Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I recently launch the following website: www.freshbreadcreative.com and would like it critiqued.  I have received a reasonable number of orders, but would like to get some opinions on suggested improvements.

I have two first impressions.

1.  I found it sort of annoying how the bread photo does its fade-in and reveals your tagline EVERY TIME I click to a new page.  When I click to read some new information somewhere else on the site, I want to read the content I was looking for without being distracted by special effects at the top of the page.  I think it should only do it on your homepage.  The rest should be a static image.

2.  This was actually my first impression.  The site is so... brown.  Is this supposed to be some sepiatone web experience?  There`s nothing wrong with a simple color scheme and many sites suffer from too many splashy colors, but a monotone site like yours appears pretty dull.  How about adding some other colors to the site?  Green goes well with brown.  I suggest trying some green headlines, links, buttons or something!

Biggest issue I had was the brown on brown headings in the top main tabs. I couldn`t read them, and at first, wasn`t sure what the site even is supposed to do.

Then, when I saw that it`s a marketing company designed to help come up with product names and advertising, I "felt" that with the site being a bit obscure, there wasn`t a whole lot of credibility there.

I like the "Fresh Ideas at Day Old Prices," but I wonder if maybe due to the separation between the tagline and the images, if anyone else was confused? I thought at first this was a bread company selling bread online. I quickly corrected, but then came the credibility issue again.

If I made the mistake, what sort of advertising campaign would you build for my product? Would people also end up confused coming to my site?

Maybe the bread and dough metaphor is going a little bit over the top, but it bothered me. Those are my first impressions, anyway.

I also thought it was a bread sales site. It took me a couple moments to realize that "fresh bread creative" did not refer an artisans` co-op or something similar.

Also, just to be clear... you`re offering

• 6 Logo Concepts delivered within 24 hrs
• Unlimited Revisions until 100% satisfied

for $199??? That alone would make me wary of using your service.

In my opinion... while the site is nice and clean, the message is convoluted; also, your prices are exceedingly low and come with unrealistic promises. To me, these things raise credibility issues as Craig mentioned.

—paula