Help Me Design A Website

[sargetalon]

Hello everyone. I wanted to solicit your advice on a project that I've been thinking of for a few months now. It's no secret that I am a Pelikan enthusiast and have aquired a decent amount of knowledge in the pursuit of the brand. I have many specimens, some of which fall in the hard to very hard to find category. I would like to share that knowledge and my collection with others and am considering developing my own website to do so.

 

My vision is an enthusiast site dedicated predominantly to Pelikan fountain pens. The content would include pen reviews, highlights of certain models, some history, a few ink reviews perhaps, and some general discussion. Current events and new releases as well could be highlighted in addition to my experiences at pen shows, etc. Content would be added as I'm able. I guess it would be best classified as a lifestyle blog. I would try to host high res photos of my pens to help others with identification and I would have a database of the known M100-M250 models that have been my pursuit.

 

After some research, I think the easiest way to implement this would be via a WordPress site which I'd have to familiarize myself with (I am fairly tech savvy). The working title for the site right now is, "The Pelikan's Perch." I'd design a logo to go with that title though I'm open to anyone who might have a better title to suggest. So all of this is in the conception stage. What do you think about the idea so far? What would you like to see such an enthusiast site include? I'd like to solicit as much feedback as I can now in the planning stages before I get too involved because if I do this, I want to make sure that it's done well.

 

Here is a demo example of the WordPress theme that I'm considering using and tailoring to my purposes: http://themify.me/demo/#theme=elemin

 

Thanks so much!

 

Joshua

Edited August 18, 2014 by sargetalon

[Charles Rice]

Depending on just how savvy you are, you should visit this site:

 

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp

 

Lots of good nuts and bolts stuff.

 

Truth be known, building a web-site is pretty easy.

[bardiir]

One advice I can give you from experience of http://fp-ink.info is you might want to consider launching an AWS Cloudfront or similar CDN in front of your page or as a storage for bigger files.

 

Traffic is pretty global:

 

 

And it's a lot faster for people to fetch the page through the CDN when they are not near your hosting site. There are Plugins for Wordpress and the cost is minimal. Makes the page a lot nicer as it responds faster for people worldwide.

Edited August 17, 2014 by bardiir

[Algester]

I'm not sure how I got about this but to a certain extent I can probably do some work on CSS but I havent yet touched a wordpress theme to actually practice my craft

[E8x8]

The working title for the site right now is, "The Pelikan's Perch."

 

Love the name.

 

Good photography is critical for such a site. I think that will be the biggest challenge due to the time commitment if you don't already have an established set-up and work-flow for product photography.

 

Good luck!

[dave-]

I would like to see this done. Myself I would be interested in comparisons of vintage VS current pens, writing samples of all the nibs, a price guide maybe, buyer advice. I know much of this information is dotted here there and everywhere on the net but I would really like to see it in one website.

[legitimate3]

If you need help with banners, headers, etc. I am proficient in Photoshop. I'd be happy to help!

[DrCodfish]

It's a great idea. Your collection and knowledge have rapidly outgrown the possibilities here. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy your postings but you have enough going on that you need to serve a wider audience.

 

Think about including things that you wish you had known when you began your odyssey; Tips about what to look for and where. I have always found that enthusiast websites and blogs which include a rich collection of resource links to be vey useful and these resource pages boost traffic (especially return views) dramatically. Think about the resource pages you regularly return to, and consider what you like about them and what you wish were a little different.

 

As mentioned earlier good photography is a huge attractor. Toward that end I recommend you explore building a light box for photographing pens. There are a number of readily available resources which will illustrate how to build a very inexpensive but very effective light box. I might go so far as to say this is essential. Great looking pens poorly photographed are always a huge disappointment to me.

 

Consider a retro or classic theme. There were photos of classic Pelikans recently posted here which featured old post cards, primarily with European themes which I think greatly enhanced the photos. I can just picture an old sepia toned photo of a pelican on the nest in a chimney in a turn of the century European village, a harbor with steamers and sailing ships in the background. I can't wait, don't forget us little people when you become an acknowledged expert!

[sargetalon]

Lots of good ideas thus far, keep them coming and thanks for all of the offers of help & support. Again, I'm just in the conception stage right now but hope to act on this slowly over the next several months. To recap all of the good advice so far...

 

-Utilize a content delivery network to help page load times for overseas visitors

-High resolution product photography with a good lighting set up is a must

-Pen comparisons (vintage vs modern) perhaps as a weekly "Match-Up" feature (thinking out loud)

-Writing samples from the various nibs

-Price guide/buyers guide

-Good resource linking

-No complaints for the working title yet

[sargetalon]

I've been doing a lot of brainstorming and have generated about 30 topics thus far that I could post about but some questions do come up. I am most likely going to proceed with a premium WordPress.com hosted site as I simply will not have the time for all of the backend maintenance that a self hosted site would require. This will also keep up security and backups for the site with the caveat that I have to play in their sandbox and by their rules. So some general questions/poll...

