Bureau for the Improvement of NS Businesses [Organisation]

[The Free Republic of Akan]

In the past, how have mining/earth resource storefronts been?

You'd be more successful if you named your storefront "Gold & Uranium 4 Sale" and only sold Uranium and Gold to be honest. If it's not a airport thread, slave thread, or a high quality defense storefront, other industries don't get as much business.

Well, then wouldnt the people who actually know about G&ET ignore it? That sounds like a name for a one liner storefront. Right now, I'm doing an energy resource/powerplant building business. I really am aiming for the high quality G&ETers who actually know how to write an IC order and who read all of my info (or most of it) rather then the people who just fill out the app and read two bits of info and ask for a product we do not sell. Most of the latter only look for military stuff. Either way, I want a good, detailed storefront, with the ultimate goal of gaining forumwide respect as a good front maker.

[Tippercommon]

You'd be more successful if you named your storefront "Gold & Uranium 4 Sale" and only sold Uranium and Gold to be honest. If it's not a airport thread, slave thread, or a high quality defense storefront, other industries don't get as much business.

Well, then wouldnt the people who actually know about G&ET ignore it? That sounds like a name for a one liner storefront. Right now, I'm doing an energy resource/powerplant building business. I really am aiming for the high quality G&ETers who actually know how to write an IC order and who read all of my info (or most of it) rather then the people who just fill out the app and read two bits of info and ask for a product we do not sell. Most of the latter only look for military stuff. Either way, I want a good, detailed storefront, with the ultimate goal of gaining forumwide respect as a good front maker.

Don't get me wrong. I like good, detailed storefronts, and noobish ones won't get any rewards or respect for anything. But, realistically, the one-liners selling nuclear material or precious metals get a disproportional amount of business in comparison to well-thought out storefronts (unless if you're a big airport or defense storefront), and in my experience of running resource-based storefronts, most of the few orders you get are for gold and uranium.

[The Free Republic of Akan]

Well, then wouldnt the people who actually know about G&ET ignore it? That sounds like a name for a one liner storefront. Right now, I'm doing an energy resource/powerplant building business. I really am aiming for the high quality G&ETers who actually know how to write an IC order and who read all of my info (or most of it) rather then the people who just fill out the app and read two bits of info and ask for a product we do not sell. Most of the latter only look for military stuff. Either way, I want a good, detailed storefront, with the ultimate goal of gaining forumwide respect as a good front maker.

Don't get me wrong. I like good, detailed storefronts, and noobish ones won't get any rewards or respect for anything. But, realistically, the one-liners selling nuclear material or precious metals get a disproportional amount of business in comparison to well-thought out storefronts (unless if you're a big airport or defense storefront), and in my experience of running resource-based storefronts, most of the few orders you get are for gold and uranium.

Hmm. I am selling uranium and oil. I might think about adding gold to my platform, with others (Natural Gas etc.) as "just incase". It is sort of bad how one liner spam storefronts are winning the battle for business, but I am seeing one line spam going down.

[The High Tatras]

I really want to open a business of some variety, but GE&T is very intimidating for me. It seems as if I have to spend many hours making a visually pleasing storefront and designing original products to even be taken half-seriously as a company. What can I do to create a storefront that will not require a massive time investment?

[Vitaphone Racing]

I really want to open a business of some variety, but GE&T is very intimidating for me. It seems as if I have to spend many hours making a visually pleasing storefront and designing original products to even be taken half-seriously as a company. What can I do to create a storefront that will not require a massive time investment?

You can make a visually pleasing storefront with some simple, tasteful formatting and ultra-basic logos you can make in MS Paint. Storefronts that aren't garish and over the top can still be popular, in fact the most successful storefront to date had only the bare minimum in formatting until last year I believe.

You can also make good quality products without writing a novel. 500 words should do it, that's an hour tops. If you don't have an hour at once, you can always save your work as a draft and resume it later on. Don't get sucked in into keeping up with everybody else for write up length; it's obvious when people write for the sake of writing and it just looks tacky. Keep it short, sweet, concise and enlightening with a few paragraphs.

