Thread: First One

Hi All
I've had BV for three days now and this is what I have so far. What do you think?

www.lose-inches.info

Welcome AJ113,
Good start, a few things to watch out for:
-The images of the exercise models seem to be fuzzy, if you pulled on the corners to size them, use PixResizer instead. Take a look at this post by Chris, has a lot of useful tips on images.
-Consider redoing your Header, make it a bit easier to read, you want your visitors to remember your page. "Lose Inches Fast" is catchy but the shadows might be overdoing it a bit.
-No contact page and no information about your group can scare some visitors. Consider a contact form or email. Lack of either can scare people away.
-The PayPal link opens up fine.

Hi AJ113,
Bill is right, good start, few morw things.
I think your page is too large, max 800 is the right size.
The yellow color is very strong, it is not easy to read, I will go for black text and white background.
Alas
www.mediterraneotanzania.com
Tanzania hotels

If you have had bluevoda for only 3 days you have made a great start. I think you should look really hard at what you have on your page and ask yourself " as a potential customer does this inspire me to part with $20.00". Design your site according to what answer you come up with.

Thanks very much chaps. I'll work on it over the weekend and re-post.

Hi AJ.....First welcome aboard.....I agree with the above, your off to a good start

For a start welcome
I too agree with earlier posts three days work has payed off.
The heading definatly needs to stand out more and the images need to be clearer. I would leave the yellow background but tone it down, not so glaring and then see if the text needs to be made stand out more, possible by darkening it.
Best of luck with the site

egar50


www.thesoftwarebay.com

I've changed the web page dimensions, the background and toned down the colours. I've also resized all the images using PixResizer (thanks Bill2006!).

I still need to add contact and/or sign-up details and they will be coming soon, in the meantime, what do you think of the changes?

One thing I've noticed, the 'shadow' boxes take time to load, is there a better way of doing this, or do you think I should just ditch them?

I'm also having trouble 'moving forward' or 'moving back'. Neither of these commands work, only 'move to front' and 'move to back'.

Hi, your page load a lot faster to me, but you need somebody that has not been watching your web before, my pc recognize your web, because I have been looking at your page before.About the shapes I have the same issue. Did you make only one page?
Alas

Hi All
I've had a complete re-think about my strategy and as a result my mian page has changed dramatically. I would appreciate your comments on the site itself, plus opinions on your perceived effectiveness of the site.

I've never done anything like this before so don't be backwards in coming forwards!

Bump. Any comments?

Hi AJ

For a few days work, this is impressive, puts me to shame! I spend too much time reading these forums then redesigning my plan!

Anyway on the home page at the bottom below the form for entering e-mail details the dotted lines below go off the page to the right & also a link is overwriting some text.

Good luck

Thank you very much Mouke, I believe I've fixed that now, would you mind having a quick check for me please?

AJ: Nice work in such a short period of time. With some fine tuning, you will be there. Sorry, I don't have much time right now, but a few things stand out for me. In addition to what has already been mentioned.
1. Your link points me to a page to sign up, but I don't think that is your home page. Make sure your home or landing page is saved as index in bv.
2. You need to have nav menus on your other pages so we can navigate our way back to your home page.
3. You have pages on your site opening to another browser. As long as the content remains on your site and you have menus to navigate, I would not save target as blank. I only use "blank" when I send my visitors off my site.
4. Your links page is hard to read. If you really want all the google ads on both sides, I would make your links in the middle stand out a bit. Maybe a boxed background color (subdued color) different font or font color, but something that makes it stand out over the google ads.
5. A few of your pictures are distorted. Great you used pixsier, but then don't stretch your photos. Top left photo, I can't tell what it is.
6. I think you have over done the shadow boxes. I like them used sparingly, but you have used them alot. You may want to take a look at that.
You have done a Great Job!! Keep up the good work.

Thank you for taking the time to reply Cindy, I have taken your comments on board.
1. I have deliberately made the sign-up page my home page, is that bad?
2. Nav menus in place.
3. Menus now open in-site.
4. Layout of links page changed. I don't want to change the background unless it's absolutely necessary because I want the Google ads to look like they're part of the site.
5. The photos were stretched because I like the look of them like that, it gives them a kind of mystique. I'd be interested to hear other members' views on that. Top left photo is basically a set of abs. It looks perfect when I go to the site, could it be browser thing?
6. About 60% - 70% of shadows now removed, title has been re-designed too. The page loads faster now but I'm not sure if it needs to be even faster.

Thank you for your kind comments, I'd appreciate it if you reviewed the changes I've made.

Looking better. Links page looks better, but I would center it like your others. If you want your home page to be your sign up page, I see no problem with that...it's your site, right?? lol It's just that I expect to see your logo/header or whatever on the home page. Your google ads on your home page at the top...when clicked take me off your site. Can you have those open in a new browser, so you don't loose your visitors? Again, if you like the stretched photos, that is up to you, it's just that it looks like an error to me. I see now how that top left is a set of abs, but again..personal opinion. The remaining shadows look fine the way you have them, but some appear a little jagged. Bottom Line, AJ is that this is your site and that is what makes it unique. Everyone can offer up their opinions for your consideration, but if it looks good to you, then you go with what you feel. Keep up the good work!!

Hi Cindy
Thank you for your input. Frankly I'm not precious about any single aspect of the site, it's a commercial enterprise and anything that helps towards sales - directly or indirectly - will always carry priority over my personal likes or dislikes.

How do I change the google ads to open in a new browser?

Thanks again for your help.

My two cents about the stretched photos:
I get what you mean about the mystique of it, and I think it works on that abs picture. But on the others it gives the impression you have altered the photographs to make it look like your product really works - know what I mean? my opinion only, though

Oh almost forgot - you have a lot of underlining in your text.
Since underlining conventionally indicates a link I kept clicking on the underlined words thinking they were going to take me somewhere..
I may not be the only one making that mistake.

Nice site,I say, pretty easy to read, pretty clean.
Nicely done.

Regards,

Thank you for your comments Liz, I agree with you about the underlining, it was on my 'to do' list, and now it's been done!

I think the photo with the greatest stretching effect is the woman on the left, I may shrink her back down to size!

I had to change my site layout to account for display dicrepancies bewteen Firefox and IE. Now I think it looks cr*p in both of them. What do you think?

..........I'm talking about the index page here BTW.

I have not seen your old layout ... but your menu bar does not work for me i(n the way it is laid out I mean) ... and your home page is really info heavy ... I think the front page, as I said to someone else ... should be baited like a hook to draw your visitors onto your other pages ... currently there are only 3? Only my opinion of course ...

I am looking at your site in Maxthon I had never heard of Firefox beefore I came here ... lol ...

On your links page there is overlapping text at the bottom of the page ... but there did not seem to be any links ... ?

I also notice that some of your photos look strectched ...

May I suggest you take a look around at some of the great sites there are out there and built by other Vodians ... when you come across one that 'hooks' you and keeps you clicking from page to page... ask yourself what it is that keeps you 'hooked'. Then apply the same principle to building your website.... ditto the other way round when you find one you don't like or you don't have time for ....

Keep up the good work ....

Thank yue whiteshepherd, as I said in my post, I am only talking about the index page. I haven't done the others yet.