GuitarMaker.com - new website

[Richard]

A bit of a brief background... my day job is in marketing and web development and for around 18 months I've been working on this concept of online marketing tools for luthiers. The final product is Guitar Maker -- essentially a place for luthiers to build a portfolio and showcase their instruments.

http://www.guitarmaker.com

I think in general luthiers don't do the best job of marketing themselves online. With this site I hope to basically bring the concept of guitar shows/festivals online; a critical mass of like-minded builders in one place showcasing their instruments in a player/collector (i.e. customer) friendly way. It's mobile-friendly and considerable effort went into search engine optimisation to make instrument categories and the 'Luthier Directory' section hopefully rank high in searches.

Oh, and it's free

I only launched the website a few days ago so right now it's a bit sad with only a few of my guitars. By all means check it out, sign up and try adding a guitar or two! Right now I'm keen for thoughts and feedback....

[56nortondomy]

I think you've come up with a really good idea Richard, i'm sure there will be plenty of builders that'll sign up. You've obviously gone to a lot of trouble, thanks for taking the time to do it.
Regards Wayne

[Ormsby Guitars]

Luthiers do a TERRIBLE job of marketing themselves. Not a week goes by when I don't speak to at least one guy looking for help in that department. Whilst I do believe websites like you've created are useful, you'll find that luthiers are generally pretty lazy when it comes to presenting themselves, and before long the initial enthusiasm of uploading models etc wears off. They feel awkward or uncomfortable doing so, or simply don't know how to sell themselves.

Which then leaves YOU to do their marketing, or the site will fall further down the search results.

Without a sales page (maybe that option is there, couldnt see it), its basically just a directory, so you have google, luthierbuilt, destroyall, LMI, guitarlist, guitarwall, and many more etc etc to compete against. And then there is facebook...

It will be a hard slog to get it going, and keep it active, but I do wish you the best of luck. It is a free way of getting the word out about products, but they should not see this as the only solution... just another string in their marketing bow. Or rather, it's more of their 'places to be seen' than marketing.

[Richard]

Good feedback Perry -- you were certainly someone I hoped would offer some thoughts. A lot of what you've said is what I was thinking about initially when developing the site. I'd say it's certainly not intended to be a magic solution but rather part of the mix for luthiers who are already doing the right things.

I've spent a lot of time on the sites you listed and many others over the past couple of years. For the most part I see cluttered, outdated and confusing sites that don't really offer anything by way of a user experience. While the directory is one component of the site and has indeed been previously with limited success, the core offering to luthiers -- the ability to put together a fully indexed/categorised portfolio -- I think is a unique one with merit.

A sales section may happen down the track. I left that idea out early on because I think it's been done before (though again, not terribly successfully) and would dilute the core idea with bells and whistles that exist for the sake of it.

Thanks Wayne too -- and thanks to the handful of folks that have signed up. Can't wait to see some guitars other than mine on there!

[kiwigeo]

I've joined up.....out of support for the site more than anything.....I chose not to have my name added to the list of "Professional Luthiers"

[simso]

Ill second the fact that luthiers are lazy on this front, but if you are good at your job, you do not need to advertise, word of mouth is enough to keep anyone employed in this field

[rocket]

Thanks Richard, i registered too, its a nice looking website,,,, good opportunity to get a bit more exposure.
Cheers,,
Rod.

[needsmorecowbel]

Just join the Romance section Marty

[Shane Briggs]

Thank you Richard much appreciated.

Shane

[Ormsby Guitars]

Good feedback Perry -- you were certainly someone I hoped would offer some thoughts. A lot of what you've said is what I was thinking about initially when developing the site. I'd say it's certainly not intended to be a magic solution but rather part of the mix for luthiers who are already doing the right things.

I've spent a lot of time on the sites you listed and many others over the past couple of years. For the most part I see cluttered, outdated and confusing sites that don't really offer anything by way of a user experience. While the directory is one component of the site and has indeed been previously with limited success, the core offering to luthiers -- the ability to put together a fully indexed/categorised portfolio -- I think is a unique one with merit.

A sales section may happen down the track. I left that idea out early on because I think it's been done before (though again, not terribly successfully) and would dilute the core idea with bells and whistles that exist for the sake of it.

Thanks Wayne too -- and thanks to the handful of folks that have signed up. Can't wait to see some guitars other than mine on there!

I would say that sales may lead to issues. EG: a guitar is listed up, forgotten about, sold off the web, and it sits there... for sale... for a long time. That not only hurts the luthier "Why cant he sell a guitar?? Must be something wrong with it!", but makes your site look like it isnt the fresh and respectable portal it could be. Not to mention what would happen if you brokered a deal that couldnt go through.

However, that doesn't mean you can't offer a premium service, above and beyond the free service, which generates an income. That could be by giving paying members a priority on searches, listing them on the front page, blogging about their stuff, or allowing them the ability to post and share more stuff. Maybe premium members get videos included, or a higher quality of photo (or simply more of)... email links... social media plugins... more 'words' to discuss their stuff, etc etc etc etc etc. There a numerous ways to do it, but you need to work with what your comfort levels are.

Then, you'll attract a larger type of business (or maybe "serious" is a better word than "larger"), which is searched for more often, and will increase your traffic, which in turn drives more people to the luthiers, which in turn encourages them to upgrade, etc etc.

[Richard]

Yep, if sales were to happen it'd have to be a fixed-length listing type arrangement where it's up to the luthier to renew their listing or create a new one if it doesn't sell. There's another site that offers just this (guitar-for-sale listings for luthiers), and it's had the exact same guitars listed on it since I first saw it a year or so ago.

Premium offerings are possibly on the cards down the track as value-adds for users on top of the core "free" functionality. Some of the resource intensive or technically challenging things you mentioned like attaching video/audio are the sort of things that would be a good candidate, but at the moment it's all about growing an audience and making the site a resource that potential customers of luthiers would want to use.