[Vandelstein]

I blanked at my storefront's "Airline Policies" section. I know baggage limits and such is supposed to go there, but aside from that, I have no idea. Any help, suggestions, etc would, even outside the "Airline Policies" section, would be greatly appreciated. Here's the link - Skyway Airlines

[Shalum]

here's my MF-95 Dragon.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=249047&hilit=MF+95

Do you have anything to recommend? Just in general about the aircraft or ways to improve it. Thanks

[Lamoni]

here's my MF-95 Dragon.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=249047&hilit=MF+95

Do you have anything to recommend? Just in general about the aircraft or ways to improve it. Thanks

You'd probably have more luck with that in this thread:

http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=48251&start=10525

[Vitaphone Racing]

I blanked at my storefront's "Airline Policies" section. I know baggage limits and such is supposed to go there, but aside from that, I have no idea. Any help, suggestions, etc would, even outside the "Airline Policies" section, would be greatly appreciated. Here's the link - Skyway Airlines

Visually, the storefront looks very well. I think it's quite a good choice of colors, images, layout etc. Personally I'm not a huge fan of displaying portraits for company leaders, certainly not more than three or four people either. To me it just seems redundant, especially if you're going to offer faces with no biographical information about them. Perhaps you could spoiler them for those who really care or perhaps condense them into one smaller image, I can't speak for everyone obviously but it does come across as unnecessary clutter.

I think you could do with some more information on several sections, namely the loyalty program, travel classes and fleet. You've got a couple of sentences for each and then a general list of features; you're going to have to be a little more creative here so you seem more inviting. Real airlines write several adjective-filled paragraphs for each class of travel to try and sell you on the idea that you'll be more comfortable on their planes than any other and that it's literally the next-best thing to sitting on your couch at home. The same with the fleet, you should be taking the opportunity to emphasize how awesome your aircraft are. Since you in particular are using your own aircraft, you should be jumping at the opportunity to write what is effectively free advertising for your other storefront (even though you aren't running it anymore). And with the loyalty program, you should be elaborating a bit more in word form what the benefits are and how you can collect miles. The graph to demonstrate benefits is a good touch, but it doesn't feel overly professional next to only a couple of sentences. I suppose you should also take a bit of time to turn your company values into full-fledged statements. For example, don't just say that the customer is being valued, say how much you love customers and why you'll always treat them with the utmost care.

So, almost perfect points for style, but a little more work on the substance is needed. You're well on the way though.

[Aurora Confederacy]

Real airlines write several adjective-filled paragraphs for each class of travel to try and sell you on the idea that you'll be more comfortable on their planes than any other and that it's literally the next-best thing to sitting on your couch at home. The same with the fleet, you should be taking the opportunity to emphasize how awesome your aircraft are.

thats something I can try with Trans Polar Railways

which can be found here ---> here

[Tippercommon]

Not terribly relephant, but since my specialization is format and design, might as well share my Graphic Design Resumé.

[Azurlavai]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=269169

Having just set it up, I wanted to get Salamander off the ground right. So, rather than sit and wait, I decided to run it by you guys.

[Maltropia]

http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=269169

Having just set it up, I wanted to get Salamander off the ground right. So, rather than sit and wait, I decided to run it by you guys.

I'd generally recommend against putting all your important information in spoilers. If you want to impress customers from the first moment they look at your storefront, don't hide what makes it good. Also, I feel like you're over-reliant on images. The main basis for your storefront should be the text, as with all RP on NS, with the images merely supporting what you've written. If you do want to keep your pictures, try standardising their width (and maybe height as well?), because what you have now looks quite disorganised and inconsistent.

On that note, try reducing the size of the logo to no more than 400 pixels in height. The problem with circular logos is that even when their width is fine - and even perfect - the height is far more than it should be. 300 is usually the max height I'd advise, though 400 shouldn't be too excessive.

[Aurora Confederacy]

here is Orbis Storefront, apart from the products, its been proof read so looks to read okay. There is a range of locomotives on offer with various jump boxes ffor where the links are. Some are live, some are dummy boxes done to blend in with the section.

Hows it look to you?
viewtopic.php?p=10229707#p10229707

[Controlled Interests]

http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=269169

Having just set it up, I wanted to get Salamander off the ground right. So, rather than sit and wait, I decided to run it by you guys.

Hello Azurlavai!

I'll give you my two cents from storefront purgatory.
The Good: Lots, really.
->Like that you got rid of the white border around the Salamander image. I noticed that when you put in your bid for the NGASE Security competition.
->Lots of pictures, keeps me interested and covers up for less well-executed BB-Coding.
->I like the company policy stuff. Seems pretty cool to me!

