GCU Forum - New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page

Ernestine_131365

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 853

New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page
Feb 20^th, 2008, 1:29am

Just saw that a shopper can now choose to VIEW ALL WIDGETS. I checked it out and really DON"T LIKE IT!. Sad

(1) It just keep showing the same cards over and over again (as it seems most most folks have widgets that display random GCU cards, not just their own cards.)

(2) They a while to load, even on high speed DSL.

(4) No workable search mode available with the view.

(3) I don't understand the purpose. I mean if one was able to in reality browse individual artists' widgets see THEIR cards and shop from there it might make sense. But as it is now, a shopper is just seeing repeats of the SAME widget over and over again in a random fashion.

I don't think this helps shoppers or artists. It just exposes the same cards that are already getting maximum exposure. Some tweeking in order?? What do others think?

-Ernestine

Back to top

Ernestine's Easel:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/ErnestinesEasel

IP Logged

Rosanne_132497

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 611

Re: New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page
Reply #1 - Feb 20^th, 2008, 2:25am

Hi Ernestine,

I agree that this is concerning. Could you be a bit more specific about the location of the widget that you mention? Do you mean the one on GCU's home page or a widget that you have on your own non-GCU home page. I just looked at the widget that I have installed on my own website at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/redroseGCU.html and it seems to be showing only my own cards, just like I specified. If you are talking about the GCU home page one or the one on the "paper cards" page, well, yes, from what I can see, it helps those artists whose cards are already "popular". It is true that many shoppers will never go past what they see on these pages and, therefore, will never see some of the newer cards from newer artists. The longevity of cards on the first few "New Cards" pages is very short.

I must admit, as nice as it is to see one's own cards (in my case, card!) in one of the popular, etc pages, it would level the playing field a little if these pages did not exist. I too would appreciate others' thoughts on this subject.

Cheers,

Rosanne

Back to top

Red Rose Digital Art Greeting Cards:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt

IP Logged

Ernestine_131365

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 853

Re: is there a New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" page
Reply #2 - Feb 20^th, 2008, 5:28am

I must be going nuts! Mindy?, Shaun? - I know I saw this page. . . it had a slick NEW design and came up when just bringing up the "greetingcarduniverse.com" site, (not logged in). There was a section to "click to view all artists widgets" there were 167 of them, 3 or 4 across maybe 15 or 16 on the page all doing their "auto widget" thing, with artist's name or store in pale grey beneath the widget??

BUT, I can't find it again!! Did I just run across something as it was being tested? Please let me know. I feel a little silly with this post if there really isn't such a page. But I know there was, if only for a flash! Did anyone else see it?? I need confirmation for my sanity!

Thanks,
Ernestine

Back to top

Ernestine's Easel:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/ErnestinesEasel

IP Logged

Dustin_133010

Junior Member
artist

Posts: 99

Re: New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page
Reply #3 - Feb 20^th, 2008, 8:48am

Hi. I haven't seen the page Ernestine is talking about, but I have been wondering about the Most Popular Cards widget on the home page. It seems like it shows the same cards for weeks at a time, and I would think the rating for cards would change on a daily basis. Plus, why direct shoppers to the most popular cards anyway?

Dustin

http://www.harmonygardens.com

Back to top

Harmony Gardens:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/harmonygardens

IP Logged

Shari_132735

Full Member
artist

Posts: 186

Re: New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page
Reply #4 - Feb 20^th, 2008, 2:17pm

Quote from Ernestine_131365 on Feb 20^th, 2008, 1:29am:

Just saw that a shopper can now choose to VIEW ALL WIDGETS. I checked it out and really DON"T LIKE IT!. Sad

(1) It just keep showing the same cards over and over again (as it seems most most folks have widgets that display random GCU cards, not just their own cards.)

(2) They a while to load, even on high speed DSL.

(4) No workable search mode available with the view.

(3) I don't understand the purpose. I mean if one was able to in reality browse individual artists' widgets see THEIR cards and shop from there it might make sense. But as it is now, a shopper is just seeing repeats of the SAME widget over and over again in a random fashion.

I don't think this helps shoppers or artists. It just exposes the same cards that are already getting maximum exposure. Some tweeking in order?? What do others think?

-Ernestine

Ernestine!

You are NOT going nuts! What you have to do is when you are at the home of GCU, Click on the Box on the right midway down that says: ARTISTS open your own card store,when you are at that page, scroll all the way down to the bottom left and you will see a widget. Below that widget is a link that says: see All Artists Card Widgets. Click on that link and it will take you to: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/widget_list.asp .

Voila! You have All the Artists Card widgets!

You are as sane as all of us here. hahahahahahaha! Grin

Sorry, my insanity is showing. I hope I helped! Wink

OH! And you know what else I figured out?! Those widgets are viewed based on the last time that widget was accessed by anyone. (Last date visited). So, if you go and visit your widget 20, 30, 40 times a day, your widget will be closer to the front one of the first widgets being viewed.

What purpose does that have? You can only go back one page at a time. You cannot search by last date visited sort, or by artists store name widget sort. Can't go to the middle without having to go through each one, one by one going forward or backwards! Please, someone give me a purpose for this??!

Sorry, I really have other things I am obviously avoiding by finding things to troubleshoot. Got to Go! Hope I have helped bring new things to light!

Take Care!

Shari
www.flowerswithfeelingscentral.com

Back to top

Flowers with Feelings Central:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/flowerswithfeelingscentral

IP Logged

Ernestine_131365

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 853

Re: New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page
Reply #5 - Feb 20^th, 2008, 6:31pm

Sahri (and other "widget-concernees")

Following your directions of going to the home page, choosing "Artists" and then scrolling down and clicking below featured widget to view all widgets DID NOT get me to the page I viewed before, (that had a different design than this one and different view of widgets - curved borders, not square). At least on the page I viewed today, did have DIFFERENT widgets, all 302!?! of them.

I still don't get it.

I thought widgets were for us to use on OTHER sites to promote sales AND that we get an extra 50¢ when a sale go through a widget. What IS the point of bogging customers down on the GCU site, wading through random widgets that can't be searched? There are so many other things that can be done to improve the GCU site. I'm disappointed as not only do I believe it's NOT an improvement, I think it's counter-productive.

Let's keep widgets out there on OTHER sites where they belong, directing and BRINGING customers TO GCU. Once they are HERE. . . they're here! I think giving them better search options like being able to view organized/categorized stores is far more paramount than this confusing widget page.

And while I'm on it, I agree with Roseanne, that the home page general widget rarely changes, constantly showcasing the same cards over and over. Great cards, mind you, but there are already 5 or six different ways customers can be directed to these most popular/best-selling/most-viewed cards RIGHT ON THE SITE. I know you guys (Mindy, Nasser, Shaun) are VERY busy, but I think just updating the main widget more often with varied cards would do more good than the "view all widgets pages".

Okay, I'm done venting.

Ernestine

Back to top

Ernestine's Easel:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/ErnestinesEasel

IP Logged

Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6566
Gender: female

Re: New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page
Reply #6 - Feb 21^st, 2008, 11:50am

This page should not be of great concern nor alarm for many reasons...

1. This page has been here for many months. It is not a new page.

2. It is not for shoppers. It is for potential new artists to get a glimpse of what the widget looks like and how many wonderful artists have a widget. We don't intend or expect any sales from this page or any of the pages intended for potential new artists for that matter.

3. To get to this page from our home page you must a) click on artist b) page down c) click on "view all widgets" That is not a normal path for shoppers.

As for the most popular cards featured on the home page. This is not a widget. It rotates through cards with some logic. To be honest with you I'm not sure what logic. I will take a look into that.

In any case, keep in mind that the majority of our traffic and sales comes from search engines. They never even make it to the homepage. Our homepage today is a lightly traveled page. Not that it's not important. We do have plans for great improvements on the homepage and overall with a redesign this year.

Hope this eases your concerns and answers your questions.

Back to top

« Last Edit: Feb 21^st, 2008, 6:07pm by Mindy »

IP Logged

Mindy GCU Administrator Community Manager Posts: 6566 Gender:	Re: New "VIEW ALL WIDGETS" on home page Reply #7 - Feb 29^th, 2008, 12:37pm To answer a previous question raiser here, the Most Popular cards featured on the homepage follow this logic: They are the top 10 selling cards from the last 30 days. We have since bumped this up to 25 cards so you should see more variety.
Back to top	IP Logged