Mumsnet Talk

hello,

I created a poster of baby massage strokes and am now trying to sell it online.

I've built a site and am trying to improve my webshop but am very new at this. I don't think it looks bad, but want to improve it!

I keep fiddling around with it, but don't think I'm moving forward!

Any suggestions or obvious flaws spottable from inveterate web builders / web shoppers? Link is www.babymassageposter.com

TIA

Hi,

here is my two cents worth:

First of all, congrats on your business.
Ok, the website. It looks good but I feel it doesn't bring the message across that well. The top section draws away the eye and at the same time is not eye catching as its not apparent what the site is about. So maybe you could just have the logo at the top and then in much bigger writing explain the bit about the massage posters.

Then put the baskets for the posters and then all the other accessories.

Haven't gone in any deeper but that's from first impressions.

Good luck!

Thank you! I will get to work. Really good to get new eyes on the project as you end up going in circles on the little things

Okay, on the plus side I think that it looks professional and trustworthy.

However, for me, that home page lacks a logo or headline to anchor it. I think that adding a logo or just a banner at the top with "Baby Massage Kit" (or whatever) where the large baby photo is would help.

Also, it's hard to make out what is happening at first as there's such a lot going on. Could you simplify the page a little?

Hope this helps.

I think that is what was concerning me too Florence. The eye isn't really 'led' anywhere. I just wasn't sure if I only show one or two products on the home page, would people surf away if they can't see what they are looking for straight away?

What Schnullerbacke said really.
You need a big logo or title that says Baby Massage poster or whatever, at the moment the first thing you look at is the promotions text.

Those links * Baby Gift Shop
* How to do a Baby Massage
* About the Poster etc need to go right at the top
The massage illustrations need to come down ater the title to illustrate the poster, together with the text that says Relax.... Bond.....Sleep.....Love....Massage....Gifts.....Baby Massage Course on a Poster. Become your own expert! Maybe you could add more description here, preferably with lots of your keywords to help with Google.

Other than the look and feel of the site is nice, not sure about the dark grey block of text.

Good luck!

Thank you Sputnik! This is all really good, specific advice.

I think that the Totseat site is a good baby-related seling site. See here:

Tot seat

What I like is that the big Let's shop button is a real call to action, but the home page isn't at all muddled.

Message deleted by Mumsnet.

thanks Mr A, this will keep me busy for a while

Florence, I like the tot seat site! Its very 'clean' looking.

My problem is mine is a 1&1 web shop, so its very quick to set up which is a bonus, but I don't have the liberty I'd like had I written it in HTML or used dreamweaver.

Hmm yes, hadn't got to the bottom links.
Couple of other quick ones:
for the posters the picture of the rolled up poster doesn't look very attractive or interesting, how about using close up of one of the illustrations?
On further reflection I really don't like the grey strips going right accross the page, they should end at the borders of the rest IYSWIM.

On second thoughts, why don't you just employ me, I am very reasonable

lol Sputnik. At this rate it may well come to pass

can you say somewhere on it

"all your baby massage needs"

it's not clear to me what your website is about.

Thanks cargirl and everyone else. I will take all into account and re-report when done!

Oh hell, just thought of another thing... Would it make better commercial sense to offer only one massage method as printable from the site?

I know that if I was looking at the poster for home and then I saw that I could print off a copy free I would just do that (and you actively encourage it).

Good luck with all the changes. I am sure that it'll look brilliant when you're done.

I think you are right Florence, and am looking into doing something like that as I know freeware is the new thing. Just need the time to design the damn thing! Good to have another nudge to get it done.

I will disappear into my web development cave and hopefully come back with a new and shiny site! Just need someone to take the babies for a couple of days now...

Florence, which format do you think would be best for the free massage method mini poster? Downloadable pdf?

That would work for me. Try before you buy!

120cmsOfSnow - can you please tell me which programme you have used to design your shop?

MrA - can you recommend something please?

Schnuller, I'm using the 1&1 eShop as its very quick to get running, but as you can see, not the most flexible on layouts, though they do have lots of designs to choose from.

The £5 a month offer from 1 and 1 (with 3 months free) is hard to beat, if you don't like it you haven't wasted much!

The only supplier I can personally recommend is this one.

Whoever you use I would recommend buying any domains from someone else so it is easy to switch away - look at UK2.net, GoDaddy and 123-reg. Buy them quick before someone else does (get smashwordstogether.com and smashwordstogether.co.uk dont-use-hyphens or_underscores).

The one and one offer IS good BUT I would say, look carefully at what you need as I bought the wrong package (the basic shop where you can't actually take payment ) at first, then had to pay again to upgrade and they don't like moving your websites between packages, so you have to rebuild which is a pain in the bum). Also am using their blog which I wish I hadn't. Should had gone to wordpress direct.

apologies for the random )

Okay guys, I've published my first sweep of changes. There are still some important points above that I have yet to address, but I'd love to hear what you think so far!

Thank you all so much for your time. I feel a bit like I have colleagues, which is rather nice .