Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Hi everybody, I've decided to make a website to advertise my guitars because I really want to do this as a career, and because I've been turning out consistently great guitars thanks to all the help from my teacher and mentor who I share a shop with. Here it is:
I don't think the pics are too big, they look fine. I would change the font though, it's a little bit small. And it's quite a traditional font, but maybe that's the image you want? I would go for something plainer, but if you are happy with the style, maybe just a little bit bigger.
It's a good start. The content is there, but some text is being cut by the end of their containers/areas. I'm using Firefox. It appears very clearly at the bottom of this page for instance: http://www.andyculpepper.com/About%20Me.html
Perhaps it has to do with how different browsers on different operating systems handle text when font size isn't defined sufficiently. It's been a long time since i did any web programming, so I'm just guessing
Also, I think you should loose the blue underlines on the links on the front page. Perhaps these aren't showing on the browser that you're testing with, I think they're just the result of a default setting somewhere
Ailsa, thanks. I never thought that the font might be too small. Things seem to appear differently for everybody..
mrM, thanks. That's interesting, you mean some text is totally missing? I'll just make the boxes bigger I guess. I have been struggling with the links to not make the style seem totally ancient. Right now it's so 2002....
I for one would like to see huge fireball explosions and lasers and bikinis and machine guns, but I'm told that luthier websites aren't supposed to have those things. Oh well.
Aside from that I agree with Ailsa, the font could stand to be a little bigger. I don't think the photos are too big at all either, they're just fine. Being into photography on an unhealthy level however, I really love high-quality professional pics. Maybe one day you could contract a photographer to snap some really fancy high-res photos? That's pretty much it from my end.
I think something is fishy, because others say that the text is small.. but i don't see any small text. and yes, the text is cut off. It could have something to do with how you define the font and font size, but bigger boxes might solve it too. I'm not using windows right now so perhaps I'm missing the font you've specified and it defaults to another one.
Thank you guys. I went through and defined all the text as a particular size instead of "none" and increased the size of some text boxes. Is it working?
Graham_B, I am waiting for some photos of me that were taken recently
Kov, thanks, I'll see if I can get some professional quality pictures of guitars in bikinis.
It's good that you have a website! The forward march of commerce is happy to include you now lol.
A few things to keep in mind though, you really need to sell this product. A paypal widget would help and also a contact form with specific fields for guitar related things. this will help you deliver custom quotes without having to post your email addy on the page directly = less spam.
Here are some brutally honest criticisms, please don't be offended I just want to help you out here!
change your style sheet so that the background is black.
there's white space and the page isn't centered.
also, some css things to consider
have a static nav div and a separate div for content. this saves page load time and allows the style sheet to be loaded once instead of every click of a link.
also, :
<meta name="keywords" content="flamenco, guitar, falsetas, Ithaca, New York, lessons, Paco de Lucia, Tomatito, Gerardo Nunez, toque" /> add more keywords and make sure to have a links page that is hidden. just link to every site you can think of, but don't put it in the nav.
Make your logo a png. also, make those stripes more vivid.
Other than that, this looks like a 2001 web site. look into online web design tutorials for a more web 2.0 feel. updated look always reads as credibility to consumers. at least at first glance.
Audio clips. enough said.
Don't take pics of guitars hanging on the door. get a backdrop that is a darker color and is less reflective.
Hi Andy – It's just my way of looking at things, but since you asked for feedback, I had just a couple of thoughts. I personally never like a comma separating a name and designation. I think it would look more esthetic to read:
Andy Culpepper – Guitar Maker
That's just the graphics. But in my opinion I think it would read better as:
Andy Culpepper – Luthier
Most anyone interested in buying a classical or flamenco guitar knows that a luthier makes guitars. And of course it says so anyway right below.
Apart from that, naturally – as most everyone suggests – some sound samples.
thanks for sharing, it brought up the need to update my free webpage and thought to share, looking forward to hearing feedback on our efforts to improve, from our amazing community.
PC, thanks for the feedback. This might not be accurate but when I think "luthier" I think of someone who makes all kinds of wooden instruments- guitars, violins, cellos, ouds, what have you. It does have a nice ring to it though.
Thanks Nate, I actually have a friend who offered to do it for free (also a guitarist and a web developer)
Thanks Rod. You are making some mighty affordable guitars there. Cool website too
Printable Version
sorry 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread