Thank you for your interest in our custom knife consignment services. At KnifeMakersDatabase, we employ a highly specialized team that will meet all of your needs by coordinating the promotion and sale of your knife / knives in a quick, efficient and professional manner.
The purpose of our operation is to lift the burden of the entire business aspect of knifemaking from the knife maker, allowing him to save the hours upon hours needed to run a sales operation, including maintaining a website, photographing the knives, packing and shipping to customers, managing payments, waiting for checks to clear - all of that time consuming stuff associated with selling goods over the Internet. The amount of time saved can really clear up an entire day a week, or possibly even more if you think about it, allowing you to do what you would rather be doing - as we hear it from so many of the knifemakers we speak with: Making more knives! And more knives is plainly equivalent to a higher profit margin.
At KnifeMakersDatabase.com, our team will take care of all your business needs. You are the knifemaker. We are your agents.
The first concern you probably have since you've reached this page is how all of this is actually handled. Please read on to learn about our procedures and rates.
Business and Internet Business Enhancement Services for Knifemakers, Purveyors and Suppliers
at KnifeMakersDatabase.com
Custom Knife Industry Services
At KnifeMakersDatabase.com (KMD), we offer a select array of services aimed at bettering the business operations of individuals and companies involved in the custom knife industry.
KnifeMakersDatabase.com, Corp. is a professional organization, incorporated with the State of New York, that is owned and operated by Joseph Clements, a custom knife collector for over 15 years (he bought his first custom knife when he was 14) and Honorary member of the Knifemakers Guild. Mr. Clements currently attends college at night, working toward a degree in Organizational Management and a Masters in Computer Information Systems, and currently holds 3 other certifications in Computer Engineering. Joseph is mentored by his father, a successful business owner for over 30 years, and by various individuals in the knife industry.
During the day, everyday - including weekends, his every hour is devoted to KnifeMakersDatabase.com, the reality of a vision of a site that would bring together the hundreds of sites of custom knifemakers, dealers, purveyors and suppliers and make each and every one of these resources available under one "digital roof." KnifeMakers Database is a work in progress - a site that is never really "finished" as it is always growing, adding new content, finding new links, etc. It is well on its way to becoming an invaluable resource to custom knife collectors and is quickly becoming a popular site among them. The traffic KnifeMakersDatabase gets daily makes it an excellent site on which to advertise and promote other sites within the knife industry. As such, KMD offers an array of services - some tested and proven, others completely unique to our site - to better the business side of the different operations involved in this industry.
First and foremost, as a potential client, you should be aware of our mission as an organization, our company motto, and the overall goals we seek in regards to the business relationships we form with our retail customers, our affiliated clients and our advertisers.
As an organization, our mission is to:
a) Support the custom knife community in general by making all known resources readily available, representing each in a fair and truthful manner.
b) Support the many knifemakers, purveyors, suppliers and such organizations within the custom knife industry by providing services specifically tailored to suit the business needs of our clients.
c) Increase public awareness on the Internet and abroad of the ever-growing hobby of custom knife collecting while acting as both a purveyor and an information source.
KnifeMakersDatabase.com is built around these three key goals and each is always kept in mind as we add new content, articles, listings, etc.
Our Goals are simple. In general, we aim to aid current collectors in their search for their next custom knife while attracting and educating new collectors through our presence on the web. Our goal concerning our retail customers is to ensure their satisfaction at all costs. Whether they choose to purchase their next knife from us or from another source, we will aid them in their search to find exactly what they are looking for. If as a purveyor, we feel that we do not have the right knife for the customer in question, we would direct that person to a source that we feel can provide them with what they need - not attempt to force the sale of something that doesn't quite meet their needs.
Our motto is straightforward. “Honesty, Integrity and Loyalty before Money, Material and Self.” What this means basically is that we will always go the extra step to give our clients the best deal possible on whatever it is they are purchasing / contracting, putting their success before our profits
If for instance we feel that expanding a page created for a certain knifemaker or purveyor would further benefit his business by attracting more visitors or a greater variety of collector, we will do so at no charge to that individual. Once you've signed up with us and we create whatever it is you have signed up for, you can expect that service to expand and be updated at will or if we feel it would be profitable for our client. The price you are given is the price you pay. We will never take advantage of our clients by soliciting them further after the fact for whatever purpose.
As a company, we expect to make profits, of course. There is no viable way we could provide the free services we offer to the custom knife community, such as our database listings, without making some type of revenue. Running a website costs money. Building and maintaining a website on this scale takes a lot of time - which equals a lot of money. But, like any situation, there is a positive side. A website of this magnitude, hosting this much information, attracts a very large amount of visitors, and of course, this makes it an excellent place to advertise and sell knives.
