My first muse is almost ready

[mfornas]

Hi everyone,

I am finishing the design of my first muse website. Finally!!
It is actually a web to sell printings of my wife oil paintings. I have done some research and I believe this can be a good product to sell: children paintings.

I outsourced the webdesign and I have changes to request but I would be very grateful if you can take a look at the actual design and tell me what you think. The page is here: http://www.technologycity.ca/ChildrenTheme1A/index.htm

I already requested to add some additional information when the user zooms in a image (paint description, techiques used, sizes available and paypal buttons to buy right away)

The prices could range from 50€ the small 12"x12" to 119€ for a 28"x28" (including shipment fees)

My questions are:
Is the design good enough?
Is the message clear?
Would you buy them?
If not why not?
Are the prices ok? Could I charge more? Should I charge less?

Be honest, if you don't like it I want to know!

[Marcie]

I didn't get a chance to look a whole lot, but I really like the design & overall feel of the site! I can't figure out where to buy though! When I click the "paintings" link, I would like to see some small thumbnails representative of the art, like on the home page. Good job!

[Drew Kime]

On the main page, you talk about what you like to do (OK, what your wife likes). You should talk about what I will like about it. Not me personally, but the potential customer. What do they get out of it?

The "Paintings" link should be renamed "Purchase" or "Store" or something that indicates that you can buy them. Otherwise it just looks like an online viewing gallery.

Put the name of each painting in the image ALT text. Right now they all say the same thing.

Are the prices for originals or prints?

Am I right to guess English isn't your first language? If it is ... umm, you need to work on your grammar. :) Rework the focus so it's telling me what I will like, what I will get out of it and I'd be happy to fix the grammar for you.

I think the look and feel is awesome, though. And the paintings are great.

[mfornas]

Dear Drew,

Thanks a lot for your comments. I will refocus the writing to be more customer oriented.

As you mentioned, English is not my first language (I'm catalan/spanish) so I would be very grateful if you can help my out a bit once I redo my writings.
Actually I'm doing the "about me" page and doing some changes in the viewing part to allow users to buy.

The price range (49-119) is for printings. The originals will be available as well along their prices in the detail of the image. The painting detail page will contain:
A picture (big).
* Technique description. Oil or acrylic painting and original size
* Personal comments. Some text regarding the insipiration of the painting. To add some "human touch"
* The available purchase options:
*** printing size 40x50 rolled --€ [Paypal buy button]
*** printing size 40x50 stretched --€ [Paypal buy button]
*** original size 40x50 stretched ---€ [email link to confirm availabilty]


Would you buy them?
If not why not?
Are the prices ok? Could I charge more? Should I charge less?

If you just had a baby, what would make you buy from my store?

[padma]

Drew gave you some good advice...I agree with all of it. The front page text should change to more of a sales pitch.

I think the prices are higher than what I personally would spend, but then again art isn't something I buy a lot of. How do the wall paintings work and how much are those?

As Drew said, it looks more like a gallery than a sales site...it does look very nice though.

[Drew Kime]

Would you buy them?
If not why not?
Are the prices ok? Could I charge more? Should I charge less?
I think your prices look "reasonable". I don't know if I'm your target market, though. If you've seen Tim's advice about pricing, you know that going too low invites bargain hunters, who are more likely to cause customer service issues. I'd recommend going a little higher than you think is probably right and see what you get. If you get no sales you can always come down, but you might be surprised.

Art is an odd thing to price. Some people actually prefer the exclusivity that comes with a higher price. Not a bad kind of customer to have, now that I think about it. And don't fall into the trap if asking yourself what you would pay. So asking here is a good step, but I think shopping your competitors would be better.

If you just had a baby, what would make you buy from my store?
An offer of free baby-sitting. :D

Seriously, though, I'm not your target market. I don't buy art.

[mfornas]

Thanks everyone so far!

I am doing the following things in order to get my website ready (I plan to release on monday, with no ads yet (I will leave them for the next 2 weeks after I redo my marketing strategy...)

My actual front design is being changed. so far is like this (tomorrow will be updated again):
http://technologycity.ca/ChildrenTheme1A1/

More important is the realisation that I am not focusing the web to my target market. In fact I did not state clearly in my plan what my target market was.
So priority 1 now is refocusing my plan and therefore yesterday I purchased the ebook about target marketing at http://webpreppro.com. I am reading it cover to cover now. Great advises (some are common sense some are distilled after hard work) explained for the average joe (like me, I am a .NET programmer but new to the web marketing world).

Also I can tell that I am having a great time learning how to do this things right and YOUR support is a motivation burst very much needed at the begging of this adventure (at least for me).

More things to come in the next days!

[VitaminD]

Just curious - why do you say your "first" muse? That's a little strange to me - like you're deciding ahead of time that "one" muse won't be enough.

[webgal]

Thanks for getting my tutorial. I'm glad you are understanding it.

Second, "Be welcome" isn't right. I think once you figure out who your target market is, that space can have a compelling headline.

Make a list of the practical things people want to know as Drew stated. Sizes, print or original and how it will arrive. Flat, rolled up?

It is very difficult to price art. Don't go to low. Instead add value.

As far as looks, your site looks nice and I think will appeal to your target. You just need to add the practical information and tailor the copy to your market.

People buy art because it's pretty and it inspires a feeling. Also, showing the art displayed on a wall helps because that makes it easier for people to "see" how it will work on their wall.

