# Website suggestions?



## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

I have had my website for 9 months and never really touched it after I put it up. At this time its very generic and basic using the godaddy website tonight templetes. Finally trying to update it. I finally figured out how to put a few photos in the gallery. Any tips or suggestions appreciated. Thanks  http://www.woodland-painting.com/


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## Custom Brush Co. (Jan 26, 2011)

After designing and coading my own site, I recomend the following since this is something you can get proffessional about.

1.) Learn/Realize your basic marketing basics for ads and web sites.
2.) Research around and look at many web sites from established and well todo companies. (not all are professional sites though).
3.) Buy some books on the subject is my best advice if you have to do this by yourself.
4.) Ask yourself if you can earn more money getting work on a grass roots level and let someone else do the design for you. Godaddy offers this service as well as Vista Print I believe. I used these guys to reprogram my site for like $10k (Site Search Architect). Google ad words only help if your also listed organically. I never got results from all the money I paid out to google ad words. But get many leads during the painting season from our web site. We landed a lot of work from these leads.
5.) Get listed on Angie's List. Dominate it if you can. We get lots of high quality leads through this free service to contractors. Beats Service Magic by a ten fold!


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## Mod Paint Works (Jul 2, 2010)

Having a web presence is better than not! First step, done.

I agree with the above; get familiar with HTML/CSS. Read books, etc. It's fairly simple once you get the basics down. A good way for beginners to learn is grab a template from freetemplates.com or a site like that. Start by changing small things one by one and see how it affects the look. You will quickly pick up on the basics. Once you know basic HTML and CSS then you can build a site quickly (in site design terms) and easily.

I'm self-taught and my site is from the ground up! Good luck!


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## PatsPainting (Mar 4, 2010)

I dunno bud, does not look that bad. I'm sure with in time you will most likely get rid of the godaddy template and switch to something you can customize a bit more. Does take a bit of time and not all are into siting in front of the puter all day pulling their hair out. Maybe after this summer you can get somebody to build you one.

I did a quick search for painters in woodland and you are on top :thumbsup: in the google places.


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Been working on this for hours. Im really slow, but worked on the testimonials, gallery, ad added a couple videos. Just gonna keep tweaking on it.


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## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Looks better! I'd add some more to the about us page, and change that template as soon as you can. I should talk though, here is a site I made well over a year ago and have not touched!:whistling2:

Before you get too deep, you might consider moving to a CMS like Wordpress or Joomla. You will have much more options.


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

RCP said:


> Looks better! I'd add some more to the about us page, and change that template as soon as you can. I should talk though, here is a site I made well over a year ago and have not touched!:whistling2:
> 
> Before you get too deep, you might consider moving to a CMS like Wordpress or Joomla. You will have much more options.


Thanks. Yes, I will defineatly write up more for the "about us". I wanted a few photos, and testimonials up cause both were blank. I will check out Wordpress and Joomla


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## Colorjive (Feb 7, 2011)

Here's some feedback. Your website is surely not bad. So take this as constructive criticism and as an opportunity to make it even better. 

The design is ok. Not great, but surely up to standards for a local contractor. Perhaps you better invest a little bit of money in copywriting:

The homepage is more about you than about your clients. 
Why not use this great line as headline: 'Because you don't want to trust your painting needs to anyone with a brush.' Then start explaining why people need an exceptional contractor. Only then you can explain why you're the perfect guy for the job.

Overall, focus on the problem you can solve for your clients, not the problems they solve for you. People come to your site because they have a paint problem or need information. Talk about those problems, how frustrating they are, and how you can fix them. People don’t want to hear that you 'set the standard to which all other painters are measured'; they do want to know that you will take great care of their paint job – while they relax.

It's about we, we and we. But who is we? If you're small, make it personal. Say: I'm Joe, and I have 20 years of experience and a lot of happy customers, here are the testimonials…
And add your own picture rather than the picture of your truck. 

Your call to action is great: 'Call today for a free estimate!' Keep it and make it bigger. Could be as big as the main header.