Each service offered by KnifeMakersDatabase.com is specifically tailored to the individual business needs of the organization in question. On this page, you will find information outlining the basic skeletal structure of each service - what each service consists of, how the service is implemented and the fees associated with the service.
Custom Knife Consignment
ABOUT
PROCEDURE
RATES
POLICY
Knife Consignment Procedures
"As Your Agent, We do all the Work"
Step 1 - After contacting us and deciding which knives you would like to sell, the selected knives are shipped to us via UPS / Fed-ex or USPS. We recommend that you track and insure your knives for their sale value.
Step 2 - Upon receiving your knives, we will open your package and inspect your goods. Your knives will literally be handled with white gloves. As a knife collector myself, my number one peeves are dust and fingerprints! After clearing the inspection process, our professional digital photographer takes a number of ultra-high resolution pictures of your knives at various key angles, and chooses the best of the best. After the photos are taken, your knives are repackaged, given a unique ID # which is entered into our database and locked securely in a heavy safe, in a humidity free, temperature controlled environment.
Step 3 - The selected photos taken in step 2 are uploaded to our sales department administrator along with your knives unique ID #. Your knife is then set up on our website with the photos, a description and the knife stats. We will develop a fitting description and take all measurements if you do not provide us with one. Your knife will be up online and ready for sale within 24 hours max from the time of arrival. You can see an example of how your knife will be presented by clicking here.
Step 4 - After your knife sells, we calculate shipping costs, charge the customer and wait for payment. Some payments are instant as we accept credit cards and paypal. Some payments take longer to go through as we accept money orders and personal checks as well. If a money order is used, the knife ships the day the money order arrives. If a check is used, the check must clear before the knife is shipped to the customer.
Step 5 - Upon completion of a successful transaction, your payment is sent to you immediately via Paypal. If you do not have paypal, we will mail you a money order or check, which ever you prefer. Paypal is our preferred money transfer agent and it is suggested that you set up a simple personal account with them. This is not necessary, but the process takes a matter of minutes and provides instant, secure transactions between you and our company. Paypal does not charge anything to set up an account, nor are there any fees for receiving money through Paypal.
This five-step process is quick, simple, and secure, and is a sure way to sell your knife and promote yourself further on the Internet. Once we receive your knife, we will host it at no charge for as long as it takes to sell, guaranteed. Unlike auction sites, we do not charge to host your knife for small, allotted time periods. In the event that your knife does not sell and you want it shipped back to you, you will have to cover a small fee, which includes packing, insuring and shipping. When pricing your knives, we suggest you take the cost of shipping to us into consideration. Aside from shipping your knives to us, there are no other charges for this service other than our commission.
Consignment Rates
While our consignment services are "top-notch", exhibiting the highest grade of professionalism and immpecable attention to detail, we are proud to offer them at the absolute lowest rates on the Internet that we know of - in fact, if you find rates lower than ours, we'll gladly match them.
There are three sets of rates listed below - one for knifemakers, another discouted set for those hosting a full-page profile and doing consignment with us, and a final set for anyone not included in the first two catagories - basically anyone else with custom knives they wish to sell on a professional site. The rates are as follows:
Knifemakers Consignment Rates
17%
16%
15%
14%
12%
Consignment Rates w/ Profile
15%
14%
13%
12%
10%
Public Consignment Rates
20%
18%
16%
15%
14%
Knives $500.00 and Under =
Knives $501.00 - $1,000.00 =
Knives $1,001.00 - $2,000.00=
Knives $2,001.00 - $3,000.00=
Knives $3,000.00 and up =
Knifemakers Consignment Rates - These are the standard rates applied to knives that are consigned to us by professional knifemakers. The commission generated from these rates is the only fee a knifemaker will pay for us to sell his knives for him. There are no "photography fees," "hosting fees," "listing fees," or any other fees of any kind for that matter. Our commission generated by a sale is payment for the duties entailed in professional knife consignment. This is how consignment should work. This is how we work. We will handle customer-shipping fees, bare the brunt of any credit merchant charges, and handle any other fees associated with the job once the knife is in our possession.
Consignment Rates w/ Profile - These lower rates are offered to knifemakers who decide to host a full-page profile on KnifeMakersDatabase.com. Combining consignment with a full-page profile is the ultimate way to shed the entire business side of your operation, having KMD handle it for you. Think about this. To build a successful business as a knifemaker, you need two main components - Great knives, and a great site.
