Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi Tony :-)
I looked at your site, knowing up front you`re starting off with the passion and enjoyment, and you`ll move toward a full-fledged business venture as time goes along. Even so, there are some things I think could make the site better.

The one big issue is the massive, changing banner along the left vertical. I was so distracted by that, I almost forgot to look at the main page. Regardless of your budget needs, when an ad is that huge and overwhelming, you may as well just throw your money in the toilet. Get a different hosting plan, or hosting service.

On the site itself, my main impression is that your content is too compressed. The font size apparently is set in pixels (13px), which renders differently on monitor resolutions, type, and size. I`m using an LCD panel, 1280x1024 and had problems just with the size. Personally, I`ve found that setting the size in "ems" makes for a better relative size effect.

Additionally, the line-height is too close. You have a tremendous amount of information on the main page, articles and so forth. With such a line compression, it just looks "too hard" in terms of the effort needed to read anything.

Your mission statement has a title, "Main Street Insider News." I`d just change it to "Our Mission." That`ll quickly explain why the site exists, and what you intend to promote or discuss.

That`s the main thing: What are you offering? Obviously, you have a lot of information. But why should I want that information? What`s it going to do for me? How come I can`t see a nice big introductory smile (in text) before I start digging around?

I`d like to see the overall layout spread out a bit more. If I wanted the Wall Street Journal, I`d buy the paper or go to their online site. I`d also like to hear your personal views and thoughts on these headlined articles.

Right now, you seem to have a compilation of what other people have written about companies. But what`s missing is an "interpretation" of what those people wrote. If I only want news on a company, I can get that all over the place, see?

Where are your "personal tips?" Where will I see that YOU want to help me, the *small* investor with some education and advice?

I`m thinking that with a nicer layout, and some personal interaction on your part with the viewer, the site would come closer to your inspiration. ;-)

I clicked the "Company" link, and the large ad on the left decided I needed to see some good looking women and "Meet someone naughty" .... definitely not what you want on this type of site.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Also, does anyone know of a good webhosting company and what I would need to do to make the change?  Thanks

The two columns right now is three columns, what with that gigantic ad. If that were gone, and you had 2 columns that actually used up the screen real estate, it would be just fine.

But it doesn`t matter about the columns, as much as it does about the squished content. You could have in 1 column, and it`d still be too hard to read. :-)

The point about personal views is that it shouldn`t be somewhere else. If you leave it the way it is, with only headlines and stories from other sources, you`re basically just another directory or news site. You can do that, of course, but your competition will be exponentially larger.

I believe that what`s driving ecommerce is that having a global market (the entire planet of potential users or viewers) allows for the counter-intuitive emergence of the 1-person niche. The more we become global, the more market there is for a single person`s unusual and specific product(s).

In other words, if you were giving your personal opinion on stocks in the past, you`d first have to build a financial planning business, then find customers within a close geographic area. Nowadays, you can just start right off with personal opinions, but broadcast them world-wide to 6-billion possible viewers.

With such a big pool, even a microscopic market share is still large.

Conversely, the more you do the "normal" or "standard" kinds of things, the faster you become buried in the avalanche of everyone else doing the same thing.

Craig and Webline have covered pretty much everything.  The ad on the left column is a distraction.  Maybe you could move them to the bottom, or do you really need them at all?

I don`t know where you`re hosting now, but I have my sites at GoDaddy.com and I am very happy with them and their customer service.



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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Maybe I`ll switch to a text only ad format that blends in with the site better.  I`ll check out godaddy.com as well.  Thanks Videography

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