This BV site www.wvnet.co.uk is intended as a 'Landing Page' for genuine enquiries from a soon to be published newspaper advert, with the aim of gathering genuine interest in a franchise opportunity. I have been too close to this for many months, and would welcome third party review.
Cheers
KeithN

I'm fairly new at this myself but here are a couple of things I noticed. 1)
You might want to center your page.
2) Your text at the top is going outside the frame. Either make the text smaller or enlarge the frame.
3) You have some pics of houses that I'm assuming has to do with the windows but I'm not sure. If they are you might want to think about the possibility of clicking on them and bring up a closeup of the window (another pic).
4) The lettering in your header shows to be a bit wavy. You might want to try another font.

Again, I'm no expert but these jumped out at me.

good luck!

Paul

Many thanks, Paul. A fresh view is always valuable. Your point about the photos is interesting. The idea is to get interested parties to apply for more information, where the detail will be revealed. It's a complicated product with a wide product range. I was aiming to keep the landing page simple.

Now centrered and resized. I think it certainly looks better, and you've given me some ideas on how to draw viewers in. Back to the drawing board!
Thanks Paul.

Hi Keith,
Your index page (home) is still not centered - the others are. Your first nav bar however (more...) comes up with a 404 error. Also, the nav bars are the basic ones - you might want to try something a little more decorative. Click on your nav bar and look under the tab "style".
I would still recommend changing the font on your Header. I'm using Firefox and it looks wavy.

Hi there,
too much going on on the left. Why don't you create a page only for the 'comments'?

Cheers,

__________________
N Z B R
t o u r s
New Zealand Tours
Excursiones en Nueva Zelanda
Nova Zelandia Pacotes e Roteiros
Nouvelle Zelande Voyage
Neuseeland Reisen

Aaaah... Got my hands full at the moment. I made some changes, and the e-mail response no longer works. Can't see why. Fixing that is a priority right now. Changed the 'more' buttons, and they've come up purple instead of the tasteful pale shade that I chose.
Thanks for your comments nzbr, but I'm not clear what you mean. There's not much going on on the left apart from the small amount of text in the green. Or did you mean something else?
I'm beginning to think the index page looks garish. I want impact for what is a complex message, but it needs to be inviting.

Hey there

Sounds like a fantastic product!

These were my thoughts:

1. I'd choose two or three colours at the most for this type of site. (I'd probably choose the misty green in the graphic at the left-hand side of your page & blue as the main colours. No yellow, pink, or other shades of green.

2. The colours & graphics overpower the photos and the text.

3. I'd choose the best couple of quotes and lead in strongly with these 'above the fold' (what you see without having to scroll) and add in the other quotes under the fold.

4. I would definitely have the "tell me more" form above the fold. As this is the landing page for a newspaper advert - people arriving at the site from this advert already have some interest, so it would be good to show them where to sign up for more info straight away.

5. The photos are great but are not of professional quality. I'd have them at the best quality possible (while keeping KBs down as far as possible) Use a photo cruncher such as Pix Resizer.

6. Both the header & logo have jagged edges, which doesn't lend a professional look.

7. I'd have a menu carried through all of your pages. If people are quickly looking for information, they might not want to read the quotes - and there's no way of getting back to the home page or any other page.



These are the 2 quotes I'd personally choose to have 'above the fold'
...SupaWOOD windows doors and conservatories are made from the WONDER MATERIAL OF THE 21st CENTURY

"Every so often in life something comes along out of the blue that totally turns your beliefs upside down and puts your head in a spin......they are superb..."

Those are great quotes! As I said - it sounds like a great product - one that many people will be interested in.

__________________
Make Website

Great stuff, sunchaser. Many thanks. You will see I have already concluded it was too busy and bright. Trouble is, I copied the "timber" file and renamed it "index". It works OK in BV, but when it's in the browser, the title still shows up as "timber". (Damned if I can find out why). It seems to have confused the server, which has published a load of gobbledygook at the top of the page. I thought I would clean the file out using FTP, but it doesn't work like FrontPage, and I think I've made things worse.

Right! Your advice gratefully received and acted upon. The main picture (the only one from a professional studio) has been re-scanned at a higher resolution, and the others dumped. (They can be seen elsewhere later, once the hook is taken). I have remembered to add the registered leaf logo, and centred all of the headers. I don't see any jagged edges in MS Explorer. Is this a problem with Firefox or others? I don't have these other browsers loaded.
I hope that BV will clear the junk out of the index page tomorrow. Any comments gratefully received. but tomorrow I have to go and do a day's work.