As far as great knives, well, that would have to remain the responsibility of the knifemaker. But a great site... That we can handle. I won't get into the technical specifications of what a great site is and what it is not, but I will say that in the end, a great site must see a lot of traffic. A great site must be able to advertise the knifemaker behind it - to promote his work and his craft. It is burdened not only with the task of appealing to those who know it is there, but with appearing to those who do not know it is there as well. It must be informative, well written, and easy to navigate - to design and maintain such a site is truly a daunting task requiring tremendous amounts of both time and effort, and we haven't even begun to talk about optimization. Search engine optimization is a completely different dimension in website construction. Without it, those people we mentioned that don't know you're there are never going to find you, and if you don't know exactly what you're doing, you're going to pay a lot of money to have someone else do it for you.
A full-page profile at KnifeMakersDatabase.com is the solution to all of these problems. A full-page profile is primarily a site within a site so to speak. This page itself is thoroughly optimized to appear in search engine listings and is advertised throughout KMD. In this way, our visitors become your visitors. No one comes to KnifeMakersDatabase without knowing your page exists - and our site gets a lot of visitors.
Coupled with KMD Custom Knife Consignment, this feature enables you to have a full-fledged website business operation on the Internet without spending a second of your time. In effect, we become your agents. Not only do we build, host and optimize a fully interactive page where customers can come and buy your knives, but we go to the fullest to promote your work, advertise for your business and generate a maximum amount of traffic for your business as well.
In some cases, the sale of a single knife can cover the cost of this service for an entire year. As always, there are no hidden fees, setup charges or cancellation fees whatsoever. Full profile pages are also available for knifemakers and purveyors who have sites and / or do not need knife consignment, but would like to promote their work on a high traffic site. Click here to read more about how you can have a full-page profile on our site!
Public Consignment Rates - This set of consignment rates is for anybody who wishes to consign a knife / knives with us, other than knifemakers or purveyors. In general, we will accept any consignment job from any individual as long as the knife in question is a custom knife made by an identifiable maker. The person selling the knife may set the price he or she desires, but the price must be within reasonable range of the average going value for that type of knife.
KMD Custom Knife Consignment Policy
Thank your interest in our consignment program. This last section is here just to make clear our policies involving consignment and to tie together the other information in this section in order to provide you with everything you need to know.
Shipping - Our shipping policy is simple. The only shipping charges you pay are those to get the knives to us. We will take care of the rest.
Photography - There are no charges for photography
Hosting - Our hosting policy is this - Your knives will remain on our site until they are A) sold or until B) you want them back.
A) Once your knives are sold, you will receive payment minus our commision as explained before. As an added bonus, your sold knife along with its pictures and description will be moved to our gallery and remain on our site - a great way to advertise and promote your work.
B) In the even that your knife does not sell and you want it shipped back to you, you will have to pay a $20.00 fee per knife to cover the costs of shipping, insurance and other job functions involved with consignment. This fee is only applicable if you decide you want your knives returned.
Payment - Our payment (the commission generated by the applied consignment rate) will be subtracted from the final sale price of the knife. The remaining balance will be sent to you through paypal, check or money order. As stated before, there are no other charges.
If you have any other questions regarding our consignment program or if you're ready to get started and start saving time and money, please contact us at:
After having a great site and a great product which to sell on the site, getting people who are interested in what you have to offer to your site is the most important and perhaps the most difficult task. Aside from search engine optimization, successfully accomplishing the fore mentioned is done through advertising and promotion. Let's take a second to look at what is going on with the Internet today, why advertising is so important and how one goes about finding the right place to advertise their site.
The Problem:
On the Internet today, there are literally thousands of knife sites - makers, purveyors, suppliers, etc. When a person wants to buy a custom knife, what do they do? The first option is to go to a site they already know about. In this case, the sheer number of sites out there makes the chances of this being your site slim to say the least.
The second option is that the potential customer goes to a search engine and types in "custom knifemakers" or "custom knife collecting". If your site doesn't come up right away, you've lost a potential customer. Invariably, there are thousands upon thousands of potential keyword combinations a person may enter into a search engine, and these keywords only work if the site in question contains content precisely relevant to that search term. Even if your site is popping up for a few of them, there are likely thousands of relevant terms that your site does not come up for. (This is also the problem that exists when using pay per click advertising with google for example, not to mention how expensive it can get paying per click for those expensive keywords.)
This is because most custom knife sites, those of single makers and purveyors especially, are relatively small, containing mostly photos of the knives they have for sale and perhaps a few words about those knives. There just isn't enough content to ensure your site will gain the traffic you want, and herein lies the problem.
