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JacobBergeron
10-30-2011, 08:08 PM
Hey everyone, I hope all is well. My website is up and running now, I would say its functional but not very visually appealing. My wordpress skills have improved but I would still call myself a novice. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips that could help improve the functionality or how visually appealing my site is? I appreciate all feedback. Happy Halloween!

JAB Promotions | Quality, affordable, and effective "made in the USA" promotional products. (http://www.jabpromotionalproducts.com)

-Jacob

fivewarp
10-31-2011, 12:08 AM
Very nice.

I would recommend placing the "Contact Us" link after the "Blog" link in your header menu.

Also, you might want to post something on your blog. :-)

KristineS
10-31-2011, 12:01 PM
I guess my first question would be will people know who Kaeser and Blair are? I didn't, and I work peripherally anyway, with promo products. Also, are people more likely to hit your site searching for a promo products dealer or distributor or because they're looking for Kaeser and Blair. I would upend your first paragraph to talk about what you do first and who you do it with second. Most people won't care from where your products come, they'll care about whether or not you can create what they want.

I'd also think about adding some more pictures. Maybe pictures of best selling products or new products. Promo products are very visual, so show your potential customers what you can do.

When you're talking about ordering, on the catalog page, I'd change your wording. "Discuss ordering from us" implies there might be a reason not to order from you. It might be better to use the phrase "place an order" or something similar that implies that an order is a done deal.

I like the bit about no sales pressure and being a resource on your contact page but, again, I think there are ways that could be stated more positively.

It's a decent start, don't get me wrong, but I think there are things you could do to make it more effective.

vangogh
10-31-2011, 12:37 PM
What you have so far looks fine. What the site needs most now is content. It's hard to offer ideas on how to improve the design without seeing the content that the design is meant to communicate. The visuals should be there to enhance the content. You don't want to design in absence of the content or else you end up with decoration instead of design. One thing I would suggest is not to have all the text italicized. Italics are to emphasize one piece of text over another. When everything is in italics there's no emphasis of anything.

What other pages do you have planned? What are the goals for those pages? What do you want people to do when they land on those pages? Right now it looks like the main goal is for people to contact you, however I'm not sure the reason for doing so is clear. Why you? What exactly are you going to do for me?

JacobBergeron
10-31-2011, 01:21 PM
Thank you KristineS and Van (as always) for your feedback. The two of you made very good points and asked valid and important questions. I will work to make things more effective as you pointed out Kristine and Van I am working on those question you asked. Thanks guys! Its hard for me to identify what needs to be changed or what needs to be tweaked as I have spent so much time looking at it. I appreciate the fresh perspective!

Fivewarp, thank you for your kind words as well.

vangogh
10-31-2011, 07:19 PM
Jacob always start with the content. The first thing I do when designing a site is collect all the available content and information about any content that isn't yet written. The idea is to understand what it is you're trying to communicate. Everything else, all the visual, arise out of the message you're trying to get across.

JacobBergeron
10-31-2011, 08:13 PM
Alright Van, I will take that to heart. I will focus my time on having a bold, clear, and persuasive content. I have a list of things to do, changes to make, edits, and redrafting. Hopefully after all is done I will have a much higher quality site.

vangogh
11-01-2011, 10:45 AM
It always starts with content so put your focus there. Design is also important, but it needs content. They work together to communicate to your audience.

claudiusjaeger
11-01-2011, 05:41 PM
In web marketing, you get about 3 seconds to convince the visitor to stay. Your website needs to tell people right away what you do, and convince them to stay. Your website does not - I stared at it and couldn't figure out what you do.

Look at these websites:
Denver Video Production (http://www.colorado-video-production.com/)
Divorce Support (www.after-divorce-support.com)
Colorado Health Insurance (www.healthinsurancecolorado.org)

Each tells you right away what they do.

So do the same - you need a tagline/motto, headlines, bold, etc.

JacobBergeron
11-01-2011, 09:08 PM
I will be working on the content over the next few days as time allows. Any ideas about ways I can drive traffic to it? I have contemplated a facebook ad campaign or perhaps ads in newspapers and other print material. I have made fliers for community boards and I am working on a sales letter to send with a holiday gift for current customers. I would like to find a creative way to advertise other than the "norms", but I have yet to discover what that could or should be exactly. Hope you had a good Halloween! :)

vangogh
11-02-2011, 02:27 AM
You have to have content before you can drive traffic to that content. It really has to come first. When you create content you're not just writing a few words down on the page, but thinking through the marketing too and how your content will appeal to visitors to your site.

