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Friday Cigar Site Review #01
By Jesse | October 19, 2007 |
I’m trying a new idea out, by reviewing not only cigars, but cigar manufacturer websites. Anyone that has tried to find information about a cigar company knows how frustrating it can be when the company’s website is poorly made, woefully out of date, and/or uses more Flash than a rapper has bling. The first victim is the 5 Vegas Site.
Cigar Information: B
5 Vegas gets credit for having all their cigars listed clearly, along with information about what is in the cigar. They also have links to retailers where you can find the cigars, a good idea for smaller brands. I’m knocking them down to a B though because they don’t have the sizes listed.
Company Information: F
No company history and the only way you can contact them is if you are a wholesaler and have a tobacco license. I like to know a little about the company behind the cigars I’m smoking here. They have no address, no phone number and no email address. I’d love to send you a link to the review I wrote regarding you cigar but I don’t see any easy way to do that.
Website Features and Usability: C
They get a passing grade in this area because the website is easy to use and matches the look of their flagship cigar line. However, the site itself is nothing more than a glorified PowerPoint Presentation and no way for the user to really interact with the company or other users. I also noticed that the scrollbar is not available on the front page even when the page itself extends off the screen. The site wasn’t too difficult to find, I was able to guess the URL and a search for “5 Vegas Cigars” yields the company site on the 2nd page of results in Google.
Reccomendations:
Add a section about the company and its history. The website is in dire need of a contact page, otherwise it is about as useful as a business card without a phone number. A news or events section would be a great addition to the site, and I would recommend adding that scrollbar, or resizing the image on the front page.
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Tags: 5 Vegas Cigars, Website Reviews
Topics: Website Reviews |
October 19th, 2007 at 11:17 am
What till you see what Camacho has cookin’ up. Our new corporate website will be unleashed mid-November…
October 19th, 2007 at 11:20 am
I’m looking forward to seeing it. Please let tell me they are going to stop using PDF’s so heavily on the site. That is one thing in the past that really used to bother me.
October 19th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Oh no, my friend. Just wait till you see it.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Nice idea Jesse, will you be compiling a list of links for them? The Camacho site is still using pdf for the cigar line pages so you still can’t copy and paste cigar information for reviews. But quickly looking it over it looks nice so far.
My main aggravations with manufacturer sites in the cigar industry is sometimes they are hard to find being pages back on google and being flash or anything else that is impossible to copy from.
One day they will read what most say about the sites and update them a little.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I may eventually make a list like my review index for cigars. It depends how well it goes. They can be hard to find. I’ve had to get awfully creative to find some manufacturers’ websites.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Way too many companies have bad websites. I think most people have a friend do it for them who says they know how to create a website, but there is much more to it than writing HTML. A bad site is actually worse than no site at all. I try and tell potential clients that their website is another marketing tool and an extension of their brand/store. Their site should bring in revenue.I am working with one major manufacturer and their new site will be awesome.
October 20th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Great idea, Jesse.
As for the company history of 5 Vegas, well, they don’t want you to know the history. Not really, anyway. The cigars are now owned by Cigars International, which is why they’re the only ones selling them. The guy who originally started them, and sold them to CI, is doing well, and is making a different cigar that happens to be one of our mutual favorites.
October 21st, 2007 at 8:38 am
I thought that brand sort of had an interesting history. Basically if CI hadn’t bought it, the brand probably would have been a casualty of the cigar boom. They rescued a damn good brand from the ash pile.
October 21st, 2007 at 8:39 am
Even if they don’t have a company history on the site at least have a contact page!