VapeSafe.com - Electronic Cigarettes

[ecigs.net]

We've been working on our latest project for a several months now. I think we are finally ready to submit our site for a review.

VapeSafe.com

Description of the System:

This site was made by three full-time employees (1 programmer, 1 designer, and 1 designer/programmer) and one freelance illustrator. The freelance illustrator was the fourth person to be hired for this task. We were unhappy with all three of the previous designers. Unfortunately, we still had to pay for their artwork. Maybe I'll use them in other projects someday. The website itself is made using a modified version of CS-Cart. The graphics are a combination of professional illustrations, purchased stock images (istockphot, etc..) and graphics we photographed using a Canon Digital Rebel and a small, product, lighting tent. We photographed the individual products and then recreated them from scratch with the usual design tools: Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS4. The starter kit boxes were made using a 3D box program. In total, there has been about 4-5 months of work put into this project. We are still adding content daily.

Thoughts on CS-Cart.

At first, I was neutral to the CS-Cart system. It did the job, but modifications are not for those lacking thorough programming skills. My last shopping site was made with OS Commerce and I liked the ease of modification. However, now that the site is complete and after using CS-Cart for business (we've been taking orders since August 1st), I am completely and totally happy with it. If you are working with a really GOOD programmer, CS-Cart has everything needed to successful process and ship orders. I love it.

Why this Name and these Colors?

An electronic cigarette does not produce smoke because nothing is burned. An electronic cigarette doesn't contain tobacco. Instead a liquid is heated (called eLiquid) until it vaporizes. Consequently, those of us who use these products call ourselves VAPERS instead of smokers. We are VAPING instead of smoking. "We VAPE" instead of "we smoke". Since we also produce eLiquid that is safe for all ecigarette unites, our name is meant to imply that our eLiquid is "Safe to Vape" in all ecigarette units, or VapeSafe for short.

The purple and pink colors were used to help make the site appeal to women. By using pink and purple colors to appeal to women, we hoped to compensate for what might be an otherwise male orientated website. Though none of the images on the site are overtly sexual, our illustrated spokes person is kind of sexy. We were concerned that only men would like the design. Fortunately, our customer base is evenly divided between men and women.

I also read in a Best of WebDesign book that almost no purple websites exist (when compared to the number of blue and white websites online). Hopefully, we were able to create a purple site that doesn't get old too quickly. I think that we did. I am very pleased with the results. I hope you are too.

Please submit all negative and positive reviews.

The questions that interest me are:

What do you think of the colors?
Do you think the site is more "male" or "female" orientated? Why?
Are you confused by the navigation system?
Does the site have a professional feel?
What is missing that you expect to find?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being perfect), how do you rate this website?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[futuretaster]

would look better green(natural).
female - glittery star/moon theme
good - i prefer underlined links though; make top header breadcrumb linkable?
yes - good emphasis on secure shopping, does anyone ever use wishlists?.
prominent contact/order telephone number, demo movies of your product, alternative product currencies.
8/10
best regards,.

 

[Fuzzylogic]

Looks money to me. Sexy.

---------- Post added at 01:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 AM ----------

Sorry I can't be more help, I'm just jealous and think it's a really cool piece of tech to be selling. I lived in Hollywood for a while too so I can see your design being attractive there.

Real cool.

 

[ecigs.net]

Thanks for the extremely constructive feedback.

would look better green(natural).
female - glittery star/moon theme
good - i prefer underlined links though; make top header breadcrumb linkable?
yes - good emphasis on secure shopping, does anyone ever use wishlists?.
prominent contact/order telephone number, demo movies of your product, alternative product currencies.
8/10
best regards,.

It is interesting that you mention a green background. The original concept for the background was in green with a more tech look. Like I wrote in the opening, we went through several different artists. Unfortunately, we have already been producing products with the purple, so it is not possible to switch now. I guess we'll find out if we made the right choice depending on sales. So far, things are looking good. We have a couple choice ecigarette names, so we are considering making a sister site in green.

We had underlined links in the first few weeks, but I removed them. It just looked too cluttered.

We have spent a lot of money on security. That was extremely important. Though the 2048 bit Extended SSL is from a smaller company, it was tough to get. They wanted extensive documentation including all the corporate paperwork, phone bills, multiple IDs and proof of domain ownership. They also wanted it notarized and an opinion letter from our lawyer (who they then looked up in the California Bar Association to verify). It took almost a month to get everything verified. The certs themselves are very affordable, however. It paid off to go through the hassle of getting it.

The last Extended SSL I purchased from C*****o (big SSL company) was done in three days with almost no documentation at all. I guess they were more concerned with getting my money. The verification was simple and pointless.

I believe wishlists are used. I'm not much of a micro-manager, so I pretty much stay out of that department. I'll have to look into it to know for sure.

Great observation with, "make top header breadcrumb linkable?". I never noticed. This is linkable in the backend (where I mostly live), so I'll have to find out why it is not linkable on the front-end. Thanks for the tip.

