Thread: Please Have a Look at my Website

I am currently working on my first website, and have found BlueVoda an excellent program to use. It took a while to find my way about, but plenty of reading of the various forum threads meant that many of the queries I had were answered there. I am grateful to those contributors who regularly post with tips and information for the benefit of others. I personally found Navaldesign's instructions on using i-frames invaluable, and Bether's informative e-book on search engine optimization was also extremely helpful.

My son and I are creating our website based on his meetings with 'celebrities'. It is not a commercial site in any way, so high rankings with search engines to generate 'business' is not an aim. Nevertheless, in the interests of doing the job properly, we have tried to pay due regard to things like meta tags etc.

The site is coming along nicely, and although the background research for each 'celebrity' does takes time to do, it is also a very interesting part of the project. I am keen to know at this stage how the site is looking on other people's computers, and if any problems are evident. We would welcome any comments that you may have on what we have done so far. Bear in mind this is our first website attempt!

The idea is that by clicking on to a name on the menu list on the left, you will be taken straight to the page. All the names in the 'James Bond' list have now been completed and the links should be working. The other names should be completed over the next three or four months, all being well.

The site has been designed like this for flexibility, so that it is easy to add further names to the menu and just create the appropriate page. The pages have also been 'standardised' to make everything look consistent although the positioning of text and images on each page will vary.

The 'home page' is somewhat 'temporary' at this stage and will be revised later, probably when the other pages are completed.

Perhaps you could log on and tell me what you think. Many thanks.

www.ciaranbrown.com

Hi Ian,

Very good job, i am in a bit of a rush so I am sure people will have more time than me to look through. On first glance, very good job.

And wow all those famous people he has met. Must be a real hobby of his.

Well done and good luck, when I have more time I will have a good look around as it looks an interesting site.

Regards Paul

Looking good. Some of your links are not working especially the second column. glad to see you've found something you enjoy and are so passionate about.

For 15 you're doing a pretty good job at your first site and i personally think you could go far. good luck with the site and your future star hunting.

Great job and very interesting!

Impressive, congratulations to your son.
-Consider centering your pages.
-When you decide on a home page, remember to title it, don't leave it as "index"

Good job, lots of work. Check your links

A great "personal" site to be proud of!

Despite the regular tweaks that will eventually dealt with, I found the format well-thought, easily navigable (intention), and uncluttered......all big scores in my book.

I agree with Vasili. Nice layout, easy navigation. two thumbs up for a a very interesting personal site.

Firstly, a big 'thank you' to those of you who have taken the time to look at our website and have made comments - my son and I are encouraged that we are clearly progressing along the right lines.

Karel - yes, meeting these people is a hobby of his and gives him good material for his website. Do look in again when you have more time.

Mook - thanks for the encouragement; the second column links will work when we have set up the appropriate pages (much of the site is still 'under construction')

Bethers - we have learnt a lot from your various postings on the message board, thank you.

Bill2006 - The pages have all been centred now and the appearance is much better. We will remember your advice when we finalise the 'home' page. Thanks for the encouragement.

Sharon - Thanks. The links that don't work yet are the ones where we haven't yet constructed the appropriate page. Most of the names in the first column are 'active' - we are about to start on the second column!

Vasili and Moto - many thanks, your encouraging comments are very much appreciated.

We hope that you will continue to look in again over the next three or four months, as we hope to have the site completed by the summer. Any further comments or suggestions are always welcome.

Ian & Ciaran Brown

www.ciaranbrown.com

Well, it's nine months ago that I posted details of the website that my son and I were creating in BlueVoda. We had some very positive feedback for which we were extremely grateful. It has been a steep learning curve for us, but also great fun as we found BlueVoda so user-friendly, and a delight to use.

Our site has now developed into something fairly substantial, with well over a hundred pages, all accessed from an iframe menu of names. The benefits of constructing the site in this way are obvious, as now we only need to add any new names just once in the menu and it then appears on every other page.

