Does the name imply that it's biassed ?

Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

Dear Richard
David is out at work at the moment but before he left he asked me to keep an eye on this to see if there were any more helpful comments. I can assure you that there was definately no 'Troll' involved here, he was simply asking for opinions, and there are quite a few very helpful ones so far. I am sure he will respond to each one when he gets home which means I shall have another evening of grunts in reply to any comments I make, but please don't think of this as a 'Troll', he is simply asking for opinions.
Regards
Louise
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

I have followed this (long) thread with some interest. There were a couple of points crying out to be addressed:

First, the main topic - from a brief look at the Sailroom site, I would say that it's main problem is the lack of items for sale! The name is not particularly important, although the pun in the title helps to make it memorable. Opinions vary about layout, I, personally think it's fine - but what do I know? There was an early suggestion to "load" the site with clearance items and othe secondhand goods that people had difficulty selling - at least this would then give the impression of a busy sales site (Of course WE would all know the truth, but I'm sure you can rely on us to keep quiet), and maybe you will have just the bits people need and didn't know where to look. Your "welcome" bar needs more useful content - another method search engines use to "rate" your site is relevant content near the top of the page. It also helps humans to understand what you are about.

Second: Koolie you worry me. If you truly are a student on benefits, then it is not a good idea to advertise the fact you are working on the side! If people are looking for help with their computing problems, they need to be confident that they are dealing with someone experienced who knows what they are talking about. I am wary that you introduce yourself by inviting people to bring their problems to you, then ask fairly basic questions about forum settings.

Back to websites, It's probably a case of do what I say, not what I do! I have two, fairly rusty, websites, but they both serve their purpose. One is for my wife's shop www.thewatchhouse.co.uk - this introduces the shop then is mostly local information. Please don't bother with the "guestbook" it was a free one, untill I tried to delete some unsuitable posts, then found I had to buy an upgrade to do it! The other is for my own business www.facesystems.com - this is way overdue for an update, but it lists my products and services and gets regular enquiries from all round the world. I am quite proud of the enquiry form, written in perl, whic generates an email to me with the enquiry details.

Sorry, beginning to ramble now.
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

De Gustibus non est disputandum...or possibly disputandum est.

You've called for opinions, and that's what you're going to get. But don't expect consensus. Particularly on matters of taste. Don't be panicked into changing the design because of a few adverse comments. The number one priority has to be clarity - and I think Sailroom is fine. I also happen to think that the design is ok but that's just my opinion.
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

Totally agree. There's loads of gas on here about the website design and layout but there's no point improving this unless there are items for sale.

Which there are not so the site is a bit rubbish really IMO
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

You want to appeal to the wider audience, so making it sound like somewhere that sells sails doesn't work for me.
As I stated in my previous post, I wouldn't have visited the site if I hadn't read this thread first, and discovered it was intended to include things other than sails.
I can't see motor boaters being pulled in by the name "Sailroom".
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

Fair point - if you define your business by the name you choose it does logically limit your product and customer base. Hence, I suppose, names like Amazon etc as already mentioned.

On the other hand, if the business takes off (at the moment it's hardly a business - just a website, and the net is littered with unfulfilled dreams) its identity will be defined ultimately by the items it sells. Ergo, if it sells a whole range of stuff from a captain curry lockspike to gold plated taps, oops, then people are going to know it's not just for saily boats - all in my most humble of opinions.
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

There has been some really good stuff in this discussion, much of which I found out for myself during my sabbatical from ybw.

Forget about the name, sailroom is quite adequate, you can even forget about the design for the moment, but what you are selling is paramount.

You need to identify the market you are going for and fill the site with content to satisfy that market. So, if you want to attract boaters to your site to buy and sell boating stuff, then you need boating stuff to sell.

Forget about putting 'content' on, such as stories and other stuff, as there are millions of others sites already with that content and all it will do is distract you from the main job in hand and just takes up bandwidth.

Your priorities are to get links FROM some popular sites. If you persevere you will pursuade some to link to you. In our instance, we have a link from the consumer site of a huge worldwide company and you can't much better than that, but it took a few meetings and a lot of work, but it can be done. They even pay for a banner that more than covers our hosting costs and bandwidth.

