Web developer in Bankura for craft sold far from where it's made
Work for a web developer in Bankura usually starts with the pieces. I build a maker a site with a written page for each one and a way to order by enquiry, with the words drawn from your own notes. Terracotta from Panchmura and Baluchari silk from Bishnupur both end up a long way from where they're made. The person who orders can't lift either one first.
Overview
A page for every piece
A buyer choosing a Baluchari wants to see how it is woven before anything else. The words under each photograph come from your own notes, in the terms used at the loom.
Your own site can also keep a list of who bought what. When the next piece in a style is ready, those buyers hear about it, and nobody else gets the message.
Bishnupur's temples bring visitors as well. Stays and guides who host them are a separate, smaller job, chosen from photographs before the trip.
What gets built here
On every product page
Listed in the order a buyer reads them.
- The weave or the form, in a photograph you took yourself.
- Weight and size, as numbers from your own scale and tape.
- Panchmura or Bishnupur, named beside the craft it belongs to.
- One line on packing, with a link to the full method.
Where this runs over
Packing is your call
Settle the packing before the first order goes out. Then send one test parcel to someone you know.
Packing a terracotta pot or a folded sari for the post is a decision only you can make. Whatever method you settle on goes on the site in your words, on a page of its own. What happens if a piece arrives broken goes on that page too, so nobody has to ask.
What moves the number
Where the cost comes from
The number of pieces on the launch list sets most of the cost. Each one is photographed and written up before it goes live, and that takes the same care for a small pot as for a sari. Before the call, read how I price a scope.
| What changes it |
|---|
| How many pieces open the site |
| A page about the workshop and the people in it, or none |
| A fresh photo shoot, if your current pictures fall short |
| Whether a page for stays and guides is included |
What changes the size of the job.
What a scope from me looks like
Your scope, as a draft
Included
- A written scope: every page and feature as its own line, agreed before work starts
- Design to build, reviewed on a staging URL that stays open the whole project
- Mobile first — checked on a real phone
- Domain, hosting and every account created in your name from day one
- Colour compared with the piece itself, in daylight, before launch
- Basic on-page SEO: titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console connected
- A runbook at handover: how to edit it, what renews and when
Phase two
- Online payment on the site
- A restock-notice list for past buyers
- Ongoing SEO once the site has traffic to read
- A maintenance plan once the site is live
- Logo and brand design, quoted separately from the build
Not doing
- Guaranteed rankings
- Judging what can travel safely by post, which stays with you
For a stay or a guide, the product pages come out, and photographs of the rooms or the route go in.
We fix the launch list together on the call. It becomes the first lines of the scope, so you can see what each piece adds.
Where this comes from
Work clients agreed to show
900+ projects completed so far. The ones clients agreed to show publicly are on the projects page. Every one of them is a build I finished and handed over.
Nearby
Inside the district, and beyond it
A town in the district, and two more places.
FAQ
Before you send the first piece
On restock notes, colour, photographs and who writes the words.
Can the site tell past buyers when a new piece is ready?
- Yes, as a phase-two addition. When a new Baluchari or a fresh batch of terracotta is ready, a note goes only to the people who bought something like it.
Will the photographs show the true colour?
- Colour is compared with the piece itself, in daylight, on the staging link before launch. If a photograph still looks wrong on a phone screen, it's taken again, or the description says plainly how the colour differs.
Does a terracotta craft website need different photographs from silk?
- Yes. A clay piece needs one shot with something familiar beside it, so the size is obvious. Silk needs one laid flat and one draped, so the fall of the cloth shows.
Do you work with makers outside Bankura town?
- Yes, anywhere in the district. Where you work goes on the site in your own spelling, beside the craft you make. If you sell pieces by other makers nearby, each one can appear under that maker's own name.
Who writes the descriptions?
- I write them from your notes about each piece. You correct anything I've got wrong on the staging link, and nothing goes live until you're happy with every word.
Next step
How many pieces to begin with?
Count the pieces you'd launch with. That number shapes most of what we discuss on the call, so have a rough figure ready.
Note what you charge for each one now, even roughly. That is a useful start.
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