The Solution:
Enter KnifeMakersDatabase.com. KMD is a large site containing massive amounts of information regarding everything to do with custom knives. Our database contains over 600 custom knifemakers and information for each, articles, featured maker pages, knife galleries, and much more. We have not even yet begun to add all the content we plan on introducing and we are getting a great number of visitors due to our large number of relevant search returns and due to our linking network.
Try a few popular search terms on Google:
Custom Knifemakers (1st page,3rd result in 10 results per page)
Knifemakers (1st page, 2nd result)
Custom Knives for sale (1st result, 1st page in 10 results per page)
Buy Custom Knives (1st page, 2 results out of 10)
Our site comes up for the big keywords and (this is the important part) for thousands of other searches entered daily by people looking to buy custom knives. This is a case where the adage, "don’t ask one person for a million dollars. Ask a million people for one dollar," comes into play. While the big keywords generate a good number of hits, they are only entered into a search engine so many times a day. To pick up a huge amount of hits, you need to pop up for a lot of other smaller key phrases, and to do this, you're going to need a large amount of relevant content.
Why chance loosing all those potential buyers when you can let them know you're out there loud and clear by advertising on a site that grabs all those visitors entering all those different search terms? KnifeMakersDatabase.com gets bigger everyday and just about DOUBLES in traffic every month. We have gotten nothing but positive feedback from the knife community, blade forum and the knifemakers themselves. And it gets better...
What We Can Do For You:
At KnifeMakersDatabase.com, you don't pay per click. You pay one low price for a full year of service, whether you go for a single banner or a full-page profile. You don't get a little text link that "might pop up if someone types the right thing." You get multiple graphic banners and a full-page profile, where you can introduce yourself, your business, advertise all of your knives (yes, all of them) and even have a gallery to show off your archive knives / sold knives. This isn't a click-and-go add. It is a fully interactive site within a site that you may have customized in any way you like! If you're interested in making a drastic change that will get you the client base you want and the attention you deserve, all without so much as lifting a finger, then I'd like to take a moment to explain how our banners, listings and profile page advertising campaigns can work for you.
BANNERS
LISTINGS
PROFILES
CAMPAIGNS
Banners for Knifemakers & Purveyors
Our Banner advertising at KnifeMakersDatabase.com is second to none. There are several different types and sizes of banners to choose from as well as a large selection of placement options. There are also several different "banner packages" that we have organized in order to give you both a great boost as far as site traffic is concerned, and a great deal. You may have a banner you already use for your site that you would like to use on our site. That's not a problem. You also may not have a banner suitable for this purpose and need one designed and created for you. There's no problem there either. At KMD, we specialize in graphic design as well. In the case that you need a banner created for you, we will do so at no extra charge. (The “Hoffman Knives” banner was created by us, if you'd like an example of what we can do for you.) Let's take a minute to look over the types of banners available and the costs associated with KMD banner advertising.
Banner Types:
Ther are 3 major types of banners we offer at KnifeMakersDatabase.com.
TYPE 1 - The first type is a long, full-size banner that stretches across the screen horizontally. This is the most common and popular type of banner as it is the most pronounced and is sure to be seen by our visitors. This banner may be placed at the top or bottom of an existing page. An example of this type of banner can be seen in use at the top of this page.> Click Here
TYPE 2 - The second type of banner is a square shaped banner placed on the right or left side of a specified page. These banners are smaller than those previously mentioned, but they cost less too. These are excellent used in conjunction with the main large banner in order to spread your placement around the site while keeping costs at a minimum.
TYPE 3 - The third type of banner is a page-break banner. Basically, it is a large, brick-shaped banner that is placed between content on a page, or at the bottom of a page. This banner is an excellent choice to place on a content heavy page that will get a lot of attention (Within the database for example.) An example of this type of banner can be seen in use near the bottom of this page. > Click Here
Banner Rates:
The rates for these banner services fluctuate depending on what pages you would like to place them on, and will change over time. However, once you've signed up for a certain banner service, the price you've signed up for is the price you will pay so long as you remain our client. You will never be faced with increasing rates. This makes this service not only a great way to gain traffic, but a great investment as well depending on how soon you sign up. Our hit rate will only increase over time. As it does, our prices will to. More traffic is equivalent to more valuable advertising space. But the rates our clients sign up for are the rates they will keep, for as long as they wish to use this service.
KMD Banner Type 1 Rates
P.O.R.
174.95 / Yr. ($14.50 / mon.)
199.95 / Yr. ($16.50 / mon.)
149.95 / Yr. ($12.50 / mon.)
89.95 / Yr. ($7.50 / mon.)
KMD Banner Type 2 Rates
P.O.R.
N/A
99.95 / Yr. ($8.25 / mon.)
