Do you only design websites for jewelry companies?

Yes, the owner of Websites for Jewelers, Dan Globus, made the decision back in 1997 to specialize in designing websites exclusively for companies in the Jewelry Industry.

We understand the needs of the Jewelry Industry better than any other website design firm. However, the CEO, Dan Globus, has developed a skill set within his 20 years of running his own businesses to meet the needs of just about any type of business. His background is primarily compromised of International business and marketing.

What does it cost a jeweler to build a website?

Generally speaking, it can reasonably cost anywhere from $5,000 to well over $100,000 to build a website. So why is this price range so large? There are different types of websites, with different types of functionality, that can require anywhere from 1-10+ people to build. It can also take anywhere from 1 hour to several months to build a website.

So how do you know which type of website design you need and what it will cost you? The simplest way to find out is to fill out our contact us form and we will reply to you within 48 hours with a price.

Aren't web design fees much lower these days?

The answer is "yes" and "no". In 1995, designers were building very simple types of websites for $20,000+. These types of sites can now be built by companies for $1,000 - $5,000 or just about anybody with a simple to use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) program. However, designers are now building very sophisticated sites, with tools that were not available 10 years ago, that take weeks to create and a team of 4 or more people. These sites typically cost a minimum of $20,000 and can cost as much as $50,000.

So how do you know what a "fair" or "reasonable" price is to have a website built? There are two ways that we would recommend to determine this. First, contact up to three design firms and ask them for a price quote. Whatever the average is between the three prices will most likely be a fair price. Second, ask the design firm to give you an estimate on the amount of hours that the project will take. Find out how many people will be working on the project. Then, multiply the number of hours by the number of people by 25. This will yield a total price that reflects a general average price quoted by most well established design firms.

Keep in mind that if 4 people are going to work on your web design project, and they will work a combined total of approximately 1,000 hours, and they reside in a major USA city (where salaries for graphic artists are typically no less than $50,000 per year), it stands to reason that the design firm must pay these designers $24,000 for their services. Therefore, a fee of $30,000 or more would be quite reasonable for a website project of this nature.

How long does it take to build a website for a jeweler?

Most of the websites that we produce these days go live within 4-6 weeks. Custom design jobs are typically quoted at 6-8 weeks and can take several weeks more to complete.

Why should you hire Websites for Jewelers?

1. We have been in business since 1995.
2. We will do whatever it takes to satisfy your needs.
3. Every person working on each project has no less than 5 years of experience in their specialty (10+ years in most cases).
4. We are not afraid to speak our minds and make recommendations that will give you a superior product.
5. We are experts in all phases of web design (graphics, HTML, Flash, PHP, etc.).
6. We are interested in long-term relationships.
7. We are the pioneers and innovators of many aspects of web design that are now considered standard.
8. We constantly look for ways to improve the sites that we build for our clients.
9. We can create a solution for any challenge that you present to us.
10. We are easy to work with.

What is "hosting" and do you offer it?

Hosting is the business of housing, serving, and maintaining files for one or more websites. It is also referred to as "website hosting", "web hosting", and "Webhosting".

Yes, Websites for Jewelers provides website hosting services and has been doing so since 1997. What sets our hosting services apart from other hosts is that we host our clients' websites on dedicated servers with typically 50 or less clients. Compare this to the average host which will have 1,000 or more websites on it. Why is this important?

Let's suppose that a host has 200 or more websites on one server. Let's further suppose that either or both of the following scenarios occurs. One site is an adult site that receives a tremendous amount of traffic/visitors (which they tend to do). Another site is being used to send SPAM. When SPAM is sent out, it is typically sent to thousands if not millions of e-mail addresses and this process is repeated constantly. Getting lots of traffic and/or sending out tons of e-mails tie up valuable resources on a web server. The effect of this is that every other website on the server will be tremendously slowed down and may even come to a grinding halt! This means that if your website is on that server, your customers may not be able to see your site.

This will never happen when you choose Websites for Jewelers to host your website.

Do you offer SEO (search engine optimization) services?

Yes, Websites for Jewelers does offer search engine optimization services.

What's involved in building a website?

