Please check my website

[PaulaJ]

Please check my website - http://www.cdfcdsxm.com.

It is mainly intended for tourists visiting our Caribbean region and looking to buy genuine Cuban cigars.

[PaulaJ]

Re: Please check my website

Forgot to mention that the website is still a work in progress and the links in the product section do not work as yet.

[Vasili]

Re: Please check my website

Great start! Very slick ...

I have a bit of trouble, however, with your page content being bold when it need not be - puts extra strain on Visitor's eyes unnecessarily. Try normal and see if it looks cleaner and more legible both.

I think you will have to at some near point decide on how to format a "longer" page in order to accommodate the products to be listed on Product Pages... and possibly consider pages with explicit Policies (as required by international trade laws), Privacy (you are hosted in the US and required to comply with US laws), and even some Gallery pages .... many of your suppliers will furnish you with images, Wallpapers people can download, etc. -- all to pique interest and build loyalty with your business/site,yes?

[PaulaJ]

Re: Please check my website

Hi Vasili

Thanks for advising me on the website design and for commenting on the facebook page.

I removed the boldface from some of the texts as per your advice and I added some of the products (check the cigars section). The products listed are only for information and promotional purposes since we are a wholesaler and will not sell from the website. The cigar products themselves are a little bit more complicated since we have more than twenty brands of cigars with quite a number of styles for each brand eg. Cohiba-Siglo I, II, III, IV, V, VI. I am thinking about selecting one style for each brand and to use a picture of an open cigar box as an image.

[Vasili]

Re: Please check my website

I might make on more suggestion for your 'quote' on the index page: I would make the text 'left-justified' rather than simply 'centered + justified' as this too, makes it unnecessarily straining on the eyes/ Human eyes expect to see some irregularity (it actually helps the brain keep it's "place" in the body of text it is reading).

The easiest way to organize all the brands is to have one page for each brand - however "long" it needs to be - with a 'Bookmark' Menu off to the left of the page so people can jump to the sizes and styles down on the page. An example of a Bookmark menu can be seen on one of my still unfinished sites (yes, I have many sites in progress myself!) in the top-left of the page listed as "Luxury Advertisers" here. I think you can immediately understand what I am suggesting. You can see that by my keeping the left 'gutter' of my page open, I can expand my "Advertiser" list downward to accommodate as many as required and to have a page as long as I need it to be, yes? I have to remind myself to add in some 'Back To Top' bookmarks for Visitor convenience.

Another interesting way to do it simply is to have a BV Sliding (Drop-Down) Menu with a Main "Brands" tab which when clicked will show sub-selections for all the different brands and the pages for each, which can be however"long" as you need them to be. A good example is this site and the "Cigars" Menu tab,which if you click on 'Montecristo' will take you to this page (which to me, seems awfully "short" and does not show much selection -- but then, that may be their choice, as to offer only certain transactions online, bigger ones perhaps).

Hope this all helps a bit ... you're doing great!

[PaulaJ]

Re: Please check my website

Hi Vasili

i finally finished the website! I used a more "graphical" approach for the products. I also added an age verification dialog to comply with the law. It should be working from all pages not only the index page. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks.

[Vasili]

Re: Please check my website

I looked, and finally understand you are "to the trade only" .... and after all my suggestions that made sense from a Consumer's point of view! Crazy me, eh?

I think it turned out well, although I personally do not like being "referred" to another site: you should not only limit the number of outbound links in your site to better comply with the SE optimal guidelines, but to also provide more actual Page Content that will not only add to Page Relevance and overall Relevance (a critical metric for the SE valuation of your site), but which will also be more logical, even for the wholesale trade to understand your premise for having a website. You want them to drill-in to your pages so they can establish a relationship with you and your business, let alone form a sense of merited credibility, the precursor to trust and conversion. Know what I mean?

I am not sure the simple asking if a person is of age is enough (people lie) or is truly compliant as a demonstration of due diligence -- I will need to look into that, as I myself am on the verge of unveiling a new cigar brand of my own (you'll find it on Facebook as Luxury Cigar; as part of the LUXURY GROUP on G+; and still with the website in development at www.LuxuryFineCigars.com ). I was under the impression that a full script was needed to determine the DOB and thus attach a Cookie to each Visitor's session ...

I have a related question for you: I am looking for a to-the-trade supplier for Custom Bands and Custom Tubes. Do you have any to suggest?

[PaulaJ]

Re: Please check my website

I agree that the external links are not the best solution but adding all cigars of all brands to the website itself exceeds the scope of my involvement with the website at the moment.
Age verification is a grey area and short of using a credit card anything will be subject to the honesty of the visitor. Additionally you have the problem that the legal drinking and smoking age varies from country to country. As I understand it Facebook uses 21+ years for alcohol related pages.
As for custom bands and tubes I would have to investigate a bit more. In general please be advised to make sure you control your printing jobs to avoid possibility of copying. fake cigars are a big problem.

[Vasili]

Re: Please check my website

Exactly! Tis why I asked for a PROFESSIONAL "trade" referral rather than some smaller print hack. I'll wait for your email, or reply via FB Message, to keep it private ...