slabbercabber
starting to shine!
Member since March 2010
Posts: 30
|
Post by slabbercabber on Apr 2, 2013 18:51:08 GMT -5
I don't know if this is right place to put this but we finally got a web site up and would appreciate critiques. www.rockaura.com Negatives would be welcome so we can improve. Thanks, Steve |
|
|
|
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Apr 2, 2013 19:10:22 GMT -5
wow, your photography on your cabochons is awesome. Your shapes are all very unique and all top shelf materials too. I hope you do very well with it. You obviously spent a lot of time and effort getting that site ready.
Chuck
|
|
|
|
Post by Bikerrandy on Apr 2, 2013 20:01:52 GMT -5
Your cabs are the best cabs ever!! Awesome photography and I like how easy it is to navigate around as well  |
|
|
|
Post by doneall517 on Apr 2, 2013 20:04:55 GMT -5
Nice job on your web site! Great photos-what camera are you using and light source?? Mike
|
|
|
|
Post by parfive on Apr 2, 2013 21:22:21 GMT -5
Cabs look very nice, Steve. Good luck with the site.
Probably just me, but to my eye, the pics are cropped juuuust a little too tight on the cabs.
Page might look cleaner with just two or three photo sizes.
Spelling - cab page. (Slab page needs corrections too)
Pirhana (5 times) and Pyrahna (once) should be Piranha.
Amethist (twice) is Amethyst.
Chrysocholla (once) Crisocholla (once) Crysocholla (4 times) is Chrysocolla.
|
|
|
|
Post by Toad on Apr 2, 2013 23:13:10 GMT -5
I agree - great site. I agree with Rich. Bad spelling drives me insane. Wouldn't stop me from buying though. Excellent work.
|
|
|
|
Post by christopherl1234 on Apr 3, 2013 2:35:45 GMT -5
Once the spelling is corrected you will have a premium site! Professional photography and well laid-out with top shelf product.
|
|
|
|
Post by Donnie's Rocky Treasures on Apr 3, 2013 6:22:07 GMT -5
Very nice website with some awesome material. Been there about 3 times now window shopping!
|
|
|
|
Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 3, 2013 9:59:37 GMT -5
Very nice layout, and easy to navigate. Nice pics, and great prices, too! Jean
|
|
|
|
Post by deb193redux on Apr 3, 2013 10:27:42 GMT -5
LOL. Went to look, and somehow ordered.
The top graphic is great on the main page, but after going to a detail page like a ROUGH piece, it should be smaller or different. I always had to scroll down to see the rough I had clicked on.
Also, something wonky with shipping button. It came up USPS and seemed selected (only one, center solid), but when I submitted order it said no shipping selected. I wen back and clicked the button a few times. Could not see any difference from click to click, but it did seem to "get it" now, and shipping appeared in the total, and order went through. With someone more easily rattled by computer forms, you might have lost a sale.
Overall seems well done.
I disagree with others on photography. Was good for rough and slabs, but the hard light sources showing in the cabs is not acceptable in commercial settings. You can do that here in amateur setting, but you need product photography that used more diffused light to eliminate the circular and oval visible light source reflections. I suggest you read Ron Gibbs free PDF on the topic of photographing rocks and jewelry.
|
|
slabbercabber
starting to shine!
Member since March 2010
Posts: 30
|
Post by slabbercabber on Apr 3, 2013 11:45:40 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies.
"Great photos-what camera are you using and light source?? Mike"
The camera is a Sony A55, but the lens and lighting are far more important. This one is a Sony 18-105mm. The lighting is a desk fluorescent for the long reflection and a compact fluorescent combined with a high intensity to give a neutral color source. This was set up specifically to show the quality of finish and I think that is important to have in the listing but, I agree that the main photo should be done without the reflection. I need to set up for that. The photos in the listings were ones that I had already taken.
I've been trying to get the spelling right. I appreciate the help on that.
Daniel, you should not have to scroll down except on the main pages. Are you using a cell phone to view this? Do you have a link to the PDF for photography? All I could find was his background instruction.
Also we see that shipping will not work with the setup supplied by the site. Therefor It will be changed to reflect weight instead of fixed price. The first order will be honored including the mistaken pricing on the ocean jasper. My bad. The website provider makes variable shipping imp
|
|
|
|
Post by drocknut on Apr 3, 2013 13:03:56 GMT -5
Was browsing through your jewelry and noticed a lot of items marked "clay" that look a lot like mookaite jasper and one or two that look like stone not clay. Are you sure they are made of clay?
Otherwise the site looks good.