Navigation could be simpler. You really don't need more than a few menu items:
home, about, contact, colors, gallery
The testimonials need to be on the home page.
The current 'choosing colors' section is not consistent with the home page. 'We work with interior designers' and 'we offer a wealth of experience' doesn't sit well with explaining people how to choose their own colors. Do you want to help them with their color challenges or not? Either explain how they can do it themselves or offer your services. But don't do both.

Hope this helps...


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Good stuff. Thank you for taking the time to look.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Colorjive said:


> Here's some feedback. Your website is surely not bad. So take this as constructive criticism and as an opportunity to make it even better.
> 
> The design is ok. Not great, but surely up to standards for a local contractor. Perhaps you better invest a little bit of money in copywriting:
> 
> ...


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Thanks for all the feedback. I plan on spending some more time on it this weekend. First thing I will do is replace the photo of the truck with one of myself. Will move testimonials to front page, and also probably put gallery photos on home page too as a slide show. Also was curious about sitemaps and something I noticed on Ewings website. He has links at the bottom for various cities in his area. I come up at the top in a Woodland search, but there is only 5000 in Woodland. I am having a hard time getting my site at the top for Vancouver, Battle Ground, Longview, etc.


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## LocalPaintPros (Mar 14, 2011)

RCP said:


> Before you get too deep, you might consider moving to a CMS like Wordpress or Joomla. You will have much more options.


I use Joomla for my site development work and absolutely love it, but I wouldn't recommend it for someone who is new to web programming (nor would I recommend jumping into *raw* HTML and CSS)! Unless you really want to get into that line of work, it may be better to hire someone to do the basic site set-up (page structure, menus, look & feel "template" or "theme", contact forms, special features like slideshows, etc). Look at it this way: is your valuable time better spent learning how to install and configure a Content Management System to implement your web site, or in doing things that directly contribute to building your business?

The beauty of Joomla (or any CMS style web site) is that you don't have to be a web programmer to use it. Once the set-up is done, almost anyone can change page content by simply logging in and using a word-processor like interface (kind of like creating posts here, but with more capability for formatting). This means you can update testimonials, "limited time offers", photo galleries, etc on your own therefore for just the cost of your time.

If you want to add special features, there are a lot of "plug-ins" available (some for free, some for modest cost) that do just about anything you can imagine. And since all that needs to be done to use them is (relatively) simple "systems integration" work, you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for someone to code custom features from scratch. In other words, you can get a great "custom" site for reasonable cost.


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## KLaw (May 8, 2009)

Local Paint Pro - Is your company more about seo / on-line presence or painting? Thanks.


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## KLaw (May 8, 2009)

KLaw said:


> Local Paint Pro - Is your company more about seo / on-line presence or painting? Thanks.


 
Local Pro - care to answer the above question? I am not dogging you just trying to understand where you are coming from. Full transparency is a good thing on this forum. :yes:Thanks.


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## Colour Republic (Aug 20, 2010)

KLaw said:


> Local Pro - care to answer the above question? I am not dogging you just trying to understand where you are coming from. Full transparency is a good thing on this forum. :yes:Thanks.


both

http://scenewright-contracting.com/default.aspx

and

www.tylericasystems.com

oh and this one too

http://www.southernpainting.com/all-locations/austin/north-austin


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## LocalPaintPros (Mar 14, 2011)

I'll answer the easy one first: No, I do not do SEO professionally, as I have not had time to dig into it to the level that is required to do it for hire. I also see it as having the potential of being a huge money drain. Kind of like the Tank McNamara cartoon of many years ago about two MLB players who each had a clause in their contract about being the highest paid MLB player by $1. The punch line, I think, was "I don't like where this is headed!". As someone already pointed out, there are more than 10 good SEO companies, but only 10 spots on page 1. And as a former tech guy, I absolutely detest some of the "tricks" being used to drive up ratings at the expense of littering the internet with garbage sites.

So OK, on to the full disclosure...

I'm a former high-tech guy (that is what took me from my native Vermont to Texas) who has been out of that world as a full time career for about 8 years. I try to stay up on what's going on in the computer world for two reasons, though. First, once a geek, always a geek. Second, I want to leverage what I can into my business(es).

