Check out our website <_<

[EccoLights]

For those of you that lurk around here like we do, you all know why were so hesitant to even ask for this LOL =) So Ill say this now. I promise not to get moody, irritated, upset, bytchy, angry or in general, to take things to heart from anyone in our wonderful forums =) I will listen to everyone constructivly and learn from everyone's vast knowledge =)

So without further i due, we invite you to check out our website at http://www.EccoLights.com and let us know what you think... It is a work in progress, but I've been working super hard on this and need some thoughts and feedback.

P.S. Don't look at the scent list or About Us part, got it up there but need to "flash" it up a bit =)

Thankies! =)

btw, it took me 5 minutes to actually push the "Submit New Thread" button =)

[safetysue]

OMG here we go again! Just kidding Eco - I know you can take whatever we throw at you. I'll check it out tomorrow when I'm a little more alert.

Good Night.

[EccoLights]

OMG here we go again! Just kidding Eco - I know you can take whatever we throw at you. I'll check it out tomorrow when I'm a little more alert.

Good Night.

OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SUE! hehe =) Have a great night and don't let the bed bugs bite =) You know bed bugs actually creep me out =)

[Ravens]

I checked it out, and think it's good. Would I change anything? Yes. What would I change? Too many products on one page.

Guess I'm "old fashioned' and I like to see a navigation bar either to the left or to the right of the page.

Love the candle warmer!

Will take a closer look tomorrow when I have more time and after I get rid of this sinus headache

[EccoLights]

I checked it out, and think it's good. Would I change anything? Yes. What would I change? Too many products on one page.

Guess I'm "old fashioned' and I like to see a navigation bar either to the left or to the right of the page.

Love the candle warmer!

Will take a closer look tomorrow when I have more time and after I get rid of this sinus headache

Thank you Ravens +) Even with your sinus headache =)

Personally I agree, I think the warmer page is to long and needs to be spread out a bit =) Will add that one to the long, long, long list of things to do =) LOL

Sleep tight and hope you feel better soon =)

[Judy, USMC]

Another night owl here. Now I'm of the "Boomer Generation" and really not a fan of the reverse printing ... especially the blue on black. It's an age & eye thing I guess.

Candle Cauldron ( http://www.candlecauldron.com/ ) runs a similar reverse color format ... and it's a problem for me, too.

Guess it's time to crawl into bed and rest these eyes ... 'til the morrow! Will take another look then. [Guess I was just expecting to see more of the jewel tones like your avatar.]

Edited December 12, 2010 by Judy, USMC

[EccoLights]

Another night owl here. Now I'm of the "Boomer Generation" and really not a fan of the reverse printing ... especially the blue on black. It's an age & eye thing I guess.

Candle Cauldron ( http://www.candlecauldron.com/ ) runs a similar reverse color format ... and it's a problem for me, too.

Guess it's time to crawl into bed and rest these eyes ... 'til the morrow! Will take another look then. [Guess I was just expecting to see more of the jewel tones like your avatar.]

Judy, honestly this has been a toss up for us. Troy really enjoys the "dark" look to the site while I do agree with you. When you figure our target market is the 30+ 40+ crowd, I think we should keep in mind their eyes =) Now won't I feel bad when you tell me your 25 =) hehe

I would like to go with a more "colorful" image, and trust, ill get my way soon enough LOL For now it's more of a "lets get this thing up" then a "lets make it pretty" thing =) But it doesn't hurt to make it pretty as it goes up either =)

Thanks for the input, have a nice rest and look forward to more =)

[Ring of Fire]

Since you can take it, the entire site literally hurts my eyes. All the different color fonts are way to loud and distracting as are the photos themselves because of the background. I don't think it is an age thing either. When clicking on soy tarts and candles in the middle of your home page, a new window comes up. IMO, never a good thing to shop on a site ending up with 10 windows open. Your etsy link at the top of the page does not bring you to etsy without an additional click but clicking on painted glassware and warmers brings up your etsy page. Sorry, but it's a bit challenging to even roam your site let alone going through the purchasing process.

[lindanelson]

The black background needs to go. I too am a baby boomer.

You have great looking pictures. I think a light colored background would be better for everyone.

[EccoLights]

Since you can take it, the entire site literally hurts my eyes. All the different color fonts are way to loud and distracting as are the photos themselves because of the background. I don't think it is an age thing either. When clicking on soy tarts and candles in the middle of your home page, a new window comes up. IMO, never a good thing to shop on a site ending up with 10 windows open. Your etsy link at the top of the page does not bring you to etsy without an additional click but clicking on painted glassware and warmers brings up your etsy page. Sorry, but it's a bit challenging to even roam your site let alone going through the purchasing process.