89.95 / Yr. ($7.50 / mon.)
49.95 / Yr. ($4.15 / mon!)
KMD Banner Type 3 Rates
P.O.R.
129.95 / Yr. ($10.50 / mon.)
149.95 / Yr. ($12.50 / mon.)
129.95 / Yr. ($10.50 / mon.)
74.95 / Yr. ($6.25 / mon.)
Single Banner Home Page =
Single Banner Database Section =
Single banner "For Sale" Sections =
Single Banner "Gallery Sections" =
Single Banner Anywhere Else =
One Type 1 Banner + 2 others (any) elsewhere = Total of selected from above minus 10%
One Type 1 Banner + 3 others (any) elsewhere = Total of selected from above minus 15%
One Type 1 Banner + 4 others (any) elsewhere = Total of selected from above minus 20%
One Type 1 Banner + 5 others (any) elsewhere = Total of selected from above minus 25%
Promotional Advertising Packages (Limited to First 10 Clients) Sign up now and start getting the traffic you need to succeed!
Like all of our services, banner advertising is customizable at your request in order to meet the needs of your business. We understand that a business is a dynamic and ever changing entity. In order for an organization like ours to provide services with maximum efficiency to businesses world wide, it is a necessity to be able to adapt and conform to the requirements of each individual business. Contact us and let us know what you're needs are and we're certain we can build a customized marketing and promotional plan that will help your business thrive and evolve to the next level.
As discussed before, KnifeMakersDatabase.com, due to it's sheer volume, it's level of search engine optimization and it's variety of subject material concerning custom knives and custom knifemaking receives a high level of traffic from search engines consisting mainly of people looking to buy custom knives. There are hundreds of keyword combinations or search phrases that bring our visitors here, and while we do sell custom knives, we will never have everything that everyone is looking for all at once!
Let us direct those visitors searching for knives that we may not have to someone who does - you! By having your site included in our purveyor's section, you can greatly increase your average traffic and in turn increase your total volume of sales. Being listed in our Purveyor's section costs only $300.00 a year - less than a cup of coffee a day. The cost of this investment can pay for itself in the sale of just a single knife in many cases. If your ready to take your client base to the next level, let us send you the traffic you need to do just that.
Check this link to see how your site can be listed where all our visitors can find you:
Now take a second to open a Google or Yahoo search engine page and type in "Custom Knife Purveyors" or even just "Knife purveyors." Are you on the first page? If you're not, you’re probably loosing customers. You'll find that KnifeMakersDatabase.com is listed on the first page - for both terms. By being included in our Purveyor Listings, you will not only receive traffic from the hundreds of visitors who come to our site daily, but through those directly searching for knife purveyors by the means of a search engine.
At $300.00 a year, what do you have to loose? If only one person a day finds your link and clicks on it, that’s 365 more potential customers a year than you had before, at a mere .80 cents a lead - and that's only an example. You'll find that you'll receive far more visitors from us than that. Being listed on our site is not an expense; it's an investment - and one investment you will not regret.
1 full year of inclusion in our Purveyor Listings - $149.95.00 (.40 cents a day!)
Sign up for 2 years now and pay only $249.95 - That's $50.00 off! (Available to First 10 Clients only)
Our most unique and most effective advertising and promotional feature at KnifeMakersDatabase.com are our full-page profiles available to both purveyors and knifemakers. These pages go far beyond the normal realm of advertising through other methods as described above. While banners are a cost efficient way of gaining more traffic and in turn increasing your total number of paying customers, they do not do much at all unless they are clicked on. Full-page profiles on KMD are a sure way to grab the attention of not a percentage, but every single person who visits KnifeMakersDatabase.com.
Unlike a banner, a full-page profile is dynamic - that is, constantly changing to meet the present needs of your business. Within the full-page profile, all of the most important information on your entire site is summed up on a single, fully interactive page, allowing visitors and clients alike to take in all of the information you wish to convey to them at a single glance. This is extremely important, as you may or may not have heard before, that statistically, you have less then 5 seconds to make an impression - to ensure a visitor / potential client that you have information, content or the product relevant to that person's search. Failure to do this is one of the biggest reasons for lost sales on the Internet. Simply put, you will be amazed at what a full-page profile can do for your overall profit margin.
New Problems Require New Solutions
This is a new and innovative type of advertising created by Mr. Clements as a project while studying a course dubbed "business in cyberspace" during his college career. The scenario given involved the problem just described above - that in general, people are impatient, and naturally, do not want to waste their time. No one does. The thought, "It'll probably be a waste of time," that runs through a persons head just prior to clicking on a banner, is the main reasons so many people do not click on banners in the first place. Statistically, one in ten people will click on a banner. This makes KMD a good place for banners because of it's high volume of traffic, but again, no matter how many visitors a site gets, you are still only getting one out of ten people. Sure this is an improvement, but we can do better.
