ButterflyUK.co.uk

[ButterflyUKCraft]

Hi everyone,

What a great idea for a forum! It's fab to be able to introduce myself and my business properly. I am Rachel Cooke and I have been selling through eBay for just over a year. The business is going from strength to strength especially since I launched my new website just over a month ago. I've tried to keep things simple and as easy to use as possible for potential customers and I have recently included some free downloads and a brand new groundbreaking online interactive card making studio! I own ButterflyUK which is my online shop but I also own ************* which I hope will become an extensive crafts web portal. I invite other craft sites to advertise on Craftamania - especially if you offer free downloads or anything similar. In the meantime I am offering a weeks free membership for "Card Studio Bronze" to enable prospective customers get a good idea of the things we offer. If you are interested please follow the link below and register completely free for your chance of some fantastic free printables. Hope to see you all soon!

MOD EDIT - I've removed the links as you have to have 25 posts before you can post links

[MrSwirl]

It requires Shockwave Flash to run, which is a no-no for me.

When it did run, it tried to open a pop-up window, which is even worse.

I have no idea what it sells, since my pop-up blocker blocked it, and I closed the site since I couldn't look at it.

Maybe others aren't as picky as me, but I wouldn't go back, based on that experience.

[Funkyhand]

'Snap' Mr Swirl same experience for me.
Anice xx

[ButterflyUKCraft]

Thank you for your reviews - I really appreciate you taking the time to have a look. Although I can certainly say I am surprised by your findings! Admittedly it does require Flash Shockwave player to experience it so that we could create the fully interactive online experience. However, there are no pop up windows - what you must have experienced was the site requesting to use the flash shockwave player which is installed on all computers as part of the internet explorer package. It is a shame you didn't continue on to see the site as we do have lots of satisfied members.

[Peter]

Which begs the question - did you actually want constructive advice from our members, or was this an opportunity to promote your business? As you no doubt will have gathered from previous threads, we don't do 'free advertising', nor do we promote members businesses' until they have made a noticeable contribution to the forum - that's where the 25 post rule comes in. Please feel welcome to post your craft ideas and experiences on this forum, but don't be too upset if you don't get a pat on the back from complete strangers.

[MrSwirl]

Thank you for your reviews - I really appreciate you taking the time to have a look. Although I can certainly say I am surprised by your findings! Admittedly it does require Flash Shockwave player to experience it so that we could create the fully interactive online experience. However, there are no pop up windows - what you must have experienced was the site requesting to use the flash shockwave player which is installed on all computers as part of the internet explorer package. It is a shame you didn't continue on to see the site as we do have lots of satisfied members.

No - it tries to open a popup window. I have SWF installed (but it's not a standard option in Internet Exploder by any means, and doesn't come installed with Mozilla Firefox, Opera, or Safari).

I'm sure that you have satisfied members, but if I can't get into the site, then I won't use it. Anything that requires a plugin (since there is nothing else on the page) would also deter users from going any further - the last thing that most people want is a page that has no information on it, asking for a plugin to download. If you manage to get people to use the site based on that experience, then well done.

[Poppy4lee]

I wish people would be honest about advertising their site, I'm all in favour of supporting crafters etc. (quite passionate about it really) but I cannot abide people not being up front eg "...what a quaint little forum you have here, oh, by the way take at look at my fantastic stuff on my very successful site.."!! If you feel you have to go about things via the 'back door' (rather than saying, I just want to advertise here, rather than contribute to discussions) then you obviously realise that it's not an acceptable way to behave

[ButterflyUKCraft]

Ok, thank you all for being so rude. I noticed the opportunity of you having a forum where your members can review a website. I'm sorry if I actually used it. The fact that you made constructive critisism is useful to me and I chose to explain the reasons you saw what you did. And all you have done since then is slate! I do appreciate all opinions - but having the nerve to suggest I've used a message forum designed for getting your site reviewed incorrectly leaves me lost for words.

[Peter]

Forum Rules.
9, If you wish to advertise/promote your site you have 4 choices 1- email / private message me for our advertising rate… 2 – add your site to www.ukcraftwebsites.co.uk which includes adverts on the forums right hand side, 3 – Add your site to your signature and offer great advice and help to people.. Your reputation will advertise your site itself. 4 – finally try somewhere else to spam ?

Had you read this first we wouldn't be on your list of very bad people would we?
You were not slated - you just didn't get to know who we were before asking us to look at your business. We're all in the same boat, we're all struggling to sell our stuff, that, surely, is the intention of a forum - to unite like minded people, so when a newcomer - who would normally have been made very welcome - gives the impression that all we are here for is to review their website.....................well, would you be bothered?
If you want to interact in forum discussion, then welcome. If you don't, then goodbye.

[ButterflyUKCraft]

Thank you for clearing that up. I do think you need to make it clearer though, that although you say you welcome people to ask for their websites to be reviewed, you actually don't want them to enter any details! I'm sorry if I have offended anyone as I certainly didn't mean to. I only wanted an honest opinion - which I did get admittedly! And the next obvious step for myself was to redeem my site. In doing this I appear to have offended people - which wasn't my intention. What's really frustrating though is that since I posted I found out that I had sent the wrong link! I don't know whether to laugh or cry lol. Never mind, I would like to continue posting, even though I seem to have gotten off to a bad start - it would be nice to join your family. I hope I am forgiven for being a tad defensive and I send my sincere apologies for this.

[swirlyarts]

We do get lots of people on here who post spam and run - that's why we get a bit defensive sometimes. Not that I'm suggesting that you posted spam but when people head straight to the 'please review my website section' it's a bit offputting for those of us who choose to join in more with the forum. We do see it a lot as moderators.

Try posting your link again and I'm sure you will get some more constructive criticism!

[Peter]

Anyone who can take one of my flamings and come back with magnanimity has got to be ok! Welcome to the forum Butterfly!

[ButterflyUKCraft]

Thank you both for that. I really appreciate it. I won't post my link again yet though - couldn't go through that again just yet lol
The reason I like this forum is because everyone welcomes you (I did post in the newbie section before all of this) and it seems a great place to chat and maybe let off the steam from the pressures of the day lol. thank you for being kind