Oh trust we can take it, I know in no way shape or form is it perfect or even close =) Will take a look at the windows opening like that, that would annoy the crap out of me too! The "Your Etsy" up top there I know takes you to another page then you have to click on the Etsy again, this will be renamed to Glassware soon, but was doing other things and sadly the way this site works when I change the name of that "link" I have to change any links that went to there. So it will take a little time but do have it noted in the long list of "things to do" =)

As a prior posted said as well about the color, background. I fully agree and maybe, just maybe lol if I show the hubby everyone's thoughts he will change his mind too =) *crossing fingers*

Thank you so much for your honesty and straight forward opinion =)

Off to our market till 5pm here so will get back to anyone that posts a little after then =)

Have an amazing day!

[doglover]

FINALLY!! Glad you have a website now....Etsy just a PITA for me!!

Personally, I like the black background and had one for many years! I feel you can have a great website, just gotta be careful with colors. I LOVE purple, but it is a bit hard to read on the black.

And now....where is that Links page?! When you get one up, I'd love to share links with you! Keep up the great work.....and congrats!! :yay:

[adillenal]

I have to agree about the black background. To me personally it is hard to read and all that black depresses me. Will check again later.

[Judiee]

Once I leave the home page whose site am I on?

Not thrilled with the color theme - too hard edged. Don't know what that background circle thing is top of each page.

Different Add To Cart buttons - need better consistency.

Both Warmers pages - no View Cart button.

Tart Warmers described in all CAPS - Candle Warmers in lower case and way too much to read.

No contact information other then "Request Form" which is a turnoff. You can use that on your About Us page but a simple email link is better and lets a user keep a copy of an outgoing correspondence. If nothing else replace Request Form at the top of each page with your View Cart button.

No policies (ordering, returns, shipping, privacy, etc)

Guessing the links are links - easy to fix in CSS by using a color text decoration "on hover". Don't know who built these pages but they need work. Title and Description tags are way too long. Why 2 scripts for Google Analytics. Link title tags are missing (title=""). Too much more to list.

Twitter is a waste - FB is the way to go for social marketing. The bottom of a page is typically where you find links to policies, site maps and ancillary links where the page top is prime real estate for on-site navigation.

Overall - whole site needs a lot of layout and on page code work IMO. The pics are very good tho.

Edited December 12, 2010 by Judiee

[deb426]

Ecco - maybe you and your partner could have the black background on a blog page instead of your main page. This would be more in keeping with the edgier dark background and could be a good compromise.

BTW - Judiee - I clicked on your website but all of your pics come up as red x boxes for me. Just thought you might want to know. (AOL browser)

[Ravens]

Ok, had more time to spend on your website, and here is just my humble opinion...

The black background's got to go. It is hard to read, especially the purple on black.

I found the page with the available scents (quite colorful, I must say!), but would like to see a description of the scents.... perhaps I missed it? If so, sorry!

There is a typo on the Aroma Jems page ("Lasting up too 2 months" instead of "Lasting up to 2 months" - no biggie for some people, I suppose, but I'm a real stick in the mud when it comes to that, lol)

If I had to use just two words to describe your site, the words would be "Too busy", easily tires the eyes..... I'm no Spring chicken, you know?LOL

Judiee, love your site and the pics. Elegantly clean; great job!

[Candybee]

I agree with others re the black background. My eyes got tired just on the home page alone and your pretty polka dots barely stood out.

Don't get me wrong. I do like black backgrounds and they can be ultra gorgeous and even elegent if used properly. I have only seen black backgrounds used well on architecture, photography, jewelry, and artist sites where the black is used as a backdrop to showcase a single product. If you want to stick with the black I would think about narrowing down what is on the page to highlight and showcase it rather than put many items on the page.

Navigation could be improved. You want your customers to not have to 'study' your site in order to easily navigate through it. Standard top and left side navi bars would make it match universally with most websites. This will in turn make your customers already familiar with your site before they even arrive. Most customers will leave immediately if they find they are not familiar with navigating thru your site.

Can you change the double columns to single? It would help make the page flow better for the reader. The double columns confused me at first as it made the page look broken up and cluttered. Sorry but I didn't stay on the site very long as it seemed overwhelming and strained my eyes.

I know you have been working hard on your site and hope you don't take the critique to your heart. Its meant to help you improve your site. You want to give your customers all the reasons to stay on your site and that in turn will turn into cash$$$$!

[Scented]

Since you won't get moody, I don't want to look LOL!

I will scour through.

[safetysue]

Emailed you with my comments.

[Judiee]

Changing the inner area to white and leaving the black as an outside border may help. Try experimenting with a few contrasting color schemes. Visual appeal will help users stay onsite as I can only imagine what bounce rate you would have with the current layout.

