Any one heard of this site??

Chuck Ellis

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Tellico Plains, Tennessee
I'm not sure where to put this, so decided off topic might be as good as any... for those of you who market on line, have you ever heard of this web-site... they contacted me via email and offered their services... claiming that their members get 4000 to 6000 hits per month... looks like a pretty sophisticated site.

Think I'm going to try and contact a few of the vendors on the site, but thought maybe some of you might have had some contact with them.

The site is www.custommade.com.

Any comments or information would be appreciated.
 
Interesting. But only gets about 6,000 hits a month. I believe that in today's Internet world that is close to zero. And, with plans costing $150.00 to $700.00 a year, it doesn't strike me as a worthwhile marketing venture.
 
Don't know anything about the site, but thanks for the time waster. :thumb:

Lots of pretty stuff on the site, but only a couple turnings that I saw from a search. Maybe you can change that...hope it works well for you.
 
Chuck,

I hadn't heard of that site, so can't give any feedback. A similar and very popular site for hand made crafts is http://www.etsy.com

Might give it a look if you haven't. Don't think they charge as much and it's per item, much like ebay.


Darren,
Thanks for feed back... I'm already listed on ETSY with a few items... all internet sales seem a little slow right now... maybe will pick up around Christmas.
 
I don't know. I did an advanced search for wood turnings, and got two hits - both cabinetry. Also, I noted no pricing on a link for pens except for the comment that similar items con be made for under $500.00. I would sure hope so!

Let us know what you find out with their vendors.

Thanks,

Bruce
 
Thanks for all the replies on this... I think all were correct.. it sounded too goo to be true..

I contacted a couple of the vendors I found on the site... one of whom was Jim Lanier.... he joined the first of October and todate has had 22 hits..

The other artist also joined Sept 30 and has to date received 233 hits..

Sounds like some creative marketing claims... think I'll pass.

Thanks guys for your input.
 
Hi Chuck (and other posters) -

I sent this via email directly to Chuck, but wanted to post it here as well so I could reach out to you guys personally as one of the owners of CustomMade.com.

Mike Salguero and I purchased this website at the beginning of this year, and about 30 days ago launched a complete overhaul of the site and the service. We are working like dogs to continually improve the search and consumer user-experience...

Our site currently receives almost 1 million absolute unique visitors a year (do some searches around Google using terms like "custom furniture" and other related search terms and we tend to pop up on the first page). Our claims of 4,000 to 6,000 pageviews a month are substantiated by our Google Analytics on the old site, so we have certainly not exaggerated. Our new site is getting more visitors every day, and we have been heavily indexed by Google.

We have about 500 woodworker members... and almost 1 million unique visits (and over 4 million annual pageviews) - so there's plenty of traffic to go around. 60,000 pageviews a year is a staggering amount of exposure for a comparatively small investment. By contrast, buying the words "custom furniture" on Google in the sidebar (PPC) costs $1.24 per click - so the gentlemen who reported over 220 click in the last 30 days is doing quite well!

It's important to distinguish between "pageviews" and "hits" - a pageview is anytime someone clicks on an image and views it on our site. A "hit" we would consider to be a click-through to the individual artisan's website. But keep in mind - consumers don't want to click through to individual artisan's web pages. They want to view everything in one place, which is what our website does. People can contact the artisan directly through our website, or can click-through and email the artisan directly after having viewed his/her own website. I just did a blog post about this here; http://custommade.com/blog/

The key is getting your work exposed to relevant traffic - which is the business we are in. Our long term goal is to change the buying paradigm... to get folks to stop buying press-board crap from big-box stores and get them to buy custom from the artisans themselves.

I'd be happy to hear anyone's concerns, and hear anyone's advice or suggestions about the site!

Thanks for your feedback!

- Seth Rosen
 
After seeing the post about Custommade.com in the commercial zone, I thought I'd add a couple of things. No doubt, this would be a good vehicle for some people. One thing mentioned in the commercial post is a bit misleading, though. If you can manage your own website, you can have a web presence a lot cheaper.

I'm far from being an expert website developer, but I've done a few websites for friends and manage my own now. I use a hosting service that costs me $48 per year using my own domain name and dedicated IP. They also have many website templates and the tools to develop your own site. I can add the capability for ecommerce within my plan but am using my site as a portfolio only at this time. Just another thing to consider. ;)
 
As I've stated before, I don't know much about custom made. And you can do a website for very little money. However, I can see the attractiveness of using their service. It is a site, much like an ebay or etsy site, that attracts customers for the various content/products that it contains. This is something you don't get with a stand alone website. Just my .02 :wave:
 
Seth Rosen said, in part, "......costs $1.24 per click - so the gentlemen who reported over 220 click in the last 30 days is doing quite well!"

