It’s a pretty good site; these comments are more about turning a good site into a great site, not correcting major flaws.
Visually, the site is pretty bland. Granted, their materials are sort of like auto and plumbing parts–people don’t stop by to window-shop and wind up buying. I would assume that the vast majority of people who would ever buy from this company have special interests or are buying for someone with special interests and they would buy even if the site was poorly developed.
Neverthelesss, I suggest using more images, even if they are just general Japanese art, temples, or martial art themes, such as photos of tournaments, etc. Consider photos of the major authors in action, especially on the home page.
I suggest using a font that has an oriental feel to it for some of the text, perhaps the navigation bar at the top.
I don’t particularly like a sans-serif font for the main text. It is sort of “cold”. Generally, a serif font is a bit more “warm”. You might also try MS Comic Sans and see what it looks like.
To me, on a 17-inch monitor at 800×600 the main font is a bit too large. It has an IN YOUR FACE! feel, almost like using all capitals. I suggest trying one or two points smaller. If you use a serif font you probably won’t want to reduce the size.
Bios should not have an apostrophe.
Order “guidelines” sounds a bit strange. I would try a different word, perhaps Ordering Guide, Ordering and Payment, etc.
Put your street address prominently on the home page. Use “Suite”, not “#”. “#” tends to indicate an apartment.
Don’t have hyperlinks that span two lines.
On the contacts page, “E-mail to Customer Service for a shipping quote” sound rather strange. I would expect shipping charges to be specified in the shopping cart. The alternate text pops up indicating that this is for international quotes. But that should be in the page itself, perhaps: “… Service for (international) shipping quote”
Your copyright notice needs to specify the year, e.g., (c) 2001 by Damashi.
I would assume that “traditional Japanese karate” books are written by Japanese martial artists, perhaps even in Japanese. I was surprised when I saw the names of the authors that they weren’t Japanese. Also, someone just reading a text description in a search engine listing might not realize they are written by English speakers.
I never heard of Merchant911.org. Is this saying Damashi is protected against fraud or purchasers? (I noticed at one spot that Damashi will not accept credit cards from certain countries.) You might want to clarify that. (Considering that you probably won’t be able to get Merchant911 to change their slogan!)
In about.html, instructor is spelled wrong.
Explain what the Japanese writing says and what “Damashi” means. (Just curious!)
Is Damashi affiliated with any major martial arts organizations, e.g., as a “sustaining member”? If so, put that organization’s name on the home page, to improve search engine rankings.
Add a page briefly explaining the different styles of martial arts, as many popular styles as possible. The purpose will be to get a lot of different keywords to increase site visibility on search engines. For instance, would someone searching for “kung fu”, “tae kwan do”, “juijitsu”, etc., find your site? Be sure to include common alternate spellings. Say where they originated and where they mainly are practiced–to get in a lot of geographical names. Don’t say, “China”, say Quan Tang Province, (or whatever) If you can’t narrow it down, say, “In Northern China, e.g., in the ABC, XYZ, 123 province area.” (The purpose is search engine visibility, not scientific accuracy.)
In bunkai1.html, the comments should not wrap around the book text. At my resolution, the text “Tony Annesi …” is directly under the photo of the book. Create a table with two cells and no border, and put the book in one cell and the text in the other. I suggest re-sizing the comment text so it does not extend beyond the bottom of the book photo.
I suggest a slightly darker blue for the links, perhaps half way between Navy and Blue.
Put a bit more “hype” on the home page, e.g., “Prompt, efficient, friendly service”
The site is a bit impersonal. Somewhere in the “About Damashi” section include a few photos of your studios, location, personnel, etc.
Rick Reinckens, webmaster
www.GodOnThe.Net
www.HubbleSpacePhotos.com
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