http://www.websitefoundry.co.uk/

Points to consider;

Main target market; Tradesmen, Pubs/Clubs/Hotels, Bands, Sports teams.
Not bothering dealing with white collar*, going for a less head-up-the-arse 
(aka informal) and industrial image.
Really trying to plug the multimedia.

I'll try to shut up and just listen.

*If anybody saw that ChromeCat site, She deals with white & I deal with 
blue.

---dE|_---

On 13/12/07 8:28 pm, in article 6Cg8j.9624$1j1.2056@newsfe7-gui.ntli.net,
"dE|_"  wrote:

> http://www.websitefoundry.co.uk/
> 
> Points to consider;
> 
> Main target market; Tradesmen, Pubs/Clubs/Hotels, Bands, Sports teams.
> Not bothering dealing with white collar*, going for a less head-up-the-arse
> (aka informal) and industrial image.
> Really trying to plug the multimedia.
> 
> I'll try to shut up and just listen.

IMHO, it's bad. You're designing sites for clients and I'm assuming you want
them to pay you money for them.  The only thing missing is a matching pair
of animated gifs in the stylee of your faux circuit board theme.

Do people round here not look at sites like styleboost, etc?  Have a look
round at some contemporary sites and see if any of them match the style of
this one.

I'm not saying that I'm up to these sorts of standards but it's what I
aspire to.

And you're selling consultative services as well.  So I'm assuming you're
selling your services based on the business benefits that you're going to
create for them.

You should have Google Analytics and a proper Google site map for your own
site.

If you're selling marketing services then you need to be able to demonstrate
what methods you intend to use to prove that you're worth paying, how you're
measuring the effectiveness of your medium.  Analytics with a single goal
for the 'Thank you' page of your enquiry form, for example, will enable you
to tell your client how many enquiries their web site generates.  If you go
to a meeting with your client and you ask them then you can almost guarantee
they won't know.

And if you want to run a business then don't discount any audience.  I've
spent the last 5 years fighting tooth and nail to get to a point where I
could say that I don't touch anything less than 'x'.  I've just got to a
point where I can do that and one meeting with a guy who runs a very
successful business blew that idea out of the water.  I'll still chase the
£2k, 3k and up type sites but I've started a whole new business model aimed
at the very bottom end.  It's a big punt but if I can bring 1000 clients on
paying 25 quid a month then it's worth doing.

Blue collar might be your bread and butter but it'll be the white collar
stuff that's your jam.

I dunno nothing really.  Maybe it's all bullshit and the expectations of
your average owner/manager/MD are at this level.

-- 
Andy Jacobs
http://www.redcatmedia.co.uk

<uk.net.web.authoring>
<dE|_>
<Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:28:50 GMT>
<6Cg8j.9624$1j1.2056@newsfe7-gui.ntli.net>

> http://www.websitefoundry.co.uk/
> 

Let me know when you stop using those silly and pointless intro screens 
as i wont be looking at any more of your websites until you do .


-- 
www.krustov.co.uk

"Andy Jacobs"commented:
>
>> http://www.websitefoundry.co.uk/
>
> You should have Google Analytics and a proper Google site map for your own
> site.

That's coming tomorrow, Zoom search engine software creates one.
http://www.wrensoft.com/index.html

---dE|_---

Andy Jacobs wrote in uk.net.web.authoring on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:30:02
+0000 MID<C38762EA.ED76%nospam@redcatgroup.co.uk>:

>You should have Google Analytics 

Can I ask why?

-- 
hike
    - a walking tour or outing, esp. of the self-conscious kind
                                  Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

On 14/12/07 5:42 am, in article 476217ce$0$515$bed64819@news.gradwell.net,
"Dave Hillam"  wrote:

> Andy Jacobs wrote in uk.net.web.authoring on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:30:02
> +0000 MID<C38762EA.ED76%nospam@redcatgroup.co.uk>:
> 
>> You should have Google Analytics
> 
> Can I ask why?

Two of the services offered:

Business marketing consultancy
Tailor made shopping sites

Any marketing company will tell you that you have to monitor what you're
doing so you can see if it's worth doing again or even doing more of.

If you're offering e-commerce then Analytics is brilliant.  We launched an
e-commerce site in May.  The conversion rate from people adding something to
the cart to actually paying was 8%.  We put some funnels in place to see
where they were dropping out and started to tune the site to see what
difference it made.  By making constant small changes over 6 months we've
now got that to 30%.  We only know that because we were monitoring things
closely.  We could have started all sorts of other activity because we'd
wrongly associated poor sales with lack for traffic.

There are probably other similar tools out there but Analytics is free and
it's easy to setup but extremely powerful.

-- 
Andy Jacobs
http://www.redcatmedia.co.uk

"dE|_"  wrote...
> http://www.websitefoundry.co.uk/

Is that all?

> 
> Let me know when you stop using those silly and pointless intro screens 

Have to agree with that.

Why did people ever make sites that did that?
I'm sure there some (possibly misguided) reasons why it was once thought 
to be A Good Idea.

Anahata

"Anahata" wrote...
>>
>> Let me know when you stop using those silly and pointless intro screens
>
> Have to agree with that.
>
> Why did people ever make sites that did that?
> I'm sure there some (possibly misguided) reasons why it was once thought 
> to be A Good Idea.

It is following that AIDA model concept, that's the first Attention part.

It's not something I have made a habit of in the past and I may not use in
the future. Let's call it an experiment on my own material rather than a 
client's.

---dE|_---

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:04:33 GMT, "dE|_"  wrote in
<Btu9j.16938$1j1.10851@newsfe7-gui.ntli.net>:

>It is following that AIDA model concept, that's the first Attention part.

When someone has arrived at your site you already have their attention
and you have as long as it takes to get to the 'back' or 'close tab'
button to engage sufficient interest for them to stay rather than go.

-- 
Owen Rees
[one of] my preferred email address[es] and more stuff can be
found at <http://www.users.waitrose.com/~owenrees/index.html>

"Owen Rees"  wrote in message 
news:r3mdm359roocn9jsui1movft2jphm6te62@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:04:33 GMT, "dE|_"  wrote in
> <Btu9j.16938$1j1.10851@newsfe7-gui.ntli.net>:
>
>>It is following that AIDA model concept, that's the first Attention part.
>
> When someone has arrived at your site you already have their attention
> and you have as long as it takes to get to the 'back' or 'close tab'
> button to engage sufficient interest for them to stay rather than go.

That is a good point, although it wasn't exactly a challenge to get in.

I'm going to keep the image for attracting the Interest of people who have 
visions of more than grey text on a white background (see the sequel), but I 
will shrink it and add surrounding Interest content.

---dE|_---