Website????

[indulgedriff]

I m contemplating a website to help bring in more clients, how effective have you geek found it?? And how expensive is it getting a website??? any advice is much apriciated as havent really got a clue thanks in advance xxx

 

[loubylou]

Ruth mills who is a geek on here made mine for me,
it was very affordable and paid for its self in the first 2 weeks,
she did a great job for me and will build them for others,
take a look if you like
www.essentialbeauty.org.uk
hth :hug:

 

[indulgedriff]

whats her name on here? just had a look your gallery is amazing x

 

[minky]

Yes Ruth Mills is fab just been chatting to her about one for my Daughter :hug: she is fantastic x

 

[abeautifulu]

I found that just having a website was't enough, we ended up having a listing on yell.com and then having a website was worth while but an expensive option so we have stopped for now for a while, but it did work.

You need a reason for clients to visit your website and updating it just dosn't seem to hold their interest. My hubby stumbled upon an online booking sytem and its worked wonders for my website, as clients go to my website to book their appointments they see all my promo's and news updates, plus they book their own appointments and even end up booking a promo treatment what they have seen on my site!! It great ! My point is, unlike when I signed up the company now offer a free website I think and the system is only £10 a month so it's a bargain...opps theres the bargin hunter side of me coming out again!! LOL If your interested have a look at their site www.appointment-diary.com

Goog luck hun! x

 

[Ruth Mills]

I found that just having a website was't enough, we ended up having a listing on yell.com and then having a website was worth while but an expensive option so we have stopped for now for a while, but it did work.

You need a reason for clients to visit your website and updating it just dosn't seem to hold their interest. My hubby stumbled upon an online booking sytem and its worked wonders for my website, as clients go to my website to book their appointments they see all my promo's and news updates, plus they book their own appointments and even end up booking a promo treatment what they have seen on my site!! It great ! My point is, unlike when I signed up the company now offer a free website I think and the system is only £10 a month so it's a bargain...opps theres the bargin hunter side of me coming out again!! LOL If your interested have a look at their site www.appointment-diary.com

Good luck hun! x

Great minds obviously think alike :green:

Looks like an interesting system, will be interesting to see how it compares to my own, which is still in development but am hoping for completion in a month or two.

Am guessing it's a Java-based system too, using Struts 1 for the front end, by the look of it?

I'm liking the use of JQuery too - serious kudos for the use of their funky colour picker widget!

 

[poshpinks]

Morning all I had a website done and it was the best thing i did ,I struggled to get clients but now since the website i am getting a steady follow of clients.I had a guy called geoff do mine for me he was great really good to work with knew exsactly the look i wanted for my site.I would defo recommend him to anyone wanting a site I am so pleased with my site and everyone has commented on how proffesional it looks and when new clients ring i can tell them about my site and then they can see what im all about.Take a look at my site and at the bottom is a link to geoffs site and you can se some of the work he has done and what he is all about.

 

[Ruth Mills]

Also, Carl from Verve Design, verve design is a genius at graphic design and does websites - so he is definitely worth a look. He's done logo design for loads of the geeks on here, and his work looks totally fab.

 

[kylieb]

Sorry I havent got time to read the replies so sorry if i'm going over the same stuff as someone else.
I dont need to advertise anymore. My website has brought me all my business and still does! It's the best thing i have done.
Ruth, a geek on here does them for a VERY good price and she certainly knows what she is doing! Go for it! xxx

 

[Ruth Mills]

Sorry I havent got time to read the replies so sorry if i'm going over the same stuff as someone else.
I dont need to advertise anymore. My website has brought me all my business and still does! It's the best thing i have done.
Ruth, a geek on here does them for a VERY good price and she certainly knows what she is doing! Go for it! xxx

Thanks Kylie

Although Kylie's site is not one of mine; I think it was designed by a guy called siteforsoreeyes who was on here a few months ago...
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[smartbookings]

I found that just having a website was't enough, we ended up having a listing on yell.com and then having a website was worth while but an expensive option so we have stopped for now for a while, but it did work.

You need a reason for clients to visit your website and updating it just dosn't seem to hold their interest. My hubby stumbled upon an online booking sytem and its worked wonders for my website, as clients go to my website to book their appointments they see all my promo's and news updates, plus they book their own appointments and even end up booking a promo treatment what they have seen on my site!! It great ! My point is, unlike when I signed up the company now offer a free website I think and the system is only £10 a month so it's a bargain...opps theres the bargin hunter side of me coming out again!! LOL If your interested have a look at their site www.appointment-diary.com

Goog luck hun! x

I agree just having a website is not enough, you need to build work on marketing it online. There are alot of free places you can advertise like google maps, gumtree, freeindex etc

Online Booking Systems really do add value to a website - one of my customers put it great by saying "there's nothing better than taking bookings while they slept at night". Be sure to shop around though as with some companys there are often development charges if customisations are wanted with online booking systems, as i've begin to find out it's rare any 2 salons work in the same way which is why we created our online booking system as flexible as possible for the salon managers.

Kind Regards,

Mark

 

[Ruth Mills]

Online Booking Systems really do add value to a website - one of my customers put it great by saying "there's nothing better than taking bookings while they slept at night". Be sure to shop around though as with some companys there are often development charges if customisations are wanted with online booking systems, as i've begin to find out it's rare any 2 salons work in the same way which is why we created our online booking system as flexible as possible for the salon managers.

Kind Regards,

Mark

Can't agree more there - a generic, flexible, extensible design is definitely the way to go - as is a business model that does not charge extra if salon-specific customisations are required.
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[Natalies Nails]

Some great advice, need a site myself and think I will look into this appointment diary thingy x :hug:

 

[Ruth Mills]

Some great advice, need a site myself and think I will look into this appointment diary thingy x :hug:

Sounds a promising system, but there are others out there too that are probably worth researching; you would need to consider the entire package, e.g. does the system offer additional features, such as being able to set up an online shop, SMS reminders, cross-selling of products when making an appointment, easy content management so you can make changes to your website at will without having to ask the company to do it for you - and if there is a feature that you really, really want that isn't on there yet, will the company be happy to consider adding it for you (without charging an arm and a leg)?

Then there are other things worth considering, such as security of data; I for one would want to ensure that confidential client data was sent encrypted over secure HTTP (HTTPS) similar to what banks use for online banking - as if standard HTTP is used, there is always the risk of someone snooping on your data on its way over the Internet between your computer and the company's server. And also make sure that the company has made the necessary provisions under the Data Protection Act (it is a legal requirement to register with the Information Commissioners Office when storing personal data on a computer system for business purposes).