Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

After reading Seth`s post I thought it would be good to get some opinions on my new site. I launched version 5 last week.

http://www.onlinesiding.com/

I look forward to some honest feedback. Thank you!

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James Skinner Vice President & COO OnlineSiding LLC jskinner@onlinesiding.com www.onlinesiding.com 877-642-2496 x102

Good looking web site. Functional, crisp, clean and looks professionally done.

I`m assuming that the we site layout is integrated by LendingTree?

Best of Luck.

Now that`s a good looking "informational web site" ... and not a "do-it-yourselfer".

Hey TJG,

Thank you for the feedback!

I designed the website myself. LendingTree had no part in the design, they are just our lending affiliate for our customers who need project financing.

It is my goal to continue adding more articles & resources. We will also be opening a store in the fall.

James

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James Skinner Vice President & COO OnlineSiding LLC jskinner@onlinesiding.com www.onlinesiding.com 877-642-2496 x102

Hi James
Your site is very straight forward and well organized.

From a homeowners point of view... I didn`t see you offering  Hardiplank until i drilled down into the site. One of the stereotypes of `siding` is that people think aluminum or vinyl. If I was in the market for Hardiplank I might call a carpenter, not a siding installer.
You might try to name drop the types of sidings on the front page to get the bots to get your site listed properly.

Hi:  You`ve done well with your site design.  Easy, functional, clean-looking (not cluttered).  Yes, a job well done! 

Since you`re looking for feedback....I`d like to suggest you consider reducing the size of the graphic and the text and adding more text content to the home page.  If you can get it all in view without scrolling that would be a + as well.

Feed back.

Clear easy site.

Love the concept, in the UK we have checker-Trade when the work is complete the customer scores the work.

Very nice...

Do you have contractors for every state?

Very clean site with clear navigation. 

I`d take advantage of some of that great, upfront home page space that you`ve designed for and pull a few featured articles and content up to the home page.  (Maybe substitute that large image of the house with 3 or 4 featured items with smaller related photos.)

Also, have you thought about giving away the Free Home Owner`s Guide with the newsletter sign-up as well...or is this something that is too expensive to provide for just a sign-up?  If so, you may want to create another condensed, but valuable .pdf guide that you can give away with the newsletter to entice sign-up.

Great job on the site and best of luck to you!

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Brian Cleveland,
Web Producer,
StartupNation

James -

First of all - GO BEAVS!

Second, is Woodstocks Pizza still around?

Third - Oh yeah, this is suppose to be about your site huh?!?!  OK then, on to it!

My first impression was good.  It`s clean, great use of white space and easy to navigate.

My suggestions are purely subjective and emanate from my own likes and dislikes so take them for what they`re worth...

Make the image on your homepage a little smaller, add a border to it like you have on the other images and maybe throw in a drop shadow for some depth.

If possible, on your menu, create some contrast between the buttons and the blue bar behind them, again to create a little depth.

White space doesn`t always have to be white.  Give your background a REALLY soft hue - just enough to make it easy on the eyes.  Maybe even add a very gentle texture.

Use a serif font for your title or headlines, like Times or Georgia.  It will add a lot to the visual impact of your site.

On your home page, put a box around the free owners guide offer and bring in the left and right margins (only on the offer) to further emphasize it a bit.

Again James, I think your site is currently better than probably 85% of most other sites out there.  These are just things that might add a little more "visual" appeal.  These tend to be some of the hardest things to offer suggestions on because the return is so hard to measure.  It has a lot to do with that little extra.

It`s like when you compare two things and one of them you like better, but not because there is something that is just an obvious difference.  You can`t put words to it, there is just "something" about it that you like better.  These are the kinds of things that my suggestions may help with.  Then again, maybe not!  How`s that for a philosophical twist!

R-




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Quaerite Primum Regnum

"There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
~ Oscar Levant ~

Twitter: @rossb

Hello everyone,

Thank you for all of the feedback and advice!

Jeff: I have taken your suggestion and will be working on developing our content to clearly show all of the siding that we support. Thank you for catching that!

MiteyMite: You and Brian both touch on the same issue about the home page which is red flag to me. I will be either reducing or breaking it into small images to highlight our content more (maybe a link to a feature article, etc.). That is a very good suggestion, and I believe it will benefit the site very well.

Promise: That sounds interesting. Is that from one company or a common, uniform practice in the UK? We follow up with the home owner after the contractor has finished their project. This helps get an idea of the contractor`s work and the overall satisfaction of the home owner.

Brian: As I told MiteyMite, I will be re-working the home page to show off more of our content. I will also consider making the Guide available to newsletter subscribers who may turn into customers down the road. That is something that I had never considered, and something I obviously overlooked! :-)

I didn`t want to write a long, long post so I did touch base with a few over Private Messages. I wanted to give everyone a response, to show my appreciation for your taking the time to give me feedback.

Thank you again, I am enjoying the feedback!

James

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James Skinner Vice President & COO OnlineSiding LLC jskinner@onlinesiding.com www.onlinesiding.com 877-642-2496 x102