The goal was to create a form of Internet advertising that would not only gain maximum exposure for the advertiser, but would actually be enjoyable to the visitor / potential client as well! A form of advertising that doesn't feel like an advertisement... Sounds impossible, no? The truth is, that not only is it possible - it works wonders! This is a new, hybrid breed of high-performance advertising, designed for an industry whose client base demands nothing less. It allows you to advertise to a large, targeted audience, without making them feel you're advertising at all. We know how well it works. The
numbers (solid mathematical evidence, unlike so much other "make a million with the click of a mouse" hype) tell us so. It's time you found out too.
A Real World Business Scenario
Take just a moment to listen to a true success scenario dealing with KnifeMakersDatabase.com and one of our clients. One of our clients came to us a little over 3 months ago, in February 2007. He'd been a purveyor of mid- to mostly high-end custom knives for a long time and had a really nice site on the Internet as well - good design, great photography, everything one would think they need to run a successful business on the Internet.
He came to us back in February, interested in our full-page profile feature mentioned in our F.A.Q. section. He decided to take the plunge, so to speak, and we set him up on our site. Within a little over three months, we brought over 800 visitors to the profile page alone. This doesn't even include the number of people directed to his site by banners. You have to remember as well, that back at the time, KMD was practically just born. As stated in an email from him, "The numbers just keep going up, Up, UP!" And that's only half the story.
Our client had put together a selection of 82 new knives that he wanted to sell. He put these knives up on his site and then informed us of the update so that we could adjust his profile accordingly. We made note of the changes and then posted the new knives on his profile page. We also sent out a "new knives alert" email that we email to our clients and those who leave their email addresses with us on our mailing list. Now it was time to wait for visitors to come by and purchase the knives - but not for long.
The next day he called us and told us that he had sold 65 (sixty-five) knives - in a single day. This was an incredible event. Asked if he had ever seen that kind of volume before, his response was, "Never." This is what we want to do for you and your business. We can't guarantee an exact number, but we can guarantee that you'll see a difference.
What is a Full-Page Profile?
In it's most basic form, a full-page profile is a site within a site. It consists of three main sections; an area about the purveyor or knifemaker whose profile it is, an area of the knives available by that person and a sold / archive knives section. It takes all of the most important information from a site and condenses it into a single page, where all of this information can be accessed by a visitor, instantaneously.
The first section is simply a biography about the knifemaker or purveyor. This consists of a picture and all of the information relevant to your business that you would like to communicate with your customers. This part may give information about yourself, your goals and objectives and the types of knives you make or deal in.
The second, and most important section, your knives for sale, consists of two subsections - featured knives and all other knives. You may have up to 9 featured knives in a 3x3 grid, and 45 other knives displayed in a slide show format with 4 slides containing 15 knives each. This is the standard set-up for our basic fee and accommodates most businesses. You may increase the number of knives indefinitely, however, at an extra charge. Every knife on the page is linked directly back to the area on your site where more information on that knife is available. The featured knives will be listed with their item numbers and give visitors an option to go directly to your purchase form to order them immediately.
The third section is the sold knives / archive section. Your sold knives are moved to this section in order to form a gallery that allows customers to see the type and style of knives you carry.
Aside from it's advertising and promotional advantages, a full-page profile can save you unbelievable amounts of time while increasing your profits. As mentioned before in the consignment section, your profile can be coupled with consignment to create a full fledged site that we will run for you! All you have to do is send your knives. We'll take care of the rest!
Please take a moment to visit this link and see what we can do for you:
What we do is create a whole page consisting of your profile (You can send us what you would like us to include about yourself), A large graphic link leading to your site, pictures of your "Currently Available Featured Knives," including descriptions and prices (We will update this frequently - rotating the knives people will see, removing ones that have been sold, etc.), up to 4 slide shows of your other available knives (each individual picture leads back to that knife on your site), a gallery of your previously sold knives, and any other links / information you would like us to host such as customer testimonials, etc. In other words, your page is not just a full-page ad that is created and left alone, but it an interactive profile that will be updated frequently and personalized at your request.
The "Whole Page" deal gives you the entire package. You get a link on our home page leading to your profile page within our site. You will be included in our "Purveyors Section" listed in the main navigation bar (this appears on every page). Signing up for the whole page feature also allows you to select a page within our site to include a banner to your site on, and links to your profile page appear in our “for sale” and "gallery" sections as well. In this manner, there is no way a visitor will come to KnifeMakersDatabase.com and not be aware of your site.
