website

[wizer]

I have just counted four clients that I've never met face to face, three that I have. Obviously I've done a lot more work for my employers which is different.

I wonder how many of the pro furniture makers here would advise their clients to make their own furniture. It's different if you're doing it for a hobby. It depends what you want from a website and how much you value it as a 'shop front' to your business. There's nothing wrong in giving it a go yourself. But if it turn out rubbish and you've wasted three weeks of evenings? Brad did his own. He likes it and he says he gets plenty of enquiries through it. So maybe you'll be as lucky?

One thing that always occurs to me too. What constitutes as a well designed website, it just as subjective as what makes a well designed piece of furniture. But with websites, you have to think like a designer for a retail outlet and not one who is designing for a single client. i.e it has to look nice and work well for the majority of your traffic. It may be nice to you, but will it look good to your customers?

 

[SBJ]

I agree that the issue of local or not is probably down to individuals and trust.

I'm not so sure that the parallels to woodworking are quite so valid. There is far more help out there (software, templates, forums etc) for a DIY web designer than there would be for someone to make their own furnture (workshop, tools??)!

If you have an aptitude for these things it's not that difficult.


Tom, do you have a link to your website?

 

[big soft moose]

I'm not so sure that the parallels to woodworking are quite so valid. There is far more help out there (software, templates, forums etc) for a DIY web designer than there would be for someone to make their own furnture (workshop, tools??)!

If you have an aptitude for these things it's not that difficult.

fair point - and i agree its not difficult to do an okay site with an editor (afterall i used to make money doing just that - i used serif x2)

but theres a difference between okay , and spot on , and if its for a business site rather than a personal one - is "just about okay" good enough ?

the other thing is that for a profesional time is money and if he spends ten hours doing his website then that is ten hours not spent on the core buisness - so it might make better buisness sense to hire someone like tom to do it for him - particularly as the fee would be a deductable business expense.

 

[wizer]

Simon I'm currently employed by very large media company. I'm building my freelance portfolio at the moment. What with my medical problems, I've not got together a main website yet. I understand what you are saying about seeing past work. It's a chicken egg situation. I'm currently working on two large projects which wil kick start my portfolio. The only one that I have live at the moment is just a small hobby site for one of the turners:

http://www.pjwoodturning.co.uk

This is very basic and not a true display of my skills. It was more a favour. At the moment, I wouldn't take a bean until the customer was happy. That's the only way I can build up my portfolio. We all have to start somewhere.

 

[RogerS]

Anyone with an interest in checking the coding of their site can do so, it's free.

Just add the web address to the end of this line in your browser.

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=

Example;

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.bbc.co.uk/

There is a similar check for CSS use.

....and very few sites pass. ......

Mine did ! :lol:

 

[wizer]

and yet I can't find you on the first few pages searching for Cabinet Maker, Worcestershire So it's not doing anything for you. :lol:

 

[matt]

It's ensuring Roger's site continues to work in future browser releases/platforms. That's what it's mostly about - not search engine results. The fact that many sites don't comply is largely irrelevant - we've no idea what development strategy exists to support those sites etc going forward. To not test is, however, very relevant - unless, of course, you factor future browser support in to a cost effective support package with your client. For small sites the support route is unlikely to be commercially viable for either party - far better to get it correctup front IMO.

 

[Mr T]

Hi

The other consideration is how long will it take you to do it yourself. As a computer phobe I would never try as know that it would take me a long time when my hours could be more economically spent doing the accounts, estimating, designing or writing course handouts etc etc.

Consider how long it will take you to do it and your hourly rate and compare that with the charge of a web designer.

Chris

 

[RogerS]

and yet I can't find you on the first few pages searching for Cabinet Maker, Worcestershire So it's not doing anything for you. :lol:

You're not looking hard enough :wink: I'm on the first page.

 

[BradNaylor]

There's nothing wrong in giving it a go yourself. But if it turn out rubbish and you've wasted three weeks of evenings? Brad did his own. He likes it and he says he gets plenty of enquiries through it. So maybe you'll be as lucky?

All I would say is give doing it yourself a shot. I've got three websites up and running which I wrote myself on Serif software and which consistantly pop up at the top of the Google rankings locally.

I get more enquiries than I can realistically cope with. As a result my and my colleague's total joint advertising budget tots up to about £100 per year.

