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I'm not sure if this should be posted in some other part of the forum or if I’m allowed to post this at all, but I need a little help.

First of all I’m trying to set up a professional painting service, I'm quite skilled, I know what I’m doing when it comes to painting etc but Ive hit a roadblock and that’s getting my message out there to people that are interested. My website for some reason does not seem to be registered on Google, yahoo or any other search engine despite submitting my site to them and following steps on my site to make it easier for them to find me (not an expert on these things though)

My question basically, is there anyone who would be willing to share there experiences with this kind of thing and help me solve some of the little niggling problems, maybe someone who has there own painting service or knows a thing or two about websites, either way I would really appreciate it.

My sites name is in my sig at the bottom if anyone wants to take a look and tell me what i'm doing wrong!

Just an aside, but why not offer a service whereby people already have the models can send them to you for painting? I didnt see that on your website - lots of people have already bought the model and just need someone to paint it.

First off: find any ex-GW retail employee. They are trained to paint armies.

Second: Lure them with candy. In a van.

Third: After you've chained them to the wall, offer them a chance to earn their freedom.

Fourth: For every model they paint, tell them you'll give them another one to paint, free of charge.

Fifth: ????

Sixth: Profit!

Couple of points:

1) If you add [ url ] <your website url> [/url] (no spaces in the first set of brackets, your link in your signature will turn into a clickable link.

2) The Swap Shop has a thread dedicated to Painting Services being offered by members. I'm not quite sure how much traffic flows through there, but I do think people gain some measure of clientele through it.

3) If you're willing to spend some cash on advertising, you could also Advertise on Dakka.

4) Personally, I believe that being active on the forums is a good way to attract people. Post your work in the Painting and Modeling section of Dakka frequently and you'll likely have some people interested in commissioning you (though it's also good to remember not to CONSTANTLY mention that you're offering Pro Painting Services either).

5) As advice for setting up a Painting Service and having seen several complaints against other Painting Services, always remember to stay in contact with your clients. Furthermore, if you suspect that some personal issue is going to affect your schedule or rate of contact, ABSOLUTELY give a heads up to say that something came up. Number one thing is to make sure you do not just drop off the face of the earth. Secondly, make sure you plan how many jobs you can handle at any one time. While it's tempting to take in every job that comes in, I've heard of many Painting Services that bit off more than they could chew and ended up with frustrated and unsatisfied customers.

Hope that helps.

Why are you running advertisements on your business web site? Not only is it unprofessional, but the current advertisement is selling a book and/or service for better looking miniatures.

Thank you for all the tips guys, only need a few nudges in the right direction to get started.

Ive removed ads and made my sig more clicky.

I'm also going to include that of course you can send me your mini's. which effects price etc, that’s something I overlooked.

I appreciate all the advice your giving

Comments on your website... some of these will sound harsh. They are. They're not personal attacks though, they're my thoughts as a potential customer, upon seeing your website, as I scroll through it. These are reasons I wouldn't choose you to paint my guys, and I'm guessing that I wouldn't be the only potential customer noticing this stuff. Get it fixed, and you'll do better.


1) Gallery - you have four whole pictures, they're poorly lit, and they cannot be clicked on to see a bigger size/more detail.

You're selling your skill painting. You better show off what your skill is. Get a better camera - if you're really running a painting studio, invest some money in photo equipment (lamps, camera, etc), because you'll get more interest if people see that what you're doing is worth paying for.

2) Pricing - Whoa, that's complicated. Dumb it down. Why include the cost of the land raider in the cost of painting the land raider. What if the client already bought the land raider, and just wants it painted. What if they want forge-world doors on the land raider? Offer to purchase models for people if they ask, but don't make that a requirement. Tell me what I will be paying for your services, not what I'll be paying for your services and the models. (P.S. - if you offer to buy the models, mention that you're buying them from a site with a discount, and pass that on to the customer. It will let them know that you have their interests in mind.)

3) Get rid of any page that says Under Construction. If no one has asked any questions (let alone frequently) you don't need a FAQ page. Until you have some questions with answers, make it simpler. Leaving Under Construction pages around looks unprofessional.

4) Go through and check your spelling and punctuation. If this is going to be a job, be professional. I found several mistakes when not even really looking for them.

5) Do a better job on the sample models. Seriously, your level 2 example model has visible mold lines showing. I can't tell from the photos the difference between the level 2 and the level 3 marine, except perhaps the mold line. If I have to pay for level 3 service just to have mold lines removed, that's kind of extreme. Some of that is bound to be the lighting on the photos, but other stuff... you mention in the notes that level 3 includes freehand. I see none in the photo.

These sample models should all be based too. They look unfinished as is, and that's not what a customer wants to see. In general, for these models, anything you mention in the text should be represented on the model in the picture. That includes freehand, blending, highlighting and basing. If a customer is going to pay for these things, they want to know what to expect.


Good luck with your venture.

Harsh? Yes, Useful? Hell yes.

I'm glad I can get some honest criticism, A work in progress it may be but no excuse for sloppiness.

Thank you very much for helping out, another small question if I may however, the gallery atm is not what I want, I would like to increase the size by clicking etc I'm just not sure how to do it and I have tried, any thoughts?

Sure, make logical divisions.

So, on the first page, have links (picture links) to Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k, Warmachine, etc.

If you're doing this as a business, it's a good idea to keep your client base as big as possible, so if I were in your shoes, I'd buy models from games that you don't play, paint them, photo them, and then sell them on ebay to recoup your costs, just to demonstrate that you're willing to paint models from those game systems. LotR, Warmachine, maybe Flames of War are good additional systems.

Then, from those linked pages, go to different armies. So, under 40k, you'll have a Tau page, a SM page, etc.

As you do more customer work, you'll have more pics to display, but more is always better when demonstrating what you can do. To start with, I'd make sure you have pics of every model in all of your own armies, to provide baselines that customers can see.

Does that make sense, or were you looking for more technical info?

Yes I'm looking for more technical info, I'm really bad at that kind of thing.

But I'm saving everything your saying for future reference, its great advice.

Is your gallery static or database-driven, Caeora?

If it is static, I should be able to dig out some code to allow you to have a pop-up with a larger version of an image. I'm not so hot on the database side of things, though.

Might as well show me, so i can try, i'm not sure if its static or data-base driven.

Thanks

You might already do this but make sure you box the models well. my friend used a painting service to which he sent a Hive Tyrant and it came back, wonderfully painted, but broken, it took us ages to assemble it again. It looked good but he never used said service again.

So the moral of the story is to box the models in a way that they stay in one piece, especially with large metal models.

Good luck with your buisness

Assuming a static website, your code for an image (and pop-up) should look something like this:

{a href="largeimage.jpg" target="largeimagepopup" border=0}{img src= "smallimage.jpg" ALT= "Thumbnail of a painted Space Marine - click for a larger image!"}{/a}

Replace any { or } with < or > in order for the code to work - the forum disagrees with the code, apparently.

By setting the target attribute to something random like "largeimagepopup", it should fool the browser into opening a new window/tab.

You'll need to amend file names and link locations as appropriate for your server.

If you want the image to have a border indicating it is a link, get rid of border=0 from within the lead tag.

Ill give it a go thank you!

@Elder Own, transporting models can be a pain in the a** but i know how delicate they are, all my models will be insulated to the best of my abilty