Wanted: Website Review the start of a new site

[boxerdog]

iv laid the foundations to a new little amazon/adsense site:

HDTV

more content and changes are on the way.

i welcome any comments good and bad (not too bad though, it hurts sometimes)

cheers.

 

[accelerator]

I would make the pictures of TVs on the home page clickable too.

Rgds

 

[boxerdog]

I would make the pictures of TVs on the home page clickable too.

Rgds

Done....cheers

 

[Tankie]

add a link to the text so that your can click on it to go back to the front page or add a simple logo so it does the same.

why not add a 4th selection with LED tvs?

 

[expertc]

Nice. Best of luck! Just one question: potentially expensive products and Amazon shop, do they go well together? Especially with 7 quid limit.

I have few Amazon shops but try to keep products in 0-150 price range, otherwise it's better to go with some more generous aff programs.

And also small suggestion justify - center text does usually look kinda not right. Better stick to "left". Just my 2p.

 

[ILikeRichTea]

Hi,

No offense meant here but i really don't like it.

I find it too narrow to begin with, the colours very boring and the images especially the buttons and text very ugly and the header is of no use really, what the point in those round buttons?

TV's are sleek and cool designs and I think a site that matches what people expect will perform much better.

Personally i'd scrap it and start again, I hope you don't think I'm a dick but I put off writing that since the day you posted it as i didn't want to offend.

 

[boxerdog]

thanks chaps for the comments all very helpfull, will try and get some of the changes done today.
i didnt really want to use amazon but its the easiest way i know to get the products that i need displayed

dont worry "ILikeRichTea" im not offended
some like some hate, i will never be 100% happy with any site i make, as im teaching myself as i go. at the end of the day its got to be better than letting it sit there or parking it.

 

[alex]

I have a few suggestions which will hopefully be useful.

I agree that it is too narrow - my feeling is that it should be 800px minimum, probably good to go with 960px (something that I've started doing, but not on all my sites yet) as most monitors will cope with it these days.

Add a Google search box.

Remove the Google ads below the 3 TVs as this instantly gives the impression that the site is not an information site and is instead for making money through advertising.

The number of TV categories should be increased from 3 to 4 if you increase the width to 800px.

If going for 960px or similar add a left or right hand navigation with lots of categories and you can put ads in here instead of across the main body of information.

Move the header up a bit as the body of the page which gives you the earning potential is hidden on smaller screens. You want the user to get the site within a second, not have to scroll down what is currently mainly blank space.

Move the CSS to an external file.

Good luck with the site.

Alex

 

[denchomsky]

Have to agree with rich tea, but slightly harsher, IMO it is awful, if you are teaching yourself as you go along I would start again and learn the basics of HTML and CSS.

Why are you using image maps for the TV image links? just use an <a> tag.
You have about 35 divs for a page that needs at the most 5, you might as well use tables if you are going to use that many divs.

Inline CSS, no heading tags, I could go on.....

The design looks like it was done 20 years ago, there is no way I would buy anything from a site that looked like that, if you are not a web designer my advice is to keep it simple, dont try using gradients and flashy effects as it just ends up looking dated.

Sorry to be so harsh but if you take my advice and learn how to do it properly you will be glad you did in the long run.

Recommended Books :

Bulletproof Web Design - Dan Cederholm
CSS Mastery - Andy Budd
Trancending CSS - Andy Clarke
Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML - Eric Feeman

 

[boxerdog]

ok time to scrap it, back to storeburst for this one then

 

[springer]

Don't give up on it. For long term success you are going to need to go away from Storeburst (which is just waiting for an Epik-like penalty).

You shouldn't worry too much about site design at the moment, just keep adding fresh unique content and build some backlinks.

This is good advice given by Dougs on another forum:

It's a business, so work 10 hours per day, 6 days per week on stuff that makes a difference ( changing colours/fonts etc does not make a difference). As soon as you make any cash outsource the dull stuff or employ people to do it.

Online is about 3 things

links
content
ppc

Do nothing else but the above, but the only one you can do without is ppc.

Your design is not absolutely awful and there are many documented reports that 'ugly' sites can convert just fine.

Keep going!

 

[denchomsky]

Don't give up on it. For long term success you are going to need to go away from Storeburst (which is just waiting for an Epik-like penalty).

You shouldn't worry too much about site design at the moment, just keep adding fresh unique content and build some backlinks.

This is good advice given by Dougs on another forum:



Your design is not absolutely awful and there are many documented reports that 'ugly' sites can convert just fine.

Keep going!

I agree don't give up, but as it is storeburst is the better option, as you are more likely to get indexed by google because Storeburst content is always updating and the site is better optimised (I know it's by no means perfect) but at least until you get a new site up and running.

Its not all about design, no, but I stick by my comments that the design is awful, but thats my just my opinion, beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say , and I know that Springer is a great admirer of Susan Boyle and she converts just fine.

Well structured HTML is more important than design as this is the foundation of your site, and if you want to add to the site and build it bigger in the future you are better off starting on solid foundations.

 

[Edwin]

This is 8 years old, and most of the information still applies at least as strongly as the day it was written!
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm

 

[Ashton]

Boxerdog, why not just use a template for your design? Google doesn't penalise templates and they are pretty easy to populate

 

[denchomsky]

This is 8 years old, and most of the information still applies at least as strongly as the day it was written!
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm

Nice link Edwin, should be a sticky.

 

[boxerdog]

does the homepage look better now? or am i going in completely the wrong direction HDTV

 

[springer]

Looks a lot better than it did. The text would look a lot better if it was paragraphed correctly.

Instead of linking out to HDTV reviews - cover the review on your own site. Give a summary of user and expert reviews.

 

[boxerdog]

cheers springer, is that ok to copy user and expert reviews and put on the site?

 

[springer]

Just summarise reviews. If you look at a collection of reviews from the likes of Amazon and Ciao you will get a general feel of what people like and dislike about the products and some solutions that people have found to overcome these problems.

I'll PM you an example.

 

[Ashton]

Much better

Much better!

I just had a lil play around:

http://i56.tinypic.com/2v8nabt.png

Meh :/ not impressed with it myself.