need to pick one menu style, and stick with it. 

Second, maybe change the word "Apparel" to "Shop Apparel" or "Shop Bedawear".  Once in that section, go ahead and list all 6 items on one page.  It won`t hurt, and actually could help, because some visitors won`y go past the first page and may be missing out on something on page 3 they might be interested in.  Take a look at this site... http://struck.bigcartel.com/

Let me know if you have any questions, or want more feedback.

Steve James
http://www.freshyields.com


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Steve James Fresh Yields- a new media firm, providing ecommerce solutions, redesign consulting, web design, email campaign management, and internet marketing.

Beda,

I don`t mind the limited product line. I know that will evolve. I really like the flash animation at the top. Very cool. Often you`ll hear people complain about using animation but the fact is that people that are interested in buying a 25 dollar T-shirt are probably doing well enough that they have a good computer and a fast connection. 

Freshyields brings up a good point about the style. More continutity would feel better and yeah, you definitely need to direct people to the shopping area.

The only thing that seems to BEDAproblem is that I`m personally too aware of what a silkscreen T costs to produce in bulk. I`m not prepared for that kind of markup. If you are overpricing to protect or prepare for a distribution and retail operation, OR to establish your line as higher-end product with limited availabilty,by all means, maintain those prices!

Best of luck to you with it!

 

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~Eric
JE Design Group, LLC
If all you do is what you`ve done, then all you`ll get is what you`ve got.
www.jedesigngroup.com

Steve hit on the real big points in terms of the site. If you don`t mind a few other comments as well.

Images: This is what you`re selling. Make them larger and make sure the images on the t-shirts are readable. It may not be a bad idea to focus on the shirt`s message rather than an image of the whole shirt.

Fonts: I understand the importance of maintaining an urban look and feel, but you also have to take into account readability. There are way too many Photoshop effects going on with your headers. Rolled in with a complex font, the user is having to spend too much time reading the headers to focus on the products or contnet. Plus, standardize the site`s fonts and size.

A real good site to look at is: www.alistapart.com for some insight into user behavior.

Best of luck!

Beda,

Congratulations! I wish you continued success.

I liked the site as a beginning structure.  I`m sure as you grow so will
your site. 

I`d like to see your logo bigger in the top left corner.  Possibly filling
in that entire section.

Also, I`m still not too clear on the meaning of BEDA.  Maybe some
insight on the creation of the name.  I`d like to know the orgin or the
foundation of the phrase.

What about shipping policies and processing time for my order? You
may want to add to your `guarantee` page.  Who pays for the shipping
should I return a damaged good? How long do I have to return an item?

You have add some form of form to capture email addresses. Have people
sign to join your list for discounts, sales and free stuff.

Oh, love the tee with the collage.  Great!

Beda, I`ve branched into building an apparel brand as well. I would love to
work together, so both lines can grow.  We`re on the same path of
empowering others toward ultimate success.

Peace,
C.F. Jackson
http://www.WontBeDenied.com
Won`t Be Denied! Because What I Want MATTERS

 

Nice, clean site....ditto on the fonts, looks like attention to font consistency and character spacing for readability wanders...(Guarantee`s last 2 e`s are stuck together, in Apparel, the word "on" uses lower case "n").

Is there any way to provide some kind of context to "Beda"? This term and message is used a little bit differently throughout the site - it would be nice to see some testimonials, links to blogs/sites where "Beda" is used, perhaps some pictures of folks in action wearing the shirts...need the overall lifestyle messaging to be clarified by showing/recognizing the products in action. A photo of an actual person (attractive, relevant, target audience, etc.) goes a long way to drawing user attention/interest. 

Good luck on your site!

 

TR

Design Ideas

www.designideas.tv

 

Hey Bedawear,

I`m back again as cruise the community. One other suggestion I`d like to offer is "keywords". Where are yours?

I reviewed your source codes and nothing is there to drive traffic to your site. Keywords are highly necessary for search engine optimization. So should someone decide to do a search on "men t-shirts" or "men apparel", they are less likely to find you.

Keyword search engine optimization is one the most effective ways to increase your website traffic, without any money out of your pocket. I tell you, this really works. Once I learned this from an internet market expert, one of my sites shot up way over 100% when it came to search engine traffic.

So check into and have your web designer optimize your site to bring in new traffic each day. It works!

Peace,
C.F. Jackson
Won`t Be Denied! Because What I Want MATTERS 

I`ve toyed with doing a Real Estate advertising business for some time now. One of my thoughts is to do home video tours of homes. I think there`d be a decent market for this, but it is slow in coming. (I`ve looked at other`s websites who do this.) I still own my domain name for this site, realestatevideoads.com. Doing basically a web only biz for advertising though, I believe, is tough. I can see it in my future, later down the road.

For now though, I want to do a real estate advertising catalog. Just like your local Homes and Land, and Real Estate Guide, but better. My catalog will be for personal sellers, renters, time shares, etc. I want them to have the opportunity to do full color photos, multiple photos on a page, and even do full page ads. The catalog will be free, and I`m thinking of having at the doors of Wal-mart, (you know where the free mag`s/newsletters are), and places like that for ease of getting it out to as many people as possible.

Of course, a website will go hand in hand with this catalog of homes. It will be a very local thing to begin with as well. I will also sell advertising space to some local home repair, small time realtors, etc.

So here`s some of my own notes:

The Market it self:

FSBO

Local, small Realtors

Time shares

Rental properties

Apartments/condos

Rooms for rent

Income Sources:

Home advertising

Small home repair biz advertising

Possible other services advertising

Fee for going to home for photography/video

Expenses:

Printing costs

Website fees

Marketing

Driving expenses

Equipment purchases

Foreseeable Problems:

Getting the magazines out

Website design

Videography

Finding a printer for small circulation

Competition by Realtors

How/when do people renew their ads

I feel like this is a good idea, but thought I`d run it by the SuN community here. I feel it`s a better fit for me. I`ve played in RE before, and don`t like the selling/buying process my self, hence why I see this as a need. I`ve run a small business having to manage drop shipments, supplier issues, and inventory issues, and I really don`t want to go there again.

I`m working on a biz plan, and doing the 10 step thing here on SuN. This biz will be started part time.

It looks like you have put a lot of thought into this!
I had a client who did a similar magazine, but oriented towards parents. His printing costs were  high, and he spent quite a bit of time soliciting new advertisers. However, he became profitable in a fairly short amount of time.

I think you have a pretty good shot at it. Before you go to print I would find out what kind of circulation your advertisers are going to want. Find out where besides Walmart you can distribute your magazine. Try and pre-sell some advertising and at the same idea get an idea of what it will cost you to print and distribute the magazine so you will know what you need to charge for advertising.

And of course, set up your accounting system early so it will be there for you when you become outrageously successful!