My 'kitchen' website took me three hours to complete from start to finish one Sunday morning. It brings us 4 or 5 firm enquiries per week.

it is of course, all down to luck! :wink:


If it doesn't work, get someone else to do it.

www.thecabinetmakers.com
www.duncancheslett.com
www.davenportkitchens.co.uk

 

[motownmartin]

There's nothing wrong in giving it a go yourself. But if it turn out rubbish and you've wasted three weeks of evenings? Brad did his own. He likes it and he says he gets plenty of enquiries through it. So maybe you'll be as lucky?

All I would say is give doing it yourself a shot. I've got three websites up and running which I wrote myself on Serif software and which consistantly pop up at the top of the Google rankings locally.

I get more enquiries than I can realistically cope with. As a result my and my colleague's total joint advertising budget tots up to about £100 per year.

My 'kitchen' website took me three hours to complete from start to finish one Sunday morning. It brings us 4 or 5 firm enquiries per week.

it is of course, all down to luck! :wink:


If it doesn't work, get someone else to do it.

www.thecabinetmakers.com
www.duncancheslett.com
www.davenportkitchens.co.uk

Hi Duncan, you say that you get 4 or 5 enquiries per week, how many visits do you get, i am interested in what the ratio is, thanks.

 

[wizer]

He gets 4 or 5 visits and they are so bowled over by his work and sales patter that they feel compelled to contact him :lol:

It might also be that Brad's website is the most accessible to users in that area of the country. Also, sometimes the fact that it's not uber stylish and sexy, might help too. I always like to get a feel of where a client is pitching themselves. If they are going for millionaire clients then it needs to look impeccably stylish. If it's got to speak to the common man who gets out of bed in the morning to earn his money, then it can't look like an ad in a glossy. It's got to be more down to earth.

This again is a skill that can't always be achieved for someone who's not used to it. It just depends. Plenty of tradesmen and business are using web designers. I have three in the pipeline right now and waiting for another one to get back to me. So web designers do have their uses and we're not all con men, honest :lol:

 

[motownmartin]

He gets 4 or 5 visits and they are so bowled over by his work and sales patter that they feel compelled to contact him :lol:

I guess you must be right Tom as he hasn't said otherwise.

Those who have websites, how many visits do you get per day?

 

[RogerS]

He gets 4 or 5 visits and they are so bowled over by his work and sales patter that they feel compelled to contact him :lol:

I guess you must be right Tom as he hasn't said otherwise.

Those who have websites, how many visits do you get per day?

March 282
February 544
January 311
December 641
November 345

These are month figures.

 

[motownmartin]

Thanks Roger

 

[Mr T]

Hi

Dec 290
Jan 510
Feb 665
Mar 738

I have spent some time trying to increase site usage in recent months, it's interesting to see that it seems to be making a difference. I don't know how to do SEO but I have invested in a small ad word, advertising the courses, costing about £30 per month.

I'm told the number of visits is not necessarily the crucial figure, bounce rate is important in assessing the quality of visit. My bounce rate improved from 54% to 48% over that period.

All these figures came from Google analytics, worth having.

Chris

 

[motownmartin]

Hi

Dec 290
Jan 510
Feb 665
Mar 738

I have spent some time trying to increase site usage in recent months, it's interesting to see that it seems to be making a difference. I don't know how to do SEO but I have invested in a small ad word, advertising the courses, costing about £30 per month.

I'm told the number of visits is not necessarily the crucial figure, bounce rate is important in assessing the quality of visit. My bounce rate improved from 54% to 48% over that period.

All these figures came from Google analytics, worth having.

Chris

Hi Chris, I have installed google analytics but I don't know what bounce rate is and what is SEO, its all new to me.

I suppose I should have started my own thread asking these questions, so my apologies.

 

[dannykaye]

....and very few sites pass. It's not something web designers are striving for, strict validation is not what search engines are looking for.

ran it on my site and got 1 missing 'alt' on an image and a missing 'type' on a script language tag. I can live with that

seriously, if it is for business get someone local to write it and maintain it I can recommend someone near Nottingham if that is of help

 

[Mr T]

Hi Martin

Bounce rate is the percentage of hits where the person left your site from the first page ie they arrived thought "what the hell am I doing here" and left immediately, I suppose it is a measure of the quality of visits. SEO is search engine optimisation ie how to get yourself high on the search engine lists, something I have been singularly unsuccessful at. Hence my use of adwords. SEO is considered a bit of a dark art, I think it was discussed a bit earlier on this thread.

Chris