Critique Our Website

[Trep813]

Your invited to visit our website. Tell us what you think and we welcome back-links from non-competitors. We'll reciprocate for your site as well on our links page.

Michael@blueblaze-usa.com

BlueBlaze Custom Fabrication

http://www.blueblaze-usa.com./

[fun4now]

you need to take the .http off the end of your link to make it work .
didnt get a chance to check it out, i gotta run. just wanted ya to know of the link problem, i'll check it out next trip.

[spotsineyes]

you need to take the .http off the end of your link to make it work .

Doesn't help. And that's as much work as I'm willing to do to find it.

[gordfraser]

worked for me after i took off the .http

Looks very nice.
I would contact that site if i needed something

G

[jamscal]

Not bad.

My OPINION, and I could be wrong:

I wouldn't put my shop rates on there. Yours are too low anyway.

I wouldn't offer a FREE design service. This is worth more than welding services in many respects.

There are probably many cases where you do basically design for free, but I wouldn't advertise it.

I wouldn't offer a two-year guarantee on my welds.

I would put pics of some of your work up.

-James

[jdustu]

Not bad.

My OPINION, and I could be wrong:

I wouldn't put my shop rates on there. Yours are too low anyway.

I wouldn't offer a FREE design service. This is worth more than welding services in many respects.

There are probably many cases where you do basically design for free, but I wouldn't advertise it.

I wouldn't offer a two-year guarantee on my welds.

I would put pics of some of your work up.

-James

I concur.

-Josh

[starweld]

Cheap

You are way to CHEAP.You must not have insurance.

[fun4now]

maybe you took the http off the wrong end ??
this worked for me.
http://www.blueblaze-usa.com/

[Badd00SS]

waaaaayyyyy tooo cheap!!!!

I charge $100/ hour and I am cheap around here...

[walker]

You are WAAAAYYY to cheap! Shop rate should be somewhere between $50 and $100 per hour for a one man operation. If you have employees up to $150 per hour. Also, I generally charge per hole to drill/punch and per bend to bend with some sort of set up fee (no set up if it is a lot of holes/bends).
If you lived here I could afford to hire out all my work to you and sit in the easy chair and make more money than you.

[JTMcC]

I'd correct the spelling errors.

Unless you're a Florida PE, the advertising design work will eventually get you in trouble.

I wouldn't post rates, ever.

And like everyone already said, your rates are waaaay too low.

I read every page but I still don't really know what you do. You might want to make that clearer.

JTMcC.

Plus, I don't understand the two year guarantee on welds. Do you expect your stuff to start falling apart in about 25 months. The normal lifespan of a properly made weld is decades longer than 2 years so I'm confused there. Why not just guarantee your work?

[chevyman_de]

From a technical point of view I would change the following:

• Blue underlined fonts usually indicate a link. Don't use them when there's no link.
• Under normal circumstances I wouldn't use serif and sans serif fonts on the same page.
• You use large images and force the browser to scale them down. This increases page loading times for those on a dial-up connection significantly. If you show a thumbnail, use a thumnail.
• People expect to see a large version of the image or a new page when clicking on a thumbnail...
• The "Links" link under the images on the index page should be a sixth button in the navigation bar. That way it will not destroy the page design and get noticed.
• Same area: There are currently 5 buttons and 5 images straight below. So visitors will usually try to click on the images for a link first - und nothing happens. Put more space between the navigation bar and the images.

[Geezer]

From a consumer standpint I found your website easy to navigate and provided me enough information to conclude you are a general purpose shop providing experience and a wide range of shop services. You project a sincere honest attitude from your text. I must agree, I do not understand a guarantee on a weld, your work yes. It appears you are pojecting Professional Engineering Design capability. My instincts tell me that is not what you mean, but it could be interpreted that way.

Labor rates here in south central Illinois at a respected welding shop providing general welding services are $70.00 per hour with limited machine and pipe bending services. Another start up shop and doing very well are $60.00 per hour, but they do not offer pipe bending and machine services. Both are non union. They do not advertise their labor rates.

I have a son in Ocala Florida and we just visited them. From what we could see, construction and skilled trades are not exactly booming in that area. Its encouraging to see someone with initiative. I wish you the very best.

[LA Weld]

It leads me to believe you are uninsured or really desperate for work.

Low rate and unusual warrenty, buyer beware!
My consumable cost, insurance and electricty is percentage wise as much as you are getting, so you are working for free!

Good luck with your venture and get your pricing in line.

[Fishy Jim]

First and foremost, it's a nice aesthetically pleasing site with a comfortable layout.

Seems to me like you're trying to dress up what doesn't need dressing. The combined years of experience bit in particular; You're a "mom and pop" shop, there's appeal in that with some people, so use it. Don't try to put an age to your experience, but rather use that space to be more personable or explain what you like doing for customers. "We've been around a combined number of years" could be replaced with "we take pride in serving people" and then mention some ways that you're better to deal with than the bigger shops (quick turn around, friendly, etc).

Your home page statement should be combined with your about us and all located on the latter page. Your capabilities would be better served on the current home page as it's probably what people want to know first.

For the home page, I'd put more emphasis on bullet points of what you do and beef up the picture content. Show me. Make me want to look further. Too much text and no negative space (the single paragraph is an overbearing block of text with way too much info dumped into it) means that only the most patient of people is going to read every line. As for capabilities - I'd rework the entire thing. Bending and shaping are the only things (short of actual welding capacity) you fail to list specs for, and are the most important of the lot. Can you bend the part I need made? Can you weld my 3/4" aluminum bar? We'll never know. From the looks of everything else, you have a tiny drill press and a sears tap and die set. That's not confidence inspiring. Put down the specs of your heavy hitters (big tig machine or 400A mig, or what have you) and let the public not worry about the rest.

As for the "links" - I'd dump it entirely. None of those companies is giving you promotional consideration are they? Why do it for them. With King, you might be sending work to them and not even know it. Customer comes looking for an iron guy, finds your site, hits your link to king and "oh-crap, I can just buy this online" with no sale or any customer contact what so ever.