Here is a link to my new wed site ( www.jbakercustomcues.com )that I custom built myself for free through microsoft. They host the site and even give you the domain name free for the first year. So let me know what you guys think good or bad..
New Web Site
- Thread starter JBCustomCues
- Start date
Now that you have it up, you have to tweak it. The biggest thing that jumps out are your pictures. They are not very good. The great thing about the net is you can really give the customer a huge amount of information at no cost. You have to take advantage of that. You need pictures that jump off the screen at the customer. They need to feel like the cue is right there. Anyone who has spent thousands and thousands of dollars on magazine ad's that can hardly convey anything, really appreciate the flexibility and power of a web site. Looking also at your shop tour photos they are not good. They need to dazzle. You don't want pictures that look like ebay pictures. People today have big monitors, mine is 22 inches, you can really show them something that gets their attention.
Also where you describe your screw as "South west style". That is not good. It first assumes the person knows what a South west screw is and second it does not give you any individuality. Maybe a picture of the screw would be better, with a small description of the screw and why you choose to use it.
The last thing is you domain address. You should never try to be too cleaver and it needs to be easy. I checked and I think Bakercues.com is available. I would register that name and it will be yours from now on. You may want to use an email address that is through your website and it is bests if it is just something like joe@bakercues.com
People don't even have to write it down.
I hope you take my comments in the spirit they are meant. They are just meant as food for thought. The last thing you want is just someone to tell you what you want to hear, that is not why you asked. I bet there is some real experts on here who can give all of us some real advice. I hope they chime in. A good website can be so powerful. It is your first line salesperson. It's the guy at the counter who knows all the stock and can answer questions. An employe who never takes sick days off or asks for a raise and makes the customer come back, "AND BUY"
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It's a good start for a basic site. The photos weren't the best that I have seen, but I didn't think they were that bad either, except for the "diablo" photo, which is too dark. I see that you've included your phone number, and think you might want to include your hours of operation, because you will get calls at all hours . . .
Lastly,
"I call this cue The Job Baker Diablo Breaker"
Did you really mis-spell your own name?
Must have been a late night.
Mr H
Lastly,
"I call this cue The Job Baker Diablo Breaker"
Did you really mis-spell your own name?
Must have been a late night.Mr H
It
Lastly,
"I call this cue The Job Baker Diablo Breaker"
Did you really mis-spell your own name?
Mr H
That is exactly why he asked. I can spend hours drafting a business letter only to have my wife glance at it and find things wrong. It is amazing how you need more then one pair of eyes no matter how hard you try.
I'll also suggest an "about the builder" section where you tell your customer about yourself. How long have you been building cues, what is your background, what kind of work do you like to do, how many cues do you make per year, what is your anticipated wait time, do you play pool, picture of yourself scrutinizing a work piece 
, how many digits have you lost so far, etc, etc.
Mr H
, how many digits have you lost so far, etc, etc.Mr H
A website has an interesting dynamic. in most cases it is all the customers actually knows about the person. You will never see a doctor or lawyer rent in space in some cheap strip center. They rent in professional complexes. They need to convey a perception of professionalism. Has nothing what so ever to do with how good a doctor or lawyer they are. It is all perception. It really cost nothing to have a knock out website. And by knock out I don't mean things spinning around, blinking and all kinds of gimmicks.I'll also suggest an "about the builder" section where you tell your customer about yourself. How long have you been building cues, what is your background, what kind of work do you like to do, how many cues do you make per year, what is your anticipated wait time, do you play pool, picture of yourself scrutinizing a work piece
Mr H
Forget those opening splash pages that people have to figure out how to by-pass. In general people hate those. A good, clean, easy to navigate, informative website that makes the customer want to at least give the owner a second look. There is a lot of competition out there and if you are even lucky enough to get someone to your website in the vast sea of websites you don't want to blow it. You have one chance to make a good impression before they may be gone forever.
Lastly,
"I call this cue The Job Baker Diablo Breaker"
Did you really mis-spell your own name?
Mr H
Thanks for pointing that out. Correction made.
Thanks for all the constructive criticism. Personally I thought that most the pics are pretty good. The only one I don’t like is the pic in the cues for sale section. I realize that it’s a bad one I just did not want to have a blank page. I plan on putting up a new pic tonight..
Nice site
Looks pretty good.It needs more history about you.Some one already said the zoom feature but overall very nice.
Looks pretty good.It needs more history about you.Some one already said the zoom feature but overall very nice.
NO NO NO. Just take a look at the for sale section on the web site. You will see some nice pictures. Also, I don't know for sure but because if it is a free site they may be degrading your pictures. On ebay if you use them as the picture host the pictures are awful. If you host them somewhere else and just use links you can have very nice pictures. You need to get a web host. Things for free you often get what you pay for. I use these people
http://www.web.com/
It is about $65.00 a year and you have web building software and lots of space along with email. They are good but there are others as well. You want to do it right, your website represents you. A good website is cheap compared to what it can do for you.
javascripting is the easiest way to impliment scripting like zooming without getting heavy into php or asp, but its still kinda complicated for the novice site builder. theres a billion free scripts out there, heres one: http://valid.tjp.hu/tjpzoom/
aside from scripting the easiest way is to thumbnail the images.
ex:
<a href="pics/cue1.jpg" target="new"><img border="0" width="100" height="50" src="pics/cue1.jpg"></a>
in the above example, the src img is the full size 8mb or whatever image and the href linked image is a display of that in a predefined width and height. so it shows a small one, but when you click on it, it open the large one in a new window as defined by the target.
Thanks Chris. I know that it is'nt much but it is definately better than the old one I had.
Good info. Pay attention to what mac said. He's right! Today technology is everything and don't think it isn't. Technology today on the net can be likened to "virtual atmosphere". You can create the environment on the website that people only had in their imaginations. And limited imagination I might add. <<<<< That's just a comment made off hand . If anyone would like to discuss this please do so elsewhere<<<<<<
Anyway mac does know of what he speaks. "Atmosphere is EVERYTHING!!!!!! My man.:thumbup:
Anyway mac does know of what he speaks. "Atmosphere is EVERYTHING!!!!!! My man.:thumbup: