Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David L. on November 5, 2009 at 10:54pm

Hi,

I think it certainly shows what quality CBGs you make. Anybody into CBGs would be happy to spend time looking at all your builds.

From an avid internet shopper point of view I would suggest you make your name stand out a bit more on the homepage and add your contact details here also (at present the contact point is hidden in the scrolldown menu). I personally would divide your menu so that the guitars for sale show guitars for sale rather than ones that are already sold. The ones sold certainly need to be shown to showcase your high level of quality put into your builds, but I would put them separate with a big sign pointing out the fact you will build to order. Provided Hollowbelly is happy for you to use his name (I would ask him first) I would highlight this more - if a well known CBG player endorses your guitars it demonstrates that they play as good as they look.

I am not sure if it is my browser but on clicking the links the bit that changes is out of view unless you scroll down - on first viewing I thought the links were broken it needs a note telling newcomers to scroll down (unless you can get it to do this automatically)

Also when looking at guitar sites I personally like to have an idea of the typical prices I am dealing with - for example some people show what previous items have sold for.

Have you thought of adding a telephone number and/or address so people feel you are easy to contact and not hidden behind the internet - also they then have an idea where you are so they can come and see you in person (unless you want to avoid this).

Finally If you add your builds to the menu it will soon be too big an example is here http://www.whitstableguitars.co.uk/
He shows prices for new items and those sold but keeps the sold ones under a single menu button.

All comments are meant constructively - Anybody who can spread the word about CBGs deserves praise and I wish your CBG building all the success it deserves. Congratulations on achieving your own website.

Regards,
David

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Permalink Reply by HOGS GRUNT on November 5, 2009 at 11:02pm

Just reading the points that David made and I think he is right with the comments he has made.
You really do need a contact number so people can ring to enquire as not all folk like using this internet thingy.
I still think that this site should bring in some decent trade for you.
Question. If I didn't know about your site how would I find it if I was just surfing the web for CBG's or guitars?
HOGS.

David Lloyd said:

Hi,

I think it certainly shows what quality CBGs you make. Anybody into CBGs would be happy to spend time looking at all your builds.

From an avid internet shopper point of view I would suggest you make your name stand out a bit more on the homepage and add your contact details here also (at present the contact point is hidden in the scrolldown menu). I personally would divide your menu so that the guitars for sale show guitars for sale rather than ones that are already sold. The ones sold certainly need to be shown to showcase your high level of quality put into your builds, but I would put them separate with a big sign pointing out the fact you will build to order. Provided Hollowbelly is happy for you to use his name (I would ask him first) I would highlight this more - if a well known CBG player endorses your guitars it demonstrates that they play as good as they look.

I am not sure if it is my browser but on clicking the links the bit that changes is out of view unless you scroll down - on first viewing I thought the links were broken it needs a note telling newcomers to scroll down (unless you can get it to do this automatically)

Also when looking at guitar sites I personally like to have an idea of the typical prices I am dealing with - for example some people show what previous items have sold for.

Have you thought of adding a telephone number and/or address so people feel you are easy to contact and not hidden behind the internet - also they then have an idea where you are so they can come and see you in person (unless you want to avoid this).

Finally If you add your builds to the menu it will soon be too big an example is here http://www.whitstableguitars.co.uk/
He shows prices for new items and those sold but keeps the sold ones under a single menu button.

All comments are meant constructively - Anybody who can spread the word about CBGs deserves praise and I wish your CBG building all the success it deserves. Congratulations on achieving your own website.

Regards,
David

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by paul @ huckleberry guitar on November 6, 2009 at 3:28am

Well Smojo and Chickenbone John both have had sites up and running for some time. Julian - your website looks good, let us know when you are able to ship your pups to Canada and the US. Best of luck.

Fernando Amorim (SmokeBoxBlues) said:

Wow! That's awesome, Juju!
Congratulations! That's beautiful!
You're the first European with a Cigar Box Guitar business site!
Cheers - Fernando.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JUJU on November 6, 2009 at 4:05am

Hi David thanks for your great comments and words of advice i will take it onboard - i have made a few changes earlier but i need to study it more now as regards making sub menus and the Meta Data thing has me stumpped right now - i'm new to all this web thing so it's taking some working out lol!

the problem with the menu right now is i'm only allowed 15 menu pages/Tabs so once i've worked out the sub menus the contact page should be visable at all times .. i hope !

Thanks again for your comments i'll keep reverting back to them and see if i can get it sorted

juju:-)



David Lloyd said:

Hi,

I think it certainly shows what quality CBGs you make. Anybody into CBGs would be happy to spend time looking at all your builds.

