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I\'m a little nervous about posting this but everyone always provides such great feedback!!

I have been working about a month on my new website that is devoted to selling fabric, thread and batting.

When I got my Millennium last year, I went a little crazy and bought about 80 bolts of fabric. I had so much fun with my machine and customer quilts, that I never had time to get my fabric posted on my website to sell.

For the last month, in my spare time:D (which is minimal), I have worked on created more of a professional website. If anyone is interested, would you mind clicking around the site and letting me know how it flows, if all of the links work, if my information makes sense, etc?

I haven\'t officially published my website and feedback would be great! Thanks, in advance for your time! You are welcome to send me "email" advice, too!

Heres the website http://stores.yeoldeforest.com/StoreFront.bok

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Hi my name is Roberta and I am very new here and I haven\'t introduced myself yet. So, if I make any posting mistakes please forgive me.

I love your site. It is very warm and welcoming. It has a nice layout and is easy to navigate. I noticed you didn\'t have a search feature which is something I often use when shopping, so that might be something you might consider in the future.

I did have alot fun shopping there :). I really liked the feel of it. It feels cozy to me. Let me know when you publish it and I will be happy to make a purchase and let you know how the actual buying experience is too ;).

You did a very nice job!

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Joanne, I like the site alot. I think the colors go well, it flows nicely from the navigator. I recently worked on a web site, but had a Web Master do the actual work, so I know it takes alot more work and tweaking than most people think. My only question is this; when I buy fabric I almost always buy yardage and I didn\'t see where yardage was listed. Good luck in your new venture. Let us know when you send it live. DB

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Hi Joanne,

Just scanned through your site. You did a great job on it. You\'ve received some great comments/feedback from others and here is one teeny weeny one:

I think it\'s nice to see a photo of the person I\'m dealing with over the computer. Just a nice smiley friendly face is all I need to make me feel extra welcome and know who I\'m dealing with: A real person! :)

Would you and Kelley put a picutre of yourselves on your web site? Maybe under the "contact us" or "about us" area?

Best wishes of much success to you...

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Hi, Joanne,

I love the colors and the look, just saw the first page so far. Very pleasant. No one else has mentioned this so maybe it\'s just my browser, but there is a lot of space after the "email me" row of buttons before the View Card and Paypal buttons, I mean an entire screen of just green space. I\'m using Firefox if that\'s an issue.

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Thanks everyone for the comments! Whew...I was nervous. The website will be official on Sunday, February 18, 2008 at 12:01 am. I will make a few tweaks today and forever:)

Hi Roberta - welcome to the group and thanks for your feedback! I\'ll do research and try to figure out how to work in a search feature. I\'m using a point and click program so maybe I can send them an email to see if they have this element.

Hi DB - yes, I agree with you about the yardage. I haven\'t figured out how to sell fat quarters and anything less than one yard without creating units or increments based on 1/4 yard cuts. To buy one yard, you have to enter 4 units. So, should I create another "Add to Shopping Cart" that is just for one yard of fabric and keep the unit shopping cart? If I do this, I thought it might clutter up each item with too many "Add to Shopping Cart" buttons. I\'m trying not to spend the $120 to $500/monthly fee for a robust Store Front but also want the site to be functional.

Hi Shana - wow...I\'ll have to consider the picture idea...I\'ve thought about it. In fact, I put a "canned" picture of a woman on the phone on my "About Me" page but since it wasn\'t me, I decide on the phone instead. Can I post a high school picture? or would this be fake advertisement?:cool: Guess, I\'ll have to step outside my comfort zone and dig up a picture...

Hi Cathey - I see what you mean about the green space on the first page. I\'ll work on that today!!

I was a little worried about the green background but I have to have color somewhere on the site!!

Thanks so much for everyone\'s feedback!!! My hats off to web designers everywhere!! What a chore!

Also, I haven\'t figured out how to give people discounts on the "whole" yardage orders without refunding their paypal accounts or creating a manual invoice with the discount and then billing the customer individually. I\'ve seen "code" promotions and coupons on some of the sites that sell patterns but I haven\'t figured out if this is part of a fancier store front product or part of paypal. So any ideas on this?

Thanks, again!!!

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Hi Rita,

Thanks for the compliment and I\'m very flattered! Kelley and I aren\'t very photogenic together... out of 100 of our own wedding pictures, we liked two that we took together...out of 75 Hawaiian pictures - the one on the website is the best one.... We take decent pictures with other people just not with each other.:(

Hi Katie - you are right, when I clicked on the link for Maywood, it took me to their fabric line. On their website, I clicked on the quilts and projects link and it shows the exact same web link as the web link to their fabric line...I\'ve never seen this before....so I don\'t know how to change it on my website....any ideas? Let me know if you found anything else.

Thanks everyone - you all always have the best comments!!!

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  • 2 months later...

Well....after 3 more months of work and taking everyone\'s advice into account...I am launching a new on-line quilt shop website. Sign up under services and receive a $20.00 gift certificate good through June 30.

For Mother\'s Day, I am running a 20% off sale...just enter MOM in the promo code. I have longarm quilting tools, batik fabrics, Wizard of Oz fabric, Beatrix Potter fabric, Superior Threads and more on the website.

Here is the link- http://stores.yeoldeforest.com/StoreFront.bok

Thanks for looking and as always, please send me feedback!

Happy Mother\'s Day!!!

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Hey You Two.. Love the site.. the only thing that gave me grief (very little) is the "home" button only takes us to the home page of the store.. I love the home page with the forrest photo.. and no idea how I got there from the e store.

I must have twitched my witchy nose the right way. wink.