[mandasol]

As a father of a little girl (toddler), I would guess I'm your target market. You may not want to hear my recommendations, especially since you've almost got your website ready but...

You've got the right themes and the paintings are great, but I'm not looking for prints to hang in my daughters room, especially when I'm (actually my wife) is spending money faster than I can make it on furniture, books, toys, clothes, food, feeding utensils, and other necessessity items. Now if you had licensed your paintings to manufacturers of baby and childrens products, the cute images may make me choose to pick that product over another.

I would think licensing of the images to a company that will make and sell a million sippy cups would be much more profitable than selling a few prints online.

I've seen the stuff that's out there for kids, and you're wife's paintings are as good. Maybe she could custom tailor the images to match the products as well, or have a recurring theme that identifies her images.

For example of products that I could think of off the top of my head that have surfaces suitable for images are:
Sippy Cups
Kids dishes, and other utensils
Bibs
Quilts
Sun shades for cars
Car seat covers
Clothes (t-shirts, hats, shoes)
Baby wipe containers
Diaper bags
Edges of picture frames
Greeting cards (birthday invitations)

The list probably could go on and on. If you do it right your wife could be the next Mary Englebreit. I doubt you will be able to charge a lot at the beginning, and may have to start with smaller manufacturers.

One product I would suggest trying to team up with is the snack trap (another one of those, duh I should have thought of that invention). It's like the hottest thing now and it looks like they just print images that they found in a stock image library, because they are just plain goofy. You're wife's stuff is tons better.

[Drew Kime]

Now if you had licensed your paintings to manufacturers of baby and childrens products...

Dude, stop there, that's all I needed to read. THAT idea is pure gold. Find a good attorney, of course, but licensing is the way to go.

I would try really hard to keep in the contract that I could still sell prints and originals, but no merchandise that competes with what is being licensed. So if I license someone to make cups with my images, I can't also sell cups.

[webgal]

This isn't an easy process. Nothing is. But I'm telling you that if you go this route, be patient. And establishing an online presence to make an impression on these companies can facilitate the process.

I do like this idea a lot.

[mfornas]

Dear mandasol,

I really appreciate any suggestion. In fact what you propose is the third phase of my ideal plan, which unfolds as follows:

Phase 1 (current): Launch my website and try to sell what she is doing right now. This phase will have me entertained 2/3 months since I must lear a lot of things (but with your help is getting easier, thanks again ;) )

Phase 2: Since my wife also does murals, I was thinking in designing wall stickers (so more people can have them at a better price). They are removable these days and the production is quite cheap. I made some research and the actual competition (besides Disney) is not extremely tough.

Phase 3: Expand the business into licensing (when I have more resources and experience to hire a lawyer and negotiate better) and my wife can create specific designs

I may not get to phase 3 (or even to phase 2). All depends on how good I perform on this first phase.

As a father of a little girl (toddler), I would guess I'm your target market. You may not want to hear my recommendations, especially since you've almost got your website ready but...

You've got the right themes and the paintings are great, but I'm not looking for prints to hang in my daughters room, especially when I'm (actually my wife) is spending money faster than I can make it on furniture, books, toys, clothes, food, feeding utensils, and other necessessity items. Now if you had licensed your paintings to manufacturers of baby and childrens products, the cute images may make me choose to pick that product over another.

I would think licensing of the images to a company that will make and sell a million sippy cups would be much more profitable than selling a few prints online.

I've seen the stuff that's out there for kids, and you're wife's paintings are as good. Maybe she could custom tailor the images to match the products as well, or have a recurring theme that identifies her images.

For example of products that I could think of off the top of my head that have surfaces suitable for images are:
Sippy Cups
Kids dishes, and other utensils
Bibs
Quilts
Sun shades for cars
Car seat covers
Clothes (t-shirts, hats, shoes)
Baby wipe containers
Diaper bags
Edges of picture frames
Greeting cards (birthday invitations)

The list probably could go on and on. If you do it right your wife could be the next Mary Englebreit. I doubt you will be able to charge a lot at the beginning, and may have to start with smaller manufacturers.

One product I would suggest trying to team up with is the snack trap (another one of those, duh I should have thought of that invention). It's like the hottest thing now and it looks like they just print images that they found in a stock image library, because they are just plain goofy. You're wife's stuff is tons better.

[mfornas]

You are right (my subconscious betrayed me, damn! :eek: )

In fact I have several ideas I am willing to try this year.
The first is about the paintings.

Since I am a programmer the second is a software product to help translate programs to other languages.

The third and fourth are inventions to make life easier (package based). I need to do more research on this. Actually I have a question: how can I know if my idea has already been patented by someone else?

Kind regards,
Miquel Fornas


Just curious - why do you say your "first" muse? That's a little strange to me - like you're deciding ahead of time that "one" muse won't be enough.

[mfornas]

Actually I am in the middle of redoing my copywriting. Also finishing my price policy.

Meanwhile the webpage is looking a bit better:
http://technologycity.ca/ChildrenTheme1A3/index.htm

I already have designed how I think the purchase option should be:

After clicking on one image the zoomed picutre would appear along with some details: http://imgplace.com/image/view/55f2e64317765a43e13bdbf221b7ee71

I added a caption to the picture as well as a personal comment to give some "human touch" and appeal to the caring mothers...

Is this a good path to follow? Is it clear enough?

Kind regards,
Miquel Fornas