He spent over $270.00 in one month to get "clicks". What were his sales and net profits after paying for "clicks"?

Sorry, but having ones own web site still seems to be the most effective way to go. If I have missed something, I'm open to correction.
 
Hi Guys - Thanks for the replies! I responded in place below with some comments...

Seth Rosen said, in part, "......costs $1.24 per click - so the gentlemen who reported over 220 click in the last 30 days is doing quite well!"

It's sort of like looking at comparable house sales to figure out what your house is worth. If someone was trying to figure out "how much is a click worth", the quickest and easiest way to do that is to look at what Google charges for a click. In the case of buying clicks for the search term "custom furniture" they currently charge $1.24 per click. So, based upon that logic, the guy that got 220 clicks at $1.24 per click received $273 worth of traffic in a month. I know he didn't pay us that much, because our lowest plan is around $12 per month and our highest plan is less than $60 per month.

That being said, I am NOT advocating that someone goes out and buys clicks to their website by advertising with Google - I'm simply responding to the notion that our $12 to $60 per month is over-priced, which we don't think is true based on the numbers.

He spent over $270.00 in one month to get "clicks". What were his sales and net profits after paying for "clicks"?

Now this is a different issue, and I agree with your skepticism here for a lot of reasons :) You have to be very cautious about how you spend your marketing dollars. You are talking about what we call "conversion rate" - or the number of "clicks" that one needs to purchase in order to generate a sale (or in our case, a commission to make something custom for a customer). Conversion rates in the custom woodworking space are low - it's a high-priced service, the economy is certainly not ideal, and many clicks are not from properly targeted traffic. The conclusion is, you would need to buy a lot of clicks in Google to generate a sale, meaning your cost to acquire a customer using that marketing medium is comparatively very high. We think (actually, we know) that ours is a lot lower. But the question is really how to spend each dollar as effectively as possible. I'm not saying Google is a bad choice, and I'm not saying we are a perfect choice either. For a guy who does large millwork jobs at an average size of $200,000 per job, he should be using Google and our website and many others. For a guy that makes custom end tables with hand-cut English dovetails for $300, well, he shouldn't be using Google.

Sorry, but having ones own web site still seems to be the most effective way to go. If I have missed something, I'm open to correction.

Respectfully Frank, I have to disagree here. If one already has a website, it certainly won't hurt you! But if you only have a few hundred dollars to spend or even a thousand dollars to spend, I don't think spending it improving your website or building one from scratch is the best way to go. I know a website can be built for cheap, and can be hosted for cheap. The expensive part is getting the people you want to see your work to go to it. I think one is better off spending that money taking better pictures of their work and posting them on our site, on Facebook, etc. The pictures are what sell.

A website is just one way to get customers to see your work. Our website is another way. Facebook is yet another way... I think the answer is to get GOOD pictures of your work in front of as many relevant eyes as possible for the cheapest possible price. I think it's more about how you spend your "next" marketing dollar to get the most bang for your buck. It is VERY challenging to drive "new customer" traffic to an individual woodworker's website. It's not impossible to do... but it's a lot more labor-intensive and expensive than other mediums for showcasing your work. I think you go for the lowest hanging fruit first.

Most consumers aren't concerned about a woodworker's ability to build a great website - they are concerned about being able to evaluate his/her skills as a woodworker. They do that by seeing pictures, reading about the woodworker's experience, and generally making a connection. A search for "custom furniture" in google yields 24.6 million results - we don't think the customer who is buying something custom has the patience or time to find and go through so many individual woodworker websites. They want everything in one place.

What I want to do is make it SO easy for the consumer to find and engage with a custom woodworker that they stop buying the crappy table at the big retail store with a 300% markup made in China and they realize that there's a guy down the street who can make something 10 times better for only a little bit more money.

P.S. Frank; your blog title suggests that you are a veteran? If this is so, thank you.
 
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After seeing the post about Custommade.com in the commercial zone, I thought I'd add a couple of things. No doubt, this would be a good vehicle for some people. One thing mentioned in the commercial post is a bit misleading, though. If you can manage your own website, you can have a web presence a lot cheaper.

If your objective is to put something on the web (get a presence) as cheaply as humanly possible, you can't beat Facebook - it's FREE!

You're right, though. Our starter package is about $12 a month... and you could likely get a very basic web presence for that (not including the cost of your time, of course), but how would new customers find it?

I'm far from being an expert website developer, but I've done a few websites for friends and manage my own now. I use a hosting service that costs me $48 per year using my own domain name and dedicated IP. They also have many website templates and the tools to develop your own site. I can add the capability for ecommerce within my plan but am using my site as a portfolio only at this time. Just another thing to consider. ;)

I'm not a website developer either... that's Joel on our team!
 
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