From an avid internet shopper point of view I would suggest you make your name stand out a bit more on the homepage and add your contact details here also (at present the contact point is hidden in the scrolldown menu). I personally would divide your menu so that the guitars for sale show guitars for sale rather than ones that are already sold. The ones sold certainly need to be shown to showcase your high level of quality put into your builds, but I would put them separate with a big sign pointing out the fact you will build to order. Provided Hollowbelly is happy for you to use his name (I would ask him first) I would highlight this more - if a well known CBG player endorses your guitars it demonstrates that they play as good as they look.

I am not sure if it is my browser but on clicking the links the bit that changes is out of view unless you scroll down - on first viewing I thought the links were broken it needs a note telling newcomers to scroll down (unless you can get it to do this automatically)

Also when looking at guitar sites I personally like to have an idea of the typical prices I am dealing with - for example some people show what previous items have sold for.

Have you thought of adding a telephone number and/or address so people feel you are easy to contact and not hidden behind the internet - also they then have an idea where you are so they can come and see you in person (unless you want to avoid this).

Finally If you add your builds to the menu it will soon be too big an example is here http://www.whitstableguitars.co.uk/
He shows prices for new items and those sold but keeps the sold ones under a single menu button.

All comments are meant constructively - Anybody who can spread the word about CBGs deserves praise and I wish your CBG building all the success it deserves. Congratulations on achieving your own website.

Regards,
David

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JUJU on November 6, 2009 at 4:11am

Hi Hogs
Cheers mate yes i think Davids right about the contact details i will add them once i get this menu thing sorted , as regards you finding the site .. well i'm trying to sort that out also i've just done some metadata tags which i beleive search engine's use - thats if i've read it correctly ?? :-) - because of now every search engine i've tried comes up BLANK ! hehe!
i'll keep you posted mate cheers
juju.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JUJU on November 6, 2009 at 4:13am

hey paul hows it going bro ?
thanks for the input mate and cool comments i've sent you a message about the pickups
juju.

paul @ huckleberry guitar said:

Well Smojo and Chickenbone John both have had sites up and running for some time. Julian - your website looks good, let us know when you are able to ship your pups to Canada and the US. Best of luck.

Fernando Amorim (SmokeBoxBlues) said:

Wow! That's awesome, Juju!
Congratulations! That's beautiful!
You're the first European with a Cigar Box Guitar business site!
Cheers - Fernando.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by HOGS GRUNT on November 6, 2009 at 4:18am

Hi man,
Just did a web search for cbg's and smojo's site came up along with several of our US cousins.
If you get stuck have a word with smojo to find out how to get the link sorted. I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
Hogs.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) on November 6, 2009 at 8:56pm

Juju, glad to see you're moving forward on this.

Rather than trying to fine tune every aspect of your site's look and feel, look into getting a Wordpress (or similar) account as a content management solution and then install a site template that you like. When you do this, adding more content becomes extremely simple. If I had to compare it to anything, I'd say it's most like writing a new forum post for this site, complete with how pictures are uploaded. The backend code will handle all the formatting and eye candy for you.

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Permalink Reply by JUJU on November 7, 2009 at 6:08am

Thanks for the advice Josh i'll look into it mate much appriciated
juju.

Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) said:

Juju, glad to see you're moving forward on this.

Rather than trying to fine tune every aspect of your site's look and feel, look into getting a Wordpress (or similar) account as a content management solution and then install a site template that you like. When you do this, adding more content becomes extremely simple. If I had to compare it to anything, I'd say it's most like writing a new forum post for this site, complete with how pictures are uploaded. The backend code will handle all the formatting and eye candy for you.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JUJU on November 7, 2009 at 6:09am

yep i'll have a chat with smojo Cheers D

juju.

HOGS GRUNT said:

Hi man,
Just did a web search for cbg's and smojo's site came up along with several of our US cousins.
If you get stuck have a word with smojo to find out how to get the link sorted. I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
Hogs.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Strolling Tone on November 7, 2009 at 11:15pm

Hi - Just took a look at your site using Google Chrome. Some great looking guitars on there -

But currently your main menu overlaps with the page image. I took a look using Firefox and it does the same - and in IE I see that you are presenting a differently styled home page. It would be worth checking your site across multiple browsers while its still under construction.

I also noted that you have a canonical URL issue.
The same site can be seen at these two URLs:
http://www.jujus-cigar-box-guitars.webeden.co.uk/
and
http://jujus-cigar-box-guitars.webeden.co.uk/

This represents content duplication and Google is likely to index both versions.

This can usually be fixed with a simple rule in an htaccess file if you're hosted on an Apache server - but I don't really know about the facilities provided by WebEden to correct this issue.

Matt Cutts explains canonicalisation here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/

I agree with the above recommendation to go with a Wordpress based site. It's a great CMS / blogging system that is very SEO friendly.
But the work you have done here is looking good - if you ever need any help let me know (SEO is my game ;))

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ronnie Retherford on November 8, 2009 at 12:51am

The website looks great, so do you CBG's. Good luck to you in your adventure.

Ronnie

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