I am a mere apprentice slowly building up a gallery of knives and proficiency. Journeyman and Mastersmith ratings are in my plans along with incresing sales. I have noticed as I devour the web that many knife makers put up sites but rarely update them. So I am left wondering how important are maker's web sites? There must be a diminishing return to sales versus the effort to keep a site updated or I assume that many journeyman and master smiths would have better and more up-to-date sites.
Please share your thoughts. I don't want to put up a site if there really isn't much advantage to doing so and I don't want to put up a site just because it's what every one else does.
Thanks in advance.
Gabriel
You have posted an interesting topic.
I believe that a website reflects directly on the organization, person, or brand. It is important to have an attractive and informative website that is up to date. This is important for several reasons. The content reflects on the person or organization and the internet search engines look for website content that is fresh and updated for their page rankings.
Whether you have and maintain your own website or not, as an ABS member you can post photos of your work in the ABS Forum Gallery for the world to view. I have configured the ABS Forum to give the photos of our ABS member's work the maximum exposure on the Internet. As of this writing there have been more than 92,000 views of the photos in the ABS Forum Gallery and last month the ABS Website was viewed in more than 90 countries.
After uploading photos of your knives to your album in the "Member's Work Gallery" there are several additional steps to take if you will want to make your work and your name discoverable to the internet search engines. Google, Yahoo and the other internet search engines will index on the caption or title line of the photos in our ABS Gallery so it is important to have your name in the caption of your photos in the Member's Work Gallery. There is also an opportunity for you to write a detailed description of your knife and the materials used in the space below the caption. Another idea is for you to include a link to your website and/or email address after a quote such as: " For more information please contact..."
The example in the screen capture below shows some tips to get your photos in the search engine page rankings and maximize exposure to your work on the internet:
Dan Cassidy
Journeyman Smith
Send an email to Dan
The easier you are to find on the web the easier you are to buy from. Plus it gives you a place to show people what you can do. I am pretty slow at updating my website. However, I do tend to put things up more quickly on facebook, twitter, and my forums.
When someone "Googles" your name (as a maker) the FIRST thing to show up (first result) SHOULD be your own website. Not face|book.
I understand the need for 'social media' but the reality of it is, face|book is not your arena, it is someone else's that you participate on at various levels.
Think about this, one bad day (at your office) and one poorly placed 'status update" can certainly cost you sales.
It is a slippery slope, and you definitely have to be in it, to win it...but makers need good quality websites and they need to keep them fresh and updated.
If none of this makes sense, do not listen to me.
Check my Alexa ratings and get back to me.
<img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />
Ron LaBella web wizard <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />
