WE'VE MOVED!

We are proud to announce our NEW community destination. Engage with resident experts and fellow entrepreneurs, and learn everything you need to start your business. Check out the new home of StartupNation Community at startupnation.mn.co

Please review my site www.kathartis.com

2»

Comments

  • VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member

    Videography-Thats`s a great idea to test cameras! I don`t have a Best Buy around here. I tried your trick at Circuit City ........

    Around this area (North of Boston) the store is referred to Circus City due to the clowns that work there.  I am surprised that you found someone who knows what a digital camera is.  Too bad that you seem to have run into the same problem.  The Circuit City in San Jose, CA was staffed by much more competent people.
    Is there a CompUSA in your area?
  • BillMBillM subscriber Posts: 0
    I agree with the photo problems. Some of them (maybe they are hanging on burl-wood) I thought were being held by crippled flipper hands. Creepy.
    Are you dead set on the names for the pieces? I don`t know your line well, but do the extra-long names help?
    It seems to me that you need some volume. I don`t know how often or how much you produce, but it`s unlikely you are going to get repeat customers unless you get them to go the consulting and custom route. Any thought of co-marketing with other artists to bulk up your site a bit? There`s a power in the sort of feedback you get with multiple `stalls`. That`s why flea markets work. Consider a related line if you are worried about competition.
    Bill M
    www.william.morrison.name
  • KathartisKathartis subscriber Posts: 1
    Videography-
    No CompUSA around here.
     
    Bill-
    It`s driftwood, but I guess I can see how you see creepy and not beautiful like I do!
     
    Extra long names?  80% of my names are one word 15% have two words and 5% have three or more. The custom pieces have longer names for specific reasons but their custom.  What`s the reasoning for avoiding longer names?  All of my jewelry comes with "story cards" that give the name, description and flavor text. Many of my sales are closed just because of what something was named!
     
    Volume is a problem currently. It won`t be for long, as I have made the move to do this full time which should up my production substantially.  Most of my sales are at art/craft shows and commissions already, Just trying to build the web business now to expand my audience.
     
    I don`t know how I would put other artists up on my site, by commission? Co-op?  Does anyone in SUN make this multi-stall idea work and could give me advice?  It`s been my experience that it`s hard to work with multiple artists because you get "too many cooks in the kitchen" syndrome. Everyone has an opinion and it`s hard to achieve that single strong voice branding that`s necessary for a business to succeed.
  • infiltainfilta subscriber Posts: 8
    Katherine, you started this topic over 2 months ago now. And you got quite valuable feedback here, but doesn`t seem like you actually did anything about it - such as menu colors, your top navigation, news on the home page... So I wonder, what was the point of asking the question? Or was it just a way to get some extra traffic to your site? If I were you I would listen to what people here were suggesting because a lot of it is right stuff which would make your site look better and as a result possibly increase your sales.
  • KathartisKathartis subscriber Posts: 1
    infilta-
    Looking for what I need to change and having time to change it are two related but completely different things.  I have made a huge laundry list of things that were suggested and have been evaluating what I can do and what is just going to have to wait. 
     
    Photography seems quite dependent on what type of camera I have. But I`m still experimenting to see if what I can get with my current camera can be any better.  As I find breakthroughs I`ll probably post here to see what SUN thinks of the new photos.
     
    As for the rest of the great change suggestions, most of them are programming dependent. I unfortunately rely on someone else to make those changes.  They are made at their schedule not mine.  If I had the thousand`s of dollars to hire someone like you and a professional photographer I would totally do it in a heartbeat. I appreciate what a professional brings to the table in speed of changes and clear direction.
     
    Why shouldn`t I pursue more information on some excellent recent posts? Having multiple artists in theory is a GREAT idea, but it would be another massive web infrastructure change for me so I can`t do it on the fly. 
     
    I don`t do web design all day like you do. Some of us have to take our time and wait to have the resources available to make changes. I don`t appreciate being called a waste of the forum`s time or posting merely to gain traffic. 
     
    I have listened and responded to every post on this topic. I`ve added lots of suggestions to my list of things I want to do and I will do them. Just not tomorrow.  When the changes are done I`ll start another topic and go through the whole process again with the same supportive people I started it with.
  • infiltainfilta subscriber Posts: 8
    Katherine, sorry, I didn`t say or imply that you waste forum time. That was a misunderstanding.
  • VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member
    "Looking for what I need to change and having time to change it are two related but completely different things."My website is in need of radical change, and I`ve taken over a year to get there.  (A move across the country and a five month hospitalization didn`t help either).I think that Katherine said earlier that this was not a full-time business yet, but having the site online, even with some flaws, does help her in search engine rankings.We`re looking forward to seeing your changes, Katherine.
  • infiltainfilta subscriber Posts: 8
    I have guessed it`s not a full time business or primary source of income for Katherine. Otherwise she wouldn`t wait for months to get something simple done.
    The thing is that there seems to be a number of better e-commerce platforms she could use that would look better then her current site even without a lot of tweaking plus be more search engine friendly. For example, Magento Commerce - it`s free and powerful and sites that use it look great. All you`d need would be to make a custom template and set up the back end right and you could do it for very very reasonable money, probably all of it under $1k. I don`t do that but there`s probably a ton of freelancers who could.
Sign In or Register to comment.