Are websites worth the hassle?

[piedplus]

I never sold a snake that I produced until I made a website. After I made one, I sold nine clutches within a couple months on the net. In my opinion, free websites are not professional. If you are going to make one, buy some space and a good domain.

Wow! If I had that many to sell, I'd definately get a website. I'm only planning on about three clutches a year, maybe four occasionally. My time's limited and I don't like fiddling around with websites much. In the end, I may find that a website's a necessary evil though.

[piedplus]

Some times the problems associated with classified markets like Craigslist is simply not worth it. The conservation people in my region tend to lerk on them and also in my area they have been know to come and inspect and impound animals that they have mis-identified and then there is a fight to return them. Red slider mistaken for a painted turtle, a royal python mistaken for a baby burm, that is in the last year.

Scarey! Think I'll stay away from that!

[piedplus]

It also depends on the classifieds sites you use. I dont have a website and I built a good rep simply by buying memberships to kingsnake and fauna. Building a trader rating and good BOI threads is a plus. I found that only a very small percentage of buyers will ever actually leave good ratings or BOI posts so it takes many sales to get to that point, but it's worth it in the end.

Yes, I recently joined Fauna. I don't like it as much as this site, but it does seem much more sales oriented. There was something I didn't like about the Kingsnake site. Can't remember what it was. I'll have to look at it again. Nice to know it's possible to make it through the classified sites. I wonder if maybe I could sell enough just through this site since it'll only be a few clutches a year. I'm more interested in the joy of having and breeding than I am in selling. But you gotta do something with the extras!

[RichsBallPythons]

About 90% of my sales this year were due from word of mouth, FB, and my website. I didnt sell one snake that was from a forum posting I made.

Its a huge beneficial thing to have since google is constantly crawling the site updating results for snakes for sale.

[piedplus]

About 90% of my sales this year were due from word of mouth, FB, and my website. I didnt sell one snake that was from a forum posting I made.

Its a huge beneficial thing to have since google is constantly crawling the site updating results for snakes for sale.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that crawling stuff. I barely understand it, but I guess it keeps things fresh for Google searches & stuff. I think a buyer would be more comfortable buying from a website than from a classified too. I may not have many to sell, but they'll be high value and I'll have some hets. Just when I thought I might get away with something easy... Back to the drawing board.

[WingedWolfPsion]

YES, they are worth it!
I agree, do not get a free site. There are cheap web hosts that will charge you $5 per month or less. Get a real host, and a domain name, and create a good site.

[Don]

I think they are worth it too, but agree they are a pain in the butt. Website design software is not intuitive and is a real pain to work with. I've worked with FrontPage and now am using GoDaddy's website builder. I hate working in those programs and am waiting for something simple and intuitive to come out. If that doesn't work, I might just bite the bullet and pay someone else to design one for me.

However, the more you are online, the better chance you have to make sales and develop a reputation. Many if not most of the people who are buying snakes today (especially higher priced morphs) are going to want to see you show up on the Internet with good trader ratings on various sites, have a website and a facebook account.

[piedplus]

I think they are worth it too, but agree they are a pain in the butt. Website design software is not intuitive and is a real pain to work with. I've worked with FrontPage and now am using GoDaddy's website builder. I hate working in those programs and am waiting for something simple and intuitive to come out. If that doesn't work, I might just bite the bullet and pay someone else to design one for me.

However, the more you are online, the better chance you have to make sales and develop a reputation. Many if not most of the people who are buying snakes today (especially higher priced morphs) are going to want to see you show up on the Internet with good trader ratings on various sites, have a website and a facebook account.

Ouch! Do it all? I don't think I'd have the time. Good info though.

[piedplus]

YES, they are worth it!
I agree, do not get a free site. There are cheap web hosts that will charge you $5 per month or less. Get a real host, and a domain name, and create a good site.

I'm begining to lean that way. Not sure that I have the skills or time though. Ever heard of SBI (site build it)? They charge a little more, but seem to be easier to use & have other pluses. I've read many good things about them on line, but would like to hear from another source. If I could get a website that's as easy to use as Facebook or Wordpress, I'd jump right on it. I'm just worried I'll spend hours and hours trying, then end up failing and using the easy sites after all. I've considered hiring someone to build my site, but if I'm going to have one I'd like to know and understand it. So... I guess now I'm looking for a user friendly way to build a website.

[LadyOhh]

They are worth it for the times when you have a ton of available animals or pictures or information you want to share, and have a reference point instead of taking consistant photos of the same animals to send thru e-mails and stuff.

Plus, you can "show off" what you have, which helps people get to know you better and what you can and do have.

I have great faith and belief in websites for what they can do.