Love the picts under news, with Karen McT.. looks just like the two of you.. on having picts taken together.. have someone else stand in for the other, take picts of both that way and then cut and paste? don\'t know if that would work or not, I\'d prob. cut and past the other people and discard us. LOL

It over all looks great.. love your Gallery, and the framed pictures.. the whole layout.. Hope you folks stayed safe from the tornados the other night.

RitaR

RitaR

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Hi Rita!

The website you are referring to with the trees is my long arm quilting website at the www.yeoldeforest.com

The website for my store is a completely separate site but I do link it from my long arm website. http://stores.yeoldeforest.com/StoreFront.bok

So let me see if I can figure out how to link from the store back to the long arm site.

Also, I haven\'t figured out how to get the same look and feel between the two websites. I\'m too cheap to pay a programmer so I\'ve been relying on the templates built in with the software. My next challenge is to add a logo on my store website....maybe tomorrow.

Yes, we personally are safe. Lots of problems in the NW side of the county - Tractor trailers getting flipped, 4 tornadoes (which is unusual around these parts), severe wind damage, etc. I was actually at a guild meeting on Thursday night, oblivious of the weather until the kids call me. I think Raleigh/Cary must have gotten hit last night...a customer called to re-schedule because of the clean-up that she had to do today.

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Joanne, thanks for the info. I didn\'t realize it was 2 diff sites.. sure pretty though.. am lookin\' and lookin\' and lookin\'.

I picked up a job for me and one job to do 3 or 4 times, for Roland.. The gal commissioned me to make a purse for her aged mother, and I got the purse fabric and the lining fabric picked out.. and the pattern decided on.. then the gals saw the stand Roland made to hold a cone of thread with a tall pole and pigtail on it for use on a dsm... We sold 3 and maybe 4 of them. Guess I\'ll have to add it to His Stuff when we get our website going.

I\'m so ready, past ready, so try to spend at least a little while each day doing something to improve what I have so far. If I stick a shot of my Prednisone Blimp mug and himself on the site, people might get ill, so that won\'t happen for a while. If ever.

anyway I hope to have it done enough to go public sometime this coming week.

I\'m wondering if you get many people taking the training classes and using your machines? Reason why I ask is obvious.. But, wouldn\'t I have to restrict them to using it with the SR on to start with so they can\'t damage the machine in the first few min., breaking needles? And then what.. wean them off and then let them decide if they use the SR or not?

How does it work if they can\'t finish their quilt in one day, and are using a set of your zips , do they pay a deposit on them, or do you keep the quilt there unitl it\'s finished quilting..?

Ohh. sorry, forgot I\'m not on email.. lol Im bad.

Have a good weekend... Glad you are safe, and hope the kids are too.. and stay that way.

RitaR

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Hi! I am new as well. Please forgive any mistakes in posting. Did you use a software "program" to design your site? or did you have someone do it for you? I am trying to start an online business as well, but the website aspect is a little overwhelming to me.

thanks!

Rose Hall

Lynchburg, VA:)

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Hi Rose,

Unfortunately and fortunately, I designed my own website. I am too cheap to pay a programmer - though I am sure it would have saved me a few headaches. You may also want to price DANEMCO (I think that\'s their name)...reasonable rates and they help build the website for you. You can google DANEMCO to find their site.

I use homestead for my long arm website and bought an add-on for the store...so, in essence, it\'s two separate websites. I think the store is powered by ProStores but was an add-on to homestead.

You can add the Paypal buttons and not use a full-powered store...which I tried...but it wasn\'t as robust as I wanted.

You can try homestead for one month free. The rates depend on how robust you want the website to be. The ProStore is a hefty up-grade in price and utility but it has some great features. If you are thinking about using ProStores....try it also for a month...there is a HUGE learning curve but you have complete control over the design. Also, don\'t be afraid to call Homestead and ask for advice on which service you should get after your free 30 days is up.

If you just want to advertise your long arm business, then you don\'t need a ProStore. All you need is hosting site, like Homestead with a few pages like "Home", "Quilt Patterns", "Customer Gallery", "About US" and maybe a few more pages.

There are a lot of hosting services. I\'ve seen posts from the past that compare the different hosting services and benefits. Also, Google "Website Hosting Services" and you\'ll probably get a million choices.

Good Luck and send us a link to your website when you get it up and going!

Also, if you have a "busy-body" husband, son, etc. who is technically inclined...you might want to see if he would be interested in creating/maintaining your website.

BTW, You don\'t live to far from me!!!

Have Fun!!! and welcome to being your own boss!!! Another BTW, my hubbie doesn\'t touch my website:P One of the reasons, I love running my own business is I don\'t have to work for the "man" anymore!! Oh...reality check:(...I still have to work for the "man" Monday through Friday...but not weekends or at night!!! No offense guys!! Oops...I\'m digressing....18 years until retirement...

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Hello All,

I used Danemco to set up my website. They were great to work with.

Question on posting pictures of quilts made from published patterns - do you have to secure permission from the author or publisher?

You\'re not really copying anything - but I am hesitant to do so. I just want to show the quilting.

Any thoughts out there?

Alice :)

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Hi Alice,

You might want to create another topic for your question and see what others think or know about your question.

The pictures of quilts on my website are my customers\' quilts and the work that I do for them...I have no idea how I would know if their quilts were from a published pattern and who to get permission from... If I use a quilting pattern that has been purchased by me for use on my customer quilts, I try to give credit to the quilting designer...

I haven\'t had this happen yet but if one of my customers felt uncomfortable with me posting a picture of their quilts, I would remove the pictures immediately. Most of my customers like having their quilts on a website...they can show their friends and family what their quilt looks like...

Post your question as a separate topic and see if you get any responses.

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