Just launched my new website

[dnoraker]

I neglected to mention that I used Homestead by Intuit to build this site. It's pretty user-friendly, and you can get 10 domain names and up to 3 sites for under $20/mo. Homestead won an award in one of the major computer magazines for ease of use and abilities and such. I highly recommend it!

[Zivman]

Hey Zivman- no offense intended, but there is a big difference driving around SW metro vs. Coon Rapids! We're known for the most dead cars per household in the metro. Yikes! I'll have to get a picture of my cousin's ('73?) Datsun "Z" that I buffed out onto the website. My uncle dropped a Chevy 350, headers and exhaust into it.

Eric- Congrats on the PC. You'll love it.

I drive an '06 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE 5-speed manual (the one in my avatar). I have two kids, so no Z for me at this point.

you live in MN, so you go by the proximity to the "cities". as long as you are in the twin cities area, you are in the same area.

The Z is way too impractical, even more so now that mine is boosted. I have way too much money into it to ever sell it, so I guess I will have to be buried in it

[ZimRandy]

Site looks good.

I'm in Coon Rapids. Not many cool cars around here, but my wife is hooking me up with a Bentley from a guy at work!

There aren't very many exotic cars in the north metro.

That said, the number of people willing to spend decent money on their cars is few, but they are out there.

I quoted a guy for paint correction and he replied "I can get the whole car painted for that!"


Randy

[dnoraker]

I got some before and after shots posted on my site last night. I need to work more this year on taking them from the same angles and doing more taped off sections and so forth to show off the difference in finish.

[Mike Phillips]

Looks good!

Building a website is a lot of work, building a GREAT website is even more work, I'm not a great website builder so I don't want to give any advice in this area but here's some general advice...

When marketing, use the SWAT technique, that is think like your customer and your customer thinks like this...

You: I can detail your car

Customer: So what?

You: I can do the hard work for you and produce better results. I have excellent references, use the best products and have a gallery of before and after pictures to showcase my work for other satisfied customers.


Customer: I'm impressed, when can you do my car.

People think just like you and I think and that is they want to know what's in it for me? That is, before they give you their money they want to know what they get in it's place and they have to see and believe that what's in it for them is a good and even better deal then having their money.

So think like your customer and when you can answer the So What question, you'll at a minimum be going down the right path to earning a new customer.


SWAT Technique = Running the two words... So and What together to equal SWAT

There's a book on this called, "How to make your words sell" It's a good read and the author Ken Evoy is right, words sell. Scroll down the page of the above link and you can read more about the SWAT technique.



You have mere seconds to get someone's attention...
Also, when a customer lands on your homepage, you have just seconds to get their attention before they click away... people are scanners and don't want to read a lot of text until they are convinced their in the right place and now want to gather information.

I'm thinking a GREAT side-by-side before and after picture on the home page would get anyone's attention if they have the same problem. Then maybe ask a question and the question is a link that goes to the text that shares what you did to create the dramatic before and after differences, not how you did it but what you did.

High Dollar Detail
Before and After

Click here to see how I transformed this car...

Just some thoughts...

[dnoraker]

Your check is in the mail!

Seriously, I will look at the website with that mentality.

I'm thinking I need to find an "extreme makeover" car that I can use for pictures. I'm always in such a hurry to get the job done to take decent pictures. I NEVER had sun when I did black cars last year!

[gewb]

"redetailing" was a type-o. Thanks for catching it! I will fix that tonight.

You got the screen text address correct but the HTML mailto: hyperlink is incorrect.

Right click on the info @ radetailing.com link, then select "properties" -

Link Properties
Address: mailto:info @ redetailing.com

Unless you own redetailing.com domain, any attempt to email you via your Website hyperlink will fail.

Regards,
GEWB

[dnoraker]

Nice catch, though I'm not sure what problem that causes because we tested it and I do receive the emails. I will look into it.