I think this looks great. I'm amazed you changed the design so quickly.
The green and grey work well together - and the message is clear.
I think the quotes and the font/colour you used for the quotes is very eye-catching without being distracting.

1. Your form is creating the gobbedegook at the top of your screen. Try re-doing the form - even deleting it & starting again.

2. Naming this page 'index' while you see the word 'timber' in your browser is not causing conflict.

When you copied the 'timber' file and renamed it 'index' you were creating a new home page. Calling a page 'index' is the correct thing to do when you want to create a home page.
It says 'timber' in the browser because you must have typed this into the page properties on the previous 'timber' page - and it simply copied over when you copied that page.
The word 'timber' is what will come up as the title of that page in a search engine result - so it's very important.
If you want to change it - go to View, Page Properties - and change the title there.

3. I personally think there are still too many greens on the page. To me, all looks great - except for the logo.

Can you match the colour of the leaf graphic to your logo? Even with that, there's still going to be three very different shades of green (four if you count the gradient on the lefthand side)
Is the shade of green of your logo is an established colour?

4. What I mean by 'jagged' is that the logo & the arc of the graphic are not totally smooth. You have to look closely though. I think the slightly jagged bit on the arc is ok, but a logo shouldn't have this.
I'm using IE as my browser.

__________________
Make Website

Hi Sunchaser. Your comments are very helpful. Many thanks. Making the changes is easy. I've got the hang of the basics. It's the irritating glitches that slow me down. I removed the form, and BINGO, the gobbledegook disappeared. I then recreated the form which appeared in the preview, but it is not there when published. I have deleted and recreated it several times now, to no effect. What on earth is going on?
You will see I have changed the page title - thanks for that. It's so easy when you know your way around the menus.

Phew! Fixed it. It seems the gobbledegook was caused by me changing the index page from .php to .html. Once I worked that one out, I was able to fix the problem from the control panel. That put the correct index page at the front. Then I had to change all the back buttons. I am not sure I've got the mail forwarding buttons working yet, but at least I'm back where I was two days ago, tho' the site looks a darn sight better.

Almost there! I have learned that the "send" button has to be set to "submit" to get a result. Problem is, it immediately returns a 404 error and I have to use the browser back button to get to the home page. I can see no way of fixing it. Any suggestions, anyone?

It took me some time for the penny to drop, but I eventually worked out that the "success" button has to go somewhere. I have put in a new acknowledgement page with different picture and a link to another site.
I would appreciate a third-party opinion. Does it work for you?
Cheers
Keith

PS Access the acknowledgement by just clicking on "send".

Hi Keith

I just tested it & it works great. Sometimes it takes really breaking down the tutorials step-by-step - as it's easy to miss important steps.

I'd probably place the acknowledgement at the top of the acknowlegement page (under your header) - because I missed seeing it at first.
I only read through because I thought there would be an acknowlegment somewhere on the page - but people coming to your site may not do that.

Your landing page really looks effective now - be sure to come back and tell us how it went!

__________________
Make Website

Thanks for your kind remarks Sunchaser. I sent you an e-mail in reply to your form test before reading your latest addition to the thread. Comments noted. I'll get onto it tomorrow.
I can't put off launching the newspaper ad any longer, if only to see if this landing page works. I have had another trade reviewer tell me it needs a video in it, but my view is that you can have too much going on. Maybe I'll have to design another page, and compare results week on week.

Here's the final version: Lots of tweaks and revised narrative, with substantial changes to the 'system' page. It goes 'live' on Sunday, so we'll soon find out if it flies. I hope there are no major issues overlooked, but the quality of the photo on the front page is still cause for some concern. Not sure what to do about it. Perhaps get another picture taken?

If you have the original picture, I would use that and lose the "captions" altogether and utilize the visuals with punctuated text to both simplfy and communicate more effectively. It is pretty obvious that it is showing a "window" and a "tool" to all but the 14 brain-dead visitors that will end up on the site, but the idea is to "entice via professionally composed excitement" (the advertisement program), right?
The use of illegible captions really pokes holes in the professional boat, IMO.

Take a quick look at this really simple Demo Page I mocked up ..... I cropped your original 834x1141 image (with the captions still on it) to put more focus on what was IN the picture than the space around it and then reduced that cropped image size to 303w x 350t, to fit the same area as you published (I *****ened and despeckled it to remove the distortions you showed due to manually re-sizing the image to "fit your space"), slapped in a shadow of sorts, and re-worded your "concept line" a bit to have a double meaning (says more in less space). Does this explain things a bit easier? Just to give you an idea ....