Facebook can work. So can ads in the newspaper and magazines. Each is just another marketing channel. Success with any will depend on a number of factors. Are the people you want to reach spending time in those places? Are you willing to invest the resources (time and money) into learning how best to reach people through those channels? Can you craft a message that makes people want to take action?

A letter to existing customers is good. You already have a relationship with them. I wouldn't think of it as a sales letter though. Just think of it as a friendly lettering wi the holiday gift, but make them visit your site to get the gift. It could be something they download. Once at your site some of your customers will probably spend more time on the site and possibly buy more.

With the content try to find some sites that are in similar industries or doing something similar to what you're doing. Spend 15 minutes on their site and write down what pages they have and what's on those pages. After you visit a dozen or so some patterns will emerge. You'll find certain types of content that they all have that you probably need to have to. It can also bring to mind things they aren't included, but you could, which could lead to an advantage for you.

Also search social media sites around your topic. See what people are asking for and see what they're complaining about. Doing that can also give you good ideas about things you should do and include on your site.

KristineS
11-02-2011, 11:47 AM
Driving traffic should probably be a secondary concern at this point. You don't really want to start pulling a lot of traffic to your site until you have a site that can convert them. While you've got a good start, I'm not sure you're all the way there yet. Your first goal should be creating a site that can convert visitors into buyers, and then you can worry about how to get those visitors there.

That said, all the methods you listed earlier may well be good methods to bring potential customers to your site. That really depends on where you target market is online and in the "real" world. You need to figure out who you want to target and then where those people are to ensure that your message reaches the right audience.

KMcVey
11-02-2011, 04:01 PM
I second that the gift is a good idea. It's good that you are thinking of your existing customers while trying to create new ones.
When I read through the main page there seemed to be a lot of repetition in the words you have used. By using synonyms you can add relevant key words while improving readability.

Good luck :)

vangogh
11-02-2011, 05:27 PM
Gifts can be a great marketing tool. They remind your customers you're still there and they naturally improve how people think about your brand. As long as you aren't going broke with the gift itself there's a lot of upside.

Georgias Gifts
11-02-2011, 06:32 PM
I looked at your site. It is pretty bare bones right now. A couple of thoughts I had-

your home page reads more like an "about us" page. Why not put the covers of your 2 catalogs on the home page and let people click on the art to go to the catalog pages. I saw a 'super special" on one of the pages. You could feature those items on the home page for interest. Pull out a few items like that to showcase what you have to offer.
Or have a Best Sellers list.

Just some ideas to think about.

JacobBergeron
11-02-2011, 09:31 PM
Thank you everyone for all the tips and advise. I was able to take quite a few notes away from your feedback. I feel confident I will have a much more effective site after making changes, additions, and simply tweaking some things based on your responses and for that I am grateful :)

JacobBergeron
11-03-2011, 10:15 AM
Is there anyway to customize the current theme I am using? I am looking to edit the spacing between the header of the pages and the actual text on the page. Just a side question really, if I can great and if not it's not a huge deal.

vangogh
11-04-2011, 02:45 AM
Are you hosting WordPress on your own server or is your site on WordPress.com. If it's the former then you want to find the css file for the theme and adjust it. If the latter I'm not sure how much control WP.com gives you to edit the theme. You might not be able to, but I don't work with the .com side so I'm not really sure.

JacobBergeron
11-06-2011, 02:26 PM
Hmm..I will look into it, I am not sure. As far as I know my site is not on wordpress.com.

JacobBergeron
11-06-2011, 09:04 PM
I have figured the spacing issue out to some extent and I a making progress with the suggestions that where made to improve my website. Thanks all for your time!

vangogh
11-07-2011, 11:12 AM
I'm guessing you installed WordPress through your hosting account. Where did you make changes to fix the spacing issue? Were you editing a file directly or were you doing something in the WordPress admin?

JacobBergeron
11-07-2011, 02:30 PM
Condensing text and images within the WP Admin. I never did edit the theme itself, just the spacing between text and images.

vangogh
11-07-2011, 04:39 PM
Oh. Got'cha. That was probably creating extra paragraph code or similar and removing the space removed that extra code.

JacobBergeron
11-07-2011, 04:53 PM
Yeah I think that is exactly what it was :)

greenoak
11-07-2011, 06:58 PM
i didnt get anything out of it...why not have some of the main ideas in BIG PRINT with bullets so the surfer can get some of the ideas across in the first glance? and pictures too. of your main things.... there would have to be some reasons to read the paragraphs....you need to SHOW YOUR STORY....