New coffee shoppe website

[Shane Smith]

Demeter''s Coffee Vault has been running for years but never before had a website. I put this page up a week ago for him and have received no hits at all!

I did link it to his roaster''s website, but by the look of things, it''s never seen a hit either!

Anyway, don''t waste your time on this website. There is little content yet. There will be soon though. I have quite a lot of interesting material to put up. For now I''m just hoping that a search robot will read this and start the indexing for the new website.

Demeter''s is a great spot serving local roasts of the world''s finest beans and with live entertainment too!

http://www.demeterscoffeevault.com/

Shane

 

[Shane Smith]

The site got 2 hits! Thanks! Hopefully the search engine bots will find it now that the link is published here.

I do have a plan for this site. There are lots of interesting things to say about Demeter's, lots of interesting visuals. Some amateur video on youtube and the performer's websites and myspace pages to link to.

When I have it assembled I will post to this thread soliciting your criticisms.

Java!

Shane

 

[Bill Laine]

Shane - when I go to a site that has the sort of content that you present I am disappointed and probably will not go back. I certainly won't bookmark or link.

If you want traffic I think you need to give people a better reason to visit. If I want to see to-do lists there are more compelling ones on my own desk ;-)

Bill
New Orleans

 

[jlyon10]

web site

I agree, build the website first then try to promote it.

 

[Shane Smith]

How about you guys read the original post a little more carefully?

Anyway, don''t waste your time on this website. There is little content yet. ..... For now I''m just hoping that a search robot will read this and start the indexing for the new website.

And for those interested:

The first hit I got was from this forum at Mar 26 10:17

The second hit, at Mar 26 11:26 was from the googlebot!

It's still not showing in a google search, but at least the bot knows it's here. It's been back three more times since.

cheers!

Shane

 

[Shane Smith]

Well, searches find us right away. I have build a framework and have some content now.

I want to put up a calendar of events. I'd like this to be editable by webform. My idea is to let the staff at the shoppe update the entertainment bookings right onto the calendar. I do NOT want them to be phoning me up asking me to change the events calendar.

Anyone recommend a program that would display a monthly calendar that is easy to update?

I tried a new SEO technique and am interested in your comments. What I did was put the site name as H1 on every page, then placed the graphical banner overtop. You might just catch a glimpse of it as the page loads. Is this a good idea?

<div style="margin: 100px 0px 0px 0px;">
<h1> DEMETER'S COFFEE VAULT </h1>
</div>

<div style="margin: -130px 0px 0px 0px;">
[img]images/dcv_logo_800.gif[/img]


<map name="Map" id="Map">
  <area shape="rect" coords= "30,135,100,160" href="index.php" />
  <area shape="rect" coords="110,135,185,160" href="foodmenu.php" />
  <area shape="rect" coords="195,135,297,315" href="contact.php" />
  <area shape="rect" coords="485,135,580,160" href="events.php" />
  <area shape="rect" coords="585,135,685,160" href="gallery.php" />
  <area shape="rect" coords="690,135,775,160" href="about.php" />
</map>

</div>

The goal of this website is not to promote sales directly, we are not in the mail order business - all our trade is right in the coffee house. What I expect people will use the website for is to find the hours, look at the food menu and see what entertainment is coming and to contact by email or phone.

cheers!

Shane

 

[caffe biscotto]

Shane, at the bottom of your pages, you have:
(c) copyright 2008, Demeter's Coffee Vault - all rights reserved

You can enter the proper symbol for copyright,
© by holding down the alt key and entering the numerical code 0169.

Also worthy of note:
® is alt 0174 and
™ is 0153

I can't comment on the html code though, good luck!

 

[pbasskalas]

I like that the menu is an actual picture of the menu but maybe you should have it in text as well so I and others can copy/paste anything we like. Also won't google bots better find you with more text anyways?

 

[Shane Smith]

Yes pbasskalas,

The menu is being changed. I will better list it all in text after that is settled.

Also, I want to work up a daily special - something that can easily be changed by the cook at the restaurant.

Thanks caffe biscotto. Both © and (c) are acceptable - I just prefer the latter.

I'm still looking for a php events calendar. I expected this to be easy to find but none of them fit my vision. Either they are too complicated, are modeled after after daytimer, or don't have an easy to use interface for making changes. I started writing my own but I can't help but feel I am re-inventing the wheel. If you want to see my half finished solution, it's on test.php
Ideas?

 

[Shane Smith]

Well, I could not find a calendar that I like, so I built my own!

The staff at the restaurant are able to update and maintain the calender without having to bother me to do it.

You will find a hidden link "edit" in each date cell that opens an editor to change the database. mouseover to find it. I hid it just to make the display cleaner.

For recurring events, the code automatically inserts into the display but can be overridden with the editor.

We also got the menu together. On the menu I created a "Specials Board" that the chef can change. I created a WYSIWYG editor. It's pretty cool as it shows the results as the chef is working on it. Anyone can look at the editor and fool around with it, but it needs a password to make the changes stick.

You can see this as linked on the website menu as "Menu" and "Events".

Please tell me your thoughts!

Shane

 

[benicemi]

The new website is really nice, you may have to put some good animation of some multimedia on the website to make it more attractive to the visitors. Some 3D objects, for example; a cup of coffee for the menu. Just a bit of updates for the design of the website.



_________________
URL Removed by Forum Moderator

 

[badmaash]

Looks okay to me..... nice, tiny and simple

So the site has been up since 2008 and you have not even been able to put up anything on the menu page?