Costume Shop

[C L]

Hi folks,

I started re-doing my site about 4 months ago, then stopped....the further I started reading, learning more about how to build an actual website....the more "overwhelmed" I became. SEO, H1 tags, keywords, optimization and the list goes on. So, for the past month or so, I've put it on hold, hoping something would come to me....LadyEye has helped me with so many things the list is too long to mention. Thanks Holly.

Also, AlienDude, Naghosthunter, FPRob & David.....thanks

The thing is, I want to change it, yet, I don't want to lose what I was trying to do in the first place......I wanted it to be entertaining, fun, give ideas with pictures, etc., of what we carry and bring people to the shop......

It's not finished by no means, I have tons of pictures to put up, plus all the other stuff I know nothing about etc.....but before I go further into building a website that doesn't seem to fit in with the real nice professional websites........

I wanted to know what you think......

......I have alot of cool stuff (or at least I think so) special effects, and do not know where to begin to add some of it or even if I should. Also the music issue, which I personally like, but is so controversial. The way I was trying to layout the categories-maybe too confusing for people....oh my,

........should I start over again with a set template etc?

site is: costumesrus .net

[Savolo]

Re: Costume Shop

I have to honestly say with no offence that the black background at the start and animations everywhere need to be toned down a bit. I realise you want to keep them, ok, but they produce a feeling of childish behaviour and unproffessionalism. Maybe just rethink it a bit!

You should never display a hit counter (advice I got from a proffessional source) as it displays a lack of proffessionalism.

On the right theres at the main page theres a load of unused buttons on the right that are a bit pointless I think!!!!

The worst thing is all the page layout changes! Drive anybody nuts!

I really like the way it is layed out, and where the content is on each page.

Also the depth and diversity of everything is great.

I also like the music (but you should probably get rid of it anyways!!!)

I personally think it just needs some major tweaking.

Hope this helps!

[larazovich]

Re: Costume Shop

Hi folks,

I started re-doing my site about 4 months ago, then stopped....the further I started reading, learning more about how to build an actual website....the more "overwhelmed" I became. SEO, H1 tags, keywords, optimization and the list goes on. So, for the past month or so, I've put it on hold, hoping something would come to me....LadyEye has helped me with so many things the list is too long to mention. Thanks Holly.

Also, AlienDude, Naghosthunter, FPRob & David.....thanks

The thing is, I want to change it, yet, I don't want to lose what I was trying to do in the first place......I wanted it to be entertaining, fun, give ideas with pictures, etc., of what we carry and bring people to the shop......

It's not finished by no means, I have tons of pictures to put up, plus all the other stuff I know nothing about etc.....but before I go further into building a website that doesn't seem to fit in with the real nice professional websites........

I wanted to know what you think......

......I have alot of cool stuff (or at least I think so) special effects, and do not know where to begin to add some of it or even if I should. Also the music issue, which I personally like, but is so controversial. The way I was trying to layout the categories-maybe too confusing for people....oh my,

........should I start over again with a set template etc?

site is: costumesrus .net

Wow, an amazing site. Lots of stuff going on. I am not quite sure what you are asking here.
In general, I think this is what you are saying:
You want to revamp your site, make it more professional looking.
You aren't sure about the organization of it - if it is easy to navigate or not; if people can find things.
You want it to be a fun place visually, as well as having some interactive things to do (?)
You like music on the site but know everybody doesn't feel the same
You are over your head with regard to SEO optimization
You like alot of the effects you have.
You are open to suggestion..
Does this cover it?

[C L]

Re: Costume Shop

Wow, an amazing site. Lots of stuff going on. I am not quite sure what you are asking here.
In general, I think this is what you are saying:
You want to revamp your site, make it more professional looking.
You aren't sure about the organization of it - if it is easy to navigate or not; if people can find things.
You want it to be a fun place visually, as well as having some interactive things to do (?)
You like music on the site but know everybody doesn't feel the same
You are over your head with regard to SEO optimization
You like alot of the effects you have.
You are open to suggestion..
Does this cover it?

Yes Liz,

I've been re-thinking the whole site....and when I look at other sites, well, mine isn't up there and I wish it to be without losing the fun, so yes, I want to hear opinions, suggestions.

