Members Y0UNGBL00D Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 also, VQ site is just fine. in fact, it strikes the balance i mentioned quite well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scarecrowbob Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 "as paranoid and simpleton as people are these days, to the point that the OP could be construed as spam...i.e., you fishing for people to PM you for web design jobs." That's the only reason I'ma post up on here ({censored} amps. I gotta valve jr and I'm only here for the funny pics thread...) " The primary issue is usually money - for the amount they can afford they typically can't get a proper webdesign company to do the site. If they can, usually they end up with the company that doesn't know anything about usability, user experience and can't even code properly. In the best case they get a freelancer willing to do the site for little money and who really knows his or her {censored}." This. I do this for a living... I sit in my house and make {censored}ty (and some okay) websites for ad agencies for 5 hours a day and then goof off for the rest of the day. I'm a really good freelancer (in fact, I'm picking up work for frontgate tickets, so go me). All Wordpress or Drupal or some crappy SaaS ecommerce deal. It's all money. Good web marketing is expensive, and people don't like handing out gobs of cash for intangibles. Like a lot of things, a half-assed approach to it is worse than none, and you can waste hella cash on SEM/PPC or whatever crazy stuff somebody sells you on. And you can make a lot of money off crappy websites. Folks make decisions based on how good your rep is and know that a crap site doesn't mean a crap product,... although you better have manuals if that's the kind of product you're selling. And here's a though... a lot of the small cos are run by folks who are doing it because they like to make things and are really just about three steps above DIY. Why wouldn't they apply that same principle to their marketing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Y0UNGBL00D Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 people don't like handing out gobs of cash for intangibles. Like a lot of things, a half-assed approach to it is worse than none these, for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thefallacy Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 "as paranoid and simpleton as people are these days, to the point that the OP could be construed as spam...i.e., you fishing for people to PM you for web design jobs." That's the only reason I'ma post up on here ({censored} amps. I gotta valve jr and I'm only here for the funny pics thread...) no kidding dude. As soon as you mentioned wordpress, then tried to convince me that money can be made off crappy websites, the first thing I thought of was a used car salesman. happy hunting though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scarecrowbob Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 no kidding dude. As soon as you mentioned wordpress, then tried to convince me that money can be made off crappy websites, the first thing I thought of was a used car salesman. happy hunting though There is -so- much spam in these forums that is posing as "legitimate" forum content.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ron Burgandy Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 I agree with LaXu about VQ's site. Can't stand looking at it. The entire site just makes me cringe. Laura seems very nice and I wouldn't hesitate to buy tubes from her based on her forum presence but the website isn't my favorite. I mean compared to some of the other tube websites it's not that bad but the other websites are pretty much straight from the 90's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grunge782 Posted December 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 I agree with LaXu about VQ's site. Can't stand looking at it. The entire site just makes me cringe. Laura seems very nice and I wouldn't hesitate to buy tubes from her based on her forum presence but the website isn't my favorite. I mean compared to some of the other tube websites it's not that bad but the other websites are pretty much straight from the 90's. I get if you don't like the darker colors, but the site is way easier to navigate and looks more professional than the other tube sites I've used. Some of them have been a complete pain in the ass just to find a simple tube type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ron Burgandy Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 I get if you don't like the darker colors, but the site is way easier to navigate and looks more professional than the other tube sites I've used. Some of them have been a complete pain in the ass just to find a simple tube type. Better than other tube sites isn't saying much I mean it is better than say Eurotubes but still subpar compared to most websites. If Laura wasn't on the forum I would not order tubes from that site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grunge782 Posted December 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 Better than other tube sites isn't saying much I mean it is better than say Eurotubes but still subpar compared to most websites. If Laura wasn't on the forum I would not order tubes from that site. Gotta disagree. I mean if you compare it to a company with the manpower of say Fender or Marshall its not going to be on the same level, but the site looks modern and stood out to me as being one of the better sites to navigate out of many music gear sites I've visited. I think the brootz colors are just getting to you brah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ron Burgandy Posted December 3, 2011 Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 I don't listen to the brootz. It's just very plain and the colors are hard to read. Has the feel of a yahoo store or something If yahoo turned goth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grunge782 Posted December 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 3, 2011 I don't listen to the brootz. It's just very plain and the colors are hard to read. Has the feel of a yahoo store or something If yahoo turned goth You're just not hip man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LaXu Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 I get if you don't like the darker colors, but the site is way easier to navigate and looks more professional than the other tube sites I've used. Some of them have been a complete pain in the ass just to find a simple tube type. Aside from being horribly slow (where the hell is that server?), the main issue with the VQ site is indeed the color scheme. It actually isn't any different than what for example Canon uses, it's just used totally wrong. There's grey text on dark grey backgrounds, glaringly red links and buttons and usability issues in how they're presented. For example the only thing you notice of the search field is the submit button. The search doesn't work (got zero results for "12AX7"). It's a simple and decent layout but that's about it. It's not really a merit to be better than the abominations that are other tube stores. Webstores can easily get away with terrible design if they offer the right product at the right price. People, including me, are willing to jump thru a few hoops if they can get what they want cheaper. I bought headphones from http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and that has to be one of the worst sites I've seen in a while. One good thing in the guitar websites world is that there aren't that many 100% Flash sites with rage inducingly slow transition animations etc. Clothing brands are probably the most guilty of this {censored}. