Advice for a web site,

[Henery]

My Son Charlie has some considerable challenges with Autism and associated learning difficulties, he’s 20. We are working with him at home with some other helpers, really nothing available from the county.
He has a talent for art and metal craft....with lots of support. Hi FB page Charlie Teague Designs , generated some sales at Christmas.
We are contemplating moving to proper web site but have to wonder at paying best part £2k .
How easy are the online web builder kits to use , eg Square Space.

any help and advice v welcome.

 

[Clive]

pretty easy to DIY if you have time

take a look at siteground to register a domain and use their website builder to get a site up and running, I think its square space they use

Siteground help is very good and responsive and they are not expensive - £100/year or so could have things running probably

 

[JeepJeep]

What about the likes of ETSY?

 

[J B]

I did mine with Weebly IIRC.
Feel free to look and pass comment

 

[Dry Rot]

Started out with Frontpage, then Dreamweaver, really struggled with some others (old age!) until one of the assistants at Lidls nagged me into trying Wix. I didn't think it could be any good at the price. But I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, I had a few teething problems (at 80 the brain is seizing up) but it is software you can play around with until it comes out right. Highly recommended.

 

[computerbeing]

You need to consider why you need a website for. Is it for people that already know you to get some information about you or is it about finding new clients? For the latter going to a professional would be a better option. For the first any of these website builders would do a fine job.

 

[Zippy768]

You need to consider why you need a website for. Is it for people that already know you to get some information about you or is it about finding new clients? For the latter going to a professional would be a better option. For the first any of these website builders would do a fine job.

Why do you say that?

 

[computerbeing]

Why do you say that?

Since a professional could advise on which keywords to rank for and how to structure the website as to achieve that.

 

[MrKip]

If I were you I’d utilise all the free platforms first before jumping in and spending £2000 on a website. And get good at marketing your products on those free platforms and try to build a following.

Some free platforms to use are:

• Ebay
• Etsy
• Classified sites like Preloved, etc.
• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

As you start to get sales and orders, keep records of any names and addresses of your customers. Send them a print catalogue once in a while containing and new items you’ve produced. Make a note of any repeat customers.

Also, ask them for their email address too. Try to build up a mailing list from the start. Mailchimp is a good email marketing platform and it’s free for up to 2000 subscribers. Build up your list and start sending out emails promoting your new/existing work. Again, make a note of any repeat customers.

Get the business going via the free sites/platforms first. That way you won’t have any overheads and you’ll have a better idea if your idea is viable before you go to the trouble/cost of building a website. Also, if your new business idea costs nothing you can play the long game when trying to build up business.

Next, identify your best customers and ask them to provide testimonials and reviews. Try to get them to provide a picture, name and a few words about your product and your services. Offer them a discount or something else in return. Testimonials and reviews will be invaluable when it comes to building your website later. Also, quiz them to see if they have any ideas for products.

One thing I would highly recommend is to sharpen up your photography skills. These days you don’t need to buy an expensive DSLR camera to take good product shots. A good smartphone will do the job. But pay attention to lighting and camera angles, etc. Maybe even buy some basic gear: basic lights, phone tripod or monopod, and smartphone camera remote.

This is a good cheap book on product photography: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Product-Ph...tography&qid=1612507573&s=digital-text&sr=1-3

As the saying says: A picture is worth a thousand words. I build websites and do marketing in my spare time, and one of my clients is a medium-size eCommerce store which has 13000+ visits a month. We split/AB test lots of stuff on that site. And out of everything we’ve tested quality images made the biggest improvement to sales. A good image with a bad sales description will still sell; a poor quality image with a good sales description with often performs badly.

Anyway…

Competition on the free platforms is fierce. And it’s got worse this last 12 months. Because many furloughed, sacked or stuck at home workers have decided to start their own craft type businesses. So you’ll need to try and stand out. Having good images is one such way.

Plus, nice images will help your social media. You’ll find they’ll get shared/liked more.

For editing images look at GIMP or Photopea. Both are free.

If you know how to take good pictures, you’ll also be able to produce reasonable looking videos. So you could even make some short product videos and stick them on YouTube or other social channels. Just ask people to email you if they want to order. You can email them a paypal invoice for payment.

Also try to learn how to write good sales descriptions/copy. Here’s a free book on the subject, it’s a classic: https://www.scientificadvertising.com/ScientificAdvertising.pdf . That book is nearly a 100 years old, but it many of its principles still apply today. Advertising mediums change but people's nature doesn’t.

Once you’ve cracked taking good-looking pictures and writing a decent sales description, then consider a website. Hopefully if you get to this point you should have revenue coming from your other free channels. So that might cover the cost of your site or it could go towards some advertising.

If you want a website, and you can supply your own website images and copy, I can build you a basic Wordpress/Woocommerce site for around £300. It’ll take all major cards, Paypal, and even Amazon or Google pay. I can provide instructions on how to use and some basic tutorials. I’ve been building websites since 2008. And primarily Wordpress sites since 2012. I can provide testimonials and examples of my work if required.

I also offer managed web hosting for £25PM. All my sites are hosted on dedicated VPSs on an optimised NGINX stack – In English, this means that the sites I build are very very fast and suffer from little if any downtime (they’re online 99% of the time in an average year). Good hosting is critical when you’re running an eCommerce store. Especially if the site grows and you start to get many concurrent users/customers.

Regardless of the eCommerce solution you choose, it’ll take time to get it indexed in Google and for sales to start. I often tell people it’ll be 3-12 months before sales appear from organic traffic (sales coming via people searching google and not clicking ads). You can speed this process up if you already have a following, or if you’re willing to buy some ads.

To summarise: Stick with the free platforms at first. Play the long game (why not, it’s not costing you anything) and in the meantime build other marketing channels. When you finally do launch a website you should get results faster if you’re already established elsewhere and your pictures and sales descriptions are sharp.

And even if you don’t want me to build you a site, feel free to PM me feedback or advice. I’m happy to help.

Lastly, if you want me expand on anything I’ve said just ask.

 

[ollie989898]

Etsy and youtube. Make videos of him creating pieces. Then sell them via Etsy.