[C L]

Re: Costume Shop

I have to honestly say with no offence that the black background at the start and animations everywhere need to be toned down a bit. I realise you want to keep them, ok, but they produce a feeling of childish behaviour and unproffessionalism. Maybe just rethink it a bit!

You should never display a hit counter (advice I got from a proffessional source) as it displays a lack of proffessionalism.

On the right theres at the main page theres a load of unused buttons on the right that are a bit pointless I think!!!!

The worst thing is all the page layout changes! Drive anybody nuts!

I really like the way it is layed out, and where the content is on each page.

Also the depth and diversity of everything is great.

I also like the music (but you should probably get rid of it anyways!!!)

I personally think it just needs some major tweaking.

Hope this helps!

Thank-you for your honesty & taking the time to look it over, it helps, very much so.......just wondering why changing pages would drive you nuts?

[WSBlue]

Re: Costume Shop

Hi! CL
May I say something?
home page and second page (after enter) look like, they are done by different person.
you got a nice shop.

[C L]

Re: Costume Shop

Hi! CL
May I say something?
home page and second page (after enter) look like, they are done by different person.
you got a nice shop.

Hi Blue,

Of course you can say.....

......same person did all the pages......I'm not finished, there are many more pages to go.......I wanted to make every page different, but I'm not so sure about that now.

Thank-you, for saying about the shop

[C L]

Re: Costume Shop

Reference Gallery

username:customer
password:canada

[larazovich]

Re: Costume Shop

Having said that - here is some input
First, I never have the sound on when I am surfing, so the music makes no matter to me. As a rule, I think if you have music there should be a clear option to turn it off.

Next, I accidently ended up in your guestbook - fun to read, but I think a clearly marked entry point would be good.

Your home button takes you to the landing page - probably should go to the welcome page instead..

Your about us page could use some other navigation other than just a back button - I always like to read the aboutus thing and then have a look around a site, so nav buttons here would be useful for that.

Had a quick look at your policy page, and noticed you mentioned your costume gallery and your guestbook - would be nice for these words to be text linked to those things/pages, again, making it easiest for your visitors to get around. Same comment on this page about adding navigation opportunites.

On the Special Purchases page, needs nav opportunities, too.

On the welcome page - I love looking at the pics inside the shop, but they are taking up a great deal of real estate on this page - How about a picture trails kind of moving gallery with nice clear pics of the inside of your shop, instead of individual pics? Like this one on my party site:

http://www.sebastopolparty.com/

As I read through some of these pages I realize that you offer quite a variety of products and services, which I didn't realize from the welcome page -
theatrical rentals, full service in this regard
themed party costuming, again, complete
costumes for rental - do you also sell them?
do you both rent and sell accessories?
more stuff too.

These are things that might be obvious to you as a person in the business but are not so obvious to me as a customer, so I would like to see what you have to offer more prominantly displayed.

I love having the list of costumes - but I think I might make a smaller font, so that more could be visible without scrolling..

The costume reference page- I clicked on a couple of the buttons and got a wierd request for login/password.thing - then a restricted access message?

Okay, well this is a long post... and just my opinion, too.

Overall I like the site Robyn. It has a great deal of information, great depth. I like alot of your hallowweenie themed gifs, they're fun.
In general I am not a fan of black backgrounds, but I think it may suit your product. But I like the brown/black combos alittle bettere than the grey/balck combos..
Some tweaking and you will be there..
Good Luck

[C L]

Re: Costume Shop

Having said that - here is some input
First, I never have the sound on when I am surfing, so the music makes no matter to me. As a rule, I think if you have music there should be a clear option to turn it off.

Next, I accidently ended up in your guestbook - fun to read, but I think a clearly marked entry point would be good.

Your home button takes you to the landing page - probably should go to the welcome page instead..

Your about us page could use some other navigation other than just a back button - I always like to read the aboutus thing and then have a look around a site, so nav buttons here would be useful for that.

Had a quick look at your policy page, and noticed you mentioned your costume gallery and your guestbook - would be nice for these words to be text linked to those things/pages, again, making it easiest for your visitors to get around. Same comment on this page about adding navigation opportunites.

