Website Review and Suggestions

**stressrelief** · 01:21 AM

This site just went live last month and has a true visitor count of 800+ unique visitors and no sales.

Please view, navigate and send me your honest feedback! Feedback is priceless and I appreciate your time in viewing it!

Grannie Sandie LLC Stress Relief Dolls

Thanks,
Rob

Some questions I'm looking to have answered:

ØDo you like the website? Y / N

ØWhat did you like / dislike about the website?

ØDid you have any problems navigating throughout the website? If so what were they?

ØDid you like our products? Y / N

ØWhat do you think about the prices of our products?

ØWhat did you like / dislike about our products?

ØWould you purchase a doll from Grannie Sandie?

ØWhat doll is your favorite?

ØDo you have any suggestions in reference to the company, the dolls, and/or website?

ØHave you ever seen a product like this? If so; what and where?

ØWhat would you use this doll for:

oA gag gift.
oActual stress relief by slamming the doll.
oTo get a laugh and show to friends/family.
oA combination of all of the above.
oOther (please specify):_________________________

ØWhat would you like to see as our next "Smack-it, Slap-it, Slam-it doll"?

Thanks everyone

.......

**kuratkull** · 09-03-2006, 07:50 PM

Hyping up your reputation takes some time, so sales will be on the way in the near future

I love the warm fuzzy feeling of the site.
I don't like that the white and the dark gray boxes don''t have rounded edges.
When your just beginning your business, you should lower your prices as low as you can. Maybe 7$?

I like that the dolls are with somewhat human proportions :P

You should add the extra twist, that would make people say: "Oh wow, i would really love to have one, i especially love it because [insert your marketing solutions here]"

I'm pretty sure when i say, that your product is unique(as far as i know), so here's a big plus to begin with.

It's potential uses for me: oA gag gift.
oActual stress relief by slamming the doll.

OK, answered your questions, hope they satisfy you

**stressrelief** · 09-03-2006, 08:24 PM

Awesome, it's great when people take the time to thoroughly review a site as you have.

Thanks for the feedback, I will definitely work on these things.

Keep em' coming........

**mgraphic** · 09-03-2006, 11:15 PM

Not a bad site - but I personally think that the flash providing your main content will not help in search engine indexing.

I do like the fact that you say that you give 10% of the profits to charity, too bad it only says that on one page - I would have it on all pages, especially on your product pages.

You might want to consider investing in advertising through adwords and overture, because that might be the only way to drive traffic and sales during your first season. You could also think about selling on eBay too.

I think it would be nice to include comments from customers and anyone who has positive feedback about the dolls, this will help build interest. And finially, using an affiliate will slo help in traffic and sales such as eBay and possibly Amazon.

**ryangassxx** · 09-04-2006, 01:14 AM

The site is pretty cool. Pretty wel laid out and easy to navagate, and good imagry.

I think the reason you're not selling any dolls probably has less to do with the website and more to do with the product itself. I'm not quite sure I understand what this is.. A small sized doll that you can beat on to relieve stress? I mean i get that whole concept, but like say for example, what would be the difference between if I used your product or say a balled up pair of socks? Or any inanimate object for that matter.. It sort of reminds me of "log" from ren and stimpy. Or the exercise block, where you put the plock in the middle of the room and run around it for exercise.. I mean something you can use to aleviate stress.. You could sell anything and tell people to use it for that purpose..

I'm sorry if I am sort of bashing your business. I dont mean to be a jerk or anything. But maybe the sooner you come to grips with this, the sooner you can cut your losses. The only helpfull tip I could lend would be to maybe try and market it as a novelty item. And in that case you're product would best be sold on store counters next to the register to sort of infuence it as an impulse buy.

**mgraphic** · 09-04-2006, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryangassxx

The only helpfull tip I could lend would be to maybe try and market it as a novelty item.

It IS a novilty item, and in America, this idea would sell pretty good. Just take a look at:

Anger Management Dolls - Stress Releif The Fun Way

**LadynRed** · 12:57 PM

Cute idea, it might sell. I wouldn't buy one, but then I'm not the type to slam things around when I get angry or frustrated

. I like the overall DESIGN and the colors but.....

A couple of things:

Your navigation is ONLY flash.. that's a bad idea, very inaccessible. If you're going to use Flash for navigation, also include a TEXT version of your menu. People using assistive technology that do not read or render Flash will find it impossible to navigate your site. Anyone with Flash turned OFF (like people with FlashGot installed with Firefox), will not be able to navigate your site.

You should not use the <embed> tag to put the flash on your page. MS lost it's EOLAS patent fight and now all active content, like flash, will NOT be shown unless the user goes thru a 2-click process to view it. So, anyone not paying attention using IE will not see your naviagation at all. There are many options for avoiding the <embed> method - here are 2 such methods:

deconcept › SWFObject: Javascript Flash Player detection and embed script
bobbyvandersluis.com | Unobtrusive Flash Objects (UFO) v3.20

Your 'grannie sandy story' is an image !! ?? Why ?? That is so completely inaccessible and VERY UN-friendly for search engines. Anyone surfing with images turned off, or with a text-only browser or screenreader will see NOTHING on your page - and text is all search engine spiders CAN "see". On top of that, the text cannot be resized to make the comic sans font more readable. Not everyone surfing the web is 15 with perfect eyesight.
*** I just noticed, ALL your text is images.... very bad, sorry.

