I spent my holiday vacation time rebuilding my website
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I am very proud of how it came out. Lots of my woodworking projects shown.
It is a bit of a false front or faux site at the moment. Not much of an actual company behind it. I am going to venture out to try and get my Adirondack furniture into the retail market. So I built this site to help me pass the "sniff test" once I start approaching buyers.
I will only stay in my local region with the garden furniture. The product line/business probably can't scale to become full time for me, but I hope to make some cash to fund my dream of a woodworking kit business.
Let me know what you think if you have a spare moment.
Nice job. If I were you I would let people know that your images enlarge when clicked. You'd be surprised at the number of internet illiterate people I've met that wouldn't know to click on the small thumbnail images.
I am contemplating some kind of woodworking business as well. Due to my laid-off status it seems very attractive.
I used a free content management system called Joomla! and then I bought a template for $49 Then swapped in my own graphics, configured, etc.. It took some learning and I abandoned Go Daddy in the process and went over to an ISP that specializes in Joomla!. Joomla! has an awesome forum witha at least a dozen specifc categories and lots of traffic. Every question I have asked gets great answers.
Joomla is really setup to be a blog site or magaz> From: "Swingman"
I have to say that the site was damn impressive. NOT cluttered (good on 'ya!), easy to navigate, and everything worked. It was really professional in appearance since it was so clean.
I liked the detailing on the kits, too. It was a nice stroke to include the skill level needed, as well as most of the tools.
The only MINOR suggestion would be to put a human in some of the pictures for reference. When I do my inspection reports, I have found that measurements mean little to most people, even folks in the trades. So if you had a lovely volunteer stand by the work (you don't even have to put them all the way in the pic... just an arm and hand on the cabinet for example) to give some reference might help folks out.
I thought your nightstand was a small spice cabinet until I read your measurements. I had been looking at the clock kit and the brain didn't click over when I changed kits.
Yes, I lack any human face and I will add that just to give it a more pers> I have to say that the site was damn impressive. =A0NOT cluttered =A0(goo= d
Overall, nicely done. To pick a nit, the gray type is a little more difficult to read. I like the rough sawn board for your company name, but if you were to lighten it a shade, the name would stand out a bit better. Of course, if you go to light you lose some of the character. That said, both were fine when I increased the size to 125%. I wonder if people know you can do that, at least with my browser you can.
Are the prices for real? They seem very reasonable.
"In the case of these end tables when using pocket screw joinery the structural integrity is maintained once the item is completed unit with top and shelf attached."
Should be "is a completed unit" or actually "is completed with" would work too :)
I think the font size of the menu titles could be one larger, they look a little small compared to the size of the box they are in. And do you really need the login part? I didn't see anything where an account would be needed.
*Very* nice job. I really like the tables, too. You state a variety of materials but list only one price. Is there something I'm missing? What about shipping?
Thx, The text color came with the template. I'll leave it alone for now but I may try to darken it later. Also will play with the main top image eventually also.
I am going to try and keep these prices. I have jigs and fixtures that simply kill the labor. I did 50 chairs as a one man op and had less than an hour per chair. I am only offering 30% discount for smal customers, 40% for 50 or more pieces and only give them the full traditional 50% wholesale discount if they pay COD. I honestly don't know if I can make profit at the 50% point but at least I'll get my money back on day one.
I don't think over $100 bucks will fly when competing with rubber wood chairs coming from Brazil, etc. So I'll see if it works.
I actually make all my m> S> > I spent my holiday vacation time rebuilding my website
Thx for pointng out the typo. I call it a typo because I would have known this was wrong if I actually read it vs just writing it too fast. However, it was always a badge of honor as an engineering student to nearly fail any English courses, so I am sure there are lots o' problems. I do have an editor that will comb the whole site before I do my sales push.
No log> On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 13:45:00 -0800 (PST), "SonomaProducts.com"
On Tue, 5 Jan 2010 09:10:41 -0800 (PST), "SonomaProducts.com"
Actually, I was surprised at how low the prices were. The garden table and two benches I built the past two summers, cost me in excess of $800 just for the cedar alone. I wasn't looking for any profit, since they were a gift for a friend, but if I had been, I'd have gone broke before I'd have even started.
On Mon, 4 Jan 2010 13:45:00 -0800 (PST), the infamous "SonomaProducts.com" scrawled the following:
It looks very nice, professional. Some small usability suggestions follow:
The "fine bandcrafted products" text is hard to read. (Yes, I know it's an H but it looks like a B online.) I suggest a bolder logo text for your company name and subtitle.
Also, the gray text is awfully light. I highly recommend a darker text for more readability. You want to make it easy for people to stay interested.
Third, there is no way to buy furniture from you. Suggest eBay buttons with standardized shipping prices. You'll have to figure those out.
Fourth, the pics of custom furniture are wider than my screen, preventing me from seeing the arrow buttons on the bottom. I run 1024 wide, the 'standard' screen rez right now. Old folks with bad eyes (people who would be buying your furniture) run lower resolutions, so your pics might be two screens wide for them. I never design a site which is more than 800 pixels wide, usually limiting them to 760. Also, oging through the pictures required me to constantly shift the screen up and down to find the button. Smaller pics would allow a slide show without as much trouble. Allowing them to click on the pics for larger versions would be good, too.
I really like your 2-drawer A&C lamp tables, BTW. All of your quartersawn stuff was nice. (Jack London)
Assembly instructions for the Adirondack chair, step 2 lost its left margin and the S is up against the border bar. Add a under the "Now tighten all bolts." Ditto the margin problem with the T in Table Assembly below it.
How do you like working with Joomla? I'm considering it for my ancient and outdated site. ;)
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