Can someone look at my sites

[Alana]

I made some changes to Alana's Cherished Treasures on the home page.  I still have to get more work on the sizing there done, but besides the stretch, can anyone tell me if they like the home page on Cherished or my book store better?  I would also like any other info you want to share, including the good, bad, and the ugly.  I am doing a lot of work on these sites right now including tons of content revisions.

But which one looks more appealing for a home page?


Alana

[The Bar Keep]

Hi Alana,

I love both of your sites. If it were me I would stretch both of them out but make sure you apply the same changes to your header and top tool bar to make it look more uniform. I know this was about the Cherished site but I think your other site would look better if you apply those same changes. The new featured products section looks great.

Hope this helps for now and I will be watching to see if I can recommend more when time allows.


 

[Alana]

wow thanks for the feedback, I think Cherished looks better too, honestly, never would want to go to a store and have all that text to read, but I am still new at it.

I set up Cherished almost 2 years ago and Books a year ago this month. The lady who helped me with Cherished told me lots of text, content is king.  Honestly, who reads it??? I don't LOL.  I think if buyers are interested in a specific piece of info I could easily title it and link it for them.

So I am revising my articles and adding them to my Information pages. 


Thanks so much for your feedback.  I just don't want this thing to scroll.

Alana

[QUILT]

Okay I am a bit confused, but I did stop by both of the links found here.  The one store looked very nice.  The other link looked like a blog.

[Alana]

Thanks quilt, they are both working fine.  My blog is added on the bottom of the pages.  Not sure if that was what you were talking about or not.


I did revise both home pages, since I posted this.


Alana

[2boysandtoys]

Alana - I love both of them!!!!  I sat here and flipped between them and actually, like the books/mags background better.  This may be due to the banner and the color alignment between the two.  I am a huge fan of pink - so love the other one also.  But - based on what you sell and your graphics being of 'vintage' and 'times ago', my eye/mind prefer the more muted background!

You've done fantastic!  I just did a quick glance at the front page - so if there's something else 'non-technical' - I can share my thoughts....I'll leave the techie and zen and other to the experts!   

[Alana]

Thanks Erin, still struggling with getting my border lines to show, but I feel I am getting there, and think it looks a little better without all the text I used to have in there. 


Alana

[2boysandtoys]

Alana - I'll always give feedback on the look, feel, etc. and speed - - - when it comes to all that 'technical stuff' - I'm so super numpty!!  But...I know that I'm soon gonna be educated!! 

You've done a great, great job - I do love your art and how it makes the sites align with your offerings!!!  I can tell that you've spent a ton of time and love making it special for your buyers and guests!! 

[Alana]

Erin has anyone told you that you need to open a website?   


You know you do!  LOL


Yes they are a lot of work and tweaking, I set up for updates on my dedicated hosting account for 11PM and guess what? They did it today at 11AM, and shut me completely down and took me off the map for over two hours in the middle of the day.


I think you will find a whole lot of new people, places, and things to deal with running your own websites.  But the rewards are the absolute best.

You need to find a place to call home someday girl! 



Alana

[2boysandtoys]

I know Alana.....due to some recent events, I did update my website today.  I'm so 'ashamed', I don't even fly my banner but it had some links pointing to places that I no longer go to so had to do it!!

It's nothing more than a landing page, to redirect!  My biggest 'unknown' is ... will I ever get it done?  This time of year for me stinks - and will thru the end of the year.  The holidays are huge for us and I've got people coming left/right for various time intervals and then my 'slow time in Q1.  Once we get into March, I play ball thru November, and both boys do the same thru Sept./Oct.

I've got so darn many questions and so little time and then more than 10k items (rarely duplicates) that are 'not aligned'.  So - when I start 'thinking' - I get stuck in just the planning phase.....

I want to, but fear and lack of time hold me back!!

[Alana]

I am going to give you a little boost here, take with a grain of salt. 

