Our new web site just launched

[genek]

We have been working on a new web site. It just Launched a few minutes ago. go to www.tgdesigns.net and let us know what you think.

[Tim Lucas]

Nice looking site !

[genek]

Thanks I still have lots of product and new pictures to re-take as I cut the product again.
This company is the easiest that I have found to for me to manage my own web site.

[Brian Harnett]

I would suggest compressing your pictures, the one under handcrafted is 4.2 megabytes I am on satellite its slower than dsl and has a bandwidth cap, I stopped before it loaded after waiting almost a minute. computer screens do not need that resolution a 80 kb picture would look the same and load in seconds.

[cr2]

2x to this. Remember that customers are only one click away from going somewhere else. Pictures should be no bigger than 100-150 kb for fast loading.
The content looks great, but I don't care for the stark white background. Some texture would soften it and look nicer....IMHO.

[harold_weber]

Gene, a few comments.

Gray Hound should be Greyhound.

Yourshire should be Yorkshire.

You need to include the Papillon breed.

Presumably you're doing these with a laser?? If you have a way to bring the laser to dog shows so you could put the dogs' names on the ornaments while people waited, I think you would a very good sale. Dog show locations and days are listed on the AKC web site.

[genek]

Harold thanks just corrected those. Papillon is included Most of this work I do late at night, Just started building this site a week ago.. I have been in a rush to get it up and running... This web hosting is the easiest I have seen... They even help you.. (you do pay for some help) but it is worth it. I still have tons of product to get out there. With Tina being almost blind all the work falls to me to get done and checked. Hard checking ones self. Should anyone see a mistake let me know. thanks

[genek]

Papillon is on page four of the dogs. I went back and made sure... I have over 100 breeds to list thought maybe I had forgotten that one.

[genek]

Brian when I get home tonight will change that. Did not know this.. thanks.

[genek]

yes I do the dog ornaments with a laser... No dog shows close to us. Would love to have a customer that goes and sets up at dog shows... Mostly the dogs sale local and to customers that retail. I have several military bases that the dogs are sold on. Big item with the military.

[genek]

not sure what you are calling the white background is this around everything... the carousal pictures are old. Plan on re-taking those pictures as soon as the next show is over which is next weekend.

[tri4sale]

Papillon is on page four of the dogs. I went back and made sure... I have over 100 breeds to list thought maybe I had forgotten that one.

Much better than your old site. I don't like that many pages to sort through to find the wanted dog. Could either have a master list showing all dogs, or a pull down list to highlight the wanted dog, make it much faster to find.

And couple of empty categories make the site look unfinished (which it may still be a work in progress) but whenever I go to a site to shop and see that it turns me off. Be better to not even list the empty categories till you have something to put in them.

Just my opinion and I'm sure there are lots of people who would disagree on my take.

[David Iannone]

Eugene, Looking good. What software are you using and who is hosting the site?

Thanks,
Dave

[genek]

bigcommerce.com not sure of the software. this platform is much easier to set up than any I have found.

[genek]

With this site ( I think is the only way) I am adding pictures as I get them ready and have time to post.. I still have over 50 to 100 items to add. The dogs are in alphabetical order. There is a search bar to find the dogs etc. I will be adding items and pictures every day.. the few Items that don't have pictures right now My normal wholesale customers know what they look like and at this time I am out of stock on them.. I still have to add the patterns in for everything that I offer patterns in. I have not even started there yet. I have lots of work still to do.

[genek]

I will be adding the patterns to the web site this weekend, (provided I get time) I plan on adding some horses and a few other things plus finish the pictures. I also have to go pick up a car trailer, I have to move the Farm tractor next week.. I have to do some work on the hydraulic system.. someone took the filler cap off and water got into the system and froze and busted the hydraulic pump.. Think it was one of my nephews playing around...

[genek]

cr2 would you please elaborate on the white I am not sure what you are meaning,, is it around all objects on the web or the carousel pictures that you are referring to . I want advice I want the best web site I can have.

[genek]

WE ARE STILL ADDING PRODUCT. TO VIEW GO TO www.tgdesigns.net

[tri4sale]

cr2 would you please elaborate on the white I am not sure what you are meaning,, is it around all objects on the web or the carousel pictures that you are referring to . I want advice I want the best web site I can have.

I think he is referring to all around the objects on the web page.

here's a screen capture of your front page from my computer, lots and lots of white space around everything.
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=24792&stc=1


and here's the dog ornament page, lots of white space around the pictures, and overall white space dominates the page.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=24793&stc=1

With the dark image backgrounds against the stark white page background, it's a little harsh looking.