Thanks for the kudo Ravens

[Scented]

Websites are hard, I think.

With that said, you offer a lot of color on that site that does nothing to enhance your products. I would skip over your site.

I don't mind the black background, but I think you could class it up some, still offer "the dark" and make it more appealing.

I'd opt for something like a reverse of say your two men glasses. Nothing wrong with a black and white background. You could even do a black marble look as a bordering maybe.

You offer up a lot of info on the front page which is overwhelming and needs to be grouped better as well as reduced. Entice, engage, enchant a person to stay there.

I would ditch the red headers. Red tends to indicate warning more than it does a stop and look both ways thing. The changing of color in the fonts breaks up the flow of reading and actually is more encumbersome.

You can incorporate the feel of the color in graphic design. Don't do it in the text.

If you had to, take all of your art on that front and do an animated gif that fades slowly from one pix to the other instead of having your products ummm scattered.

I forget that the links to other places is at the top. What's wrong with a side menu? Or maybe the reason I forget the links are on top is because I have to wade through too much else and scroll down and lose that header.

Simplify.

Really the only pix I like on the front is the melts. The one with the hex jars ... creased paper as a background? It doesn't look professional. The melter ... well I've seen a better pix on your site and would probably like the one you have better if it were simulated as being in use.

The glasses are fine with an exception maybe they should be sitting on black satin instead.

NOTHING sticks out on your site. People need eye candy. A flash of something that makes them stop and for you, I think it would help to have something stick out instead of everything looking like it was just slapped onto a page. Maybe it would become more appealing with the reduction of so much type. That's as far as I've gotten so far.

[Ring of Fire]

Judiee is spot on. Her website is the type I would shop on. Easy navigation, beautiful presentation of her products, (outstanding photos) no distractions.

All these suggestions are wonderful and typically what I imagine most people would like to see, no matter what age they are.

[EccoLights]

Ok gonna try and to reply to everyone here that has posted since we left this morning =)

doglover: Etsy for us has been good so far, but it is like the little brother that you love to hate =) We do supplies on there as well as you probably seen, but in 10 months about 300 sales = not bad =) As for the background YAY someone love it!! =) LOL Still torn to be honest but we will see what we can do to "make it easier" to read =) The purple will change too to something a bit more brighter, or more stand outish =) hmm Links... what are those??? =P LOL

Ill make a note about the sharing links hun and if you like PM us so I don't forget. This list is getting pretty long of things I need to do on the site =)

Judiee, you said about the background "too hard edged" our thoughts were a modern edge and not sure if we hit that truly, it needs work thats for sure. Funny I was thinking about the "add to cart" buttons today at the booth and was going to realign them with the same look, same feel, so thank you +)

View to cart, your correct, meant to do that all at once, but apparently forgot those pages =) Noted. Same with the CAPS and lowers too, thought about that earlier and said, NAA need to fix that =) and I do agree, they are super long and could be shortened a bit. What do you think of just the title of the warmer due to most of them are the "same" other then height and heating element??

Policies page will be up soon too, got a email from one of our wonderful members and they mentioned that too =)

Oh boy, who made this, *cringes* mostly me and my inexperienced self LOL We do pretty much everything in our business ourselves and this was the next task =) I hate to say "cheap" but yup we are when it comes to setting this up. Don't really have the extra few hundreds or more to shell out for a techie to do it, so just working with what works I guess... Dare I say Weebly is where this site is hosted?? Its soooooo restricting to change anything and is driving me NUTS!!! I think we may get this "up" for now and get a better host and work with them... I think in the long run for customization and flexibility it would be the way to go... Thoughts guys??? Good, inexpensive hosts??? Our site with with GoDaddy (hosting of the domain) and have been looking at Website Tonight, what do you guys think??

Twitter = waste = YES! It's like that red headed step child that is just there for our amusement =) FB is the way for sure and we do much better on there then the big T =) Do also agree that our site nav needs to be up top better, but this is that limitation of Weebly, you only have so much room for nav up top, so when we get up to say 6+ pages, it all goes into a pull down at the end that would say "More" I didn't like that. Do you guys mind a "More" button in the Nav?? I just thought it was better to have it all out in the open?? Maybe not, let's hear your thoughts ??

Judiee, thank you for your openness and honesty with the site, this is exactly what we need to hear =)

---- On a side note, been clicking on some of your guys sites and lets just say there is jeliousy in the air tonight =) LOL

deb426, I like the idea of doing the black for the blog, and not the entire site.. Troy basically said I got free rein over the site so I think Ill be looking for a better layout (if the 30 or so that Weebly offers are any good) which they are NOT! And god forgive they tell you how to import one of your own. There is that option, but yea, like I know how to make a layout from scratch?? I wish!