The Ugly: Yup, there's some of this as well.
->You could read up on BB-Coding, as this storefront lacks text manipulation and is generally, very plain.
->One of your image links is broken...not the best thing to have if you want to inspire confidence within a consumer.
->Lack of links to each product. This is key point that almost any merchandise storefront should have.
->The color of the title...neon green and underline = bad typography.

The Bad: Unfortunately, there is this too.
->The first thing that got me were video game images (is it COD? I don't really know) and the picture of your commander. In my opinion, all storefronts, especially military ones, should seek to achieve realism (or pseudo-realism in certain exceptional cases). Using these images, especially the commander one, doesn't quite achieve this. Being a military history/equipment nerd, this stuff kind of turns me off immediately.
->Your products aren't exceptionally well described. While I do think the descriptive language like "these operators are ready to rock and roll, hitting the objective with as much force as possible" is great, I do kind of need to know what I am buying into. What weapons are they bringing in? How long can they remain in the field? These are just a few of the queestions that need to be answered. Just go to any major defense or private security, see Karlberg for example: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=133861 and you'll notice the sheer amount of info available.

All in all, great first effort! Keep refining the storefront and I'm sure it'll be successful.

PS: A complex-ified version of your logo might be good as well. Check out the one I made for the NGA military: http://www.nationstates.net/nation=cont ... /id=180122

PS x 2: To those who have expressed concern that I am not a currently listed advisor, I have been given the opportunity to help out at the Bureau by the OP while I burn in the eternal fires of damnation.

[Controlled Interests]

here is Orbis Storefront, apart from the products, its been proof read so looks to read okay. There is a range of locomotives on offer with various jump boxes ffor where the links are. Some are live, some are dummy boxes done to blend in with the section.

Hows it look to you?
viewtopic.php?p=10229707#p10229707

Hey nice work! That must have been a lot of BBCoding to do. Not a huge fan of the purple to black gradient and the purple on red (seems a tad 70s-80s to me) but overall it works and looks pretty darned cool. As to major changes, I think that customers section should include smaller logos. The current ones are huge, and with some being less aesthetically appealing than others...well you know what I mean.

[Tippercommon]

here is Orbis Storefront, apart from the products, its been proof read so looks to read okay. There is a range of locomotives on offer with various jump boxes ffor where the links are. Some are live, some are dummy boxes done to blend in with the section.

Hows it look to you?
viewtopic.php?p=10229707#p10229707

I was going to reply to your telegram, but I might as well put it on the thread. Here are my graphical recommendations and observations:

• I'm curious as to why the font on your gradient headers aren't antialiased (aren't smooth). I'd recommend finding a font on dafont.com, installing it, and using it for everything on your storefront. If it's your program that's causing it, I'd recommend downloading GIMP and making your headers on it.
• You should use one font throughout your storefront. I notice that there are several different fonts in the headers.
• The images in your 'Customers' section are pretty big. I'd suggest making them small enough that you can put two logos on the same row.
• The gradient you got going from blue to black is alright, but I'd suggest changing it so that your blue colour isn't such a hard shade of blue and switching the black to either a really dark blue, indigo, or purple.
• Small suggestion. I'd suggest making the "Orbis Rail Systems" in the opening line of the "About Us" section be made bold and blue just to make the name stand out and to make the paragraph look a little fancier.

[Aurora Confederacy]

Hey nice work! That must have been a lot of BBCoding to do. Not a huge fan of the purple to black gradient and the purple on red (seems a tad 70s-80s to me) but overall it works and looks pretty darned cool. As to major changes, I think that customers section should include smaller logos. The current ones are huge, and with some being less aesthetically appealing than others...well you know what I mean.

the BB coding was a right b*stard! as you can see by the 139 edits just to get it this far but I do like how it looks on the whole.

Tippercommon, the font used has some how lost its uniformality when the little tags were adjusted in size, not sure how that has happenned however I am trying a similar approach to Aurora Electronics, with each 500x700(ish) image holding the product write up as well.

as for the customers logo, they are provided on the whole by the customer, however I will see about getting them all shrunk down once I have got Aurora Electronics underway

[Controlled Interests]

Not sure if this is a great place to ask this question...but has GE&T been getting less active recently (or am I just paranoid)?

[Aurora Confederacy]

its about the same.

[Tippercommon]

Not sure if this is a great place to ask this question...but has GE&T been getting less active recently (or am I just paranoid)?

It's probably more active now than it has in the past 3 months.