For the last 6 years, my wife and I have operated a painting company as a "licensee" of a larger system in Texas. This system has only grown to 18 territories in 21 years so it is hardly the kind of franchise (like FreshCoat ) that the national level players are. Still, we are part of a formidable re-paint system in Texas that is definitely more than the sum of the individual parts. We operate the painting business through an S-corp, Scenewright Contracting, Inc. I do not represent the full "system" that I am plugged into, and for that reason, among others, I'm trying really hard to keep my day-to-day painting business out of my "other" dealings, with the exception of "general knowledge" that I've accumulated -- and would have accumulated no matter who I was associated with. But for the truly curious, if you go to www.Scenewright-Contracting.com, it's fully transparent there which "system" we are plugged into (or just look at the last link in KLaw's post).

The Scenewright site hails from a time when the "system wide" web site did not have very much of the content that I wanted on it for my business, and any additions would have cost me dearly in terms of having to pay the web developer for "one-off" work. So I created my own site. It's largely dormant now, because once the "system wide" site (the last link) got re-written using a CMS, it had the capabilities I wanted (I got to influence the re-write ), so the need for my own site has virtually gone away. I didn't shut my site down completely because some people still know of it and I don't want them to think I went out of business. 

Given that the system we are a part of has been loosely organized in the past (some idea/experience sharing and group training, but nothing very rigid), and we were largely left to operate independently, we have had to figure it out as we went along over the past 6 years. We've climbed a hell of a learning curve and ridden a wild rollercoaster. I don't pretend to know it all, but I think my background and experiences both prior to being in the painting business and in the past 6 years give me perspective that may be useful to others. I enjoy helping others grow (maybe doing some growing myself in the process), so I'm looking forward to interacting folks on painttalk.com. And as I'm diversifying my business interests, there may be some deeper things that I can do, for hire, that will also create a revenue stream for me.

That brings me to Tylerica Systems, LLC. This business entity (named after my kids, Tyler and Erica) was created after I left high-tech as an "umbrella" under which I could "dabble" and explore some business ideas. But it has largely been dormant for most of the time I've been focused on the painting business. In the last year or so, I've dusted it off with the notion of selling "business services" to other small business owners (and not just painting companies). I don't want to violate the "no advertising" spirit of painttalk.com, so I'll leave it to you to go to www.TylericaSystems.com to see the kinds of stuff we do or can broker.

Lastly, I recently launched www.LocalPaintPros.com as a service offering of Tylerica Systems focused specifically toward local independent painters. Again, I'm not trying to adverise here, so again I'll leave it to you to visit the web site to see what that's about.

That's the 'long form" story of why I pop up on the internet in several places and with a different focus at each. Oh, I am also a volleyball referee (Middle/High School level) and I coach "club" volleyball. But I guess that hasn't been indexed by Google yet. 

I hope this fills in the gaps... feel free to call or PM me if you'd like to carry on the dialog or learn more about me.


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## LocalPaintPros (Mar 14, 2011)

Oh, and to answer the rest of KLaw's first question: Yes, both, all of the above? As you can tell from my long post, I wear many hats (and don't need much sleep).

And in case my sluggishness in responding to your original question might be viewed as avoidance, it's not that. I was just busy today starting a job and then out writing quotes and closing a deal with a repeat customer for a "make ready" interior re-paint. Actually, for he and his wife, their daughter and her husband, their grandaughter, and their grandson and his wife, once we complete this latest job we'll have done almost a dozen jobs at 5 different houses. I *love* referrals/repeats!


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## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Well, I hope that answers your questions Klaw! LPP, thanks for being so honest, look forward to reading more of your posts here, so far you have been very helpful, thanks!:thumbsup:


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## Colour Republic (Aug 20, 2010)

I'm not sure it does RCP, bit of a cagey reply really. 

What shoe size do you take?


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

After spending a lot of time learning html, css, java and php, I can definitely tell you that it is much easier to simply install wordpress and buy a template for it. 

Wordpress isn't the easiest to customize unless you know a fair bit of coding, but it's easier than learning all the web languages. 

