Hey, you don't have to apologize to me, I was just transmitting my feeling as a potential customer reading the page...I actually assumed that the feeling I got from that page was not what you intended to express--so no worries! On the contrary, sorry if my criticism was too strongly worded, and kudos to you for taking it so graciously.

Building a better landing page for the video button is high on my to-do list. You're totally right about that. When you clicked that button, what information would you have liked to see?

Good question. Generally speaking I was interested in learning more about the knives. Seeing the animated blacksmith I wasn't sure if I would get a video or not...not sure if others had that impression as well. Specifically though, I was expecting either a video about knives (not saying this is good, would prefer not to have a video actually) or a page like the "Knives 101" page--something to guide me a bit as to 1) why I want Japanese knives vs. (or in addition) to anything else, and 2) which ones in particular I may be interested in.

Would you theoretically be more interested in two knives that I've paired as a set than you would be in selecting those two knives individually?

Well, my main point in suggesting the knives as a set is that overall, I don't have a great sense of what to look for in Japanese knives--do I want a Gyuto only? Gyuto + Santoku? Etc. And your suggestions in the "Styles..." section in the "Knives 101" page were really awesome--I would love to immediately be able to say, "okay, they are suggesting a A and a B knife, and these two are in the low/mid/high-range and that's what I'm willing to pay, so let me directly click on this and they are both added to my shopping cart and here's my credit card thank you very much." That is, I think you could potentially sell the shit out of these simply by making it easy for people to understand what a good single choice and a good pair and a good threesome is and to add to their cart directly from the "Knives 101" page (or a page like it...maybe a better/alternate way is to have some kind of guidance directly on the knives product listing itself? "Looking for a general use knife? Try this Santoku for a mid-range option, or this higher-end version, and pair it with..." etc.)

I don't want people to get stuck on text walls and give up, but I certainly see how it would be helpful to have pieces be a part of your path through the shop. Any suggestions as to placement?

Yeah, that's a fair point...I don't have a great sense of that. My instinct here is to do some testing/experimenting--see how some kind of guidance on the knife listing itself works, see what kind of results you get when you let people directly add knives to the shopping cart from the "Knives 101" page, etc. Maybe you have a separate "Start Here" page that simply gives people some examples of good options in various ranges and a way to add them directly to their cart. It's worth assuming that there are people like me who go right to the "Knives 101" page to learn more, and there are people who want to browse right away but would respond to guidance on the product listings themselves...and probably stuff I'm not thinking of as well.

In any case, good luck with this and I hope my responses were helpful. I'll be keeping my eye out for your site and I look forward to seeing it grow and succeed further!