Ravens, Thanks for looking again and agreed, the black looks like its on the way out soon, just got to find a better layout or host =) The spelling errors were probably from the 4am production of that page and lack of sleep, or coffee jitters =) lol will get it fixed up =) Oh and Ravens, its not spring its winter, so you must be a ... umm.. ahh we will let you be a spring chicken all you want LOL =)

Candybee, Nothing taken to heart at all, if I was that type, after seeing the last person asking for others to check his page.... I would have jumped out the window first LOL =) So, I'm seeing a big pattern here about the black background, so we will play survivor and exile it to the back =) Agreed also the nav does need work and would just LOVE the top and left side nav, but this again is a Weebly downfall. It seems the nav that is built into the template for you is what you have.... no changing its color, size, length, location... nothing... and the layouts they have with the side nav, just look like cookie cutter sites and we so don't want cookies LOL =)

Double to single I thing would be better for now and will be updating that later as well. Maybe that will help some and avoid any confusion =) Thanks so much for your honesty and openess to sharing your thoughts =)

SCENTED! TROUBLE MAKER!! LMAO!! =)

Safetysue, Thank you so much again for your wonderful review and well you know =)

Judiee, If only it would let me do that I would be in heaven!!! I can't seem to find a way to change that color at all or even the image used for the background... I think its a limitation to the Weebly script??? Not sure but I so hope I can do that... Troy would be so happy to keep the black in some aspect =) Oh and yes, Judiee, your site is amazing!!! So jealous! =)

Scented, I have to agree with everything you said to be frank. The color scheme and layout again is all Weebly, and without the functionality, I think I'm at a standstill here... I will for surely be "downgrading" all the text and some of the pictures as well and maybe use some "better" pictures for the displays.. I do like the animated gif or maybe a small flash show (not that kind you perv =P ) eye candy I agree with as well =) Thanks once again for your input and maybe I can get all this figured out =)

Ring of Fire, I don't think I could have put that any better =) Thanks for your input as well =)

Phew!!! Ok this is going to be like 2 pages by itself =)

But overall, I did learn something today... YOUR ALL MEAN!!! HHEHEEHE Ohh take a joke guys =) I loved all of your feedback and trust, nothing is taken to heart or out of context... we got just what we were looking for and that was honesty.

Now for the fun part... fixing it! UGH! So I stated a while ago up there that we are with Weebly now(pro version) and they lack in the customization aspect and flexibility part as well, but the ups to them is it is utterly a drag this here, done, drag that there, done and fill in the blanks... at first when we signed up for them I thought this was the bee's knees for building our site... but now I'm thinking it was a waste!! Due to the fact that just about everything that NEEDS to be done, can't be to an extent because of system limitations...

So new question guys... where do you host, who did your site, what HTML program did you use, anything for a semi technological person to use?

I can't say it enough to everyone, thank you so much for taking your time out of your days to help little ol us =) xoxo

P.S. wow my fingers hurt now =) lol

[marcuset]

My webhost is Godaddy....have gone thru the learning to set it up myself over the past year. I think I'm finally to the point to where I'm happy with it (mostly). I could have shelled out the xtra for someone else...couldn't do that either, like you. I know the pain of doing it yourself...but you jumped in & are doing it! That's not easy :-) I like your positive attitude too...speaks volumes to how you conduct your business! Best wishes to you!

Terri

[EccoLights]

My webhost is Godaddy....have gone thru the learning to set it up myself over the past year. I think I'm finally to the point to where I'm happy with it (mostly). I could have shelled out the xtra for someone else...couldn't do that either, like you. I know the pain of doing it yourself...but you jumped in & are doing it! That's not easy :-) I like your positive attitude too...speaks volumes to how you conduct your business! Best wishes to you!

Terri

Terry, would you mind sharing your site with me/us/everyone? =) I'd love to see a candler's site with them... and did you do the 5 page, 10page or the unlimited plan? I'm thinking 5 pages is not enough, 10 could be but may be "cramped" so maybe the unlimited?? If you don't want to in here shoot us a PM =) Thanks!!!

I know I am looking at this as a learning experience, that's for sure! I do know basic HTML but CSS is Greek to me and don't even go there with flash LOL so looking for something that looks good, is cost effective and that I can update and change as needed =)

As for the positive attitude... hmm you don't know me very well do you =P LOL Naa I do stay positive, actually Troy and I both have been through some hard times and we know how it is, so we choose to be happy =) Thanks for your compliments =) xoxo

[marcuset]

PM'd you