She paints watercolor house portraits. I have been getting about 100-200 unique visitors a week according to analytics, but has yet to sell one painting from the site. I have had a few people email me asking how much the paintings are, but it seems to me like that is clearly displayed under purchase a painting. Is it not clear that you click on the pictures to get to the next page, or what is the problem? She has spent a bunch of money to get it developed, and the shopping cart customized, and I have spent a ton of time getting sites to link to us. Why arent people buying paintings? I would appreciate any and all feedback. www.watercolor-portrait.com How can I make it better?
The gift certificate is supposed to be the same price as a painting, so if you need a last minute gift, instead of buying a painting you can buy the gift certificate. do you think we should offer them for whatever price the person wants?
check out with another font bcoz font you chosen hard to read on eyes. colors of site looks nice.keep up good work.
Undoubtedly the site's look and feel is upto the mark. But at first glance the home page is not appealing as a Watercolor Paintings Selling site. You need to inject some Artistic appeal. Upload Quality Watercolor painting images in JPEG format without optimisation. Optimised images will loose its original colors. Include Some Watercolor Painting tutorials to attract more visitors.
I think $200 is a lot of money when there is no previous relationship. IF there was an inexpensive product which demonstrated the quality of the work and proof the item would be delivered I think that would help. I found it frustrating that I had to go 4 levels deep to find a price. It was also frustrating to have to fill out the sales form to find out payment would be by paypal.
As was already mentioned, it does take a bit too much effort to get to the purchasing information, and (you may be doing this but I didn't see it) having a tiered pricing system would be good, so you could get a broader range of customers.
Art work needs to be viewed in person. Buying over Internet can be very misleading. I would view the page as a good calling card. If I live in area I might want to meet with your mom and view her work and commission a piece but I would never shop for art on the Internet.
I agree with Smyrl. 99% of the ppl who buy it prefer to view it in person as the true feel of a painting can be experienced only in that manner.
I think the challenge of selling paintings on line comes when the buyer would prefer to touch, inspect closely the artwork of choice. Probably wld help if the previews of each artwork is big enough to highlight strokes and textures, or perhaps a close-up of a particular area. This would be great for interested buyers/enthusiasts with eye for detail. My 2 cents.
Yeah, I find it quite difficult to read the font as well. Perhaps the people who asked you about painting prices thought the paintings in the art gallery were for sale? I read your Ordering Information page and I have a few comments: -It does not mention you pay with Paypal until you fill out your name and address in the form. I would definitely say that before, and maybe even explain what Paypal is -The site does not mention if you can make international purchases and if so what the shipping costs and delivery time is -I don't know how paying tax on online items you buy online, but I have never seen a flat rate of tax being charged on an item before you say where you are from (so you know what the user's tax rate is). Can you do this? -About the gift certificate page - I would change the gift certificate so it covers tax and shipping on the painting, and framing for the painting if desired.
