How many sales are made through CustomMade.com?

I have no way of knowing the answer to that. I do not charge members commissions on sales so there is no reason to add a costly tracking system to our site. This saves our members thousands of dollars by keeping our overhead low.

I do have a growing list of anecdotal evidence that what we are doing is working very well. See these Testimonials from woodworkers and their clients.

Whenever a new client contacts you, ask how they found you. Having a portfolio of your work in our Gallery section certainly increases your exposure to potential clients. Having a direct email link allows the prospective client to get more information from you almost immediately.

What is the most popular section at CustomMade?

Over 75% of visitors to the home page visit the Gallery section. Pictures and examples of the woodworkers' products are most helpful for the client trying to decide who they want to contact. From the thumbnail photo of an artisans' work, they can click directly to see the full size photo with the contact information for that woodworker.

How do people find CustomMade.com?

Most of our traffic is coming from search engines. For example if you search for: woodworking, custom, cabinet (together)... at Excite you will see 3 URLs from CustomMade.com in the first 10!

In fact, most of our new woodworker members found us because they were searching for their own website and came up with CustomMade.com first! What better proof that we are "findable".

A lot of our traffic also comes from the hundreds of custom woodworkers' web sites who link to us. We try to emphasize cooperation among our members.

Aren't all the custom woodworkers competing with each other at CustomMade.com?

No, by being grouped together in one place we attract and satisfy a much larger audience. The real competition for custom woodworkers are the big manufacturers. Many customers don't realize that we custom guys and gals exist or that we can often provide a better value. Our goal at CustomMade.com is to make it easy for people to find the *right* custom woodworker for their needs.

Would you consider adding another specialty category?

Yes, if it meets three criteria.
One: it must be something you truly specialize in.
Two: it should be a term that a customer would use. Esoteric trade terminology only works for those trademen who know the terms.
Three: it must not be overly redundant with an existing specialty category. We already have a category for "Doors" , it won't help to add one for "Really Great Custom Doors" but it would make sense to add "garage doors" or "cabinet doors".

Can you provide me with my own website?

The question of developing a website for you is not easily answered. I can do this but the cost is relatively high (like custom woodworking for example). You should consider a custom website only if your company is well established and has an advertising budget of over $100 / month.

Many woodworkers prefer to work on their own websites. Homestead is a company that sells web space at a reasonable cost and provides templates so you can develop your own site easily. To check them out please use this link: Build a Professional Website with Homestead. Try for free!

I am also happy to help you revise your existing website on an hourly basis. One area that I can help most woodworkers with is portfolio photographs. I can re-touch and optimize most portfolio images to give you a professional image that downloads quickly.

For more information contact Ted via Email:

Any and all questions can be asked at FAQ Farm. FAQ Farm is a great resource where folks ask all sorts of questions.