We are a homegrown business.  Everything from purchasing, stocking, shipping, etc is done by us personally.  Our website was built and designed by us as well.

That said, we are not web designers and we have been learning as we go.  Please tell us if you see something that is off, difficult, or problematic on the site.  We appreciate honest feedback and we will do what we can to fix it as quickly as possible.  

We won't take offense to constructive criticism by any means.  We want to make our site function as well as possible for our customers.  You are our priority!

We appreciate y'all's feedback!

OK Dan,

You are a fairly new business and with today's scam activities, you may want to consider:

1) Contacting Scam Detector and ask how you can improve your score https://www.scam-detector.com/validator/fiddlersdefense-com-review/.  You received clean scores here https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/2c7b82f863fc1ffe4f2617dd534a4e0089af040acf1b522e632ab692aa30ef1d/detection

2) Consider describing your personal background and disclosing who you are.  It was fairly easy for me to find, so why not share it with everyone else.  I think it will give you more credibility.  Plus, people relate better to people rather than a business name.

3) While noble that you support and donate to "Believe With Me" and "22Kill" the dollar amount thus donated is so small and comes across as a payment just to use their name.  Perhaps getting them involved in giving testimonials of your character and showing pictures with you volunteering with them would be beneficial as well.  Many businesses that donate to charities based upon sales often give a percentage or dollar amount that they donate so that the reader/customer is never asking themselves "are they really donating anything since nothing is specifically written".

4) I realize your Return Policy, Privacy Notice, and Terms of Use originated in October 2020 and they are not even a year old yet.  Many businesses get in the habit of updating those on a calendar basis (January 1st) so as they are current in the current year (current in 2021).  Even if there are no changes to the documents, at least it shows you are always reviewing them.  IMO, they need a 2021 date.  

5) Change your website Copyright date to 2021.

6) There are various marketing items like meta tags, etc. for search optimization.  But in the end, IMHO, it will come down to "why should I give you my business?"  Personally, I like to buy from small businesses.  A good example of that is I buy all my slings from Savvy Sniper https://savvysniper.com/.  While his website may not be that fancy, his story, and background along with his products are attractive to me.  Check it out.

I wish you the best of luck!

ETA:
7) The footer info under the "Product" tab is missing your telephone number https://fiddlersdefense.com/fiddlers-defense-products/

8) It appears the "Product" tab does not list everything for sale as I went to your pulldowns and just clicked "Morale" and up pop more items for sale.  Maybe the "Product" page needs its separate pull down menu center at the top of the page...

Thank you very much for taking the time to look at put this together.  I truly appreciate the feedback.

I will try to figure out how to contact scam detector.  I hadn't seen that before.  We did put a lot of time into the host security, payment processor and PCI approval, but I was unaware of scam detector.  Thank you for pointing that out.  I don't think I would have found it on my own.

I will put a post together explaining who we are.  Easy enough and you are right that it will help connect with people.

We haven't been able to donate as much as we would like to as of yet.  We were paying out of our own pocket at the beginning before we were fully running (approx April timeframe).  We were able to increase our donations last quarter, but have yet to be able to set an exact percentage of proceeds as we haven't hit our full stride of consistent sales yet.  We will get there.  Regardless, point well taken and it is input we needed to hear.

Thank you.  I will work on updating the docs and copyright date.  

I'll check out Savvy Sniper.

I missed taking the product tab out of the footer when I changed the site to using a menu button.  The menu button comes across much cleaner on mobile.  Thanks for pointing that out.

Thank you again. That is the exact type of feedback we needed.  Time to get to work!

Thank you,

Dan

As follow up CodeSection, we have corrected/addressed:

1) Contacted Scam Detector and are waiting for a response.
2) Just posted who we are personally to AR15.com.
4) Updated.
5) Updated
6) Checked out Savvy Sniper
7/8) Corrected

Again thank you very much for your input.  It is not ignored.  We truly appreciate the time you put into your recommendations.

We want to a will improve and your input goes a long way in doing that.

Thank you,

Dan

Good start!

Obviously, there are marketing items that need to be addressed so as your website is viewed.  So, once a person lands on the website in search of a product, why should they buy from you?  On price alone?  You are competing with so many other retailers so you really need to identify and write why one should buy from you.  Maybe you give an extra warranty period.  Though, with most credit card companies giving 1-2 warranties on purchases after the manufacturer warranty expires may make you giving a warranty a moot point.

So, why buy from you?  Yes, being connected to charitable organizations may be a help.  But frankly, if I was inclined to give to those organizations, I would donate directly to them.  Don't get me wrong, I think it is a noble touch that you have it and you allow one to give extra on a purchase.

Again, what makes your business so special?  Maybe giving a 5% discount (or whatever you choose) to Active Duty & Retired Military Members, Active & Retired Law Enforcement, and First Responders might help.... If you do that, you would need to insert another page where they could enter and upload their IDs so as to confirm their status.