You'll note the "Menu" system along the top (and the 'lesser' at bottom) .... this accomplishes a few things:
1. Your Content as it is now it all jumbled and appears on very long page format (which is not a recommended style at all, as people will not read it). Having more pages to select from allows you to focus tightly on specific topics, keeping attention spans and letting you highlight specific concepts in an effective, concise manner --- shorter pages are great, both visually and as communicators!
2. Having more tightly composed Content spread over topical pages separately creates more "Relevance" for the Search Engines, and is a basic strategy in building websites. Not only are visitors able to drill in specifically according to interest, the Search Engines will also be able to focus on the tighter content and attribute values to the more pronounced Key Words and Concepts.
3. Since vistors are so visually oriented, having more pages that are tightly focused allows you to have specific images to accompany the content to support the conceptual development. Smaller, more organized images can actually take place of some words, if done right. It also just looks nice with a thought-out layout that is "light" and still meaningful.
4. It is simply more professional to have a means for visitors to intelligently navigate throughout your site .... you HOPE that they do, that they explore and learn --- you need to build the foundation/relationship somehow if you plan on converting them to an interaction. And, if you hope to collect serious "franchisees" to your Network, it stands to reason you should set the tone of a professonal business altogether.
5. Having created your site as such, not only do you have the ability to offer visitors new options (such as "Network" so they can find authorized dealers in their area), but you essentially need not revamp your site after your "promotional" program ceases. You can pretty much let the site stand they way it is with the new "splash" page, only updating the new dealers in your Network, adding client comments, etc. Thus, your site becomes not only practical for both you as manager, but to your clients as well who have become familiar and dependent on your stability.

It is very, very easy to "break up" the content you already have prepared, and to simply add the few lines to the other 'new pages' like Contact where you will have another Email Form strictly to contact Mgmt and where you can offer the suggestion for visitors to go to your Network page to locatre a dealer nearest them (and this will also be important to your fanchisees: they will want to see that you are supporting them in this way, and is can also be a "selling" tool for those considering applying, as it shows that the company has vitality).

Like I said .... to do the site in this manner before Sunday's promotion should take only a couple hours, since all that is needed is to copy+paste the content, add a little more, format and position images you already have (and add some you may not have yet used), and publish it.

If you like the idea, email me so I can send you the BV file you can use to "Clone" your pages.

PS: The "more" links work, but the Email Form is only demo.

__________________
Choice Pro SEO
Choice Pro Webs

UPDATE: Got your kind email, and you got your new BV files to work with. Looking forward to another VodaTeam web success story!

I rose early this morning and made many of the changes before dashing to the airport to pick up my daughter /collaborator. It's now live, and looks great. Just the bottom buttons to add. I used scissors and paste to rework the main picture. Quality is still not as good as I would like, but it's much improved.
Again, many thanks for your help.

You didn't even try to use the BV files I sent, did you? You only made minor "edits" to the pages already on your computer, right? And it seems you didn't do them yourself either.
It shows. Much seems to have been lost in "translation."

Any reason you aren't using the Logomaker to make your header something worthy? Didn't you think the concept about usuing a shadow under whatever image you selected would enhance the page and communicatre effectively the new "message" a re-labeled image could?

I really question the use of RED on your site, and in the size and manner you are. Even my use of the orange came from your original site, although I did darken it to better play off the wood of the window in the pix, to like this.
And truthfully, "Simply The Best" is a boast any business would have a hard time proving or supporting, unless it was conferred by another (and is the very reason my clever wording on "Consumer Rated SUPERIOR" as that is something that can be supported by the testamonials you offer). By using "Simply Beautiful" I thought I blended the simplicity of the "system" and the 'quality' of the product effectively, two of the major concepts you were striving to present. It is a big leap to being "Simply the Best" without anything more to substantiate, IMO...

I dunno .... I think you saw some good ideas offered and then mish-moshed them without any real thought of how and why they were crafted on your behalf.
I am disappointed. You are certainly entitled to do whatever you want to do with your site --- it is your site. There are many design standards out there, and just as many business practices ... I was merely trying to inspire and offer you a small "jumpstart" to get it all together, based on my web and business experience together. At the end, however, it seems you didn't "get it" like I thought you would.

Maybe it's better that I don't do any mock-up's in the future and to refrain from commenting in the Showcase altogether, leaving it to those "capable" and keen-eyed and more apt to focus on simply progress itself, lest creativity be stiffled or nudged inappropriately.....

