www.jadesbeadedjewelry.com

This is one of my associates site that we have helped to rewrite. All comments and suggestions appreciated.

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Rick - Professional pool table felt and billiard supplies.
The Pool Table Felt Pros

First impressions are that the site is clean, fresh and I like the color scheme. Will appeal to women especially. In general I don't like tiled backgrounds but yours works OK.

Page loads fairly quickly on a modem, fast on 2mb, total size 88 kb. Navigation is clear and consistent with breadcrumb feedback.

Problems:
Using "target_blank" to open new windows. This is irritating and happens when you click on an image to enlarge it and also when using the shopping cart. After checking your site I had 14 open windows to close ! This practice also shuts out web phone users and opera browsers.

Copy could be improved. Shorter paragraphs, more bullet points, empahasise certain words within the text, most people scan before reading.

Plus what is your USP. Why should I buy from you ? What is special about your pieces, what will I gain from buying from you ?

I would like to see a photo of the designer. This is obviously a site for Judy Lynn so I would like to see what you look like, helps me to trust you, before sending you my money !

I could not find your address anywhere ! Most would not buy from a site with no physical address, make it easy to find !

Biggest problem by far is the photos. They are underexposed and not lit correctly so look dull ! Also an enlargment could be cropped to focus on the detail of a small area which would sell better. At present you just get a larger view of the whole necklace.

Check out- www.tabletopstudio.com for photography tips for jewelry and beads as the tips there will improve your shots.

My site: www.portraitsinstone.com is a jewlery site and you could check out how I use the photographs to present detail shots, views from diferent angle etc. You need to add drama and excitement to the photos to get people to buy.

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Portraits hand carved on gemstone for unique cameo jewelry from your photographs.

Visit my Artists blog for up to date info.

I agree with Gareth, very clean site. Just word of warning about your email. it will be harvested by spammers and you can imagine the results. Why not creating a form instead?
By the way, your site works in all browsers well.
Paul

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Try to bring people and technology together.

Site is clean, but reminds me one of the first sites I made in mid-90's. What's up with this background tile image?
Animated GIF on contact page – also a turn off.

Personally I believe that homepage must not be scrollable.

Re: top image
It's a text. No! it's an image! Why? Either put some nice graphic, or replace it with actual text (SEO)
Oh! And there is another image – copyright info/bottom of the page – that pretends to be a text.

More obvious link to homepage from that contact page would be helpful too.

I also agree with Gareth about quality of pictures. They need serious improvement.

Sorry if I'm being harsh. I just spent too much time looking at really ugly websites today. Yours is actually not bad at all.

PS
As of 11pm, this site failed the HTML validation (www.w3.org)

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http://www.horyn.com

following this reply.. I have only one response.. try and get your pics to stand out...
editing them would help.. Or try shooting the pics using a Light box.. Pics are all that make the final difference between a sale and a non sale in a jewelery website..
Been selling jewelery online since last 5 years and that was my biggest stumbling block
regards
Rahul

Great link and thanks. I would kill for photos like that. I only have a mid range sony digital but I will do what I can with these tips.

thanks

Michael

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Non Piercing Nipple Jewelry - All the pleasure and none of the pain! - Body Jewelry

Michael
I checked some of your pics and they look fine. You are not Tiffany's and neither are we. As a crafter we take several shots and use what looks the best. We have used a tent, scanner and frankly some of the best pics are taken in plain daylight. I won't say that all our pics are great - some could be a lot better and we plan to reshoot those when time allows.
We appreciate the comments posted here and
as in any review people are entitled to their opinions and look for different things in a web design.
And for whoever had 14 pages open, try hitting the "close window".

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Rick - Professional pool table felt and billiard supplies.
The Pool Table Felt Pros