Alternative currencies? Yes, that is in my mind too. I'm not sure about world-wide sales yet. Half of our traffic comes from out of the country (currently the USA). European and Asian traffic is big for these products. The problem is that they are being hammered by Big Pharm and Big Tobacco through their puppets in the government. The truth is neither want people to quit smoking and since these products help people quit, they are facing wealthy and powerful foes. Many countries like Australia have banned them completely. If we do the international sales, there are a many political landfalls to be avoided. We are waiting until we are bigger and can afford a full time legal department.

Looks money to me. Sexy.

---------- Post added at 01:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:31 AM ----------

Sorry I can't be more help, I'm just jealous and think it's a really cool piece of tech to be selling. I lived in Hollywood for a while too so I can see your design being attractive there.

Real cool.

Thanks for the nice comments. Jealousy in this case is a great compliment though there's no need to be jealous at all. Anyone who doesn't have any sort of personal life can do this. It takes a few months worth of 14 hour days and a lot of dedication and it will pay off. Start small, provide insane amounts of dedicated customer service and offer good prices and you can not help, but be successful. Give people the kind of service you expect plus 10%. That's our motto. Quality customer service gets you word of mouth traffic that is superior than anything an SE can provide. That makes you SE independent. Google and their ilk can do whatever they want and people will still find you if you have your customers fighting for you. That's extremely important.

Thanks again for both of your great comments. If you're smokers, send me a PM and I'll send you a discount code worth 25% off anything you buy. If not, I positively repped both of you for your time and energy.

Best regards.

 

[futuretaster]

Thanks for the extremely constructive feedback.



It is interesting that you mention a green background. The original concept for the background was in green with a more tech look. Like I wrote in the opening, we went through several different artists. Unfortunately, we have already been producing products with the purple, so it is not possible to switch now. I guess we'll find out if we made the right choice depending on sales. So far, things are looking good. We have a couple choice ecigarette names, so we are considering making a sister site in green.

We had underlined links in the first few weeks, but I removed them. It just looked too cluttered.

We have spent a lot of money on security. That was extremely important. Though the 2048 bit Extended SSL is from a smaller company, it was tough to get. They wanted extensive documentation including all the corporate paperwork, phone bills, multiple IDs and proof of domain ownership. They also wanted it notarized and an opinion letter from our lawyer (who they then looked up in the California Bar Association to verify). It took almost a month to get everything verified. The certs themselves are very affordable, however. It paid off to go through the hassle of getting it.

The last Extended SSL I purchased from C*****o (big SSL company) was done in three days with almost no documentation at all. I guess they were more concerned with getting my money. The verification was simple and pointless.

I believe wishlists are used. I'm not much of a micro-manager, so I pretty much stay out of that department. I'll have to look into it to know for sure.

Great observation with, "make top header breadcrumb linkable?". I never noticed. This is linkable in the backend (where I mostly live), so I'll have to find out why it is not linkable on the front-end. Thanks for the tip.

Alternative currencies? Yes, that is in my mind too. I'm not sure about world-wide sales yet. Half of our traffic comes from out of the country (currently the USA). European and Asian traffic is big for these products. The problem is that they are being hammered by Big Pharm and Big Tobacco through their puppets in the government. The truth is neither want people to quit smoking and since these products help people quit, they are facing wealthy and powerful foes. Many countries like Australia have banned them completely. If we do the international sales, there are a many political landfalls to be avoided. We are waiting until we are bigger and can afford a full time legal department.
Thanks for the nice comments. Jealousy in this case is a great compliment though there's no need to be jealous at all. Anyone who doesn't have any sort of personal life can do this. It takes a few months worth of 14 hour days and a lot of dedication and it will pay off. Start small, provide insane amounts of dedicated customer service and offer good prices and you can not help, but be successful. Give people the kind of service you expect plus 10%. That's our motto. Quality customer service gets you word of mouth traffic that is superior than anything an SE can provide. That makes you SE independent. Google and their ilk can do whatever they want and people will still find you if you have your customers fighting for you. That's extremely important.

Thanks again for both of your great comments. If you're smokers, send me a PM and I'll send you a discount code worth 25% off anything you buy. If not, I positively repped both of you for your time and energy.

Best regards.

thanks for the heads-up buddy.,
i hear what you're saying regarding the biased regulation issues, tobacco is big business, they have a lot of clout.

having a sister-site is a good idea, gives you much better chance of hitting your niches, because you can try different techniques on each project.

using your blog to get free targeted traffic is another good strategy.
best regards.

 

[PSS_Lena]

Just need more adds on the side, but all in all, your design rocks!

 

[winegold]

You know they looking for that baby right?

This site feels disjointed. The cartoon woman and the coffee, if I see one more person selling a coffee product. That scary baby sleeping in the sky. The purple looks wrong. Its too much.