On the Special Purchases page, needs nav opportunities, too.

On the welcome page - I love looking at the pics inside the shop, but they are taking up a great deal of real estate on this page - How about a picture trails kind of moving gallery with nice clear pics of the inside of your shop, instead of individual pics? Like this one on my party site:

http://www.sebastopolparty.com/

As I read through some of these pages I realize that you offer quite a variety of products and services, which I didn't realize from the welcome page -
theatrical rentals, full service in this regard
themed party costuming, again, complete
costumes for rental - do you also sell them?
do you both rent and sell accessories?
more stuff too.

These are things that might be obvious to you as a person in the business but are not so obvious to me as a customer, so I would like to see what you have to offer more prominantly displayed.

I love having the list of costumes - but I think I might make a smaller font, so that more could be visible without scrolling..

The costume reference page- I clicked on a couple of the buttons and got a wierd request for login/password.thing - then a restricted access message?

Okay, well this is a long post... and just my opinion, too.

Overall I like the site Robyn. It has a great deal of information, great depth. I like alot of your hallowweenie themed gifs, they're fun.
In general I am not a fan of black backgrounds, but I think it may suit your product. But I like the brown/black combos alittle bettere than the grey/balck combos..
Some tweaking and you will be there..
Good Luck

Thanks Liz,

You have given me some ideas & improvement suggestions needed for the site.

I put the username & password to the reference gallery, is it silly to have that as well?

[larazovich]

Re: Costume Shop

Thanks Liz,

You have given me some ideas & improvement suggestions needed for the site.

I put the username & password to the reference gallery, is it silly to have that as well?

not silly, but I am not sure if necessary. How will the customer know where to get that login info?
I really like the idea of the reference gallery, by the way. Cool to see all the different folk costumes, for instance, to see the differences.

[Dream Lady]

Re: Costume Shop

Hi Robyn! I LOVE what you are wanting to do. There has been a LOT of work put into this site!! First let me comment on the Professionalism thing.... There are professioinal sites of all different kinds. I think it really depends on what your primary product or service is. You are in a FUN business and so I think your website should be FUN...which it is. I would expect nothing less from you and a costume store. YOU DO HAVE A PROFESSIONAL SITE!! Ok, with that said, maybe some tweaking. I agree with a lot of what Liz said with some exceptions. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. When first entering your site, I am immediately hit with a Halloween Theme. Although I like that page I think there is another place for it as I'll explain further down. I think your home page should be your OUR SHOP page. It contains all the necessary info to get started browsing your website.
2. I personally think the music on your pages works for a costume site and you have done an excellent job selecting just the right music. It makes it more fun to look at all the costumes.
3. With that said, I would recommend re-organizing by costume theme. For example, Have a Halloween Page, where you list the costumes, maybe have all your halloween costumes set up like your costume video (only just the Halloween ones, have any of your customer Halloween pics there as well. You could even go a little further and break it out by Adults and children. Then continue this idea with all your other themes, such as Easter, History, Theathrical, Animals, etc. The reason I suggest this, is because if I were looking for a costume, I probably already have an idea of what I want...such as scary, child, animal, historical, playboy. Right now, it is difficult to navigate to find what I would want. I see your costume list and that's fine...but what does it look like? Well, I find your costume video/pics/gallery page, but then I have to sit through the VERY long video to see a picture of what I want. Which briings me to the next point.
4. I would recommend then, taking your Gallery pictures and sort them by theme and put on the same page as the list.
5. I saw the Kids Workshop and click on that, expecting to be taken to the kids costume shop. Instead I got a wonderful page full of links to kids online activities. I think this is a wonderful page, but don't think it has anything to do with costumes. (How about a new site just for kids!)
6. Because you have such a variety of costumes, I think the different backgrounds would work just fine depending on the theme for that page. Same goes for the music.
7. I LOVE the winking,kissing Mona!!!
8. You have a lot of graphics going on all over the place and normally I would think it is to much...but here again, because this is a fun place, I think they work for you. Maybe tone down just a little.

