Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello,

I am asking for some feeded back on my new site. I own and operate a online flower and gift studio. I am opening a store in Bucktown that is im the heart of Chicago.

Let me know your thoughts.

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olville@bloominglilies.com

oops!

www.bloominglilies.com

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olville@bloominglilies.com

Hi Olville,

I thought your site was attractive and easy to navigate.  I would recommend a home page link on your navigation bar.  Some inexperienced users might not know to click the logo to return to the home page.

I didn`t spend a lot of time on your site, but I did notice several typos.  The "Sweetest" special had one on the word sweetest.  And, your About Us page had several. 

Anyway, I thought your site looked very professional.

Best regards,

Dave

 

 

 

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Dave Bosely
Managing Director
www.ArtworkOnTile.com
Fine Art on Ceramic, Porcelain, Tumbled Marble and Glass

Thanks for the feedback Dave.

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olville@bloominglilies.com

I completely agree with TileMaker. I know that`s the easy way out of
commenting, but really I thought exactly the same.

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

The site looks good however I would recommend changing a few things...
1.  I would come up with a logo. Even if you use a different font and make it an image.
2.  I would decrease the height of the header (green background) as it draws too much attention away from your products).  Maybe by 2/3.

Otherwise, looks like you are on your way!

Shauno

Thanks for the feedback.

I made a few changes. And look foward to more feedback.

 

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olville@bloominglilies.com

Hi

Keep in mind that I am by no stretch of the imagination a web designer. That said,

1. You are wasting prime real state on the top of your site, to the right of your flower there is about 1/5 of the screen with nothing but greenish background.
   
   
2. Your ‘about us’ page says nothing about you or the people behind the operation, IMO this area is were you introduce yourself or your staff to the public, make yourself real to them, put a face to the site and a name to that face.
   
   
3. I like the small picture on the help section, if that is you or one of your employees great, put her name ‘Annie’ on the alt section, if she is not put a real person there.
   
   
4. Your ‘Weekly raffle’ would concern me, don’t know if you know this and are already in compliance or not, but thought I put it here as a ‘heads-up’ nonetheless. This applies to Georgia law but I’m certain most states have similar statutes, you can read the whole post on this answer
   

If you`re operating as a non-profit, you`re free to operate a raffle under Georgia law.  GA ST § 16-12-22.1.   The law is pretty specific:  "[O]nly nonprofit, tax- exempt churches, schools, civic organizations, or related support groups; nonprofit organizations qualified under Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended; or bona fide nonprofit organizations approved by the sheriff, which are properly licensed pursuant to this Code section shall be allowed to operate raffles."  [2]     Otherwise, if you`re operating as a plain-old for-profit you have some hefty rules to follow.   Georgia State Law § 16-12-36, defines `Promotional Contests`      (a) A promotional or giveaway contest which conforms with the             qualifications of a lawful promotion specified in paragraph (16) of subsection        &a mp;a mp;n bsp;         &a mp;a mp;n bsp;         &a mp;a mp;n bsp;         &a mp;a mp;n bsp;        (b) of Code Section 10-1-393 shall not be a lottery.      (b) Except as provided in subsection (a) of this Code section, all promotions or promotional contests involving an element of chance in the distribution of prizes, gifts, awards, or other items which otherwise meet the definition of a "lottery" in this article shall be included within the definition of the term "lottery" for purposes of this article, unless specifically exempted by some other statute or law. [3]       Now you`re asking, what are the magical rules one must follow to be a promotion?  Well GA ST § 10-1-393 (the referenced statute) goes into a whole litany of things you can`t do, or what you _can_ do to avoid doing something illegal.  Its rather daunting. I record first the full statute, so you can read the full letter of the law without searching.  I`ve then broken it down and summarized a bit.  I`m not a lawyer, this is cursory, and I don`t profess to be an expert on Georgia law.   This is mostly just a service to make more sense of this.

Overall a nice site, well done.

Elí

Eli,

Thanks for the heads up. My partner brought this raffle idea to us. We are going to talk with our lawyer to get advice about this.

Thank you for looking at my site.

 

Olville

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olville@bloominglilies.com

I`m a huge fan of white space. I think too many sites are just way to "cramped," to use a word. But this site actually has too much white space in my opinion! :-)

Still, it`s a great site, and easy to navigate. The logo at the top is the `home` button, too, but I`d agree with others in wanting to see a "Home" item on your main menu.

I also think you could do something with that empty top banner. If nothing else, put in your 1-800 number (if you have one?) or phone order number.

You also should have the Visa/MC/AMEx logos under the Certification seal, at the bottom of your menu bar, so people know you take credit cards You could also have the PayPal logo, for the same reason. (I like your shopping cart, though, and the option of returning customer or new person.)

I`d like the description moved up into or under the gray box below the price. I almost missed the description of some items, until I saw where you put them. Make the font a tad larger too, for us old farts with out-of-date glasses! :-)

However, I DO have a major gripe! Although it`s clever to have your home page change every time there`s a refresh or re-visit, it`s annoying as hell! I was looking at one offering in close-up, then returned to see something more about it..and it was gone!!

What about a large button with some text, "Browse our offerings" and "Click to see more." Then, have a "Browse our store" menu item over on the main menu? I want to control when the page changes.

This would be like reading a menu at a restaurant as I`m talking with a friend I met for lunch, then having the waiter come along and take it out of my hands. Or hovering, "Are you ready to order NOW?!" I`d like to take my time, looking at things and thinking about them.