does a website help your sales?

[okiemom]

Who has a website and has it helped your off the farm sales.
What do you put on it?
How much does it cost?
where did the training to start one come from?
how often do you update it?

I have tried to play around w/ the free service but I am having a hard time doine what I want to do, and then again, I am not sure what I want to do.

[DoxieMom]

I used to have a freewebs site to sell my Doxie through. Since I'm getting out of the Doxie biz, I no longer need it. I did sign up for a new freewebs site for our little "farmette," but I haven't added any content to it yet.

I found that having the website for my dogs was a tremendous help, though.

[deanm]

where did the training to start one come from?

These days you really don't need any training at all, as long as you don't need or want much customization.

There are web hosting services you can sign up for that cost as little as around $50 a year that includes free software for building your website. You basically just choose a template and type in the information you want on the website and it does the rest. I did one for my Dad's small consulting business a few years back in a few hours.

If you want a little more flexibility, you can buy Microsoft Front Page and a basic beginner book and have a basic website that looks a little less "cookie-cutter" than you get from a webhost's software.

My Dad needed a website for the farmer's market that he runs. They got me the software and I went out and got a book and I had one up in a week. It's not flashy and doesn't have the flair and features you'd get by having a professional do it; but it serves it's purpose and they basically got it for free.

It's also made real easy by the web hosting services to upload your Front Page created website from your desktop to their server that hosts/shows your website. Updating is also a breeze.

[rabbitgal]

I've done three websites so far. www.geocities.com/cremerabbits was my first (meat/show rabbits), www.freewebs.com/cremerabbits (pet/fiber rabbits) was done about six months ago and I created www.purequackery.com last month for the family farm. Also have a "blog" connected with my rabbit websites: www.verdantrabbitry.blogspot.com.

I think a good website should include much of the same information you'd put in a brochure, but expanded on. You have a lot more space on a website, so you can put in lots of photos and much more detailed information than you'd normally be able to include in promotional materials. My sites all include basic information about the business and detailed information about what's being sold. It usually also includes articles related to what you sell to draw a wider audience than the people who'd be coming just to buy things. (ex: Since I sell rabbits, I have articles on how to care for rabbits and information on breeding them.)

My oldest website has been up for about two years.

We spend a total of about $12 a month for web space for purequackery.com plus an additional $7 annually for use of the "domain name" (website address). It's already getting a lot of traffic, but a smaller site shouldn't cost you more than $5 a month or so. The other two are "free" (pop-up ads).

The book Webpages for Dummies is a great introduction to building websites - it's in plain English and it covers just about everything. I also attended a [free] workshop on e-commerce at a community college and gleaned a lot of ideas just from surfing. Your local library should have several books on the subject, but if the book was published more than 5 or 6 years ago, I really don't think it would be worth your time.

I try to update things at least once a month and ideally I post a new entry in the blog every couple of days. The home page on my rabbit websites and the sales list gets updated more frequently.

[rabbitgal]

Yes, deanm has a good point. You don't have to design a website from scratch if you don't want to. Even some of the free webhosts have nice templates now.

You can also go out and *buy* a professionally-designed template for a lot less than having someone create a totally unique design for you...

[chicamarun]

I receive a lot of business through my website. It posts what we have (pasture raised chickens, pork, Angus steers, etc).... and then I also run a e-newsletter through it.

I'm not pushy with my newsletter - I send one out about 1x per month.

I designed websites for about 10 years which is how I knew how to throw one together... but it's still basic for me and honestly I like basic I just added the ability for people to be able to reserve their share of whatever animal by using paypal.

I have about 100 new visitors per day and I don't do any serious advertising - just word of mouth. But I get listed on eatwild.com and localharvest.org - plus a few free listing places from our state.

Keep it simple if you design one - don't do music (annoying-especially if you are browsing at midnight and all of a sudden music starts!).... keep animation to a minimum (people still use dialup) etc.

I prefer to have a white background with the text in it. Makes it easier for people to read vs a ton of multiple colors and fonts.

I still do some designing for a minimal rate....I used to get a lot But burned-out from it after awhile so now I take jobs that interest me only.

[Shadow]

When we met the wife was the companys computer person for the southeast US and Porto Rico. So when we needed or thought we needed a web site she did us one. We have had it for five or six years and lots of people look at it and we use it as a way to contact us but as for sales its a waste of time. Also since the carvings are original we have a problem putting the newer ones on it because of the people that copy them.
Would I pay to have another one done no.

[highlands]

Yes, we get a fair bit of business through our web site. It is now very easy and inexpensive to set one up. You don't need it to be very fancy.

What do you put on it? - What we have, articles about how we do things, prices

How much does it cost? - I spend about $100 a year for a reseller account that lets me have as many domains and sites as I want. I manage our businesses plus have space for my extended family to have spaces too as well as some friends.

where did the training to start one come from? - Now adays you can just follow templates. There are also good online resources. Google. I'm a programmer but you don't need that level of expertise.

how often do you update it? - As needed.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[highlands]

Here're some good web sites if you want to learn HTML and other stuff:

http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/teachingtool/
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/h...le.php/3478131
http://w3.org/

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[veggrower]

I use Yahoo! for my website. I downloaded their Sitebuilder software, chose the template I wanted, then it was pretty much just point and click to get the pages up. I had the 1st page online in less than 1/2 hour. It almost took me longer to fill out the forms to register the website and pay for it than it did to get the thing online. When I want to start taking orders online, it will be easy. Yahoo! sends me an email atleast monthly teling me how to setup an online store and how to sign up with Paypal to accept payment online.

It isn't anything fancy, just basic info about the farm and lots of photos. It is more for customers, family and friends to be able to logon and see what I am doing than for sales. At some point in the future I will have online ardering capabilities and accept credit cards, but I don't need that now.

What does really help my sales is when I email out a 'Fresh Sheet' to all of my customers. That boosts my sales 20%.


Here's my website

[jimarh]

I did my own with the help of a web site (citymax) that tells you how to set them up.
It is not fancy but works ok withmy bio, sample chapters to read of my books, my poems and a place to click to order any of my books.
Did have a guest book but got a bunch of spam and had to shut it down for a while. Hate that because I enjoyed notes from people who had read my stuff.
The site has had quite a bit of traffic but I need to stir myself and get it moving more instead of playing around the homestead. I have been lazy about my books this winter..........

[CraftyDiva]

All the info and software you'll need to build a website is here................
http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/templates.html

The best part? It's free, all you need is a host.

Also read this if your planning on using a free host.....................
http://www.2createawebsite.com/prebu...e-website.html

.

[Bearfootfarm]

Ive sold most of my breeder lambs through website contacts. I use AOL's free homepage, and a free one from my State's Dept of Agriculture. Its cost me nothing, and brought in $1250 in sales in the last couple of months. There are also lots of sites where you can post free "classified" ads that get lots of responses.

You dont need any training for most of them, although I imagine a paid site might be easier to work with at times

Also. linking your site to other's pages will help a lot because it will make it come up on Google type searches nearer the top