Obviously you need things to sell. I thought you had a warehouse full of boat bits. If it is time that stops you cataloging it then, you are going to have to find the time.

But, you need to attract other sellers. First of all, I would contact chandlers and other suppliers to find out if they want to list some of that stock that sits in the back of the shop/warehouse, waiting for someone to deal with it.

With our site, we decided that merchants would only pay a negligable .05 pence a click for this year, so they would get used to paying something, but also to attract them to the site. Even though we have only five retailers up so far, between them, they have some 9,000 lines, with another four almost ready to go.

Once we get them trading properly, we can then put some time into content and other developments.

Lastly, you can submit your site to the search engines and your first port of call should be to here to Submit to Google and keep submitting it.

The more obscure stuff you have to sell and the more you submit to search engines, the more likely you will get good search engine results that don't need the words 'sailroom' in the search string. Your goal is to get results when the search is for 'bilge pumps' or 'marine giggling pins' etc.

Remember, empty shops don't sell anything.

Finally, The Companies Act 2006, gained royal assent in November 2006. Much of the new legislation does not come into effect until October 2008, but since January 2007 it is a legal requirement that all companies with a website include the company's registered name, address and company registration number on the site. You must also have a proper contact telephone number.

In fact, look at the excellent Out- law website scroll down and read "Minimum information to be provided".
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

Like Brendan suggests you need to look at the up-to-date info on Search Engine requirements. Meta tags are virtually ignored by some engines. Most have an optimum number of keywords, exceed it and you are dropping down their ratings. The worst of it is that each engine has different requirements.
Some engines penalise you for re-submitting too often. That counts against the software-based submission methods.
There is an interesting piece Here that gives a few clues.
But you need to search around the net for the latest info.
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

Food for thought in the link you provided re new regulations - not happy about showing an email address tho' - I think the spam situation means there ought to be a moratorium on such a proposal until they penalise effectively the cunning b******ds who use every trick in the book to get their spam through.

Sailroom already has a healthy Google page rank of 4 - quite amazing for a two bit outfit - when you consider that this forum only manages 5....
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

You can display your e-mail adress as a text image in a .gif or .jpg file which would prevent software spiders finding it.
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

Just don't link
email.jpg
to a mailto: instruction as the software will pick that up.
Someone did suggest a php instruction that would hide it the other day and I did copy it to a notepad. Just need to work out how it works now!
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

I'm not really sure why a contact form isn't acceptable. It requires more effort to set up and is a sign (usually) that the business takes its mail seriously.

In any case, displaying an email address is absolutely no guarantee that you're going to get a reply. I suppose the theory is that it makes the business more transparent...but practice and theory are never quite the same thing.

Trust you to think up 'butthole' - trust me to do a search on it /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

[ QUOTE ]
Just don't link
email.jpg
to a mailto: instruction as the software will pick that up.
Someone did suggest a php instruction that would hide it the other day and I did copy it to a notepad. Just need to work out how it works now!

[/ QUOTE ]

There is also a bit of Javascript you can use, something like this:

<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
var theuser = "everything before the @";
var theisp = "everything after the @";
document.write('<a href' + '=\"mail' + 'to:' + theuser + '@' + theisp + '\">');
document.write('just put the person's name here</a>');
// -->
</script>

Or have a look at http://automaticlabs.com/products/enkoderform/ - a bit more sophisticated possibly. Way off topic here....
Hi Dave - yes I'm following this thread, and I'll be interested to hear any conclusions you may draw from it. And I've had it in mind for some time that I ought to find the time to dig out the piles of nautical junk to stick on the SailRoom site - I will get round to it eventually, promise. Now if everyone else does the same....
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

[ QUOTE ]

I'm not really sure why a contact form isn't acceptable.

[/ QUOTE ]

They annoy me as you don't have a record of what you said, so when you don't get a reply you've proabably forgotten about it and many companies bank on that.
 
Re: Does the name imply that it\'s biassed ?

yep that's the right one, the best way to improve a rating in searches (without paying) is to get lot's of other sites to link to your site. The bigger and more prominent the site the better.
 
Re:Sailroom UK

Well I found this thread informative and enjoyed it.

T25 obviously respects the thoughts and advice of people

here

So each to their own opinion IMHO

cheers Joe
 
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