I think your page looks ok, lacks content, could use alot more than just the testimonials. The only thing that really bothers me is the red simply the best lettering. It does not look professional .. id revert to the green in your header. It also bothers me.. that you dont have a WINDOW on there but a power screw driver. It doesnt add up for me...if im looking for windows and a power tool pops up at me.

I dont think youve done badly.. very good first attempt.. it just needs some polish to really garner interest in what you are doing. Especially since you are looking for the money backing or franchise sales.

Karen

__________________
KMAC Enterprise
Missouri Free Classified Ads
Charming Noveltees~Sports Logos Charms

I've learned that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity!

Oops! Sorry, Didn't mean to upset anyone. Ive just returned to the forum after a few days of frantic preparation of the response material to the advert. Plus a few days preparing the house for my visitors this week, and a real day's work to earn a crust today.
Right: Vasili, I did not receive your BV files. Why I don't know, but I had to do something to get changes made for the Sunday morning. I have a new updated version on the stocks for the next ad appearance on the Sunday to come. At least I can then compare two weeks results. I'll go and have another look, but I couldn't find them first time round. I note your comments on colours and the change of 'beautiful' to 'best'. Trouble is, the foremost technical consultancy in this business in the UK (one of them is a former MD of Anderson Windows) has described them as "the best windows they know of". Good looking though they are, they probably are not actually the "most beautiful". I understand your logic, and I'll give that some thought. I really do appreciate your help. Sorry if I offended you.

Karen, Thanks for taking the trouble to comment. I understand your puzzlement, but the page isn't designed to sell windows: Its designed to arouse interest in something different. A wood window system assembled by a drill driver is not something you see very often. I have had other comments about needing more comment, and have taken this on board for next week's version.

To everyone, thanks for your help. It is truly appreciated. As to results, the small lineage ad in 'Business Opportunities' appearing in a National English Sunday Paper has produced four enquiries for franchise opportunities by this evening (Wednesday). One of them was a high quality enquiry from a chap who noted my phone number from a linked website and called me on my cellphone. A long, very promising discussion followed, so the site is doing its stuff, despite its shortcomings. I hope to improve the results over the next few weeks. 84 unique visitors from around the world incl. the Middle East and Japan so far. I wasn't expecting a deluge. I want people who are sufficiently interested to dig around, rather than time-wasters or competitors on a fishing expedition. Phew, this is harder work than making the blessed things.
Cheers
Keith

Crow pie page: Vasili, I must apologise. Your BV mockup was attached, after all. I was in too much of a hurry to see it, I guess. It looks very very good, and I am indebted to you.
I will use this as the basis for the next week's update. I will have to write up some additional pages for the links youve built in. I suppose mock pages will do: I hope so. I just don't have time to build it all right now.
K

No offense ever taken, Keith.
Use the CLONE function in BV to rapidly make all the pages you desire. Use COPY/PASTE emthod of transferring Content from page to page, or better yet, transfer all your Content from yhour earlier BV pages into Word, so you can take advantage of Spellcheck as well as chop/edit/re-format it before Pasting it onto your new BV pages. If you use Word like this, you will have the opportunity to enahnce certain sections with additional composition, and to edit others as required.

Got your replies also, and am sincere in the affirmative.

When I first looked through your pages, I thought "where the menu?" So used the "more" buttons and then the "back" buttons dutifully and went backwards and forwards through your website. It's only because it is such a simple website that you can get away with it. Personally I always prefer a menu on each page.

Incidentally your back key is overlaying this text " "A fine job. We are very pleased" Mr M J Trade specialist Birmingham " on your testimonial page (using Firefox). The orange testimonial is a bigger font than all the rest too.

I think you need more descriptive titles too. Two of your pages are titled "timber" and another is "timber windows". Try something like "Supawood windows and doors - testimonials". Think search engine when you're doing titles.

While I still like what you have created, I also think you should take a close look at the page Vasili created at http://www.vodatips.com/supawood.html. The more I compared it with your homepage, the more I grew to like what he had done (especially the menu)

One thing I'm sure of is this: if I owned a house in your country I'd be checking out your product. It looks real interesting the way you've presented it and I'm sure that it will generate sales for you.

__________________
www.ArlineFishingCharter.co.nz
www.NewZealandFishingCharter.com

Thanks for the comments, Muzza. I agree. Vasili turned my amateur effort into a polished pro version. I plan to launch the revised version this weekend to coincide with the next (slightly revised) newspaper ad. It will be interesting to compare two weeks results. This first week has produced 135 unique visitors (remember, this is a specific landing page), four enquiries and one request for a Master Franchise (Northern Ireland). Still early stage, but it looks as if the thing does have legs, after all.
I note the Firefox prob. (How do you check them in different browsers without buying them all?) but switching to Vasili's modified site should fix that.
Again, thanks to you all for taking the trouble to comment.