The Home page has also been redone - and it is easy to make any changes (eg 'latest addition', links to other sites etc.) that we want.

Although it is a 'personal' site, we have tried to make it look 'professional' with things like favicons just adding a finishing touch.

The site remains ongoing (quite a few more celebrities still to do!) although we think it now has a 'finished website' look. All the many links seem to work, and the pages load up pretty quickly most of the time. Some pages are quite simple in layout, but others are more complex as we played about with lots of different pieces of text and images (eg pages like Ron Perlman and Charlie Higson were a nice 'challenge'!)

Ciaran and I would again welcome your comments, as we are looking to try and make the website even better. We would like reassurance that the site works well in different browsers and resolutions (as we have only seen it in Internet Explorer), and that we haven't made any glaring mistakes.

Please log on and let us know what you think. Many thanks!

www.ciaranbrown.com

Congrats! That's hard work putting all this information and pictures together!
One thing: in some links you go to (like Nobby Stiles), if you check all the way down on the left side you'll see the picts overlapping some links.(on this case his autograph). Is that the way is supposed to be?

Cheers,

the site looks very good! I don't know if this was mentioned before, but I believe you overlooked putting a link back to the HOME page on all the other pages. I just clicked over a dozen links looking at pictures and reading stuff and realized that there was no "Home" or "Back Home" link/button anywhere. I don't suppose that's an easy fix at this point, but it might make sense if you put anything on the homepage that people might want to go back to after they look through the pages. Not the end of the world though if left as is... just for ease of navigation.

The iframe works great for your site. I don't recommend that for professional sites that need to be read by se's - instead I recommend using php pages as we outline elsewhere - but this works GREAT for you.

I remember when I first looked at the site and now - so much more - and so well done!

I do agree that you should add a link back to your home page on the site - some of us go clicking of it - and haven't read all of it - want to go back :)

You should be proud of yourself! And it looks like you're still having lots of fun meeting celebs.

NZBR - Many thanks for looking, and for your feedback. Hard work yes, but very interesting and great fun!

The list of names has been lengthened since many of the earlier pages were constructed so minor layout adjustments were required to some pages where an overlap occurred. Nobby Stiles was one that we missed!! Thanks for spotting it - it's now on the list to be corrected!

www.ciaranbrown.com

What a great site Ian!
Interesting, informative, easy on the eye, easy to navigate. It could end up being one of those 'cult' sites that gets loads of hits even though that was never the intention.

Billie Piper has an overlap too in case you didn't know.

I only have one concern - do you have copywrite permission for all of the photos you have used? As your site is not commercial, it may not be too much of a disaster if you don't, but if your site ever goes commercial it should be a concern for you.

When I went to the site using Firefox the names on the left are garbled. It's almost like there are two separate lists and one is on top of the other. But when I opened it in Internet Explorer it looks great. I have no idea what would cause this - might be my FF browser?

Hester - Many thanks for your comments. I have now added a link to the home page, at the end of the list of names, so it has only had to be done once, although it does appear on every page. As I didn't want this link to show on the home page as well, I added a small iframe (linked to a blank white page) on the home page, and placed it over the top of the link - hey presto the link has gone! I don't know if this is how you are supposed to do it but it seems to have worked.
BTW, I had a look at your new site and it looks terrific!!

Bethers - Thanks for all the encouragement, it is greatly appreciated. I agree about the home page link and I have now put one there (please see my reply to Hester above). We have some more great celebs that we have already met, still to add to the site (I hope you will get a 'Buzz' from the American astronauts!!), but you'll have to check back from time to time to see them as we don't want to put up any more links that just lead to 'pages under construction'!