[Aurora Confederacy]

still the same old ideas though.

(nukes, pmc's, slaves and airports)

[Controlled Interests]

still the same old ideas though.

(nukes, pmc's, slaves and airports)

True. There has also been a recent influx of rather barebones companies. Now I'm no expert in this field (I'm not even a full-fledged member of the bureau), but some of the new "ideas" are pretty poorly conceived. I don't want to mention any names, but some businesses just take up space. Their owners, not realizing that their company has very little market potential, make hopeless bumps that have little to no effect on business.

In this sense, I have begun to wonder if the Bureau should provide "active" help, as in, reach out to failing businesses directly and provide advice. Not really sure about you guys, but this could be pretty helpful for first time posters.

[Azurlavai]

http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=269169

Having just set it up, I wanted to get Salamander off the ground right. So, rather than sit and wait, I decided to run it by you guys.

Hello Azurlavai!

I'll give you my two cents from storefront purgatory.
The Good: Lots, really.
->Like that you got rid of the white border around the Salamander image. I noticed that when you put in your bid for the NGASE Security competition.
->Lots of pictures, keeps me interested and covers up for less well-executed BB-Coding.
->I like the company policy stuff. Seems pretty cool to me!

The Ugly: Yup, there's some of this as well.
->You could read up on BB-Coding, as this storefront lacks text manipulation and is generally, very plain.
->One of your image links is broken...not the best thing to have if you want to inspire confidence within a consumer.
->Lack of links to each product. This is key point that almost any merchandise storefront should have.
->The color of the title...neon green and underline = bad typography.

The Bad: Unfortunately, there is this too.
->The first thing that got me were video game images (is it COD? I don't really know) and the picture of your commander. In my opinion, all storefronts, especially military ones, should seek to achieve realism (or pseudo-realism in certain exceptional cases). Using these images, especially the commander one, doesn't quite achieve this. Being a military history/equipment nerd, this stuff kind of turns me off immediately.
->Your products aren't exceptionally well described. While I do think the descriptive language like "these operators are ready to rock and roll, hitting the objective with as much force as possible" is great, I do kind of need to know what I am buying into. What weapons are they bringing in? How long can they remain in the field? These are just a few of the queestions that need to be answered. Just go to any major defense or private security, see Karlberg for example: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=133861 and you'll notice the sheer amount of info available.

All in all, great first effort! Keep refining the storefront and I'm sure it'll be successful.

PS: A complex-ified version of your logo might be good as well. Check out the one I made for the NGA military: http://www.nationstates.net/nation=cont ... /id=180122

PS x 2: To those who have expressed concern that I am not a currently listed advisor, I have been given the opportunity to help out at the Bureau by the OP while I burn in the eternal fires of damnation.

I'll be quite honest, they're images from Metal Gear Solid 4. While the emphasis on real-life would probably have been a better choice, I wanted a definite underlying theme among all of the portrayed images. The two definite 'styles' you can see there are predominantly Praying Mantis (based out of Britain) while the ones in caps are Pieuvre Armaments (based out of France). As for the commander, I am more than willing to try and find a real-life photo for that, but less willing to compromise association for reality.

Looking back on it, the non-descriptness of the storefront is my own fault. I designed it like someone making a sales bid, and I only now realize that it might not have been the best choice. I can, however, flesh things out immensely.

The logo is the tricky part. I am not very good at photo editing. Can anyone point me in the direction of someone who might take requests?

[The Free Republic of Akan]

still the same old ideas though.

(nukes, pmc's, slaves and airports)

True. There has also been a recent influx of rather barebones companies. Now I'm no expert in this field (I'm not even a full-fledged member of the bureau), but some of the new "ideas" are pretty poorly conceived. I don't want to mention any names, but some businesses just take up space. Their owners, not realizing that their company has very little market potential, make hopeless bumps that have little to no effect on business.

In this sense, I have begun to wonder if the Bureau should provide "active" help, as in, reach out to failing businesses directly and provide advice. Not really sure about you guys, but this could be pretty helpful for first time posters.

I second this. There have been so many one liner spam storefronts that get a disproportionate amount of business then the well thought out ones. Honestly, the only good storefronts that are getting business is your NGA thing. Great idea with NGA btw, I love it! But the mediumly good fronts get the most business. Orcrando Airlines is winning, along with all the new arms fronts.
EDIT: Like, I really do not understand This