When I suggested you tell of your background, it wasn't for Arfcomm members only.  I meant that you prominently tell about yourself on your website.  Again, your name infomation, age, address, telephone number, is already available.  I understand the hesitation....I really do.  But as mentioned before, it is easily found.  

While you do not need to give everything, telling a story about Dan XXXX and why he and his wife started this business, and why they are passionate about the two non-profits they believe in, I believe will go a long way.  Perhaps changing under the "About Us" tab, the "Our Story" paragraph to "Our Story and Who We Are", and tell us about YOU.  People relate to people.....  You need to set yourself up so people have more reasons to buy from you.  I'm a big believer that it starts with YOU.  

Your website audience is not Arfcomm only.......

Good luck and keep grinding forward!

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.  You are forcing me to think and that's a good thing and all of your points are valid.

I understand your point to get it onto the site.  I am going to take the time to think over what we actually want on the site.  It may take a bit to get it how I want it, but it is worth doing.

One of the biggest reasons we are here is to take care of our customers.  You aren't just a number to us or an order.  We may never talk to a customer if there isn't an issue, but we will go out of our way to try to prevent an issue or correct it if one does occur.  We will communicate with you.  I want to connect with our customers as people, just as you say our customers want to connect with us.  I'll need to type it up cleaner and more concise but I do believe this attitude goes a long way, especially from my experiences as a customer (firearm related or not).  Too many online based companies come across as cold or impersonal.  I'd like to change that.  

I will take some time to put it all together and figure things out.  

Seriously, thank you for your time and input brother!

Thanks,

Dan

Some additional sites that are worth checking out.....

https://bottlebreacher.com/ourstory/

https://www.bonefroggunclub.com/pages/about-us and https://www.linkedin.com/company/bone-frog-gun-club-inc  I have bought a lot of ammo from him over the years.  When he first started, he had a more descriptive "About Us" page which included his name and pictures.  Fast forward to today, his background and story have remained the same, however, the "About Us" on his website has changed.  Even his business model has changed with the membership charge of $30 per year.  

I do find it interesting that his LinkedIn profile discloses his name and I now see he is married and his wife is now part of the business.  I see he does not disclose his picture(s) anymore.  I gather it is NOT a safety issue but I'm guessing he believes that, depending upon one's background, it has or could hurt sales.  I think he is a great guy and he has been very helpful each and every time I spoke with him.

Will do.  Thank you again.  I hope to have everything worked out by the weekend to get it modified on our site.  Thank you brother!

Just updated our about us section.  I think it is more personal without making it a novel to read.

I also added a photo of my team (with their approval) to the page.

My wife and I will also add photos eventually once we have one we want to use.

Good start on the "OUR STORY & WHO WE ARE" section.  I would suggest you increase the font size so that it is similar to the other items in the "ABOUT US" section.  In addition, spacing between sections needs to be consistent.....increase space above the "OUR STORY & WHO WE ARE" section.

The "why us" question needs to be addressed.  Perhaps your extensive knowledge of firearms and your experiences with different weapon systems will enable you to provide valuable insight to help those that can benefit from your knowledge and experiences.  Perhaps you are there after the sale to further help and answer questions.  Perhaps you specialize in hard-to-find items.  Perhaps you identify a niche that will make your business stand out from other retailers.

The other big question is how are you going to let people know about you.  Search Optimization Engines....Google Analytics....etc. will help.  You may be already doing that.  If so, what are you seeing and what changes can you make?

Keep pushing forward!


ETA:  It appears you were successful in raising your website score to that of a trusted website.  Good job!  However, they write "fiddlersdefense.com: Earphones & Headphones As fiddlersdefense.com belongs to a somehow popular Earphones & Headphones niche, we tried to snap a short phrase their website to see what they feature about themselves:..."

I'm not sure how they came to the conclusion that you belong to the earphones and headphones industry niche AND Beauty Sector.  Perhaps you were put in the category to raise the score?  It does appear you can click *Is this the right industry? and *Is this the right Sector? to make corrections.....

Thank you again for your time reviewing us.

I'm still working on how to deliver the why us portion.  To your point I need a niche of some sort.  Long term I want to manufacture parts that carry our name and use my manufacturing experience to deliver high quality parts.  The problem is that I don't know when that will happen due to the huge cost increases on raw materials over the last year.  It will be hard to be competitive without high volume to begin with.  However, that is my goal.

I've been working on trying to learn and improve our SEO.  I am no expert in this but I am trying to learn.

I have been trying to reach out to scam-detector for a while with no responses.  I appreciate the congratulations but I don't know how it happened.  I'll follow the instructions you sent to try to correct the industry.  I have no idea how they came to that conclusion.

I am hoping for more time to dive into the site again this weekend.

Thank you again for your help!

Dan