Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

What was mentioned about using the first sentence alone as an initial selling point creates thought about options and the possibility of fitness equipment added to the home design. 

Conceptualization acknowledged!  Thanks.  Who do I make the check out to?


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Adrian D Griffin
Newhomefitness
Corp: South Bend, Indiana
574-855-4437
1-800-761-0321
www.newhomefitness.com
sales@newhomefitness.com

LOL! I`ll just send all 30 of my children to you for their furthering college education. Jwatkins said he`d take care of it, but I like to hedge my bets.

The building process continues.  the SUN views and feedback have advanced by ability to touch the keys on my computer with excitement.  I look forward to business dealings everyday.  I can`t sleep!  My dreams are all about coding and HTML and  how to communicate using my computer.  I never thought I`d speak to the world without saying a word.  This is fun!  I just hope this Hi-Tech box will bring me before great people.  Hopefully I will be able to speak at that time.  Somebody help me graduate!

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Adrian D Griffin
Newhomefitness
Corp: South Bend, Indiana
574-855-4437
1-800-761-0321
www.newhomefitness.com
sales@newhomefitness.com

You never graduate from the School of Life. You only have continuing education.
:-)

Now the cloud is passing considering SuN mentors have come to the rescue.  Thank you CraigL and Michianawebline.



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Adrian D Griffin
Newhomefitness
Corp: South Bend, Indiana
574-855-4437
1-800-761-0321
www.newhomefitness.com
sales@newhomefitness.com

Adrian and I have been working on his site. Our goals have been to ...

* Get his business message across quickly and clearly
* Provide content on the main page that will create interest and wanting more information
* Create an easier navigation system
* Make all pages SEO friendly while reducing the original amount of code

For a comparison, here is his current site ... http://www.newhomefitness.com
... and our test site ....
http://michianawebline.com/NHF/index.php

A few of the test pages, as well as the store, are still being created and set up. So far, my biggest concern coding-wise is the graphics and load time/bandwidth involved, and possible the text color on the blue backgrounds.

So, we would like to get your thoughts and input on what we have now, and any ideas on content, wording or anything else would be appreciated.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Two issues I have on the beta version. First, it seems "crowded." That comes down mostly, I think, to not enough "white space" (or blue space, given the background).

The other is the use of the white lettering on blue background. It`s not comfortable, and on the two black-on-blue logos at the top of left and right columns, makes them hard to see.

Nothing wrong with having a blue background, but I`d at least suggest either making the blue very light, and sticking with black or navy text, or going full page-width.

I think if you were to use CSS to go 100% of the screen, that in itself would open up the space....give it a more roomy feel. Maybe?

What I`m thinking is that on my large monitor set to small resolution, the site looks big and crowded. Kathy uses a 17" CRT, and when I look at what I make on her monitor, it`s at least twice as large. So I`ve learned to set my global font size to "small." On my screen it really is small, but on hers, it`s comfortable. (No point sizes, and definitely not % sizes!) AFTER I`ve set the overall font to "small," I can use % sizes for headings, subheadings, and other "relative" sizes, and they work out the way I expect them to look.

I think having a conventional menu along the left might also work better, rather than having tiny little questions and the start of answers. That too, tends to add to the compression and cramped feeling.

The big issues with this business, in my opinion, seem to be lack of clarity both in what`s the product and what`s being offered to potential customers. That confusion seems to be what`s driving the effort to include everything on the main page.

Another suggestion would be to develop a paper-based outline of the overall site. What should be the main topic, and what subheadings for only that topic. That would be the home page. Then additional sub-topics could have their own pages.

When the outline comes into shape, I think it`ll also bring out categories that would fit in well with menu options. :-) My opinions, anyway....

Thanks Craig. We primarily used the blue graphics since they are part of the current site, and wanted to retain them if possible. However I agree that there should be something changed for better readability. The graphics are also the main reason why much of the site is a fixed size right now. Perhaps we`ll have to go about it in a different way.

The left menu is not really a Q & A type of thing; simply links with a brief description to help visitors find information easier. This was an idea of mine that I thought might be beneficial for visitors and SEO, but perhaps it is having the opposite effect....?

Perhaps I have lost an outside, or "objective" viewpoint in the main page message. Obviously, I understand the product and concept, and I see that concept on the page, however if others don`t then we apparently aren`t quite getting it across.


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

It`s too easy when working in such archaic word processing as Web content managers to do exactly that---get lost in the details of formatting and placement. It`s why I think these Web critiques can help, what with the outside perspective.

If the only reason you`re stuck with fixed-width is the graphics, then by all means start a new strategy. Graphics are useful, but if nobody lingers to read the site, they`re meaningless.

The blue isn`t helping. If it`s only there due to legacy pass-through, then consider how the original site wasn`t working in the first place. Blue doesn`t at all lend itself to fitness. (From a metaphysical perspective, green and white represent health and well-being, FYI.)

I get the idea of having links to expand on points summarized on the home page. But all of those can be subsumed under a "Learn more" tab or menu option.

The key here is to find The Message, focus on it, and produce an instant recognition of that message in the "lobby"---the home page. The lobby shouldn`t be used to sit people down and sell them on something.

Remember the AOL "lobbies?" Newbies would get caught up in conversations in the lobby, but within a few days, realized it was a total waste of time and went to actual rooms devoted to topics.

So too, trying to keep people in the lobby of a site is just plain silly. It`s like the ticket-taker at a movie theater trying to sell you on movies that will be coming next month. All you want to do is get your ticket, go in, find a seat, and sit back to watch the movie. That`s what a home page should do---pull people into the site so they can hear/watch/read the sales presenation. :-)

What about something along these lines?
http://www.dmartstores.com/fitnesscenter.html