just finished my site at godaddy.com and would really love some feedback if an of you wouldn't mind looking it over for me. i could really use some constructive criticism!

it's myprettypastryshoppe.com

thanks in advance!

Your flavors sound yummy! I would write out "White Almond" instead of WASC- looks too much like WASP and is more of a term for cakers than eaters, kwim?

Is there anyway to make the pics into thumbnails so they don't take so long to load? It took almost two minutes for the page to fully load on my computer.

Also, maybe reword some of the FAQ answers so you're not using the word "I". For instance instead of:
E-mail the requested date and a brief description or picture of what you want to [email protected] and if the date is available I will send you an order form to fill out and give you a price quote. Your order is not confirmed until I have received your completed order form and a 50% deposit. I require 2 weeks notice to place an order. Six weeks for wedding cakes. Occasionally I may not have the resources to meet demand. Please order as early as you can! I am limited in the amount of orders I accept, therefore, I reserve the right to reject any order for any reason.

Try this:
E-mail the requested date and a brief description or picture of what you want to [email protected]. If your date is available, you will be sent an order form to fill out to start the quote process. Your order is not confirmed until your completed order form and a 50% deposit is received. 2 weeks notice is required to place a party cake order, while wedding cakes require 6 weeks. My Pretty Pastry Shoppe takes a limited amount of orders and reserves the right to reject any order for any reason.

Just my opinion..can you find some way for your potiential clients to order a little faster. If I had to email and then wait for a questionare I might just pass you by for something easier. IMO.

Yes, the pictures took a long time to load for me too.

Also on the homepage - did you stretch some of the pics on the homepage? they look like they were stretched vertically.

I would agree on not using "I".

Also, I would consider rewording the following paragraph.
"If an inscription, color, or any other choice is left un-selected on your order or if what you have requested is not do-able or doesnt seem to work in my professional opinion then I reserve the right to use my own discretion. I will be 100% honest with you upon your description request. I will try to follow what you want as closely as possible, however, I will not sell a cake that I feel is unprofessional or unattractive. If I feel I need to change something I will do all I can to ask your opinion beforehand."
If I am paying you to do something, it's because it's how I WANT it - not for you to do whatever you want and that's what I get from this paragraph. It comes off very snobbish and even a bit rude to me. Saying "I will not sell a cake that I feel is unprofessional or unattractive" is a bit insulting to the customer. You are pretty much telling them they could have ugly/bad taste.

I do know what you are trying to convey. I would do the following instead:

"All orders are subject to My Pretty Pastry Shoppe's final approval. In the event an original element of the order is not plausible or available, My Pretty Pastry Shoppe's will use its professional discretion to produce the best possible cake. In such cases, a MPPS representative will make all attempts to contact the ordering party and notify them of the the change. "

Overall, it's a good start.

Hi Amber, I do like your site and the cakes look great, but here is some constructive criticism. Not a real big deal, but the pics on the home page look stretched. In the gallery, I'd delete the fuzzy wedding cake photo and upload a really sharp picture. For some reason your photos are taking too long to load. Maybe the resolution is too high. You need to activate your email link so people can simply click on it instead of having to retype it. Lastly, people need to be able to contact you directly for quick questions. If I was seriously considering contracting someone and they were not easily accessible, I'd move on to the next contractor that is readily available. Initially an email may be OK, but when I'm closer to ordering I need to be able to phone in with quick questions.

I agree with all of the statements above. The gallery takes a long time to load and the pictures on the front page do look stretched. I also agree with ccr03 about the paragraph about ugly cakes. Everyone has different tastes. If I ordered a wedding cake from you and you came back saying you wouldn't do it because you thought it was unattractive, I would be super offended, you wouldn't get my business, and everyone I talked to who was in the market for a cake would hear the story.

Instead of having them wait for a questionaire, is there any way you could get a shopping cart set up with drop down boxes for flavors and spaces for quantities and description? That way, you can get back to your customer with any additional questions, and a quote. Just a thought.

Overall, the colors are nice, its set up well, just a few more bugs to work out and you're on your way!

your cakes are lovely if possible, id advise changing the background to the castle cake.

pricing faq - payment upon delivery - it is fine for your customers, but you may well find your self bitten one day. just something to be wary of.

you cant refuse to do ugly or 'homemade looking' cakes. beauty is in the eye of the beholder! and offending your customers taste means they wont be your customer. so that bit defintly needs some editing.

can about and testimonials be separate? just habit probably. or the title reworded? maybe take the 'save some money' bit out - it just doest seem good to me - almost like its suggesting cakes are expensive, and anyone can do it.

also agree with writing out wasc in full, non cakers wont have a cle what that means, so its better to just write it out.

over all a great site tho, and no spelling/ grammer mistakes noticed!
xx

Hi there,

First off, love your cakes and I think the website looks nice and clean. I do agree with the wording issues and the wedding cake image looks blurry to me as well but mainly it looks pixalated...in otherwords, it's too big for that size on your site. Make it smaller or remove it entirely would be your only choices. The photos on the front page do look stretched like your website developer put in the wrong size parameters for the images. For instance, if the images are 50x50 and he put in 50x75 then they would look stretched. Easy fix.

Hope this helps!

Cat

"Checks are acceptable for deposit but cash only at delivery please"



"The delivery fee is based on mileage with a minimum fee of $15.00. Subject to change as fuel prices change."

Again, due to the first statement about accepting payment on delivery????

In my opinion, no professional should ever accept payment at delivery. How many times will you up with delivering a cake to a non existent customer, or someone who "changed their mind" and didn't feel it necessary to tell you, and waste gas on top of it?

Oh, very very VERY cute cakes, by the way.

and cute kids!

I think the website looks very good so far but I do agree with all of the suggestions so far. Ccr03 and messy_chef did an excellent job of rewording some of the areas. Here is my suggestions/opinion:

I think the homepage should focus more on cakes, my attention is directly taken to the picture of the kids not necessarily the cakes themselves. I don't notice the name right away because of this and to me it seems more like a blog with someone showing their kids b-day party pics. I would keep these pics but put them on a separate page, maybe entitled clients cake pics or something of that nature. I would replace them on the homepage with pics focusing only on my cakes. I like the pic on the top left corner of the homepage though so maybe you could keep that one.

Awesome cakes by the way and congrats on getting your website up!

thanks for all your tips guys i am trying to do some changes right now. i can't figure out how to make the pics different though on the gallery page. a lot of people are saying it takes a while to load but i can't figure out any other way of doing it. there is a photo album thing on there but it is kinda small and not re-sizeable. do any of you have experience with godaddy website tonight program? i'm getting really frustrated

I also agree with brincess_b about the background on the castle cake and definately the pink and black cake. Toys in the background would be a turn off for potential customers.

the pics didn't take long to load on my pc, so I don't know about that part

Great job,
Veronica

ok i stole some of you guy's rewording hope you don't mind

the stretched photos were intentional actually. i kinda like having them on there, maybe i will just have to think of a better way/place of showing them

and aparently there is no other way for me to do the gallery photos i just sent a message to tech support asking them about it but i couldn't figure anything else out.

thanks again for all you guys' help!!