Annyone Can Build A Website!!

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Eric S

Eric S

Demoted Webmaster
Jul 12, 2005
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Tustin
www.everydayflowers.net
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CA
I just wanted to share this website with some of you that are looking for ways to create your own website for your business. This florist contacted me back in November looking for some real help. They had a website through superpages that has just done so poorly for them.

In just thirty days they have created a new website. Its not ready for ecommerce but they have the basics up and running. I have been working with their 17 year old daughter showing her how to create the pages. She doesn't have much time to work on the website with school and all but I feel the website has developed very fast and I am sure once the ecomerce is in the place they should really do well.

What do you think?
http://www.flower1online.com/
 
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Honestly ... it looks very DIY.

Disclaimer: As everyone knows, I'm in the web marketing biz, and have a florist website platform coming out soon. I say this so that all biases are out in the open and people can weigh my comments appropriately.

The colour scheme is unappealing and the style is very "10 years ago." The pictures aren't bad for a shop that takes their own, but no matter the industry I'd never trust an online vendor with an amateur site.

If we want to represent ourselves as professionals plying a legitimate trade, as repsectable experts set apart from hobbyists, we can't continue to market ourselves using websites that look like the equivalent of a grade school art project (speaking in generalities here, not specific to this site).

For most shops, your website will be seen by as many or more people as your store front. Would you be happy conducting business with a store display of that quality?

In the end, I don't care where you get your site designed - as long as it's a professionally designed site that reflects well on the florist and the industry. How can people who spend so much time crying about the perils of basement bettys and seasonal hobbyist event "florists" take themselves seriously when they do DIY learn-on-the-go websites?

</rant>
 
Speak'n of competing and showcasing your work:

Anybody watch the show, Project Runway? I wish they had one for floral designers. It would Get some real fierce creative juices flowing!
 
Yikes Ryan.

It defiantly is a DIY thing. I just wanted show what this 17 year old has done in just 30 days not knowing anything about website building.

I agree with having a professional looking site to reflect professionally designed arrangements. I'm not saying that this is for everyone since it takes an incredible amount of time and patience to begin developing a website from scratch! No templetes here just raw website building. You know it kind of reminds me of our first month with our site.

I would love to have a professional looking site but I am torn with blending in with other websites with the same template and keeping it unique only by offering different images.

Ryan's website solution is and will be a breath of fresh air to many florist within the industry and to many here on the board including myself. My only intensions with this thread was to offer a unique look into someone starting from scratch and not only show everyone here what it takes to start a website but to really appreciate what goes into this kind of process whether its a template, raw HTML or Flash.

This website is far from being complete and the person behind the website has much to learn.

No worries Ryan.
 
It's a good first effort and a starting point.

Actually better than what I started with.

Then when I tried to add ecommerce I setup this gawdawful PGP encrypted email form to send me the orders and I was the only one who could figure out how to decode them.

I have a competitor (this one is not a colleague, rather a dick) in the next town over (we deliver to) who has a print this out and fax it attempt at sortakinda "ecommerce", if you happen to have a fax machine - in your home. Here's the part I find funny - a secure cert so the print the fax page is secure. Very important you know...

All our sites are works in progress or at least I know mine still is. I discovered something just about 2 weeks ago, a tiny little thing that has increased my sales significantly, and I've been doing this for a quite long time. (No I am not going to say what it is or I'd have to kill you).

The target is always moving and we all have to start somewhere.

Eric's right, it take s HUGE amount of time to do it yourself. Wish I was paid by the hour and I'd take you all to the Bahamas.

So, even tho all those things Ryan said are totally true and I agree totally, she just needs lots of encouragement.
 
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bloomz said:
It's a good first effort and a starting point.

So, even tho all those things Ryan said are totally true and I agree totally, she just needs lots of encouragement.
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True, we all start from somewhere - but here's the thing: Bloomz, would you let a staff member with that level of floral design skill produce something to be delivered to a customer? How about set up your store display?

I'm all for practice sites, learning through doing, developing your skill - but this is the face of your business. This is what is going to make the first impression of your business to a lot of people. In my mind, it goes a long way towards reflecting the amount of pride a business has.

But opinions vary ... and I am feeling a little edgy tonight. Just remember, though, this is a skilled profession, every bit as much as floral design. And it suffers from the same influx of unqualified "everyone can do it" bargain basement options.

G'night :)
 
Frank said:
I think you are a very nice person who deserves to earn six figures per year!
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A hearty ditto to that - can't for a second knock the "helping each other" bit, and I shouldn't have overlooked that.
 
Well... the bottom line is - does the site convert and generate good income?

Is the time invested in DIY, with the hours it takes to make a site truly succeed, a worthwhile effort? Or would the time be better spent on other tasks - like customer service or design or merchandising or ????

The answer depends on the size of a store and the abilities of the staff.

This I know for sure: spending $1K annually plus $3/order AND a click-to call at $2 each for a WS site with crappy SEO is a waste of money.

You can invest in time, dollars, up front or on the back end, but great results take great investment.

There are no easy, cheap paths to website success. For most shops, the answer is to trust a professional.

Eric, Bloomz, RC, Clay and a few others are the exception. Most others should seriously consider hiring a pro for at least the basics of the site - unless they have pangs of geekdom. ;)
 
CHR said:
Is the time invested in DIY, with the hours it takes to make a site truly succeed, a worthwhile effort? Or would the time be better spent on other tasks - like customer service or design or merchandising or ????

There are no easy, cheap paths to website success. For most shops, the answer is to trust a professional.

Eric, Bloomz, RC, Clay and a few others are the exception.
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Thank you but I really don't think I am any exception. I just started sooner.

Like I said it's way better than my first site.

There are easy and cheap paths, but they do take one he11 of a lot of time, time maybe someone doesn't have in this day and age. Or maybe they do. I don't do floral design, so I do have time. I *think* RC is the same, and possibly Eric too? (guessing)

I really really have looked now for at least a year now for someone to redesign my site but finding someone whose work I really like eludes me, even have hired a couple and ended up not liking what they did - so I am stuck with......

me

And I was encouraged way back when. Brian Faucher taught me how to make my first page layout (a 2 column 3 row table, duh). Encouraged me to get ecommerce and lose my ditzy background images. But there were only about 20 or 30 floral sites back then, so there wasn't so much to compare to.

Eric is encouraging and helping her - this is a good thing - just like people like Cathy encourage and help budding floral designers.

I guess we all look at this from our own perspective.

and

opinions vary

PS Ryan did you miss this statement?
all those things Ryan said are totally true and I agree totally,
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You make some very good points. :yourock:

But so do I. :walking:

*smooch*
 
Chezbloom said:
Anybody watch the show, Project Runway? I wish they had one for floral designers. It would Get some real fierce creative juices flowing!
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Funny, I just had this talk yesterday. Love the show - Christian will likely win.
Or "Iron Florist" like the cooking show where they create a fabulous meal, in a time limit ... fun!

Eric, the site is a great start. As for the hokey-ness, I've seen much much worse, and I'm no expert. Kudos to you for helping another shop bring themselves into the 21st century!

tracy
 
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