My firstwebsite is up. Looking for feed back.

dereklee12

dereklee12

Well-Known Member
Hey all. I just finished up the "rough draft" of my website. I was hoping to get some feed back. Any advise on additions to my website would be very much appreciated. It should only take about 5 min to look through the whole thing since it is pretty bare. I just recently started taking pictures that wont embarrass me to much so there isn't much on there. Thanks
Derek Lee

http://derekleeknives.com
 
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Nice. It was slow to load initially, but that may be my rural, unpredictable connection. I'd like to see descriptions under fixed blades and kitchen knives, similar to what you have for the available knife.
 
Looks pretty good. Not to visually busy and no "rotating bagel art". :)
When going from one page to another, IE from your front page to "Fixed Blades": when clicking on an image in the gallery and hitting the browser back button, it goes from the enlarged image back to the previous page, the front page. Should go back to the "Fixed Blade" gallery page. That needs a fix. That's me using Fire Fox. May vary from browser to browser, but it shouldn't.
Images, when expanded are a bit too big and get grainy, but you did say you were working on image quality.
Get your ph# line on the same line as your name, if you're going to have it there. I'd ditch it and center your name. Not needed there as you have a "contact" section.
Plus you have "contact me" there and "contact 'us' " on your contact page. Bit schizophrenic. :)
Something I don't like is just having the "form" to send you an email on your contact page. I like your email address typed out so I can copy and paste it. And add your phone number there too.
I'm on a high speed cable connection and images are still a bit slow to load. You can't account for everyone like those on 56k dial up, as you'll have to sacrifice the quality of you site. But maybe shrinking the expanded image size a bit will help.
Front page info: should read, " ....knife making process in 'house' "
Should be "part-time"
Just something to consider would be to tighten up you info in your descriptions. Makes it easier for the speed viewer to get the info they want and move on. Example for your knife in the available section. A more concise version may be:

- 1095 High Carbon Drop Point
- Flat Ground
- Satin Finish
- Brown Canvas Micarta Scales
- 416 Stainless Pins
- Length: 9 1/4"
- Blade: 4 3/4"
- Includes Black Kydex Sheath
- $170 USD, includes continental U.S. shipping. Contact for shipping elsewhere.

This makes it a speedy read. Give them the pertinent info with the least words.

Your picture: I get it, your having fun, mugging for the camera. But others might not. Better to have a more neutral image, but doesn't have to be bland either. Maybe not a "selfy. Simple background. What you've got is good. Head and shoulders or full body. With the dog is good. Just a straight face or a nice smile. You want to appeal to the general masses. For the fun stuff, have a gallery on a "more about the maker" page. Images of you in the shop, with your dog, family, kids, participating in hobbies. Again, tells a story to potential buyers. Some love that stuff. Being a metal sculptor, I get people asking the weirdest sh*t.
Anyhow, this got a bit long. Hope you don't take this the wrong way. I don't like B.S.'ing. This is your business and it's important. I'm pretty blunt. Others will chime in to hopefully with good advise. These were all just my opinions based on my learning. I've got a design nut that did my page and it's used as an example of good web design. www.wingnutdesigns.com , if you care to look. :3:
 
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Looks like you have a fine start. Its concise and easy to negotiate. The pictures look nice. Well done.
 
This was the one thing I thought would help but had no idea how to say it.

Quote: Bert the Welder
"Your picture: I get it, your having fun, mugging for the camera. But others might not. Better to have a more neutral image, but doesn't have to be bland either. Maybe not a "selfy. Simple background. What you've got is good. Head and shoulders or full body. With the dog is good. Just a straight face or a nice smile. You want to appeal to the general masses. For the fun stuff, have a gallery on a "more about the maker" page. Images of you in the shop, with your dog, family, kids, participating in hobbies. Again, tells a story to potential buyers. Some love that stuff"
 
I looked at your website. I am not an expert in any way when it comes to websites and/or their management. However, I have literally looked at hundreds of knife makers websites. I'll share my opinions with you because you asked so nicely. Remember, it is just my opinion. In the big scheme of things, my opinion means very little, if anything. Just ask my wife.

What I like about your website.

1. It is simple without a great many choices. You have a rock solid start to a great website. You can build from what you have started. Add pictures of new knives, new catagories, etc.
2. It is easy to navigate. Point, click, enlarge, go back. Easy.
3. You take and have nice pictures of your knives. I am a visual person, I like to look at the pictures. Yours are very good and this is a big plus in marketing your knives to the public. This is by far your biggest plus - good pictures.
4. I like the clear pricing that you used. No handling fees, no postage to be determined. Just a clear price.