 

1) How often do you think content should be updated? Obviously more is better but to hold someones attention, Daily, Every 2 days, Weekly?

2) "The Pelikan's Perch" is the site title. What about a tag line? I'm thinking, "Where the flock comes to roost." How does that sound?

3) Should comments be enabled for posts or does that look messy after a while?

4) How important is social media to you and which outlets? Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pintrest, Youtube, Instagram, and RSS feeds

5) Would you subscribe for e-mail notifications of new posted content?

 

I'm going to go with just a very simple and clean design. Black text on white background. I want the content to standout and not get lost in the glitz of the design. I want to make a lasting resource that is as easy on the eyes and navigable as possible. This theme (with my own modifications), should serve as a nice base for my content. Thoughts on that? I appreciate all of your input.

[SujiCorp12345]

1) I think weekly would be fine.

2) I like that tagline.

3) I think comments should be enabled, as it allows your viewers to ask you questions about your post.

4) To me, social media isn't really that important, but I might be in the minority.

5) I probably would if I noticed the posts were consistently of interest to me.

 

Suji

[Charles Rice]

Comments should be enabled, BUT you really need to be able to review them before they are posted. If not, you will be swamped by junk comments. Trust me on this.

[Oldtimer]

Lots of good ideas thus far, keep them coming and thanks for all of the offers of help & support. Again, I'm just in the conception stage right now but hope to act on this slowly over the next several months. To recap all of the good advice so far...

 

-Utilize a content delivery network to help page load times for overseas visitors

-High resolution product photography with a good lighting set up is a must

-Pen comparisons (vintage vs modern) perhaps as a weekly "Match-Up" feature (thinking out loud)

-Writing samples from the various nibs

-Price guide/buyers guide

-Good resource linking

-No complaints for the working title yet

i am a fan of writing samples; very much needed because they are scattered. Or example, right now i am lookign for samples of F,M and B nibs of the twsbi mini. I would like to see them all together on one post and not on separate palces if ever. Also looking for samples of such with Pendleton nibs. No luck, just one of them found in YT. For the person looking for specific information to make decisions this is crucial.

Good luck!

[TheGreatRoe]

I have years of experience designing and using WordPress sites. Unless you have specific functions you want to include in your site, you might consider getting a WordPress-hosted site. While it does have a little less customizability, it has the advantage of having 100% up-time (essentially) and in my experience has much better response time than self hosted sites (unless you pay the premium to get off a shared hosting plan).

 

Even if you use a WordPress-hosted site you can still get a custom domain name, or use one that you already own.

[Runnin_Ute]

I've been doing a lot of brainstorming and have generated about 30 topics thus far that I could post about but some questions do come up. I am most likely going to proceed with a premium WordPress.com hosted site as I simply will not have the time for all of the backend maintenance that a self hosted site would require. This will also keep up security and backups for the site with the caveat that I have to play in their sandbox and by their rules. So some general questions/poll...

 

1) How often do you think content should be updated? Obviously more is better but to hold someones attention, Daily, Every 2 days, Weekly?

2) "The Pelikan's Perch" is the site title. What about a tag line? I'm thinking, "Where the flock comes to roost." How does that sound?

3) Should comments be enabled for posts or does that look messy after a while?

4) How important is social media to you and which outlets? Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pintrest, Youtube, Instagram, and RSS feeds

5) Would you subscribe for e-mail notifications of new posted content?

 

I'm going to go with just a very simple and clean design. Black text on white background. I want the content to standout and not get lost in the glitz of the design. I want to make a lasting resource that is as easy on the eyes and navigable as possible. This theme (with my own modifications), should serve as a nice base for my content. Thoughts on that? I appreciate all of your input.

This is mine, although as you can see I haven't posted anything in awhile - way to long actually. http://bradwmerrill.wordpress.com

 

My focus was a bit different (ok a lot different) than what yours is.

Comments can be left alone or you can approve them.

I used twitter, linkedin mostly to publicize my blog. Maybe facebook too. As my last post was 2+ years ago, I don't recall what else I used.

I have a couple of blogs I have subscribed to for new content. For something like this I probably would.

 

I could probably change the focus to be more general if I wanted and post the occasional pen or watch thing as well. (check out September 2011 archives)

[Runnin_Ute]

Comments should be enabled, BUT you really need to be able to review them before they are posted. If not, you will be swamped by junk comments. Trust me on this.

Agree 100% on this!!

 

It can be time consuming to jump on periodically to check but it isn't horrible. Better than the alternative.

[sargetalon]

Thanks everyone for the continued suggestions. Can you help me choose a logo for the site? Personally, I'm favoring option #3. Thanks again!

 

#1

 

#2

 

#3

[mrjustice]

#1

[Runnin_Ute]

If I had to rank them it would be in this order:

 

1

3

2

 

But it is your blog, not mine.

[sargetalon]

The more I look at it, I guess #1 is growing on me some...