You have no DOCTYPE, it's all tables... and all images, not good at all.

**stressrelief** · 09-04-2006, 01:12 PM

Thanks for all the feedback.

As for IE browser users I have already done the fix so that the IE browser user will not see any problems. In Firefox if flash is turned off, it will download automatically when the user goes to the site.

As for the site being all images and flash, I guess I need to work on that.

Thanks for everyone's feedback and for the Anger Management link too!

Priceless feedback!!!!!!!!

Thank you,

more...more..more ...........you can never have too much feedback!!!

**ktm131** · 09-04-2006, 08:16 PM

In my opinion the site relies to heavily on flash. In general this is not a good practice. You want to use flash to highlight elements on the site, but I would strongly advise against building a site using primarily flash.

**stressrelief** · 09-04-2006, 08:48 PM

Can you comment on why a person should not use Flash, and what about all the high end sites that are ONLY flash?

Thanks!
Stressrelief

**mgraphic** · 09-04-2006, 10:21 PM

Think of it this way - You are selling a product, why not design a site that offers the content in a way that can be indexed and used by potential customers without non-compatible flash

Those sites that are flash-only based are usually for presentational media and services. You won't see many flash-based sites selling product.

IMO

**stressrelief** · 09-04-2006, 10:37 PM

Thanks for the reply,

So what you are telling me is that a Flash website can't be indexed?

Is indexing your only reason for recommending I stay away from a flash site?

Is this true webmasters?

Can Flash sites be indexed?

I'm seriously thinking of changing my design based on this feedback. But if my Flash site can be indexed then I would like to keep it, I have put a lot of time into this site! Serious feedback only please.

THANKS!!!
Stressrelief

**mgraphic** · 09-04-2006, 11:33 PM

Quote:

So what you are telling me is that a Flash website can't be indexed?

No - Any kind of site can be indexed, its just that all of the content that has the most relevance to your site is embedded in the flash content - and its flash content that cannot be indexed. Simple task - go to your home page and view the source code - this is what a search engine reads. How much relevance does that content have with your page? If you are selling a doll, and SE see only a header and footer - what does it have to offer and at what importance does it give to the products?

Quote:

Is indexing your only reason for recommending I stay away from a flash site?

It's one reason. Also be aware of those who do not have shockwave installed, those who need screen readers, and those who browse your sites from mobile devices.

This is just constructive criticism - food for thought!

**stressrelief** · 09-05-2006, 02:13 PM

Thanks MG,

I appreciate your time...

It seems the first change I need to make is turning some of my .png text into actual text instead of fireworks text. Maybe I could then have a navigation box outside of the flash. I just hate having duplicate buttons.

Http://www.granniesandie.com
-Stressrelief-

**stressrelief** · 09-11-2006, 06:18 PM

I'm just looking for some more feedback....

Please submit and ignore the distorted images on the home page...I'm currently fixing that.

Thank you!

**ren** · 09-14-2006, 03:30 PM

I would only show the mid section graphic, the "smack-it slap-it, slam-it"... part on the hme page. Once a user saw it, he(she) would probably have got the point. Repeating it on every single page takes up a lot of real estate, and it becomes noisy too.

Great design overall.

**stressrelief** · 09-14-2006, 05:54 PM

Thanks Ren!

**cd-mchase** · 09-14-2006, 06:16 PM

Since what I was going to say about Flash has already been said, I'll just answer the simple questions you asked:

ØDo you like the website? Yes

ØWhat did you like / dislike about the website? The design is kind of simple yet very crowded at the same time. The lower content area is VERY crowded. Also the rollover noise on the menu is VERY annoying. I'd also work on cleaning up the code to standards.

ØDid you have any problems navigating throughout the website? If so what were they? Not really, once I enabled Flashblock to not block the flash menu I could get around easily. I do enjoy the charitable links portion of the website, it's always good to give something back.

ØDid you like our products? It's nothing I would buy, but something my grandma would probably give the family as a joke gift for Christmas.

ØWhat do you think about the prices of our products? Rather expensive for a little piece of fabric with stuffing.

ØWhat did you like / dislike about our products? Read above.

ØWould you purchase a doll from Grannie Sandie? Probably not.

ØWhat doll is your favorite? The blonde female. I can honestly say that nobody has caused more stress in my life than blonde females

ØDo you have any suggestions in reference to the company, the dolls, and/or website? Other than what I said prior, nope.

ØHave you ever seen a product like this? If so; what and where? Yes, I've seen little toys at the toy store that are like this except the yell when you slam them.

ØWhat would you use this doll for:

oTo get a laugh and show to friends/family.

ØWhat would you like to see as our next "Smack-it, Slap-it, Slam-it doll"? A baseball umpire.

**stressrelief** · 09-14-2006, 06:30 PM

cd-mchase, you are the first to fill out the survey. I greatly appreciate the time you took to do that!

You rock!

**cd-mchase** · 09-14-2006, 06:52 PM

No problemo, glad I could help.