Things I do not like that much from your website.
1. I agree with the sentiment about your picture. For a professional website picture, I would do away with the baseball cap, the sunglasses and "mugging" for the camera. I would probably skip the dog and I really like dogs. If you have to have a picture of yourself, make it one that your mother would be extremely proud to show here church group.
2. As you build more knives, add them to your website. You need more content and keep the focus on the knives.
3. I agree with using more clear and easier to read descriptions as suggest by Bert the Welder.

If I find some more time, I will post up a few knife websites that you could look at to make decisions on how to improve your website.
 
I will give you four (4) examples of well-known makers that visit Knifedogs. Emulate any of these websites and you will be going down the right path.

http://www.brucebumpknives.com/welcome.html

I know that Mr. Bump is on KD a great deal and he is such a great ambassador to the custom knife world in general. But, he also has a great website. Easy to navigate, great content, great pictures, very concise and to the point.

The continual focus is on the customers, his potential customers, and his knives.

And, right when you open his website he has that rather attractive model holding one of his knives. (wink, wink!)

The best part is Mr. Bump directs the world to Knifedogs to look at his stuff.

http://www.andersenforge.com/

Mr. Anderson is another great maker. He has a very nice website. Again, easy to navigate, great content, great pictures, very concise and to the point. Continual focus is on the customers, his potential customers, and his knives.

Heck, he even has his rather attractive model in a nice shirt and tie. Very professional. (wink, wink!)

http://www.mountainhollow.net/index.php

Mr. Nielsen is another great maker with a nice website. Again, easy to navigate, great content, great pictures, very concise and to the point. Continual focus is on the customers, his potential customers, and his knives. Unfortunately, his picture has him wearing sunglasses and the world is left to wonder just how good looking he may actually be. . .

http://www.mickleyknives.com/index.html

I could not forget Bossdog aka Mr. Mickley. His website is full of information, links, tutorials, just really good stuff for knife makers in general.

But, it is still easy to navigate. It is easy to navigate, great content, great pictures, very concise and to the point. Continual focus is on the customer, his potential customers, and his knives.

Just maybe, a little bit is directed to USAknifemaker and Knifedogs. Nothing wrong with shameless self-promotion in the business world.

As a hint, click on his “About” page and you will see a very nice picture of his rather attractive model. (wink, wink!)

I hope this helps you make decisions about your website and its growth.
 
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Those are nice sites. Thanks DeMo.

Something else I forgot to mention is, if you can, look at your site on various machines. Mac's, Microsoft, Linux based. Different browsers. 19" square screens to big 32" widescreens. It's important to check that the site looks proper on all.
All the work it takes is partly the reason some sites fail at looking/ functioning as they should. If hiring a firm to build a site, many don't even offer an absolute full package. Most wouldn't have the money to pay for such a labour intensive build. I'm lucky to be long time, good friends with my guy. Just the work he puts into Gimping my images after I shoot them makes my head spin, but he's obsessive about it, so who am I to argue. :biggrin: I'm bloody lucky and know it.
 
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Im working with a do it yourself website since I know nothing about this. I didn't realize that it took so long to load pictures. I will get on that and all the other suggestions. Thanks again for all your input. I guess Leonidas (my dog) has to go haha.
 
I'm all for doggie pic's, just not in the initial "Hi, this is me" shot. :3:
Nice job though given it's DIY. The diy kits/ sites have come a long way from the days of looking like Gov't DOS documents.
I ran into a few makers sites that have the text obscured by the images. Kinda tough to make a sale when the viewer can see half the site. Ha ha.
 
I look at a lot of knife sites even though I don't have one of my own. I believe Bert the welder has the information that would help you starting with your opening page. Frank
 
I'm 4 months late to the party, but I just wanted to add, you don't have a mobile theme for your site, so if someone goes there on a mobile device, all they see is a weird industrial picture and a little house Icon... On the bright side, the full site version looks pretty decent on the small screen :)
 
1. " making process in home" Change to "in house".
2. Lose the dog.
3. This pictures work fine for me in the slideshow, but the initial index starts loading, then kind of does a double take and loads again, kind of slow.
4. If you can, maybe have a shop tour tab, showing you at work, some of your tools, etc.
5. I think the homepage should be your showcase, something to make a customer want to dig deeper.
6. After #5 is done, add and "About Me" tab with your pic and bio.
7. After you've sold a few knives, might have a testimonials or feedback tab so your customers can brag about your knives.

I like the website so far, and your knives look great. Good luck!
 
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