Hi, I think the site for your Mom is a terrific business idea. There are a few things that need to be improved. You are wondering why people are not buying her pictures. But there are no paintings to buy on the site (no one will purchase pictures of some body else's house!). She is not selling pictures, she is selling her SERVICES. So start from there. On your home page put a great header about what benefits your customers will get if they hire her to paint a house from photograph (could be a great gift etc, etc). Give them timeframe if it's a good one, quality of paintings etc. Then in the sales copy she should sell her artistic skills. What she should do is build a relationship with the visitors. Have some sort of a hook that visitors will not be able to resist. Think of something that may keep them coming back even if they do not purchase her services right away (some sort of newsletter, contest, etc). Such a sales letter might be quite a challenge if you don't have much experience. You might consider investing into a good copy writer. If not, do your home work. Research on the Internet, find sites with great and unique sales letters. Learn from them. Then take your time and compose a great sales letter. Polish it and test different versions. Do not just create one and stop there. If it does not work, rewrite it again and again, until it starts pulling sales. Think of something what is absolutely unique for what your Mom has in her paintings and highlight it throughout the sales copy. Also include testimonials (maybe beside a painting) throughout your main sales copy. This will attract people's attention. I suggest testing prices. Always test prices! See which range works best. To set one price and stop there is a big mistake. Maybe create additional separate landing pages for each type of her work: names and house paintings. Market each page to a specific audience. Consider groups like new parents that most likely will buy a framed name of their newborn, etc, etc. "Gift for your loved one" - GREAT for St. Valentines Day. Possibilities are endless. Push people's emotion button! For her house paintings, do you have an option of uploading a photograph right from your visitors' browsers? If not, make it happen and include it somewhere in your sales copy: make a terrific UNIQUE gift for your parents (grandparents, ... in just 3 easy steps. You can start right away from the comfort of your home: upload your pictures right now....) People like it to be SPELLED OUT how nice and easy this experience will be. I am not sure if I am right here (need to do a research), but such a purchase will rather be an impulsive one, so add URGENCY. "Prices might go up", "special discount that will expire in just 3 days", "artist might be overbooked, so not to miss your perfect chance to get your gift in time, order right away!" Run contests, throw in some bonuses! You say it is plainly stated on you "Purchase painting" page how much paintings are. It is not true. In order to get to the page with prices I had to literally HUNT for a very well hidden IMAGE link under wording "Click HERE - House Painting). Obviously clicking on "Click HERE" did not bring me anywhere. 99% of people would think that link is broken and go away. Besides, the last place I would expect to find prices / order form - would be that image link under your particular heading. Again, after I finally found the prices and got to the order form it took me a while of mousing over everything before I realized that the only way to get to the next page would be clicking on the images of different sizes of paintings. Note that the first image is NOT clickable. This system is terribly confusing and surely the best way to loose your visitors. If you say "click here", make these words clickable! REMOVE the word "purchase" from your web site! Replace it with something else, more compelling and looking less like a hard sell. By saying "buy", "purchase" you embed a thought of departing with their money into people's heads. Here comes the dilemma "is it worth it to pay for this artist's paintings? After all I have never met her before, etc etc..." - worst enemy of a sale. Change the order of your buttons on the main menu. Don't start with "purchase a painting". Build a relationship first, highlight all the benefits hundred times, build urgency and then go for sale. Last, but not least: change that font to something easier to read. I think that your Mom's site has terrific potential. With a bit of work she will make a killing from it. She has a specific and very targeted niche and tons of marketing possibilities. Wish you both best of luck in your business, astra
I think you would do better advertising that site locally, and that way the customers can go in purpose and so on. However, for security issues, don't list your address / phone # right away. Let them e-mail you THEIR phone #, from then on you can make arrangements. Smyrl brought up a good point. Try your local newspapers
A watercolorist, who happens to be a friend of mine, was advised by another artist not to post prices on her work online for the following reason. She shows her work in galleries and does one artist exhibitions. If she posts picture online with a specified price and then exhibits same painting in a gallery, the gallery will up price to get their commission. If someone purchases the item at a gallery and later sees it online for lower price buyer will not be happy. A hint to art buyers, buying directly from artist is always better on your pocketbook. I know several artists with personal sites and they do not list prices.
1. Try to get visitor's email on every page. Either by put a link to contact us page, or put opt-in form on every page. In this manner, you won't lose visitors. You can email them if you have promotion or news. Long term customer relationship. 2. I think the red and grey is dull. Try to combine any other colors to make your site attractive and live. 3. If possible, you can sell pre-made picture, ready to be sold (opinion). 3. Find targeted customer.
Hey here is just a little tip: 1. your selling a product, As soon as you do anything with selling a product just getting any old visitor to your site is not good enough. You need tgo be getting qualified visitors to your site that are in particlar looking for "watercolor house portraits". 2. To do this what would you do. Well what I would do is go after creating landing pages on the site that are about keywords related to "watercolor house portraits". ie find as many keywords as your can related to "watercolor house portraits" and build a landing page on it and than promote it in the search engines. beware but you can not just choose any old keywords you have to look for keywords that you will be able to dominate and know that you will get trafic from. Good luck
O also make sure that your page layout is appealing and that you are not trying to sell to the customer but provide them with a worthwhile product that is going to bring them pleasure