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hardvalve Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 That is made with an Intuit template, no major deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grunge782 Posted December 4, 2011 Author Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 Aside from being horribly slow (where the hell is that server?), the main issue with the VQ site is indeed the color scheme. It actually isn't any different than what for example Canon uses, it's just used totally wrong. There's grey text on dark grey backgrounds, glaringly red links and buttons and usability issues in how they're presented. For example the only thing you notice of the search field is the submit button. The search doesn't work (got zero results for "12AX7"). It's a simple and decent layout but that's about it. It's not really a merit to be better than the abominations that are other tube stores.Webstores can easily get away with terrible design if they offer the right product at the right price. People, including me, are willing to jump thru a few hoops if they can get what they want cheaper. I bought headphones from http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and that has to be one of the worst sites I've seen in a while.One good thing in the guitar websites world is that there aren't that many 100% Flash sites with rage inducingly slow transition animations etc. Clothing brands are probably the most guilty of this {censored}. Ugh... I'm not saying its the best website in the world, but for a small business and out of the other competitors it looks good. And we get it. You could do a better job... Should I have posted the Fender website and said this is what other small businesses should shoot for? It works fine for me and I can find what I want fast which is what I value. Sue me if I can read it fine. I agree about the competitive prices sometimes making up for a {censored}ty website, but there are a lot of guys that sell uncompetitive expensive gear with very hard to search and outdated websites. They are really shooting themselves in the foot when they do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OverDriven Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 I created Laura (Valve Queen)'s site, so thank you. Looks like there are some products she loaded without pictures though, so the front page looks a little funky at the moment. Someone made a comment about it looking like it's from the 90s. Well...we all see things differently. To date, you are the only person I know to have made that comment about that site FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OverDriven Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 That is made with an Intuit template, no major deal. Laura's site was created on the Joomla platform from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nerol1st Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 Your site looks good to me, nice, clean and easy to navigate See and here is the point. I know precisely jack {censored} about doing web site stuff. My site is just a free website maker. So I really don't get the idea that a website can't be functional and non time consuming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hardvalve Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 Laura's site was created on the Joomla platform from scratch. It looks EXACTLY like Intuit. I mean exactly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nerol1st Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 By the way I got the idea to just use a website generator by my buddy and I think he did a better job with it personally: www.subcat.net The website generators can look nice if you put effort into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarbilly74 Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 My only issue with Laura's site is that she list her prices per tube an no one buy just one tube, the site would be much better if she had prices per pair and quartets (sextets for some tubes) and the option to add the whole set to cart in one click. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ron Burgandy Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 I created Laura (Valve Queen)'s site, so thank you. Looks like there are some products she loaded without pictures though, so the front page looks a little funky at the moment. Someone made a comment about it looking like it's from the 90s. Well...we all see things differently. To date, you are the only person I know to have made that comment about that site FWIW. it's not terrible, just the color scheme needs a bit of updating to make it easier to read. imo of course. I'm a web dolt. the 90's comment was referring to the other tube suppliers, not Laura's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OverDriven Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 It looks EXACTLY like Intuit. I mean exactly. Show me the template you mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cavemanic Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 I agree to a point , but there are other industries I know of that have very flash looking websites being run by complete frauds Aside from that....I'm very fascinated by how you make the sites graphically mainly? Do you outsource this stuff? I'd love to learn how to do it but have next to no idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members NaturalBornBoy Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 Laura's cool and all but compared to Doug's site www.dougstubes.com hers leaves a lot to be desired IMHO. Like RB mentioned, if she didn't hang out here and you stumbled upon her site looking for replacement tubes, chances are, you'd look elsewhere. And a big +1 on the very slow server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scud133 Posted December 4, 2011 Members Share Posted December 4, 2011 in other news, the Fargen video of the mini-plex amp they make sounds amazingly good edit: all clips on their site sound awesome. they def did a good job with the recordings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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