Robyn, Over all I really like your site. May just want to re-think the layout a little. I can tell you this....If you were in Colorado, I would be buying from you in a heartbeat and would be telling everyone to visit your site. Well worth the experience!

[Garren]

Re: Costume Shop

Hi Robyn,

To me Halloween is mean't to be fun and kind of childish along with any opportunity to dress up. Therefore I think your entry page is wonderful. I think your other pages should have the same feel to them to help people have a sense of navigation and a feel that they are on the same website as far as navigation I might suggest putting headers above each group so they know what each subarea is about. Also your pictures seem to be a little blurry. Mine are also so I purchased a better camera and will be redoing all of my pictures blah!!

P.S. I redo my site every 3 months it seems so I know the feeling.
Good luck hope this helps

[C L]

Re: Costume Shop

Hi Robyn! I LOVE what you are wanting to do. There has been a LOT of work put into this site!! First let me comment on the Professionalism thing.... There are professioinal sites of all different kinds. I think it really depends on what your primary product or service is. You are in a FUN business and so I think your website should be FUN...which it is. I would expect nothing less from you and a costume store. YOU DO HAVE A PROFESSIONAL SITE!! Ok, with that said, maybe some tweaking. I agree with a lot of what Liz said with some exceptions. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. When first entering your site, I am immediately hit with a Halloween Theme. Although I like that page I think there is another place for it as I'll explain further down. I think your home page should be your OUR SHOP page. It contains all the necessary info to get started browsing your website.
2. I personally think the music on your pages works for a costume site and you have done an excellent job selecting just the right music. It makes it more fun to look at all the costumes.
3. With that said, I would recommend re-organizing by costume theme. For example, Have a Halloween Page, where you list the costumes, maybe have all your halloween costumes set up like your costume video (only just the Halloween ones, have any of your customer Halloween pics there as well. You could even go a little further and break it out by Adults and children. Then continue this idea with all your other themes, such as Easter, History, Theathrical, Animals, etc. The reason I suggest this, is because if I were looking for a costume, I probably already have an idea of what I want...such as scary, child, animal, historical, playboy. Right now, it is difficult to navigate to find what I would want. I see your costume list and that's fine...but what does it look like? Well, I find your costume video/pics/gallery page, but then I have to sit through the VERY long video to see a picture of what I want. Which briings me to the next point.
4. I would recommend then, taking your Gallery pictures and sort them by theme and put on the same page as the list.
5. I saw the Kids Workshop and click on that, expecting to be taken to the kids costume shop. Instead I got a wonderful page full of links to kids online activities. I think this is a wonderful page, but don't think it has anything to do with costumes. (How about a new site just for kids!)
6. Because you have such a variety of costumes, I think the different backgrounds would work just fine depending on the theme for that page. Same goes for the music.
7. I LOVE the winking,kissing Mona!!!
8. You have a lot of graphics going on all over the place and normally I would think it is to much...but here again, because this is a fun place, I think they work for you. Maybe tone down just a little.

Robyn, Over all I really like your site. May just want to re-think the layout a little. I can tell you this....If you were in Colorado, I would be buying from you in a heartbeat and would be telling everyone to visit your site. Well worth the experience!

Thanks Cindy for giving me a bit a confidence back & for taking the time to have a look.

You have given me many pointers & tips here with a good understanding of why......

.......it gives me a good idea what's missing, what should go, what should stay, what is needed......

I'm glad I did this now instead of later.......

[C L]

Re: Costume Shop

Hi Robyn,

To me Halloween is mean't to be fun and kind of childish along with any opportunity to dress up. Therefore I think your entry page is wonderful. I think your other pages should have the same feel to them to help people have a sense of navigation and a feel that they are on the same website as far as navigation I might suggest putting headers above each group so they know what each subarea is about. Also your pictures seem to be a little blurry. Mine are also so I purchased a better camera and will be redoing all of my pictures blah!!

P.S. I redo my site every 3 months it seems so I know the feeling.
Good luck hope this helps

Thank-you Garren for your input, I'll be making changes that's for sure, yes, you helped along with other reviewers, to give me some direction and perhaps come up with a fantastic site......(which is my ultimate goal/plan)