Take a look at http://tattly.com/collections/animals and see how the images all blend into the white back ground, it's not a sharp contrast between website back ground and what you are selling. I prefer the items for sale on a white background, especially when the website back ground is white so that the image background doesn't clash with website background. Here is a picture I used on a site a while back, the button is the focus and blended in with the item next to it, same button just different color.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=24794&stc=1

One thing to think about on your pictures is to watermark them somehow, I've seen lots of people steal pictures to sell same items on ebay or their own websites.

The above is my opinion and preferences, everyone will have their own views, and is not to be interpreted as a negative on what you've done.

[tri4sale]

Wow those pictures ended up a lot bigger than I expected!

[cr2]

cr2 would you please elaborate on the white I am not sure what you are meaning,, is it around all objects on the web or the carousel pictures that you are referring to . I want advice I want the best web site I can have.

Eugene,
I answered your PM before I saw the question here, so I'll post it here too just to clear up any confusion. I was referring to the color theme of the site. This shopbot forum uses dark blue, light blue, a light magenta, and gray. To me the colors of the background make a site more attractive.

[genek]

I Have been working on the site let me know how this looks... Remember Tina is legally blind, and iI am not good at color match, i described the colrs..

[genek]

WE have just posted our mission statement, about us and our manor statement. let me know how this is.

[Mayo]

Hi Eugene
Over all looking good. Couple things I noticed:
You have religious spelled incorrectly every place you have used it. I think I counted five places.

The gray and light blue backgrounds look good however on my monitor it makes certain words on your pages almost disappear because they are very close to the same color. These are the "compare" text and the additional page numbers on items where you have multiple pages. Also the wording at the very top right - My Account, Gift Certificates, Wish Lists, Sign In or Create an Account. They should have more contrast to be seen easier. These are just little tweaks but would help.

I'm not sure you should have an apostrophe in AMERICAN HERO'S.


It's a lot of work and time to input all the product photos and text and make sure it all functions.
Hang in there - you're almost done!

[dmidkiff]

Looking good Eugene, but I agree with Mayo about the contrast to make things easier to see. Try to always double check for spelling.

[genek]

I corrected the miss spelled word where I left out the i.. on the text that is light, I can not change that. I have a work order put in to have that changed. The tech support that I talked to today tried to change but the system is locked higher up on that so he put in a work order to change that.
Thanks keep looking it is hard to see one's own mistakes, so thanks for finding and pointing them out to me. need all the help I can get since Tina is blind and can not read the web site.

here is what got back from tech support

Dear Eugene,

Thanks for reaching out to the Bigcommerce Support Team! We know you need your online store working perfectly in order to make sales, so we’ll get back to you as soon as possible with a solution to your problem or some followup questions.

In case you need to talk to anyone about this issue, your Ticket Number is 01920505.
Store URL: tgdesigns.net
Case Subject: Changing button color

Description:



Your Friendly Support Rep

[genek]

by the way the photo(mission statement) of me planning wood made me look like I was pregnant.. lol actually 9 months I guess I was having a elephant .

[tri4sale]

The grey background is much easier on the eyes now.

Not a fan of the mix use of Caps / non-caps for links. I personally think it should be consistent throughout the site, either use all caps or just cap the first letter. Since your item names are all caps I would have the links be all caps to for consistency on the site.

Should American Hero's be "American Heroes" as Hero's is possessive tense. You use "heros" on the item page, I think this is technically correct spelling, but I've always seen it as "Heroes" (and my auto-spellchecker wants to change heros to heroes)

[genek]

Either form is correct Heroes is the plural from of Hero. Hero's is the possessive form of Hero. We really could use either word. since these are items that a a hero might want to possess, we chose this form of the word. Tina chose that form for the caps... I did not want it the way it is but I have to keep her happy. ...lol Please do not take this wrong,, just explaining why Tina chose some of the wording and How things looks.

[bleeth]

Eugene:
Besides the inconsistency in capitalization there are a lot of spelling and grammar errors.
If you e-mail me your copy in word format I'll be glad to straighten it out.
On line spell and grammar checkers are not what they are cracked up to be.

Dave

[tri4sale]

Either form is correct Heroes is the plural from of Hero. Hero's is the possessive form of Hero. We really could use either word. since these are items that a a hero might want to possess, we chose this form of the word. Tina chose that form for the caps... I did not want it the way it is but I have to keep her happy. ...lol Please do not take this wrong,, just explaining why Tina chose some of the wording and How things looks.

