Getting a decent number of hits per day but want to convert more to actual sales. I need a critical eye as it pertains to layout/design/verbage and functionality.

thanks,
Donna
Girl, Boy Room Themes, Featured Products, Room Themes: Green Apple Design

Do not use HTML to resize images.
Use Photoshop (or something similar).
For example, ourworld.jpg is 1.6 MB ! Way too large for your website.

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Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
http://www.marketingtactics.com
sitting in my basement with my iMac

I think you have a nice design for the site. But when I go to it, I don't immediately get the sense that it is a place where I can go shopping for these products.

Compare it to something similar, say pier1.com. As soon as I land on that page, I see options to "Shop" "Shop Pier 1 Kids" "Gift Registry" "Catalog", plus shopping cart features, and clear sales/discounts etc. I know immediately that I can go shopping here.

On your site, there is no mention of any of this on the front page. It's very pretty, well organized and nice to look at. But other than "Featured Product" (not entirely sure what it is from that picture) in the lower left corner, there's no mention of this being a site to buy kids decorating items at all.

Also, if your company is Green Apple Design LLC, why aren't you using that as your site? The URL decoratingideakidrooms dot com doesn't make much sense. It's long and doesn't really mean anything in English when you say it. Maybe find a better URL: kidsrooms dot com, greenappledesigns dot com. Something that relates to your brand or your product.

I think if you do just those two things - better URL and better promotion of yourself as a shopping destination - you'll have a better shot at getting customers to convert sales.

Your graphics take way too long to load and there is page after page of them with no relief in sight. On accessing your information page, specials was not found.

Where is your purchase information? Your design concept is good but your home page looks like it's an informational site like "how to braid your hair" instead of a site that's selling anything. As long as it takes the graphics to load, it's no wonder your users get frustrated and leave before they find out you have products they can buy.

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Linda Jenkinson Web Content Design | Older Space | New Ground

I agree, that it needs more of a "shop now" feel. Also, your interior pages don't fit within their proscribed boundaries, the text goes over the "lines."

http://www.decoratingideakidrooms.com/lala.htm.

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Austin video production - Full service corporate, non-profit and broadcast video production - Video production Austin

I agree with all of the advice proffered thus far. Here are a few more issues:

Footer links don't work on some pages.

Also, on this page, theme and logo breaks:
The Green Apple Design Company: Chef's Room: Kid Play Kitchen, Kids Kitchen

The scroll function seems problematic. The pictures "broke up" as I was scrolling up and down the page. The page takes a while to load, even using Broadband.

It might be worth using right hand justification if you can. Also there are some typos. You do not need the apostrophe in CDs, for example.

The photographs should be smaller. Thumbnail them if you want people to see a larger version, but they do take a bit of time to load.

I think you need to make your site more 'YOU-ser' friendly! You need to set it up so it is friendly to YOU! So that it grabs people and says: "Buy your stuff HERE! NOW!!"

Nice décor ideas there, by the way.

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http://thatsnews.blogspot.com http://thats-business.blogspot.com/ http://thatschristmas.blogspot.com

I really like the colors and it is easy to navigate. The posts above offer some good tips for improvement.

Another suggestion I would add is do not crop your product images so closely. It makes it very difficult to get a sense of them in any sort of context. If it's a wall hanging, show it on the wall. The wall words seem to float in space and I don't know if it's a product or a graphic for the site.

As someone mentioned above, your URL seems to suggest decorating ideas. If you are going to use that as your "draw" then give specific ideas as vignettes that people can recreate. Add a "buy this here" link to your specific products.

Seeing so many suggestions may feel overwhelming, but if you keep whittling away your site will be the better for it.

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Graphic & Web Design
www.jannmirch.com