Need feedback on my site

[Harleypete40]

Hi,

This is my first OSC store I have done, and could do with feedback and suggestions.

 

Feedback can be positive or negative :-)

 

Suggestions on how to improve the product listings would be greatly appreciated.

 

My site is here

 

Thanks and best regards,

 

Peter

[Rumgolio]

Hi, there are a lot of code errors popping up, but i'm not really one who can help you with those.

 

A few suggestions: it would probably be useful for people if they could listen to a short clip of the mp3s - for each song you could create a short version to link to (in the same way you link to an image) so people can click on the link and hear what they are going to buy. This is quite easy to do.

 

Also, i think the best thing you could do would be to look into selling mp3 downloads. It is now quite common for sites to sell downloads (just look it up on google for sites such as paypal's 'payloadz'), and it means that people wouldn't have to wait to be posted a cd or mp3, as well as taking the burden off you to record/burn a cd/minidisc every time you get an order. This means virtually no expenses so even though an mp3 will cost less than a track on a cd it is all profit! I'm currently trying to set up a shop on my site, and listening to mp3 clips and selling downloads is going to be important.

 

Regarding the look of the site, it's pretty bland. All text, dull colour scheme, and when you click on one of the main categories you are overwhelmed by a huge list of band names. A simpler mainpage would be nice, with maybe some images of hendrix and co wailing on their guitars to inspire the users instead of a big block of text (which i didn't read). The long lists of acts could be broken up into genre/decade/whatever, and it would be good to have an image for each band/artist.

Also, how about a 'requests' form?

 

But i didn't mean to go on for so long - if i could say one thing, it'd be start selling downloads. hope i've been of some help. good luck

 

RF

[Harleypete40]

Thanks for the feedback, I have taken it on board.

Whereas the mp3 downloads are concerned, I would love to do it, but there are aspects to that I am looking in to, like extra webspace to store the tracks for starters.

 

Thanks again and Regards,

Peter

[Rumgolio]

as far as i know, the download sales sites usually host your files themselves on their secure servers, and people basically buy a link to the file to download so you don't have to worry about getting the extra hosting space yourself

 

rummy

[Harleypete40]

as far as i know, the download sales sites usually host your files themselves on their secure servers, and people basically buy a link to the file to download so you don't have to worry about getting the extra hosting space yourself

 

rummy

 

 

Hi Rummy,

 

Have been lookig in to that last night, but with the amount of tracks that will be on the site when I have put them all on (approx 1500) that would cost me a fortune lol.

 

So I am thinking of doing something like, letting customers buy the download, zip up the track(s) they ordered and put them on a "temporary" page on my server to let them download it from there.

 

Any ideas on splitting up the listings would be greatly appreciated though, bearing in mnd the saying:

"A customer has to be on the product / add to cart page within 3 or 4 clicks of the mouse!"

 

Thanks again for the comments, and Regards

 

Peter

[dynamoeffects]

I get 12GB of web space for a little over $20USD a month, which would be plenty for 1500 songs and not break the bank. You would have to convince the host that you have copyright licenses for every one of those songs, though.

 

I agree with Rumgolio about everything else. Buying a template and adding 30-second sample tracks will do your site a world of good.

[Mediajuggle]

I get 12GB of web space for a little over $20USD a month, which would be plenty for 1500 songs and not break the bank. You would have to convince the host that you have copyright licenses for every one of those songs, though.

 

I agree with Rumgolio about everything else. Buying a template and adding 30-second sample tracks will do your site a world of good.

 

 

more important than space, because webspace is cheap (at least in the US)

... is the bandwidth...

most host will not allow you to run that type of setup in a shared situation as audio and video will eat up resources quickly.

 

And I don't think letting the companies whose mp3 you'll be selling is a good idea either as you're asking for problems when someone places an order and then they can't download the file because the server of one of your partners is down.

 

Also, you'd have to modifiy the oscommerce to allow for off-site downloads as I don't think that option is currently available.

 

I don't know what you're budget is like, but you can get a dedicated server for as low as $99.