Website critiques for my boat sale please

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sprocker

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Following my recent thread about starting the search for our next boat, we have decided to have a go at selling our current MF645 ourselves. We are only 15 minutes from the boat, and can be fairly flexible at work, so dealing with viewings etc shouldn't be too much of an issue.

After spending a good deal of the bank holiday weekend cleaning and photographing, I have built a small website and would welcome any constructive comments.

The site is at http://www.merryfisher645.co.uk

Thankyou in advance.......
 
landing page lacks visual impact and grab factor. The dark photo R has distractions behind it.

Can you find a pic of PikNik in sunlight, in motion, going from L to R ? The idea of movement will ignite the 'must have' factor. Two static pics with imbalance don't do that.


First impressions do count, and lead to hooking potential buyers to dig deeper.


The gallery is comprehensive. Some selling pages have one big pic at the top, which changes as you move the cursor over the gallery. Again it helps prevent people having to "work" a website by constantly double clicking.
 
The website looks good, the only critique is that anyone not knowing what a Merry Fisher is, doesn't learn much more from the information provided, so perhaps some background details of the marque, makers brochures, etc.

Worth listing on Apollo Duck or Boats & Outboards to increase visibility.
 
How brutal do you want us to be?
[picky]Images on home page are higher resolution than needs be, causing slow loading.
Needs to be a space between page content and bottom banner.
Red, white, black colour scheme is a bit harsh.
Excessive use of horizontal lines.
[/picky]

Not too shoddy for a quick one off, but lacks a bunch of pazazz.

edit add:
If you could get the boat name (only) as an image and use that as a page header might be a bit wow.
 
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One of the many qualities of the MF is their performance at speed. I'd add a speed/wake shot, even if you use someone else's and credit it to them "sister ship". The photos are nice but not exciting, a MF is a well fun boat, yours looks clean, tidy and practically new but not exciting! But if I was set on a MF645 and was hunting the web for one I'd buy yours, it's beautifully presented and practically new.
 
Good web page again error on the year built 2104 !!!! Also I am left wondering if it comes with a trailer I suspect not but I think you need to mention that there is no trailer as at this size of boat I am sort of expecting one

Also as others have said you need some pics of the boat in action ie on the plane.

Statement as to why you are selling her. You say she is low hours which obviously suggest little use and I am left thinking well he does not like the boat much that is why he is selling and has little used her

Just a few comments

Dennis
 
Thankyou for all your comments so far Gents. I've corrected the easy mistake........and will make time to work through your other comments.

The website was really meant as a bolster to the traditional online sales sites, but agree that putting the effort in now could mean a faster sale.
 
I´m looking at doing something similar soon as I think I will try and sell my boat after Xmas. What software did you use to create your website? good luck with the sale too.
 
sprocker said:
Thankyou for all your comments so far Gents. I've corrected the easy mistake........and will make time to work through your other comments.

The website was really meant as a bolster to the traditional online sales sites, but agree that putting the effort in now could mean a faster sale.
Click to expand...

Really liked the website and the boat looks great. I have no idea whether the price is competitive but, if I was in the market for this sort of boat and saw this site, I would be very likely to make further enquiries.
 
kashurst said:
I´m looking at doing something similar soon as I think I will try and sell my boat after Xmas. What software did you use to create your website? good luck with the sale too.
Click to expand...

The site is through 1&1. They have an offer of domain, site hosting, email hosting and a simple online website builder for 99p per month for 12 months. There are lots of site templates to choose from, so much of the 'arty' work is done for you. If I can do it anyone can!
 
benjenbav said:
Really liked the website and the boat looks great. I have no idea whether the price is competitive but, if I was in the market for this sort of boat and saw this site, I would be very likely to make further enquiries.
Click to expand...

Thankyou for that, she is very competitively priced, I prefer to just get on with the sale rather than overprice and nothing happen for 12 months......
 
sprocker said:
Following my recent thread about starting the search for our next boat, we have decided to have a go at selling our current MF645 ourselves. We are only 15 minutes from the boat, and can be fairly flexible at work, so dealing with viewings etc shouldn't be too much of an issue.

After spending a good deal of the bank holiday weekend cleaning and photographing, I have built a small website and would welcome any constructive comments.

The site is at http://www.merryfisher645.co.uk

Thankyou in advance.......
Click to expand...

It looks a little homemade - the website not the boat - but anything I've done web wise as an amateur has been the same! If the boat doesn't sell quickly, then asking a web professional to smarten the site up on a fixed budget, a couple of hundred pounds no more, may be a useful investment.

It's got all the necessary information in it, and loads well from iPad.

I used a similar technique to sell our last boat, and it went in about six weeks. As new boat was still being moulded that led to a boat less summer - grr.

A website like this us an excellent backup to online listings, saving replication, and showing professionalism in the sales process - it leaves a good taste, if someone takes this much care selling their bait, they probably looked after it. If you want the website to work by itself then you will need to deleve into the black arts of SEO, and I don't now how much the 1and1 CMS (content management system) gives you to play with there.

A small investment in Google adverts targeted on "Merry Fisher 645" may be useful, but make sure you cap your spend and watch the campaign like a hawk to make sure it's not attracting interest from the wrong searches - it's at this time you find "Merry Fisher" is a character in the latest Disney movie of something!

Hope the sales process goes well for you.
 
sprocker said:
The site is through 1&1. They have an offer of domain, site hosting, email hosting and a simple online website builder for 99p per month for 12 months. There are lots of site templates to choose from, so much of the 'arty' work is done for you. If I can do it anyone can!
Click to expand...

Strictly as an amateur meddler, I prefer to use Wordpress

Pros - it's free; there is tons of free information and plugins to work with it; it's easily to get a professional to help with it as most web professionals know their way around it - in fact it powers some very large web sites

Cons - bit more complex to start with; can look look "cookie cutter" ish without customisation; you probably won't get a 99p/m offer - you'll need to buy a domain and a years hosting, although many web hosts offer to pre install for you

Wordpress comes in two forms. First the .com site which is a semi commercial set up with free hosting and paid upgrades, limited flexibility. Then .org which is the free bit of software to be installed on a web server and customise to your hearts content. The engine underneath birth is broadly the same. I prefer, for the half dozen or so sites I've done, to have .org on a host of my choice, but using the .com offering with your own domain, which is a simple paid upgrade as I recall, is a equally valid choice, but slightly less customisation choice.
 
I would not spend anymore than you are. Your site and the information is good. This sort of thing does not need to look professional it just needs to give good information etc with loads of nice pics which your site does and sell the boat. In fact in my view if it looks too professional it puts people off a bit like an estate agent in far to smart a suit with shiny shoes.

Just post on the usual sales sites with a link to your web page that should do the trick

Dennis
 
Wow, a tough crowd.

We've seen some appalling efforts when it comes to selling boats on here. Yours isn't one of them. A nice crisp site - what ever you do don't change the main images, they are great. A zoomed in shot of the boat name would be a mistake. I want to see the boat I'm being offered not some obscure typeface.

If I was being picky I might argue the external images are a bit samey but that isn't going to put a buyer off.

The boat looks in great shape. Nicely presented with no personal possession or bits of dead fish lying about.

The only thing which struck me as odd was no day toilet mentioned or shown in the photos. Do these boats not have a loo tucked away somewhere?

It''s a private sale which comes across in the advert, no need to try and emulate a manufacturer's website.

No idea on pricing etc.

Henry :)
 
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