AJ113 - Thanks for having a look at our site - yes, it would be good to get a lot of people looking at it. We have StatCounter installed on every page so that we can see the visits that are made. It is amazing how many visitors come to the site via a 'Google search' for something, and then browse lots of other pages just out of curiosity. We can also see that we are getting some 'regular' visitors who keep popping back to see what's been added. I'm pleased you noticed the Billie Piper page - I'll get that sorted out soon. The photographs (apart from the many that are my own) are a bit of a vexed question but as there is nothing commercial about the site (and never likely to be), I am not too worried. I will add a disclaimer to the home page and indicate that if anyone objects to a photograph being used then it can be removed. Having said that, I have cleared a number of images with copyright owners who seem more than happy for me to use them.

jcaywood - I appreciate you letting me know about the Firefox problem. Perhaps you could try it again on another day and see if the problem is still there. If it is, can you please let me know? It sounds as though the browser may have loaded in the menu page twice and then displaying it one on top of the other (if such a thing is possible). As you say, all seems to be fine in Internet Explorer.

Thanks again to you all!

Ian & Ciaran

www.ciaranbrown.com

Funny your comment about American astronauts to me. You (and most of the world) wouldn't know this, but a big part of the space program is in Huntsville, AL - and I spend part of every year living near there.

In fact, while I've toured our space facilities in TX and FL - I have never done so here - and was just telling someone that we don't do what's in our backyards. Therefore I will do so this winter.

I will be back to check out your site occasionally. I love it - and I know it's a labor of love for you - meeting the people AND butting it together here.

Oh, and I'm not jcaywood - but I just opened your site in firefox and it looked fine. Not sure what he saw.

Great site! Can't see anyone disagreeing with that.

You met Billie Piper???? You have no idea how envious I am!!!

Mind you I have an unusual claim to fame....

When I was a truck driver delivering pet food for a wholesaler around the UK, on one of my London shifts I was unloading two pallets from the back of my truck when one of them fell over. Seeing this, a gentleman shouted at me from the street 'Would I like a hand'? I said yes before I even turned around as I thought it was the owner of the pet shop, but to my surprise it was Michael Palin from 'Month Python' Fame! As much as I wanted to I couldn't really get him to hump 60 25kg sacks into the shop now could I...?

Marincky - many thanks for your reply. We very much appreciate the compliment coming from someone such as yourself who is clearly well-versed in website creation.

Yes, Billie was a great one to meet (and photograph!!) but we were part of a very long queue!!

Strangely enough, we just missed Michael Palin recently. We were at an event in the Milton Keynes Centre and only learnt later that he was also there at WH Smiths doing a book signing! We have got Python Terry Jones though, to go on the site at some stage.

Ian

www.ciaranbrown.com

Hi Ian,

I would see Michael fairly often as the pet shop was in Hampstead and so 99% of the time I was delivering there I would see either him or many others... trying to remember who now... Bill Oddie, Sinead O Connor, Boy George, Twiggy, Dale Winton... oh too many to remember... but by far Michael was the best as he was so down to earth. He would pass me and say goodmorning and you got the feeling it was genuine and he didn't make you feel he was looking down on you as most stars do! Just an ordinary guy, you know what I mean?

I watch all his 'around the world' documentaries and if I was allowed a couple of hours in the presence of a famous person (apart from Billie) I would probably choose Michael as he must be full of so many interesting stories, from Python through to his travels, a very clever man.

Marincky - I couldn't agree more about Michael Palin's TV documentaries - quite fascinating and he does appear to be, as you say, such 'an ordinary guy'. We'll no doubt catch up with him some day!

We've met all sorts - but most celebs are friendly and occasionally they really 'make your day'. We recently met comedian Ken Dodd after one of his usual marathon shows and he spent 20 minutes with Ciaran and I, telling us jokes as well as talking seriously about his work in theatre and his love of Charles Dickens. Talk about making us feel really special!! Wonderful man!

He'll be up on our website soon!

