Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Yup. And it isn`t about Flash, either. It`s about the *perception* of Flash. I looked at the site, and once again, the Flash did nothing useful. It served no purpose, and the resulting content was too small to read, offered too little actual information, and didn`t entice me to buy something.

Flash or no Flash, it was hard to read. Mine loaded fast. I actuall created my husbands Landscape Company site with flash and he gets complaints on loading, thus we probably have lost clients that way. We were just talking about changing his site last night because the flash is not adding really anything special. I think more content and larger font would help you get more clients.

Erin

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

That`s great simple advice! But I wouldn`t say you need more
content, just well defined content. A frequent SuN user named
CookieMonster has written some great advice on copywriting. Maybe
look some of his posts up.

And your site isn`t the first to suffer from the smalltext virus. I`ve been
seeing it a lot lately and it was even just pointed out about my own site!
Has somebody developed a smalltext vaccination yet?

Thanks for the kind words CampSteve.

With respect to the site, this is going to be a bit harsh, but I won`t waste your time with a useless critique. This will be worth reading.

It is a beautiful site, fantastic layout, pretty gorgeous graphics, etc., but I am afraid it is confusing. Only time will tell. If it`s already successful, feel free to disregard my comments.

From a marketing standpoint, I don`t get what you offer, why it`s different, or what sets you apart. I`m sure you are better, different, and worthy of standing above the crowd. But you don`t tell me - or anyone else really - how or why. Bad copywriting is evidence of poor communication skills and I`m not the only one who has noticed. The copywriting is "umbrella style" and totally generic and abstract. You offer "mechanisms"? You offer "solutions" and "total organization analysis". Or "seamless meshing of products" ... where is the description of the products I can buy? This is evidence of a poorly formed communication strategy, or an attempt to offer a lot of products/services as additional revenue lines. As a whole, the communication on the site is unfocused, which leads me to believe you do not really understand your own market position or what you really offer. I`m sure you are very aware of your skills but that`s not the same as what you offer. Can you be plainspoken or straightforward? Jargon and abstraction are marketing poison. [And for example: You say that you help businesses grow. This is a dot. Yet you don`t connect this dot to any rational, concrete, or credible explanation of how you help a business grow. There are many such unconnected dots on your site.]

You guys obviously make gorgeous sites, but leave the marketing/copywriting to someone else, because frankly, you have absolutely no idea what you`re doing in that respect. Why not just say "we make gorgeous web sites but we don`t do copywriting or marketing." [The visuals are really, really impressive but the written content itself does not rise to the same level of excellence. For example, you are using a poor copywriting to try and sell "web site evaluation" services. Excellent communication is the most important aspect of usability, and your own site fails in this respect. Just an opinion. Not a fact.]

Typical also is your offer of integrated services. Yet you clearly cannot successfully execute a wide range of services. Sorry guys, but the failure to communicate clearly is the biggest sin in marketing, and you`re swimming right through it. If you guys are mostly a tech shop, then follow that angle. You are undoubtedly competent in that regard. Did I mention that you also produce beautifully designed work?

Are you really "internet visionaries". That seems more like Tim Berners-Lee than you guys. Maybe you are internet visionaries but it seems unsupported. None of your team members have any significant "internet visionary" work listed in their biographies. So if that information is available, then put it up. Otherwise, stay away from the word visionary. [One of the biographies says that one of your team members "understands the message and the point of view of the people for whom the message was intended. Nothing on your site convinces me this is true. Convince me.]

Who cares if it`s flash only? Not a big deal to me. Worked just fine. I`m not a picky technologist ... not that there`s anything wrong with that ... but overall I think the site is very impressive in implementation ... just not the marketing or writing.

Link to article I wrote about copywriting.

p.s. I have poor eyesight. I can`t resize tiny the text on your site. Seems inconsiderate and inexperienced to consider the "look and feel" of the site over readability/legibility. Just a comment, and to be fair, I have this problem with a lot of sites. But if you`re marketing yourself as a web site design business, shouldn`t your work be usable by everyone?

p.s. When I am critical of the copywriting on your site, I don`t mean in terms of grammar. It`s actually very well written, much better than most sites, even from large companies. But it`s the wrong information, well-written. So that`s sort of a disconnect, regardless of the grammatical quality.

wow. what great reviews. thanks so much for all your comments. I agree with a lot has been said. This forum really steps up and says it like it is. Thats what i like.. strait talkers.

First i have to say i really our website. Lots of hard work was put into it, and it has been to date a very useful business tool. It is manly used to show clients our work, though sadly i believe many do not even look at it, other than for that. In the web field no one finds you via the web, its all by networking. But.. you have to have a huge site to attract the clients that want huge sites, which we love.

I like the comments about my message getting lost in the whole of it. I will be making some changes to clarify our business model and better define it on the site.

I have to disagree with the comments not in favor of Flash as an acceptable web presence. Flash is an incredible flexible medium that will be/is the most widely acceptable message delivery means. Flash is going no where and only going to get better. As for bandwidth/time to load, our site is very small in comparison to others, and besides good things come to those who wait. (Maybe not my site as stated... but others out there.) Id like to not that only a small percent of out developed work is Flash, but as the visionaries we want to be, Flash si the future.

When looking into the copy writing of this site, my research led to the fact most people who look for my services, know very little about the web. The "facts, technologies, and statistics" make their eyes glaze over. But i will be looking into the other forum topics about content writing. This area has never been my expertise and I do understand though the importance of great copy. I guess i just have not implemented it correctly.

Thanks again for all your comments. I will be taking them all into consideration.

It`s true the Flash isn`t going to disappear anytime soon. Neither are television commercials and radio advertising. Flash is excellent for that, to make it appear as if a Web site is strictly an advertisement, which in this case, is the truth.

So it really only comes down to whether or not the core message is something of actual meaning, or if it`s just a really big commercial. The above post says it`s the latter.

I tend to view Web sites in these critiques from the perspective of a) can it be found by a Google search, and b) does it convince me to explore the site when I click on it. I don`t look much at sites that are more of a business card, only there for people who`ve already been told to visit the URL using some other system.

On a more general level, I`ve never seen a Flash application that served a useful purpose on a Web site. I`ve seen a tiny majority of those applications that at least offer something of interest. So for me, to consider an entire site built from Flash is a complete waste of my time. Does that mean Flash will go away? Of course not. Plenty of people build and make useless junk these days, and it often sells quite well. Again, this is a *general* impression of Flash, not specific to this site.