Hello

Just after a little help from anyone living in the USA.

MY brother and I started a web site called www.UKcraftfairs.com in the UK
just over a year ago. The site has been a moderate success and we have had a
number of visitors from the USA to our UK only site.

As a result of the traffic to our UK site we started (about a month ago) a
new site call www.UScraftfairs.com hoping that we could help in the more
global market. However, so far we have had little response or feedback on
the site. We are therefore starting to think that something has gone wrong.

I would be grateful for any feedback. It is my brother that is responsible
for the American site and I would like to help him out. So any feedback,
good or bad would help.

Regards

Michael

Although not living in the US, may I add my 2d?

Having looked at the US site, the first thing that strikes me are the references to things UK. My experience is that this will be instant turn-off for the parochial - and they don't come much more parochial than the US!
Otherwise look up similar US sites and see how they do it - re-inventing the wheel is not a good idea

I briefly looked at the site & all seems fine except I would change the
links so they open a new page rather than overwrite your own. I
clicked on 'Craft Supplies' for instance & wound up at Target's site.
If I'd drilled through Target for a while & wanted to get back to your
page, I might not have had the patience. Just my opinion, of course.

Jim

Hello Jim

That is a very interesting debate.

Some people say that they do not want to go back and have to close down
windows that have been left open by designer trying to keep people on a site
whilst they are surfing. Others like the fact that windows do not close.

I have gone for what I think is the most Internet ethical (if such a thing
exists). However, anyone wanting to keep the site open could right click on
the link and select "Open in New Window" in IE or "Open Link in New Window"
for Netscape users.

I think that you are correct that we will lose a few people but hope that
the very ethical way we run the site helps us in the long run.

We have now had a supplier list their details on the site (supplier search
in Utar) and I hope a few more people will list their details soon.

THank you very much for taking the time to respond.

Regards

Michael
"Jim" wrote in message
oups.com...
I briefly looked at the site & all seems fine except I would change the
links so they open a new page rather than overwrite your own. I
clicked on 'Craft Supplies' for instance & wound up at Target's site.
If I'd drilled through Target for a while & wanted to get back to your
page, I might not have had the patience. Just my opinion, of course.

Jim

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 23:06:48 +0100, "Michael"
wrote:

Hello Jim

That is a very interesting debate.

Some people say that they do not want to go back and have to close down
windows that have been left open by designer trying to keep people on a site
whilst they are surfing. Others like the fact that windows do not close.

I have gone for what I think is the most Internet ethical (if such a thing
exists). However, anyone wanting to keep the site open could right click on
the link and select "Open in New Window" in IE or "Open Link in New Window"
for Netscape users.

I think that you are correct that we will lose a few people but hope that
the very ethical way we run the site helps us in the long run.

We have now had a supplier list their details on the site (supplier search
in Utar) and I hope a few more people will list their details soon.

THank you very much for taking the time to respond.

Regards

Michael
"Jim" wrote in message
roups.com...
I briefly looked at the site & all seems fine except I would change the
links so they open a new page rather than overwrite your own. I
clicked on 'Craft Supplies' for instance & wound up at Target's site.
If I'd drilled through Target for a while & wanted to get back to your
page, I might not have had the patience. Just my opinion, of course.

Jim


just my personal feeling, but when I design a site for a client, the links most
always open new windows, either full size or sized to hold required info..
my reasoning is that it took time and money to GET people to the site, and I
don't want to lose them before they look at every item that interested them..

OTOH, I really, really, hate those sites that open links in frames, restricting
your browsing to a small window surrounded by the site you started at..

I think that the popularity of popup blockers has helped, in that folks only
have to close the linked page and your page that had the link, instead of
several irritating ad windows... just creates a more "window tolerant" public, I
think..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I like this one for several reasons:
http://www.craftlister.com/
It will list fairs by distance from your zip code
It will email you with new listings if you want
It's free
Very complete information regarding each event, including
anticipated/past foot traffic.
You are competing against established sites, there are other
subscription sites as well. Could be the market is saturated or people
won't pay for info that is otherwise available for free.