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Tell me what ya think!!

aedwards1983aedwards1983 subscriber Posts: 1
edited September 2008 in Website Critique
Ok I`m a little scared. I read some of the others and you guys be a little strong.. But take a look.... Country Candles and Crafts 
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    WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member
    I love the color scheme and the graphics .... it is well suited to your product, with the "country" feel to it.
    Visually, I would change the font on the left menu, or at least make it a little smaller; it crowds the area that the text is in. The font on the green background doesn`t show up too strongly so maybe a lighter color would be better.
    I would get rid of the "Welcome ....." text, and the "Thank you so much..." text. It almost feels like you`re sucking up to your visitors. Clarify what you offer instead, and make it a strong message. Emphasize the "hand poured, quality ingredients, even burn" etc. features ... in other words, sell us on your product before thanking us for stopping by.
    Your mailing list .... why should someone join? State what will be in them, how often you send them, etc.
    Refine your page title, at least on the main page. Get rid of the splash page .... it`s not doing anything beneficial. Check your code for h1/h2 tags ( not any, I don;t think ), img alt tags, etc. Basic SEO would be beneficial.
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    chefamychefamy subscriber Posts: 2
    I wrote some thoughts and lost them somehow so I will shorten
    Don`t beg - please, hope, thank yous, it is too much especially on your introduction page
    The order of things is not good, home then view cart, I haven`t even seen the products
    Special is lost on the page, move to the what`s new part
    Are you really updating daily?
     
     
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    VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member
    I agree that the colors are nice and the site is easy to navigate.  You do have some unique products.  You should consider inviting ideas from the viewers.
    I don`t like center-justified text except in headlines.  For paragraph text it sucks.  It looks different for every viewer depending on how wide the browser window is on the user`s screen.
    Your landing page needs some copy write help.  Grammatically, you have inconsistent sentence spacing.  There should normally be two spaces after each paragraph, but you have 0, 1 and 2 spaces between various sentences.  The message itself needs to be more proactive.  Not about you and your product, but tell the viewer why your candles are so special and what they will add to their lifestyle, store or restaurant.
    Also on the landing page, please don`t start with  "WELCOME TO MY SITE".  It strikes me as amateurish.  Thank them after they place an order.  Also, the order of your banners at the bottom of the landing page are puzzling.  I wouldn`t bother with CopyScape - they can`t stop copying and it`s a bit rude to assume that your viewer is planning to steal your images or site pages.  I would drop the DIYeStores banner altogether since there is already a link to them at the bottom of the page.  Oh, visit counters are considered the mark of an amateur because they serve no purpose.  You should be using the free Google tools to track visitors far better than a visit counter. 
    That was me that canceled the order, but I wanted to see how it looked.
    You should give the buyer a better reason to "register".  Don`t call it that.  Just provide a "New Customer" button along with the "Returning Customer" (e-mail and password).
    All of your images are out of focus and your thumbnails are overcompressed.  If you paid someone to shoot them, then fire them.  If you did it yourself you need a better camera, like a DSLR.  Or you could find a Product Photographer (ahem) to shoot them for you.  You should use larger images on the order page (320X480) because your products just look too good to hide in a 100X75 thumbnail.
    Just sitting here I thought of a few target markets for you - how about a wedding reception with one of your candles made to the wedding theme on each table?  Google "Wedding Planners" and you`ll find a few hundred prospects or more....
    That didn`t hurt much, did it?Videography9/21/2008 8:58 PM
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    AJHOPEAJHOPE subscriber Posts: 0
    If you are a DIY webdesigner, I think you did a great job.  I`m not sure I could even give any suggestions.  I`ll definitely return for Christmas!
     
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    aedwards1983aedwards1983 subscriber Posts: 1
    Thanks everyone! Yes I`m a DIYweb designer. I will look forward to doing business with you.
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