Cheers - Ian

www.ciaranbrown.com

Hi, a big well done on your site. Would love to meet a few that are in the listings like Sir Norman Wisdom for a laugh & Sir Ranulph Fines & Ellen MacArthur for a chat. Not sure if Ellen & Ranulph should be listed under Supernatural, lol.
You have spent a lot of time & hard work giving the visitor the best experience in having a site with good content & fast loading pages. There are a few pages with overlapping text & images in Fire Fox & the header image has been stretched & become distorted. But otherwise a really well made & interesting site.
On another note! I just finished watching the program “Around the world in 80 days” & couldn’t believe that the London Reform club wouldn’t let him in as part of his completed trip, or any of his family was there to meet him. (Or did I miss something)

Good luck with the site.

Originally Posted by Collectors-info

On another note! I just finished watching the program “Around the world in 80 days” & couldn’t believe that the London Reform club wouldn’t let him in as part of his completed trip, or any of his family was there to meet him. (Or did I miss something)

Good luck with the site.

No this apparently happened. I too found that strange.

Hi Chris (Collectors-info) - thank you for the very positive response to our website! It is interesting that we originally set out to amuse ourselves, by just setting up a few webpages to put Ciaran's images. We surprise ourselves seeing what it is growing into!!

I am addressing the 'overlapping images' problem - there were far more of them than I originally thought but I should have them all corrected in a day or two.

jcaywood mentioned a problem with the site in Firefox but Bethers indicated in her post that all seemed to be fine. Could it be that you are looking at it in a different resolution to the one in which the site is set up? If it looks like more than a temporary blip, perhaps you could let me know.

Ciaran loved meeting Sir Norman and is very proud of the photo of them together in their tuxedos (see the page)! As for Dame Ellen (just a slip of a girl!) and Sir Ran (not very approachable!) yes, I'm almost tempted to move them both into the other category!!

If we do eventually catch up with Palin, then we'll at least have one question to ask him!!

Cheers - Ian

www.ciaranbrown.com

It is a while since I received your many helpful comments about the website that my son Ciaran and I are creating, and I thought this would be an opportune time to update you about its progress. The site now has 133 pages, in addition to the index (home) page, and will continue to grow over the months to come!!

I have included a link to 'Stat Counter' on every page, and this has given me some intriguing statistics about the site. In the whole of 2007, there were 3,338 visitors and 11,648 page loads, but in just 4 months (Jan - April) of 2008, the site has had 4,067 visitors and 13,981 page loads.

This is very gratifying, and partly due, I think, to some high search engine rankings we are getting on Google. 'Stat Counter' indicates what people have typed into Google, and recent examples have included the following:

Trina Parks - our site came up No. 11 out of 422,000
Ken Wallis - our site came up No. 19 out of 340,000
PhD RAF - our site came up No. 1 out of 190,000
Derren Nesbitt actor - our site came up No. 9 out of 5,740
Jeremy Lloyd Gorden Kaye - our site came up No. 1 out of 103,000
Daniel Craig with Mads Mikkelsen - our site came up No. 14 out of 202,000

I have to say that I closely followed Bethers' advice on search engine optimisation and am quite staggered by results such as these! Thanks Bethers!!!

Visitors have come from many parts of the world, but when the pages are translated into different languages, it does play havoc with the page layout!! I suppose that is something that happens to most websites though.

Gradually, links are being added to, and from, other sites, and this clearly helps us to get extra visitors. 'Stat Counter' indicates that a number of visitors return, on a regular basis, to see what additions we have made. Some visitors reach our site via a Google search, and then stay, often up to an hour or more, browsing many of the other pages.

I couldn't be happier with the way that the site has progressed, and I have recommended BlueVoda to several other people who are now creating sites of their own with it.

I sense that quite a sizeable oak tree has grown from the little acorn planted 18 months ago!!

Cheers - Ian

www.ciaranbrown.com

Your site is great.. really easy to navigate, only notice one minor thing that needs adjusting, and that is the Welcome to my website, it overlaps the text below.. Really enjoyed reading about Mickey Rooney.. I met him also.