Now Is The Time To Act
Now is the perfect time to act. The current market for custom knives, especially through Internet sales, is at an all time high. If you look at the actual time that the Internet has been around in it's current form, you'll realize that custom knives as an "industry," is relatively young as compared to so many other industries that have been around for literally hundreds of years. In fact, the phrase, "Custom Knife Industry," was only created to accommodate the fact that, due to the Internet, it has become exponentially larger and now includes a slew of specialists. Photographers, webmasters, magazine editors, graphic designers, search engine optimists, manufacturing plants, wood production and stabilization plants, steel plants, machine manufacturers and suppliers - well, you get the idea.
Years ago, knifemaking used to be simple. If you had the skill and some resources, you could make a decent living by making knives and opening a shop to sell your work out of. But because of the drastic changes that have occurred in such a relatively short amount of time, all that has changed. Knifemaking as a business is not just about making knives anymore. Making great knives is only one part of making a successful business for yourself.
The other part is solid promotion and proper advertising. Many knifemakers we know make the mistake of thinking that having a website solves this problem. Having a website is a must to succeed in this industry today, but to put it bluntly, having a website is not advertising - especially when people can't find it. If you're not advertising on a site targeted for clients within your industry that has a high rate of traffic, then you are losing money.
Now we can't make knives. That's just not what we do, and if you asked us to make you a knife, I can guarantee you won't be satisfied with it. But promotion and advertising - That is not only what we do, it is what we excel at. A thriving business succeeds because it chooses to construct itself through the selection of only the finest counterparts within it's industry. As far as advertising & promotion, we know no equal, performance wise or price wise.
Now is the time to act - not after this market has peaked and become so flooded with competitors that it is too late to do anything within reasonable financial limits. Our rates are as low as they will ever be, and as spaces are filled and our hit count rises, our space becomes limited and more valuable. Signing up now will not only help you succeed at taking your business to the next level but will lock in the rates you sign up for as well!
Rates
The cost for this service is $129.95 a month - This includes the entire setup of everything listed above as well as the constant maintenance of your profile (knives will be changed at your request or upon your informing us that knives pictured have been sold). There is no extra charge for setting up your profile. We will also keep tabs on how many people visit your profile monthly and share this information with you. Payment can be made on an annual or biannual basis and you may cancel at any time - there is no contract holding you to our site longer than you wish and there are no extra cancellation fees. What you see here is what you get - no extra charges - no increases - just true, honest service.
Our rates as of now are at a very low, promotional level and will increase in the future, but signing up with us now will assure that your rates are locked in and not subject to change. Our space for available profile pages is limited, and two are already taken.
We are under constant construction, meaning we are adding material and content concerning the world of custom knife collecting on a daily basis. Redesigning our database has been the biggest challenge (the beginning of this can be seen in the database, knifemakers A-M pages) but the sheer amount of content has drawn many more visitors. We estimate that upon completion of this project, our current hit rate will double itself, if not triple. At this point, we will no longer be able to offer you this service at these rates, so remember; the time to act is now.
Our goal is to attract as many visitors as possible. Not just any visitors, but people interested in the world of custom knife collecting. The simple truth is that the more hits we get, the more clients you get, and that is exactly what we are striving for. At KnifeMakersDatabase.com, we take the success of the businesses and organizations we represent very seriously. As agents for your business, we will go to lengths to ensure your success that others just simply won't.
"At KnifeMakersDatabase, We Keep You Looking Sharp."
At KnifeMakersDatabase.com, we can design an advertising campaign specifically designed to compliment the needs of your business. We know that every business is unique - like fingerprints, no matter how similar, there are really no two businesses that are exactly identical. Each is it's own individual operation, whose infrastructure thrives on a series of different, integrated functions, which no matter how mundane or unique, are important to the success of that business. By analyzing these various functions we can gather information on how a business is run, what is being done to advertise the company as a whole, what is being done to promote the products of that company and what the final result is from the combined activity of these functions.
The most important factors that result as an answer to this equation are the time and money being spent to facilitate the business, and the profits being returned to the business. The most common problem is that too much time is spent in areas that aren't attributed to the construction / obtaining of the actual product to be sold. This is a case where time is literally money. Another common problem is that too much money is spent on advertising or promotional efforts that produce to small a return. Advertising is essential to a moneymaking operation. Word of mouth is always good, and if your company is up to par, you will get traffic from word of mouth alone - but the simple truth is that if you're not advertising, you're client base is only at half it's potential - if even that.