No worries on my taking it wrong, I didn't want you to take it wrong with my comments, just trying to be helpful.

See you changed the caps on American Hero's. On bottom of page, About us, Manor of Work, Our Mission are all caps and the rest is lowercase, those should probable match too.

[genek]

Eugene:
Besides the inconsistency in capitalization there are a lot of spelling and grammar errors.
If you e-mail me your copy in word format I'll be glad to straighten it out.
On line spell and grammar checkers are not what they are cracked up to be.

Dave
Dave I do not know how to take it from the web site as a word document.. Where is the miss spelling, I thought I had gotten all of them. What Grammar errors???

[genek]

No worries on my taking it wrong, I didn't want you to take it wrong with my comments, just trying to be helpful.

See you changed the caps on American Hero's. On bottom of page, About us, Manor of Work, Our Mission are all caps and the rest is lowercase, those should probable match too.
Thanks will go change that also.

[genek]

No worries on my taking it wrong, I didn't want you to take it wrong with my comments, just trying to be helpful.

See you changed the caps on American Hero's. On bottom of page, About us, Manor of Work, Our Mission are all caps and the rest is lowercase, those should probable match too.
just changed that part also... Made it look like what the web company had.

[tri4sale]

Looks better.

Question on your photos, are you using any sort of Lighting Box / Lighting Kit when you take your pictures, or just the room light or camera flash? They can help cut down on uneven lighting on your items, get rid of some shiny areas (some of the dog ornament photos have a shiny gleam from light on them while other's don't) The photos are the most critical part of selling on the web, as they are pretty much the only thing new buyer's can go by when looking online.

[genek]

No worries on my taking it wrong, I didn't want you to take it wrong with my comments, just trying to be helpful.

See you changed the caps on American Hero's. On bottom of page, About us, Manor of Work, Our Mission are all caps and the rest is lowercase, those should probable match too.

Don't worry about hurting my feelings,, I know it is hard to see and correct ones typo's ect..

[genek]

Looks better.

Question on your photos, are you using any sort of Lighting Box / Lighting Kit when you take your pictures, or just the room light or camera flash? They can help cut down on uneven lighting on your items, get rid of some shiny areas (some of the dog ornament photos have a shiny gleam from light on them while other's don't) The photos are the most critical part of selling on the web, as they are pretty much the only thing new buyer's can go by when looking online.
Room light and the camera flash.. I had to get this up and running. I know the pictures really need re-done and that I have scheduled to take a class on taking top notch pictures with a photographer teacher. I took all the pictures except the carousal ones in less than a day. Some of the time the sun came in a window that is in a dormer on me.

[tri4sale]

Room light and the camera flash.. I had to get this up and running. I know the pictures really need re-done and that I have scheduled to take a class on taking top notch pictures with a photographer teacher. I took all the pictures except the carousal ones in less than a day. Some of the time the sun came in a window that is in a dormer on me.

Well worth the investment to take the class and invest in the right equipment. Site is coming along, and they are never truly done :( Sometimes you end up spending more time on getting it up and running and updating it that you have to be careful it doesn't eat into too much production and making money time!

I'm just waiting on you to put the plans up and you to run your Kickstarter campaign.

[genek]

Well worth the investment to take the class and invest in the right equipment. Site is coming along, and they are never truly done :( Sometimes you end up spending more time on getting it up and running and updating it that you have to be careful it doesn't eat into too much production and making money time!

I'm just waiting on you to put the plans up and you to run your Kickstarter campaign.

can't let it eat up production time... too far behind do to the weather as it is... But the web site is starting to take a toll on me. Normally I do all the work on it at night or the weekend. I told Tina Sunday morning that I have to take a day off. I'm working all day in the shop, and to 12 and 1 at night on web site and new designs. If I learn to do Photography well enough I will post how to do here and offer it as a free class.

[genek]

Eugene:
Besides the inconsistency in capitalization there are a lot of spelling and grammar errors.
If you e-mail me your copy in word format I'll be glad to straighten it out.
On line spell and grammar checkers are not what they are cracked up to be.

Dave

Dave on replying to you I forgot to tell you all the typing was done on the web site... I have word but I do not know how to get it all over to word so I could send it to you.. I am still learning things about the computer and the web site. lol.. I may be slow, old, dumb and tired but I finally get there with lots of help from my friends (like you) .. lol.. thanks.