|
|
|
|
Post by deb193redux on Apr 9, 2013 17:29:43 GMT -5
OK, the URL I have for the PDF file of Ron's newsletter series is: www.theimage.com/apubimages/20photopaper.pdfthe discussion you want is about "specular reflection" the problem with weight based calculations is that they do not handle flat-rate boxes. rockhounds have gotten spoiled and will turn away if a MFRB or LFRB is not offered. I don't know why they cannot make shopping carts smarter. Some big commercial ones do seem to understand Priority flat-rate. I have seen vendors who had to charge the UPS rate and then note that if it fits in USPS priority flat rate they will refund the difference - but that seems a pain, and your time is money. As for the scrolling, I ge the same graphic and menu on the home page, as I do non the rough page, as I do on the rough item page. My notebook is 1200x800 resolution, so very not a phone. In both cases, the top image is so large, Ihave to scroll down to see what I want to see. At first, I thought it was broken, and had redisplayed the home page. Your html may be adapting to the end device and using a larger photo on larger screens, or something. I am attaching a screenshot (reduced size) of what I see when clicking on one of the remaining pieces of ocean jasper. |
|
|
|
Post by johnjsgems on Apr 10, 2013 10:12:54 GMT -5
Daniel, shipping is a huge problem. On my website I can set up with option of USPS, UPS, or FedEx. I have to have weight and box dimension for each item for the schedules to work. I also have to ship from one location, not from wherever we are at a show. Then there is the whole drop ship orders from all over the country issue. If I only had small jewelry items and only shipped from home I would use USPS only. Even then, what if someone ordered 6 small items. The USPS calculator would add 6 orders, 6 boxes when in fact I would put all 6 in a Small FRB for $5.15. Refunding shipping is a little bit of a hassle but so far I can't find a system that works. And I didn't mention international orders.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rockoonz on Apr 12, 2013 12:12:51 GMT -5
Yep, what John said. Back when I sold on ebay most of my time was spent dealing with shipping. The USPS FRB seldom works for car part dimensions, so I used FedEx almost exclusively. Of course ebay only had UPS or USPS for options, and then forced sellers to either use a flat rate or their calculator. I stated boldly in red letters "wait for an invoice for a shipping discount" in my auctions. I would use the calculator at UPS rates in the auctions, then at the end of the auction seperately calculate shipping and invoice each winner.
As I said, back when I USED to sell on ebay.
BTW very nice website. And thanks, Daniel for the link to the photography article.
Lee
|
|
|
|
Post by deb193redux on Apr 13, 2013 20:18:21 GMT -5
Still, a "refund if flat-rate possible", is good to state if it is an option. I pay at therockshed.com and Shawn refunds when he uses flat-rate. a strictly weight-based system on rocks is almost always going to sour folks.
|
|
munchie
starting to shine!
Member since February 2010
Posts: 35
|
Post by munchie on Apr 13, 2013 20:23:04 GMT -5
Nice site you have some great looking items
|
|
|
|
Post by kap on Apr 13, 2013 21:49:41 GMT -5
Nice site very easy to browse around in.
|
|
Jasper-hound
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since June 2010
Posts: 208
|
Post by Jasper-hound on Apr 20, 2013 12:30:19 GMT -5
Nice job. A lot of work involved to set all that up. Believe me, I know.
|
|
free4rms
freely admits to licking rocks
My little pet walrus
Member since January 2007
Posts: 839
|
Post by free4rms on Apr 23, 2013 11:23:06 GMT -5
I looked at your web site, and I have a few suggestions I would like to make. I guess I will be one of those "brutally honest" types, so I hope you don't mind.
I like your photos, but as someone else mentioned, I would do whatever it takes to eliminate excessive glare on some cabs. Sometimes it is better to have a little bit of light accenting certain parts of the stone, but use this effect sparingly. I also agree with someone who suggested not cropping quite so closely.
I do not see anywhere that you site is "still under construction" and that warning can really turn people away from your site in a hurry. When I first went to your site and read that, I noticed that there were no photos anywhere of stones other than your header. Because you said you were still under construction, my thought was that you had nothing to offer yet. It was not until I clicked on one of your links at the top that I realized you did have pieces ready to sell. I would definitely get rid of the "under construction" sentence.
At the top of your home page, you have a link that says "information". This is redundant because all it does is repeat the links you have at the bottom of your header. Since it is redundant and serves no purpose of it's own, I would get rid of it.
On the links below your header photo, you have "and more" listed. I think this is a poor choice of words for misc. equipment or supplies, but please forgive me if I am being picky here.
On your menu bar below your banner photo, I would not put the http address for your web page, but use "Home" instead. I only suggest this because I think most people are familiar with seeing that word.
At the bottom of your home page, I would not put your contact information and boxes for people to fill in to contact you. This is a poor waste of homepage space and this space could be used for a couple more homepage photos or something of that sort. Instead of the contact info where you have it, add a "contact us" to the menu bar at the top, and when people click on it, it should take them to a page where you have your contact info listed. I would make sure your full names are listed and a complete address. I think it gives people more confidence in ordering when they know they can reach you by email, phone and snail mail if they have any questions. Your email address should be highlighted as a link so that when people click on it, it opens up in their email program with your email address already typed in. That way, a person can simply type in their message and send it directly to your email. This is much easier than filling in all the boxes you have on your home page now.
On one of your pages, you have a pen used for scale next to the photos. This is not really helpful because no one knows the length of the pen. I would recommend using something else for scale that actually shows the size of the item for sale.
When someone buys an item and it is added to the shopping cart, the shopping cart indicator with the contents listed stays visible on each page visited later on. It moves so that it stays visible when you scroll down the page, and in some cases actually overlaps the photos on the page. This is a bit annoying and could be fixed by not having the shopping cart constantly showing on every page, but instead have it disappear once something is ordered. You can then add a shopping cart icon next to your menu buttons at the top. Then someone can simply click on that icon and go to the shopping cart to check out or view the contents.
Lastly, and I hope I am not being offensive here, but I think the logo below your website name could use some work. I think it could be a bit "catchier" and more memorable.
I think your site has some great potential and your cabs are very, very well done and beautifully designed. I was really impressed. I hope you do well with it and have lots of repeat customers.
free4rms
|
|
