What are your favorite breeder's websites, and why?

[DFCottage]

I'm working on a site now for my farm, and being already in the art field the technical stuff is a non-issue, but I'm mainly concerned in what *you* like to see in a breeder's website... be as specific or as non specific as you like. I've had chickens for years but now that I've built up the flock and am very happy with where my birds are now, I'd like to make chicks and hatching eggs available. (My NPIP testing is next month).

Things that I've seen that I do like:
-Clean, simple design that is continuous throughout
-Beautiful pictures of breeders that load quickly
-Easy to read text that doesn't go on and on and on...
-Easy to navigate without 1,000 pages to get you lost
-A blog either within the site or a link to the external page
-Short bio on myself and the farm
-Prices

What I don't like:
-Neon colors that make it hard to see anything
-Slow to load
-Giant or mini text
-Music
-Mouse trails
-Anything that sparkles or glitters

If anyone would like to add to the list of what they DO like in a site (as well as what they don't) that would be great! My personal painting site is in my signature so you can see the type of design I like. Obviously the chicken's site will have lots of fun pics and will be more 'colorful' but not tacky

 

[bargain]

I like our website, except the How to contact form doesn't contact so we had to delete it. I need to update our pictures! and a little more narrative....

and link our blogs to it as well.........

here we are:

http://thegarryfarm.webs.com/

 

[Avalon1984]

What I like about breeder websites (don’t look at mine please, it is under construction right now).

I want to get a clear picture of what the person is breeding, why they are breeding this and things that would lead me to believe they are a good breeder, i.e. show results, placings, horses sold, etc.

What is a big turnoff for me is when people just copy breed information and standards from the actual breeds website and paste it on their website. I don’t know, to me this seems lazy.

I love “contact us” forms, wish I could figure that out for my website

I absolutely don’t tolerate doctored pictures of animals for sale. Big turnoff. Makes me wonder what else people are trying to hide.

 

[itsy]

Based on your likes and dislikes, I think you're going to make a fantastic site!

Two things that get me on professional breeder sites: Poor spelling and grammar. No, we're not all perfect, but how many TRUE professional sites have problems with this? Not so many! I wish more people would have their pages proofed. It would make them all the better.

Blurry photographs. Whatever it is that you're selling - chickens, candy bars or jewelry, you should have amazing photographs. Generally, when selling your chickens or eggs, you don't have a store front or an avenue for your customers to see your product in person. You have to bring it to them via photograph. These pictures should be of the best quality so that your product is shown in it's absolute best AND it gives the impression to your customer that you are a professional. If you can't take a good picture of your merchandise, then you should hire someone who can.

DF - looks like you don't need any help in either department. Actually, perhaps folks could hire you to take their photos???

 

[DFCottage]

Thanks so much! Very helpful information. I have come across many sites where people have a TON of information listed for each breed, the same stuff you see everywhere). While I think it's important to have some information listed on the breed, (and most folks new to a particular breed will just look up information elsewhere online anyway) I think it's more pertinent to have info such as what lines your birds are from, why you chose them, a little about your breeding program with this breed/variety, etc. I realize that many people can toss out 'These are Davis/Presley/Bubbles lines' but the main thing I want to drive home is that my birds aren't hatchery stock, and I have chosen the breeders they came from for a reason, and that heavy culling is done. I haven't shown any of my birds before, but this will be the first year I will be. I'll definitely add a list of the shows I'll be attending, but I'm also going to have a page dedicated to the horse showing/re-training work I do, so hopefully people will see from that page that I do get out in the showing world and am active in it, but also am also extremely dedicated take great care of my animals.

And no, none of my bird pics will be doctored to make the bird seem to be anything other than what it is. I take pics of all my birds free-ranging, so I get lots of natural light in a pretty environment

Good call on the contact us form. For technical stuff that I'm not 100% sure on coding (like the contact forms) I've luckily been able to snag the help of my full time job's webmaster.

Here's a shot of my blue barred olive egger I got the other day.. she's a ranger for sure but she finally stood still for 2 seconds! haha

 

[Avalon1984]

Sounds like you have a great plan in mind there!

Another thing came to my mind. I know a frined of mine who raises horses, breeds chickens, breeds dogs, sells veggies, has a realty business, etc all in one website. Not sure if this is ideal. Jack of all trades, master of none comes to mind, at least on a first impression, which is so important. Depending on what else you specialize in it may be worthwhile down the road to have separate websites. JMHO

 

[DFCottage]

Well the painting site will stay its own entity, but there will be a link to the chickens site from there, and vice versa. The 'horse' page I'm contemplating would just be short and sweet, just showing people that I do get out and show. I don't really do the horses as a business anyway, I just enjoy re-training off the track thoroughbreds and getting them out into second careers. Not really a 'I can train horses too so send yours to me ' page, but a 'this is something I enjoy doing and believe in' page

But very good point, thanks!

One thing I'm not too keen on including is an option for people to order eggs/chicks on the site. I'm not a huge operation and would rather deal with people directly, and just have them email me with what they're interested in, and I can then give them a time estimate as to when I could ship, contact them again when things are ready or about ready to go and then handle payment via paypal, etc. Does that sound reasonable? I just worry with an order form on the site that even if it isn't glitchy and is easy to use, that I might get backed up (I may not, but who knows), and I'd rather give people the best service I can. I realize the hatcheries have ease of ordering, but being a breeder, I'd think people that would come to me for birds would probably understand it's not always an exact science

But I've got several bators ready to hum and lots and lots of collected bubble wrap! haha

 

[Peaches Lee]

I'm speaking mostly from looking at horse websites. What I like to see is a picture of the entire animal, including feet. I also like to see several shots. For chickens I would like to see where they are kept/housed as well. Easy to navigate website, one that can handle old computers (like mine LOL!). I like it when people are a little more personal, that they really explain thier mission, a photo of them would be terrific too, so you can see who you're dealing with. Good luck!