Building a website can be a fairly complex process depending upon the type of website and the customer's needs. Here is a basic outline of the steps that we take starting with the initial conversation with the client:

1. Discuss the needs and desires of the client.
2. Create a proposal that outlines how we will meet those needs and desires.
3. After proposal is reviewed and approved, go to contract.
4. Assemble the team of specialists to work on the project.
5. Define the task of each specialist and create a time line for the project.
6. As each specialist completes a phase of the project, the customer is shown the work and asked for feedback.
7. When all phases of the project are completed and approved by the customer, the site goes through an initial launch.
8. The site goes through final testing by Websites for Jewelers.
9. Customer gives user feedback after initial launch to make improvements.
10. Website is officially launched.

What are the first steps in building a website for a jeweler?

After a client contacts us, we typically ask them to fill out a short questionnaire or ask them a few questions on the telephone. If we feel that sufficient information has been gathered, we then forward a proposal to the client. The proposal outlines lists what the client has asked us to do and outlines how Websites for Jewelers will satisfy the client's wants and needs. The proposal may go through a couple of revisions after the first draft. After the client is satisfied with the proposal, we provide a contract with the terms of the proposal embodied into it.

Do you build e-commerce sites for jewelers?

Yes, Websites for Jewelers builds e-commerce sites. All of our e-commerce web design sites are database-driven and capable of handling thousands of items all through an easy to use administrative interface.

What is a "database-driven" website?

A "database-driven" website is a site that displays pages to a visitor based upon data/text in a database. When websites were first appearing on the Internet, most sites consisted of many pages of information. If a company wanted to display and/or sell 1,000 items in their website, a web designer would have had to build at least 1,000 pages. This became not only very time consuming, but very problematic when information had to be updated. Now, a website can have thousands of pages that are all controlled by the data within one or more databases.

Chances are you already have a database of your jewelry and it can be used in your website. If you have an accounting package (Quickbooks or custom accounting package), chances are that you have entered your jewelry inventory into the program. Your program is storing all of your jewelry in a database. All that you need to do is "export" the jewelry database. We can assist you with this process.

If by chance you do not have your jewelry in a database, we can provide a Microsoft Excel file that you can use as a template to create your own jewelry database. In the Excel file will be sample entries to assist you in creating your own jewelry database.

If you don't use Excel or would like another way to create a database, use our very easy Administrative tools to enter your jewelry information and it will build a database for you.

Why would I want or need a "database-driven" website?

Database-driven sites have many advantages. One of the biggest advantages is that you can add, edit and delete items in it very quickly. Once the information is changed in the database, and it is uploaded to the web server, all information that is in the website becomes updated immediately.

Why are so many sites built in Flash these days?

If you don't know what "Flash" is, Flash websites are pretty easy to spot. When you see any type of animated effects (e.g. images fading in and out and text scrolling across the screen), chances are that you are viewing a Flash website. Just visit any very well known brand name and you will at least some elements of Flash in their website.

So why are so many jewelry websites built using Flash? The simple answer is that Flash websites are eye catching and can be very cool. But are there any downsides to having a website built 100% in Flash? The answer is "YES".

The number one weekness we find in 100% Flash websites is that due to the way that most Flash websites are built, you lose the ability to have many pages indexed and listed in Google and other search engines. A typical database-driven website that is not 100% Flash can have several hundred pages indexed and listed by Google. In most websites created 100% in Flash, Google can only list and index one page. Flash is like a giant movie that has a start and an end. At the time of this writing, Google has not figured out a way to extract the "frames" of the movie so that all of the content of the movie can be listed and indexed in their website. At some point in the future, either Adobe (owners of Flash) and/or Google will figure out how to deal with this.

Websites for Jewelers is quite proficient at building Flash websites and would be happy to build this type of site for any client. However, if getting found in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines is an important consideration for you, at this moment, we do not recommend having a 100% Flash website built. At the same time, if you would like to attract people's attention, by all means have us place a Flash animation on your home page. This will not affect the search engine's abilities to list your website.

Where are you located and shouldn't I hire a local company?

Websites for Jewelers is located in Brooklyn, New York. The majority of our customers are located in New York City (Manhattan). Has our location ever hindered our ability to provide the best possible services? The answer is "no".

Some people believe that they need to hire a company that is located within a close proximity to them. This is a misconception. web design firms do most of their work with clients via e-mail, on the web and on the telephone. As we develop our websites, we send our clients links via e-mail that allow them to see the work. If the client has any questions or needs lengthy explanation, we call them.

So many people use e-mail and the Internet on a daily basis that corresponding via e-mail and the Internet is now second nature. There is now very little that can be done in person that cannot be done via e-mail and the Internet.

