Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

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Lyfe Productions
"Graphic Design and Multimedia Solutions for Home and Business"
www.LyfeProductions.com

Hi there :-)
I have the same problem when I`m fishing. The other day I found a tackle box at Gander Mountain, and walked around the store, filling it with lures of all kinds. I brought it home, but I`m thinking I now need to buy a new one.

I`ve been sitting in my living room day after day, and I`m not getting any fish. Oh sure, I can go out in the evening and buy some fish from the store, but I was hoping I`d have fresh fish. The tackle box looks great, so I keep it on the dining room table, but it still isn`t putting any fish in my frying pan.

You don`t need a new Web site, you need an action plan---a marketing plan. :-)

Just putting up a Web site doesn`t really mean anything at all. Anyone can put up a Web site. I see signs all the time, sitting on empty lots: "Home of the new Bigg store!" It`s an empty lot.

Somehow, a whole lot of people have come to believe that all they have to do in order to make millions on the Web is put up a Web site. That`s okay; a whole lot of people believe that all they have to do to catch fish is put a tackle box somewhere in their house.

You must like the colors blue and purple.

Overall.  The colors suck.  I have no problem with an off-white on black, but dark purple on black is hard to read.  Add yellow (as on some of your other pages) and it really sucks.  Yellow and purple is really uncomfortable for some people to look at. 

Home page - the text is all about you.  Wrong thing to put on your home page.  This is your only opportunity to get the viewer interested in looking at anything else in your site.  This is where you state the client`s problem and how you can solve it.  It can be as simple as "You need to Brand your business; I can do that for you".  It`s not about you, its about the client`s needs.

Get rid of the horizontal scroll.  It adds nothing to the website and could be conceived as amateurish.

There is no consistent style through your pages.  The text colors change, your logo (branding) should be on every page, preferably smaller.

The 3D effect on the nav buttons are hard to read - they look out of focus and you should really do a mouseover change to highlight when the mouse is on a clickable button.

What do the graphics on the left column have to do with your business?  Show some samples of your logo designs, not people at computers.

Your portfolio is quite well done, your web pages should follow the same style.  The contrast is just too much.  Also, on your Contact page: get rid of the flying mailbox button.  Again, it adds nothing to your page and this one really does look amateurish.  Look, you`re selling yourself as a graphic designer, so design some knock-your-socks-off graphics for your website and link buttons.  Resorting to cheap motion GIF files doesn`t say "professional".

There`s no About Us page?  Why should I hire you?

Your "Answers" page is quite long.  Whom are you preaching to?  I would make it shorter.  I didn`t realize that your CD Business card image was a slide show until it finally loaded.  Not especially bad, but together they are so large (over 300Kb) that it takes a long time to load.  I would just do a montage image.





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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

You do need a new website as far as recoding ... who built this? There is tons of hidden text in your index page, a definite SEO killer .... start with something coded properly .... I would venture you get nothing positive as far as search results.

BTW .... how to tell what your code is like if you didn`t write it? Right click a blank area of your page, then select `View Source" from the menu. OR, on your main page at the lower part that is solid black. left click your mouse and drag it around ... you`ll see the hidden text.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Thanks to all for the advice. Webline..I used homestead to build this site. I knew about the hidden text. I was told that hidden text was a "trick" that could be used to get picked up by the bots? How would you suggest that I recode everything? In Lamiens terms, not too html savvy.

Thanks.



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Lyfe Productions
"Graphic Design and Multimedia Solutions for Home and Business"
www.LyfeProductions.com

It`s a trick that backfires ..... people do it as a form of keyword stuffing, and might fool bots for awhile, but they catch on and eventually you`re penalized for it ( this was the case in the recent past, I`m assuming it`s still the same ) .... one of the golden rules of site building that you don`t make sites for search engines, you make sites for people that are search engine friendly .... so don`t waste your time and potential traffic with text that only bots will read, but create content people will read.

You need to either find a template to base your site off of, or have one designed for you .... or learn html/css and all that and start from scratch..... the Homestead site builder creates horrid, bloated, ineffective and inefficient code; I`ve recoded a few Homestead-created sites before .... dump it for something I already mentioned.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

I recently switched to "WYSIWYG 5.0" to build my static sites.  It is a departure from other web site building SW, but it gives me everything I need and I picked up the interface quickly because it is so similar to Visual Baic (my favorite programming tool).  Best of all, it passes the W3C validation tests with only one  easily corrected error.  All the other low-priced programs that I evaluated had dozens or more errors.


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

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www.searchmarketingsystems.net

CraigL was spot on with his answer. Even with a website redesign your not going to magically start receiving more traffic. SEO and higher search rankings are built with many months(even years) of link building and keyword optimization. Keyword stuffing, as webline has pointed out, is going to get you penalized.

I`d suggest to get away from those build it yourself website editors and hire a professional or buy a pre-made template. You can get away with not spending a lot by looking around for a decent freelancer, I`m sure if you ask around on this forum you can find someone to help you out.

Invest a few hundred dollars each month in Google AdWords(Or MSN, Yahoo, Etc.) and you can receive highly targeted traffic to your website if done right.

All good replies and ideas. There is much work to be done. I agree with Craig, so many people think they can just put up a site and generate income without a plan. Fix your website first, simpler can be better. Get rid of the 3D text, large graphics, and focus on content. You don`t need to be flashy to get noticed, just have a good service or product. Simplify and add some content. Write a few articles, start a blog, and do some research on driving traffic to your site. There are many ways to get free traffic to your site. Just search it on google and you will have more than enough to start. Good luck.