Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Just my opinion, I would like to see a couple of pics on the front page....maybe something like the instructor with a student and maybe a group picture of all the instructors infront of the school or building. It would just seem more inviting to me.

Twc,

thanks.  That is one of the goals of our website.  We want people to immediately feel connected and trust our company and I think that the pictures that you described would achieve that goal.

 

Do you have any other suggestions?  You`ve been working on your website for a while any other ideas for a service industry website?

As a matter of fact, I just thought about something else.
Contact some past graduates and see if they would be willing to write out a short testomonial about your classes and services.
Have them describe how your classes have helped them  in what ever they where trying to accomplish.....ie, just to learn another language, job related, school related and such.
And I think having a seperate page that just lists all the testomonials would look real good.

Twc,

Again you hit the nail on the head.  I have been compiling testimonials but this template website is horrible and makes it difficult to do.

I actually would like to have a rotating testimonial box.  I`ve seen it on a couple of websites and think it would be great to have on the main page a box that rotates to a different testimonial everytime the page refreshes.

Again, not to rain on your template parade, but get some tech guy to setup a nice website with a content management system of some sort (mambo, typo3, wordpress, etc.) You can spend your time focusing on and writing good content rather than mucking around with templates.

One of the most liberating parts of running my business that I`ve found is knowing that my time is too valuable to waste it on things that I don`t have the skills for.

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Patrick Gray
Prevoyance Group, Inc.
www.prevoyancegroup.com
info@prevoyancegroup.com

Mayaro is a tiny fishing village along the southeast coast of Trinidad and I created a website for it and was wondering if you could do the same for me.

I don`t want to start a new topic for this but I was wondering if the community could evaluate this website too. The complete URL is http://www.mayaro.com

Thanks.

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Get Your Name in ".com" at the International Internet Authority

Hello all... My name Is Jay and I own Grey Sky Media and SacHost.com... i`ve been looking through this site and am loving to see so many like minded people. WELL, I hope I can offer a little help. A few people mentioned using templates as well as various CMS`s (content management systems). I would like to offer a few points to ponder:

1. Buying a template
    Buying a template may save you time/money in design, but without the knowledge and time to invest in learning how to manipulate that template into a working website it will do you very little good.

2. CMS`s are wonderful... if properly executed
    I love CMS`s, I have used a number of them and have set up a number of sites to use them. Most are limited and almost all are frusterating. SO, I made my own. It`s simple, easy and included in my design packages.

a few resent sites of mine are:
   capca.com
   cacca.org
   needspacepms.com
   capcanet.com (very much under construction)
   sachost.com

 

Aleem, to be blatently honest that site needs a complete revamp. The content is good, but a fresh, current look would be a great thing to help drive more people to it.

I have gained some great and useful information here... the forum`s subject caught my eye because I`ve been trying to research the pros and cons of do-it-yourself (template route) vs. hiring a web designer/host for my own business website. I`d like to offer a few suggestions for Aaron regarding his LeTutor website from a very different perspective. So far everyone has offered what sounds like great technical advice, and I am in no way qualified to do that. But no one has addressed what the website looks like to someone who does NOT have a technical web design background, which I suspect will be the majority of his site`s visitors and would-be clients. I do know about advertising, and a website really is an ad for your business. My first impression/knee-jerk reaction to the home page was very positive. It is clean and uncluttered, and KISS is one of the cardinal rules of advertising (Keep It Simple, Stupid). I agree about the pixelated images and `empty` space at the bottom.  When I scrolled down and found nothing, I wondered if something was missing. The color is eye-catching. The very first statements about the hours of tutoring and trust should be reversed. Make the benefit statement first, place it on a line by itself, and say it like you mean it. 

You Can Trust Our Experience!

Then you can explain it`s because you have completed over 200 hours of private language tutoring. Leave out `now`, and spell out hours. If you use shortcuts (abbreviations) in your advertising, it can imply laziness rather than efficiency and may leave a subliminal suggestion that you will use shortcuts in your service. (There are exceptions to that, but they apply to things like classified and personal ads where you pay by the line.) Same logic applies to ESL. Leave that off and write out English as a Second Language. No shortcuts... you must appear thorough and professional.

Back to first paragraph:  Capitalize the word Our and insert `to` after "Our focus is..". Language-learning should be hyphenated. Academic does not need to be capitalized; place a comma after presentations. Editing is one of my strong suits, so I hope you find this helpful. In my former corporate life, co-workers called me "The English Teacher", and even other department heads brought things to me to proofread.

Carole,

 

Thank you so much that is exactly the kind of advice that I was looking for but wasn`t able to express to the others.

 

If you have more advice I would appreciate it. 

I would give one piece of advice.  I would always recommend a professional web designer do you website.  I am working with a web designer that I found through SUN and will let you know how the experience goes after it`s all done in about one month.  (I spelled one, no shortcuts) 

Thanks again and feel free to keep going if you want.