So if you are one of those people who feels that they must hire a local company because you need to be close to them, it's time for you to change your way of thinking! After all, the company that can design the very best website for you may exist on the opposite coast of the USA. Don't let a little thing like distance dissuade you from hiring Websites for Jewelers.

I want to sell my products online? What are the pros and cons?

With sales on the Internet increasing at an incredible rate, it seems that everyone wants to sell something on it. The "pros" are pretty obvious. However, there are potential "cons" to having an e-commerce site built.

As far as the "pros" are concerned, here are just a few:

• E-commerce sites are relatively inexpensive these days to build and implement.
• If you have low cost items (e.g. $25-$50), you should be able to sell these fairly easily.
• More and more people are embracing ordering on the Internet.
• People are feeling much more secure using a credit card on-line.
• People don't have to wait on line and you don't have to deal with a salesperson.

As far as the "cons" are concerned, there is one major con that we make clients aware of. Many people still prefer to see some products in person before they make a purchasing decision. In order to show more expensive products in the best possible way, it's important to take multiple pictures of the product and to show the product from various angles. Still, even after showing the product from all possible angles and allowing people to zoom in on the product, potential customers may still want to view the item(s) in person. Photographing products from various angles, having a professional do this, and having a web design utilize all the necessary technologies to show products in their very best light can be quite expensive. There are instances where it would be more effective to showcase your company and services in an effort to convince people to visit your store then to try and sell your products on-line. In other words, an investment in designing a site to make potential customers look at your company first, as a quality seller/supplier of products, instead of a seller of commodity items, can have a greater impact on your sales than trying to outright sell items that are not easily sold on the Internet.

How often should I update my website?

We have always advocated giving a website at least a minor "face lift" every 6-12 months. The overall look of the site should certainly be updated every 24 months. This means that the functionality and navigation can stay the same, but the overall look should be updated no later than after 24 months of existance. Consumers respond positively to a site that looks like it is constantly being updated.

If you show advertisements in your site, the advertisements should appear in your site "prior" to the advertisement hitting the newspaper stands or being seen elsewhere. If you have many products or services, these should be added to your site as soon as they are ready to be sold.

One of the biggest mistakes that we see companies make is to run advertisements in magazines and not have the advertisements appear in their website prior to the ads hitting the newsstands. Inevitably, consumers look in websites for the products pictured in the ads. When they don't see them, they contact the company and get frustrated when they hear that the new ads and products have simply not been added to the website yet.

Do I need someone in-house to maintain my website?

It is not necessary to hire a "web design" person full-time to maintain your website. Most of the websites that we build are database-driven sites that have an easy to use administrative section to update the products in the website. Most companies typically have someone on staff who has a little graphics experience. We can easily train this person to be able to add, edit and delete products from our sites.

What are the most common issues customers face in web projects?

The most common issue is that they don't initially take the extra time to speak with professionals and their peers to find out what can be done to address their specific needs. Even though each customer "knows" what they want, they don't always know what they need. If you take the time to explain to us what your goals are, we may be able to make recommendations on how to meet those goals that you may have never considered. This may include ways to save money in meeting your goals or simply a different way to approach your needs.

The second most common issue is that customers are not ready to get involved with a web designer to begin and end a web design project. The most time-consuming part of a web design project is getting feedback from a customer. As each phase of a project is completed, work is placed on-line for a customer to review. This is when it's up to the customer to tell us whether we got something right or need to make changes. This dialogue can go back forth on each phase quite a few times. If the customer does not make himself/herself readily available to discuss the work, the project can come to a grinding halt. This is why we always ask the client to appoint a contact person who will be responsible for making decisions or communicating the decisions to us. If the person that is chosen cannot make adequate time to review work and give us feedback, a project will go past the anticipated completion date.

What's the first step in hiring Websites for Jewelers?

Contact Us

Who and What is Cool Bananas®?

Cool Bananas® was a Brooklyn, New York, Internet advertising firm specializing in custom web design services. Founded in 1995 by Dan Globus, Cool Bananas® was created to service the growing need of companies which required an Internet presence. Even though the company initially serviced the arts and entertainment industries, it found a niche market in the designer/manufacturer-end of the Jewelry Industry in 1997 and has focused its efforts on this industry since then. Cool Bananas® was retired and ultimately spun off into Websites for Jewelers.