Using the services described up to this point (and after) in conjunction with each other can produce a custom campaign structured to save you both time and money and produce returns that you may not be able to even imagine. I know how it is to feel pessimistic about advertising. There are never any guarantees and it always costs more than you want to spend (if you even want to spend anything at all!) That feeling though is exactly the reason KnifeMakersDatabase.com, Corp. was created. No one knows the industry like a company whose members are all custom knife collectors, enthusiasts (and practically addicts) themselves.
You cannot imagine how many calls a day we get about advertising here or hosting a banner there or "fine-tuning" our SEO optimization (They came up with this term because they know when they look us up that we are already beyond optimized.) We know how you must feel by now. But KMD is a company based on just that. We are a personal, privately run operation that caters to one industry and one industry only - The Custom Knife Industry. We're not here to advertise for just anyone, too make a ton of money by emptying the pockets of anyone we can. To be an expert at anything - especially at something as far and wide spread as advertising, promotion and sales, you have to concentrate on one particular area. We choose to concentrate on what we love. The money that comes of it is a bonus. Are reward is that we love what we do. Ask the next sales rep from "Bob Smith's SEO Company," if they love what they do!
This is so important because it allows us to get close to our clients. We know what they want to see. We know what they're looking for. And it is because of this that we know how to structure an advertising campaign for your business that will make you look great, feel great and make more money too!
What a Campaign is and How It Works
A Campaign is simply a combination of the services we offer used in conjunction with each other. Which services we suggest you combine is based on two factors - your needs and your budget. Whether you're looking to get more visitors to your site, promote a new knife, increase your rate of sales or out-source job functions such as photography, shipping or sales, we know that we can meet your needs. We will also do our absolute best to meet your budget.
We understand how much a knifemaker has to go through to sell a single knife for profit. First he has to make the knife. Sounds simple, but most people, especially those outside the industry, have no idea what goes into making custom knives on a scale capable of generating enough income for a living. When you consider that first, the knifemaker has to buy the necessary materials to make the knife. ) We’re under the assumption here that he already has the necessary tools). Then to consider all the steps of forging a blade, heat treating, grinding, tempering, possible hot bluing and etching, finishing - and if it's Damascus, you're talking even more work. Then comes the handle. A knifemaker must be a person of multiple skills. Processes such as carving, fluting, inlays, engraving... Each added step takes more and more time.
If you want a sheath - more time. You want engraving - more time... Finally, you have a single knife, finished and suitable for sale. Hours and hours have been spent on a single product and we haven't even begun to consider photography, uploading, resizing, entering all this information online - You'd be amazed to think about how long it would take to photograph and host 10 knives like we do - even when it's being done by people who don't miss a single key-stroke.
Eventually, you end up at a point where there is just no more time. When you have no more time, you cannot make any more knives. Now you're stuck at a point where your profit margin has hit a glass ceiling - You can see the next level, but you just can't / don't know how to get there. That's where KnifeMakersDatabase.com comes in.
The only feasible way to push your profit margin to the next level is to be able to satisfy the demand from more customers. The only way to do this is to have more time. Obviously, you can't add hours to a day. But you can hand over those tasks not essential to the actual making of your knives to a company with the proper resources and the know-how. Of course you're concerned with who you're going to allow to do this. You don't want just any company to be in charge of how you look to the outside world. You want professionals within the industry. You want people who know your customers inside out. You want us. You want KMD.
Let's say you've reached the limit of how many knives you can make, photograph, host, sell, ship, etc. on a daily basis. Now look at our site and what we do. Go through our client profiles and our "knives for sale section." Now imagine having a profile like that combined with knives like those pictured in the "for sale section." Imagine, on a daily, weekly, monthly - even yearly basis, how much time you would save if you could simply finish each knife and ship it to us to be hosted on your own profile. This combination of services is the ultimate in both advertising and time saving capabilities - and you won't spend a fortune doing it. In most cases, the sale of two or three knives can cover your costs for our services for an entire year. Think about it. Take the time to do the math and really think just how much time you could save and how many more knives you could make. We are here for you when you decide you're ready to move to the next level. We'll be waiting. It's all up to you now.
Rates
The rates for combining services get cheaper and cheaper the more services you decide to combine. The cost for a full-page profile for instance is $129.95 a month. If you decide to combine this with consignment, then there is a 5% discount on the profile plus a set of rates that are lower then the rates for those with a profile. Basically, each package is custom designed for best effect, so you'll have to call us up and work with us to figure out what it is you'll need and how much it will cost. We know it will be worth it for you and we'll do our best to be as affordable as possible. This is always a concern for is because we know it's a concern to you. What we can say is that we will always be honest and fair and try and save you as much as possible.