I've downloaded Opera, Safari, Chrome, Firefox and of course IE which was forced on me with the computer when I bought it. Firefox is the only one that seems to have slight differences from IE. What I found was that when I built a site and got it looking right in IE then I had to tweak it to look good in FF. However, if I built it and did all my previewing with FF then previewed the final result in IE, I then found I hardly ever had any further tweaking to do.

It's worth downloading all of the browsers above as it's good to see what your clients are experiencing so that you can spot the problems before they do. I'm keeping a close eye on Chrome as, being part of Google, it may attract a big following and Chrome is going through a lot of changes at present I believe. Better safe than sorry.

__________________
www.ArlineFishingCharter.co.nz
www.NewZealandFishingCharter.com

It's definitely is a good idea to have IE, Opera, FireFox (very reluctantly), and even Slimbrowser in your toolbox to "proof" your web pages. Safari is for MAC especially, so if that is something you need to do, then by all means include it.

I mention Slimbrowser also (my personal default) because like all Mozilla type products (which includes Firefox) it departs from the NetScape model and allows you a much freer experience overall that is much more stable and "friendly" than FireFox ever could hope to be, IMO.

Chrome? I dunno .... I personally tend to avoid all things Google for a littany of reasons. Chrome's hapahazard evolution speaks volumes as to why is was eventually deemed unsuitable even for their phone platform ....

__________________
Choice Pro SEO
Choice Pro Webs

I had a look at Slimbrowser. Apparently McAfee think that these guys have a bit of a problem with spyware.

I quote "In our tests, we found downloads on this site that some people consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted programs."

I submitted the latest download to them to test and will check back in a couple of days. Until then I suppose it's just a case of buyer beware. Personally I don't want to take a chance until I know more.

__________________
www.ArlineFishingCharter.co.nz
www.NewZealandFishingCharter.com

MacAfee is the worst, IMO. I dropped then in '98 after they allowed 3 home units to self-destruct because of their "professional protection" expertise .... Nobody regards MacAfee's "evaluations" too highly across the net anymore, as they come across too self-serving. Amazing they still seed comments and all ....
I used to use Norton, but went to caInternet Security Suite because they prove to do it all better than anyone else. I also dig the customizations, advanced features, and meaningful interactives!

Well, the revised website based on Vasili's mockup is up and running ready for the Sunday Papers. Phew, what a task it's proved to be. First task this morning was to download Firefox. Whata disaster. It refused to initialise, then took me an hour to clear it all out and start again with IE.

I've broken up much of the narrative into bite-size pages, hopefully to grab the eye and make it easier to digest. Have I succeeded?
I have taken a shortcut by including a link (SYSTEM) to a site where the whole thing is explained in more detail. Does this work? Or does it confuse the matter? I am afraid visitors might get lost on the other site.
Let's see how it pans out. I'm exhausted now, so I'm off to join my friends at the bar. I'll await judgement later.
Cheers
Keith

Week two has shown a steadily increasing number of visitors to the site, but a decline in the number of respondents, so some of the changes were clearly not doing their stuff. I have been busy with other things this week, but after a week away, I can see ways of improving the initial impact of each page. I will keep nibbling away at it and see how the changes alter the response. The web stats at Blue Voda are brilliant, and bear some study.
I would welcome a new review of the site to see how a fresh visitor sees it.

Remarkable progress, Keith -- really!
You may wish to put a few final touches to making sure the "white page panels" are sized properly (width and height) so they fully fit to the margins of your green page borders and the bottom to the footer. *It is easy to do even if you make them a bit bigger than need be, if when you're done you "bring to front" the other elements so the white shapes "hide under" them invisibly.

And ... thank you for the "Credit" mentions on you 'web design' page. Totally unexpected, but exemplary demonstration of class and integrity!
..

Thank you all. I could hardly claim all the credit after all the advice and help I received.
I have had a lot of brain-ache sorting out the layers. "Bring to the front" or "Send to the back" sometimes needs lots of repetition to get a result, and sometimes reveals new problems with other elements. Is it not possible to number the layers, as in AutoCAD?
I must say I am extremely impressed with Blue Voda, as it has put me back in control of my own marketing after years of relying on others to interpret my intentions. That is the most valuable thing I can think of.