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I would be SO very grateful to have people look at my website who can give me "unbiased" opinions.  Any and all constructive criticism would be wonderful.  What looks good?  What works?  What needs to change?  What is "too much" or "not enough?" 

I've been doing this business for a long time, but doing the webpage is fairly new to me and I'm just kind of "feeling-my-way" around here. 

What I would like the website to be (might help you form an opinion) is a place to sell my work, but on a personal level.  That is what I consider to be my unique selling point.  The things that can be gotten from my website are all unique, all personal, nothing "off the shelf."  Where I feel like I'm getting kind of hung up is the line between being personal and professional.  I don't want to go too far either direction.

The link to the website is http://creationsbylynnette.net.

Thank you all SO very much!

Lynnette

WOW, you got a lot of choices/direction you could go.

First, you got a great product and there is a market for it. Beautiful work and the "one of a kind" concept is hot not new but hot.

Second, you have product/service and a site which is a means to get your product/service to the market/purchasers.

What I don't see you having is direction. Let's start with the hardest.

What are you selling? Are selling your services or a product? There is a difference. This is important in order to know how to market. If you are selling products then you have compition and that is a whole show in itself. If you are selling your talents, your love, your passion to provide one of a kind work of art to someone, then you don't have the same compitition. But with both you still have to choose your market/s. Based on what I have seen, if it were me and I had that kind of talent, I would sell me but since I don't I can only speak in theory.

Once you decide what you are selling then you must decide who you are going to sell it to. If you have enough money and talent you can create your own market. If you don't have millions to create your own market then you need to determin who will want to buy whatever you are selling. That is not hard but it can be labor intensive. Research, research and do more research.

Once you have determined who your market is the you must determine how you will reach them. On my site I have a membership of just under 3000 and growing. I email them, send news letters and am working on SEO. So far I have had good results with SEO. Not perfect yet but getting there.

Kust for giggles let' pretend you wanted to do the following.

1. Sell your services. "One of a kind, special requested gifts for the unique shopper who truly cares what they give by Lynnette".
      Create a Logo and put it on your email, ask your friends to pass it around, create a press release and if you have musical talent create a jingle

2. Choose your market. Direct sales to collectors, mothers to be, "Gifts for Grandparents", speciality items for specialty shops/sites. 
      Advertise to those who would be interested in your "UPSCALE" one-of-a-kind product and who have MONEY.

3. Determine how you want to reach your potentional buyers/market. Email, link share, ppc....

OK that was the hard part. Here is the easiest.

Maximize the appearence of your site.
For some reason, I see most sites done in small fonts. I am guessing that is because they can get more on one page. However, I do think that a smaller font would make your site look a little less intiminating. They say that caps and large fonts are like screaming to the reader. Who they are I don't know, but they do say it.

NOTE: I forgot to mention, your idea of personalized is great. It should be personalized but if you are going to sell your as an artist, creator of upscale custom, one-of-a-kind gifts you may want to sell yourself as a third person. One experiment you could try is create two sites. One upscale and one down to earth, I am your friend type and see which works.

Back to Maximizing the appearence of your site.
If you walked into a store for the fist time and was in a hurry looking for a fast gift for a friend, how would you want the store to look?  Some people think the idea of simplistic is best. I tend to go with them. Not that this is about me but I try to keep it simple and personal. Take a look at esiss.com and see what you think.

Suggestions
1. Use a smaller font.
2. Get a diiferent photo of you. One that looks the camera striaght in the eye.
3. Get your borders all one size.
4. Sign up for SEO marketing news letter or website development news letter.

I have some more ideas that may drive traffic your way but you got a lot now.

Bottom line is you got a lot of potential you just need the diamond polished up a bit.

MichaelC@esiss.com

Hi Lynnette,

I totally get what you’re saying about trying to strike a balance between personal and professional on your Web site. But either way, it seems to me what you want to do is interest folks in your work and you’re not doing that with a Home page filled with text.

 I think you really need to cut down on the verbiage (you shouldn’t have to tell them what each page has on it anyway; that should be obvious from the label you choose and people get Product List, FAQ, anyway). Most people land on a Web site, take a quick look and if they don’t see anything of interest, they’re gone.  

So I would showcase some of your most appealing work prominently on your Home page along with a short, concise statement about your philosophy of creating personalized items – and be specific about what kind of items. You might include a bulleted list of the types of things you do, ie., crocheted doilies, pillows, afghans, quilted comforters, whatever. That way people get the picture right away and they don’t have to click around to figure it out.

I also think you could greatly reduce the text on some of your other pages; save the conversational prose for your blog and get to the point quickly when it comes to how people do business with you.

The other thing I’d work on is your header. The red letters sort of fade into the dark background and are hardly noticeable. For a site that’s selling creativity, I think you need a header that has a little more flair.

I didn’t get a lot of value out of your “Interesting things” page, but if you want to keep it, I would move it further down your nav and save the top spots for the things that most pertain to your business.

Anyway, there are a few ideas for you. I hope you have lots of success!

Liz

A picture speaks a thousand words...you need some nice photos of some of your most stunning work on your home page.  I would also change your slogan to something that says what your make, instead of just 'items' to catch peoples attention. 

I agree that the red Site Title doesn't show up well enough against the dark background. I like the red, maybe a different color theme would work better.  I think I would limit the red text to paragraph headers and use black for the main text.  A spash of red to catch the eye so people can know what each part is about without having to read it all.