The time you spend on all these other auction sites and venues listing and so forth is really time cut in half if your doing your own website.  Yes it is a little more work, but from what I read from you in so many post, you need to get back in charge of your online selling business and there is no better way that I know to do that, but to run your own business your own way and that can be done on your own website.

You have to ask yourself, is dealing with all the headaches of other venues that still have a big bite in the way you run or not run your sites worth more than doing your own website?  I think if your heart is in supporting other auction sites, that's great, but it might not give you a regular customer base as you can get on a website.

My personal experience is that I find some great items on some of those other venues and I enjoy having met some great people like you on them, but my buyers on my websites aren't going to auction sites for what I sell. 

Ebay is huge, and they aren't even shopping there.  They could buy a vintage apron off Ebay for 3 bucks, but they are buying mine on my website for 15 bucks.  Ebay isn't something no one has ever heard of.  So if I am making sales on my own website for the same items found on auction sites, what does that tell me?

I do not have to be in the flea market mentality like Ebay to sell what I sell which I do have a love and passion for. I do not have to devalue what I believe is valuable just to make a quick buck off Ebay.

So I would tend to agree that auctions just aren't as big as buy it nows and finding a reputable web store to keep coming back too.

I wish I had more positive experiences on auction sites, but honestly, I don't notice a whole lot of outside buyers that are going there. I do see a lot of sellers buying from sellers, which isn't too shabby, they are customers. Not sure if you can get them off the auction site to order off your website or not, but a buyer is a buyer. But I feel I limit myself to a certain group on auction sites and rather or not my buyer who comes out of nowhere off a Google search for something I sell, might be turned off to have to go through all the leaps and bounds to buy my stuff on another venue.

I am looking at long term business plans here, and I think I would prefer to brand myself and do all I can to keep things running smoothly and see the long term pay offs rather than depend on another venue that may or may not be around for the long haul.

Those Zen carts are free I believe so there isn't a lot of money involved, but it does require a big commitment to make it work and a whole lot of rethinking what you want your business to be. I would have to say from my experience on some of the other venues, I find many of them hard to list and load images and basically just hard to do checkout on.  My website is not as hard to run as I have found in some auction sites and other venues.  It is actually easier.

On my websites, I am not sharing with a ton of other unrelated products and sellers and dealing with their reputations or not.  When a buyer goes to my site, they are dealing with my product and only my product, they do not see any other sellers items and they do not have to bid on it to get it. They do not see me as an Ebay seller, they see me as a individual seller of vintage collectibles and they can email me for more information and they get to receive an email back without having to sign up somewhere to get that email.

So like I said, you got a lot to offer Erin but time is an issue for you, and maybe even a little fear of the unknown.  Just get in there and take the plunge girlfriend. You know your thinking about it.  LOL


Alana

[vinewood]

On my websites, I am not sharing with a ton of other unrelated products and sellers and dealing with their reputations or not.  When a buyer goes to my site, they are dealing with my product and only my product, they do not see any other sellers items and they do not have to bid on it to get it. They do not see me as an Ebay seller, they see me as a individual seller of vintage collectibles and they can email me for more information and they get to receive an email back without having to sign up somewhere to get that email.

So like I said, you got a lot to offer Erin but time is an issue for you, and maybe even a little fear of the unknown.  Just get in there and take the plunge girlfriend. You know your thinking about it.  LOL

   that is all   true  ,  after the site is sent up ,  it is all gravey  from then on  !!!

   the sooner u have one the better  , as u can  foward your traffic from auction sites to  your website !!!!

[2boysandtoys]

I know....I know!!!!!  Ho-hummmmmmm - I just gotta 'do it'....

[Alana]

Erin: I can't wait for the day when Two Boys has their own little spot on the internet.  The things your imagination and positive support for others could put into such a site just overwhelms me with possibilities for marketing and sales.


You got the social personality going on, your website would be amazing.

[Baysbeauty]

Alana, I love what you have done so far to your sites!  Great Job Girlfriend!

And yes I too would love to see Erin get her own site and I think in time it will happen, but as of now she is having really good sales on a few sites where she is.