Hi all,
I would really love some advice on my new website. I have a friend who has very generously offered to build my website for me. I just need to decide how I want it to look and operate and he's going to do the rest.

So my questions are:
* what are the 'must haves' on a cake website?
* what are the pitfalls a newbie is likely to fall into?
* what are some of your favourite cake websites?

Any advice or info will be very gratefully received.
TIA
Emma

* what are the 'must haves' on a cake website?

Pictures of your work. Flavours. Pricing. Contact details.
Basic contract outline: How much notice, deposit, payment, appointments


* what are the pitfalls a newbie is likely to fall into?

Too much text/ too wordy.
Too many all-dancing all-moving widgets.
Takes too many clicks to get to the important information


* what are some of your favourite cake websites?

Look at any of the ones done for high-end bakeries. I personally love the restrained looking websites. to me they scream elegant/high end - look at SweetArt.
I guess you can compare it to a clothes boutique. If you go to Chanel you expect to find a small selection of clothes beautifully displayed but at Target it's all over the place, the racks are stuffed there is too much of everything everywhere.

I hope that helps

Thanks very much. That does help.
Any other sites you really like?

We do a bridal panel for my professional association every year, and the brides all shop online before booking appointments. Something that they've said are that they want pricing on the websites, even if it's only to give them an idea of where you fall in terms of high-end/low-end for your area. They also want to be able to get an idea of who you are interms of how you do business, so don't be too generic. I wouldn't put an entire section about your family history, but let your personality come through.

I don't know about the minimalism...That irritates me to a certain extent, because you don't always feel like you have enough information if people just throw up a couple of pictures and a "make an appointment" contact button. My website is pretty wordy (I tend to ramble, so I decided to get all the information up there and try to not lecture people on the history of cakes during tastings ). I consistently have brides tell me that they love my site, and that it's the most informative that they've seen. I have tons of pictures and text, it's all divided up by topic, but there's a LOT of text.

Something that people have told me they like it that I have a calendar of when I'm NOT available, so they know if I can do their cake before they book an appointment.

Always have a "contact me" button, maybe at the bottom of each page.