Top Draw Cartoon Portrais - New business I am trying to start

[Spruce Goose]

I am in the middle of setting up a new website for a new business I am trying to get off the ground to try and earn some extra pocket money on the side. I am not a web designer so was wondering if anyone could take a look at let me know what you think so far about both the website, and the business idea as a whole.

www.topdrawcartoons.com

You can see some samples in the gallerys... Though some of them need to be redone (the penis one for example).
Check out the Celebrity Corner to see some celebrity portraits I have done in the last few days.
There is one of Walt and Jesse from Breaking Bad which I am quite happy with.

Does the website give you a clear idea of the product that I supply?
I haven't thought about pricing and that sort of thing yet. What do you think?

Is there anything that I am missing? Testimonials? better examples? Photos of finished product?
Appreciate all comments, good or bad

 

[FerretallicA]

First thing that jumps out: ditch the "FAQ". It's not really a "Frequently Asked Questions", it's "what you think people are going to ask" or "what you want people to think other people are asking so you can put ideas in their head" which in the vast majority of instances is a waste of time. If someone has a specific question and it's on there, great. Otherwise it just looks self-indulgent and leading. I'm sure many will disagree with me though...

Other than that it looks good. Clean, simple and to-the-point. It lets the actual portraits be the focus as they should be, and the logo and overall theme is very consistent.

[edit] The portraits themselves look really good too by the way

[edit2] and for the love of Maiden DON'T include testimonials - you look like an absolute fucking wanker when you do. The site looks much more credible without them.

 

[Southy]

Yeah ditch the testimonial bit I reckon mate

 

[Spruce Goose]

Another question...

Which do you think is a better name for the company:

Top Draw Cartoon Portraits

or

Top Draw Cartoons

I have already registered the website address as www.topdrawcartoons.com
but I dont think it matters if I go with Top Draw Cartoon Portraits and the website is slightly different.
Both have their pros and cons.. The first one explains more clearly what I do. The second one is shorter and would allow me to change the logo to simply Top Draw Cartoons.com

 

[phlogiston]

Portraits. Definitely Portraits. Otherwise I'll think you're just another web comic site that can't be taken seriously.

 

[Spruce Goose]

Thanks dudes.
I have taken the testimonials off the home page and replaced them with some facebook / twitter buttons.

What do ya's think about the prices?
I haven't set these and dont really know what I should be charging.

 

[phlogiston]

I'd work backwards.

How much you want to make a month = D.
How many hours you want to spend on the business = H.
How long takes to make a picture = L


Amount to charge = (D/H * 0.75) * L

You only get 0.75 of of the hours you actually want to work to create pictures, because the rest will be taken up with taxes, websites, advertising and other overheads.

 

[Southy]

When I start my own business phloggy, your gettin a call*








*this may never actually happen :-(

 

[FerretallicA]

Just a thought.. how about you do a band portrait of Iron Maiden with Eddie in the background and stick it here...

 

[Spruce Goose]

Yeah possibly...
Though 7 people will take quite a bit of effort!

Here's one of Tenacious D I did on the weekend though

 

[Winmar]

Looks really good. How long have you been doing cartoons? I think it's a good idea to have the video on the front page; it's an engaging way to show how you do it.

 

[phlogiston]

But not autoplay. You put an autoplay video/song on your front page and I'll spend 10 seconds there tops, and that's only while I'm hunting for the tab to close.

 

[Spruce Goose]

Cheers Winmar.
Ive been doing invitiations and images for mates and family for a long time so I thought I may as well compile them all together and put a website up.
Didnt cost me anything so if I get any nibbles it will be worthwhile.

With the video, I wanted to show that I am actually drawing them and it's not some software doing a cheap auto cartoon filter kinda thing.

 

[Spruce Goose]

 

[Winmar]

We're not worthy!