You can buy nice, pre-built wordpress templates for as little as $30. They'll come with full instructions on how to install and edit them. check out themeforest or just google wp templates.


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## LocalPaintPros (Mar 14, 2011)

Colour Republic said:


> I'm not sure it does RCP, bit of a cagey reply really.
> 
> What shoe size do you take?


Not sure what you mean by "cagey", but just ask and I'll tell - within reason. I *was* getting a little punchy after writing my long post, and couldn't resist highlighting that I am actively involved im my painting business, among other things, and that I had a good day yesterday.

As for the latest question: US14 (I'm tall).


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## LocalPaintPros (Mar 14, 2011)

Rcon said:


> After spending a lot of time learning html, css, java and php, I can definitely tell you that it is much easier to simply install wordpress and buy a template for it.
> 
> Wordpress isn't the easiest to customize unless you know a fair bit of coding, but it's easier than learning all the web languages.
> 
> You can buy nice, pre-built wordpress templates for as little as $30. They'll come with full instructions on how to install and edit them. check out themeforest or just google wp templates.


When I first started looking at CMS style web sites, I looked at the big 3 (WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal). Admittedly, I didn't look very deeply at WordPress and Drupal, but I think that was because I pretty quickly convinced myself that they were great for "blog style" web sites, but they didn't have as much customization capability as Joomla. By customization, I mean the ability to pick-up and integrate already-existing "plug-ins" to do just about anything. 

For example, my main LPP site has a community component (including a level of access that requires a paid subscription), an e-Commerce component with modules to integrate a PayPal payment processor and Shipping calculations, a file download section, and an e-mail newsletter/autoresponder component. It also has a rotating poll (right now just one poll is implemented, so there is no "rotation"), automated updates, automated back-ups (independent of the "whole site" backups donw by the hosting company), and full Google Analaytics integration. My recollection was that to build everything that I wanted with WordPress or Drupal would have been much more difficult. But again, I really didn't delve too deeply into Wordpress or Drupal once I decided Joomla would meet my needs. There's nothing wrong with WordPress or Drupal -- both are great systems -- but the key is to match needs to what is available.

On the template issue, your point is absolutely correct. There are a lot of great templates availabe for very reasonable cost. The new generation of templates or "themes" is becoming quite sophisticated with lots of parameters for easy configuration. A third option is to buy a "template authoring" tool to develop your own, but without having to learn HTML/CSS. Because my HTML/CSS is a bit rusty and I needed something quickly, I bought Artisteer (www.artisteer.com). It can generate templates/themes for Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal (among others). It, too, has a bit of a learning curve, and I think what it generates is starting to look a bit dated, but it's a good start. Now I am going back and brushing up in HTML/CSS so I can do my own templates.

On the installation issue, once the base CMS system is up and running, uploading and enabling a new template (from wherever it may come) is a snap. But to install the base system, you usually have two choices: use the hosting companies "App Installer", or do it yourself from scratch. Actually, there is a third approach which I often use which is to "clone" an existing site by restoring from back-up to a new site location, but this means you still must have gone through one of the other two approaches the first time. 

My experience with hosting companies' "App Builders" has been that they usually have some drawback or limitation. This may be in the form of more restrictive control parameters being set by the install script, an older version of the system being used, or parts of the system being intentionally crippled. I ran into this with 1&1 Internet's variation on Joomla.

If you decide to go "full manual install", you have to deal with setting up FTP accounts and SQL databases in your hosting account, uploading the zip file for the system, installing it, conecting to the database, possibly getting access to/from the outside world through proxy servers, and possibly dealing with settings that need to be made to adjust (via over-rides) things like the hosting companies PHP settings or Apache server settings. None of this is insurmountable, but it's not for everyone, and there is another learning curve.

That is why many people just opt for the "Web Site Builder" or "Web Site Tonite" type of tools, but these, too, have limitations. I have used a couple of them, and my experience is that they were fine for basics, but when I wanted to start plugging-in customizations, they fell down. Something as simple as integrating Google Analytics or AdSense code (both of those are supposed to be simple cut & paste operations) didn't work properly.


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