Well done!

Hi, I like this site & always enjoy a browse, but possibly think it may do better in the SE rankings if the php method was put in place on the pages for the menus instead of the iframe. It would then let the SE’s see the links in the menu on which they can’t at the mo. But I believe this means starting again with rankings when changing to php. (But not sure) I will pop a post up to find out.
If you go to many of your pages there is no ranking. But go to the menu page, you have a Google of 1 out of ten.
Because your site is well put together, it’s actually not a bad job to change it over at sometime & would involve using the page you use in the iframe & having to republish all pages, but in .php..
I also notice that some of the pages have the menu overlapping the images & text of your page at the lower level when viewed in Firefox, & if the menu is to get even longer it might be even more reason to switch to php. You could leave the left hand side for menus & possibly some ads & the right hand side as it is now, but just a little longer.
Good luck.

Pickels - thanks for your comments. The 'welcome to my website' looks OK to me on both IE and Firefox, perhaps you could have another look. Maybe you are using a different screen resolution to me and that might account for it. Yes, Mickey Rooney is a legend, and he is still going strong!

Chris (Collectors-info) - thanks for your suggestions and glad you still enjoy a browse - if space travel is your thing, we have just finished astronaut and artist Alan Bean (4th man on the moon).

php. is something I know very little about although Bethers referred to it (in an earlier post on this thread) as being a better method for professional and commercial websites to get higher SE rankings. I had a look at navaldesign's thread about the php. method but it struck me as being a mammoth task to alter all my pages, especially as I wouldn't be too confident about what I was doing!

Is it just a case of renaming everything with .php instead of .html and then republishing each page?

I am not too unhappy with the way things are at the moment. For example, yesterday I typed Mary Stavin into Google (Stavin was the 1977 Miss World who had a fling with footballer George Best!) and our site came 10th on the list out of a total of 22,600 entries, so clearly the Google 'bots' are finding something!

I have just realised, though, that the menu (the list of names/links that take you to each page, and is the part of our website that uses an iframe) has no meta tags. I presume that if I include all the names as meta tags this would help - am I right? I would also like to know how I can find out about how my pages are 'ranked' (eg how do you know my menu page has a 1 out of 10 for Google) - is there a website that can work this out for you?

Can you please indicate one or two specific pages on my website where the menu overlaps the text and images below it? I can't find examples on either Firefox or IE but that doesn't mean that the errors are not there!! I am aware that as the site grows, the menu will lengthen, and minor layout changes will be required for some pages. Again, could it be the case that different screen resolutions can cause this sort of problem?

You can tell that I am still very 'novicey' at all this, but any help is much appreciated!!

Ian

www.ciaranbrown.com

Hi, if you want to change over to php it will certainly help your rankings & its not that bad to do. Some others have changed over & said it only took a few weeks for the SE's to catch up & found they were much better off.
Have a look at this basic site that is in php & if you want i can email the pages to you so you might get an idea on how it works. Its very basic & made up with tables, & three areas of php (header,left side, footer) that is imported so should load easily.
Important NOTE:IF you want the pages emailed, please make another folder on your home machine under the BV folder & save files to this. And make another folder on your site to publish to for a play & test. public_html/newphpfolder/
Naturally, you would have to change the url links to your own.

Great looking site a job well though out and then done, your effort realy shows A Big Thumps Up

Joe
anytime-figurines.com
jkteddybear.com

Joe - thanks for your kind comments - they are much appreciated.

Chris - I have had a long, hard think about making a change to .php, but on balance I think I will keep things as they are. My website is in no way commercial and so optimum recognition by search engines is not so important. Also the site has now grown to such large proportions that I don't think I want to spend a lot of time and worry on all the revisions that will have to be made.

However, if I start from scratch on another website, I will no doubt go down the .php road from the start. I am grateful to you for your help in this - I know where to turn if I want to take it further! Many thanks.

Ian