Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Here is my advise:

Typography:
-Scale down the number of text treatments and use a consistent font size for body. No italics please.

Navigation:
- Left side navigation font seems out of place with the rest of the page. I would also recommend centering the nav under the categories label.
- Information category is below the fold and an even small font ???
- Search is below the fold. I was also confused by the button a style versus you text box style. This goes against web standard as is confusing to users!

Recommendation: Move all navigation to top level using the 2 level nav. I would also strongly recommend moving your search field up.

I would also recommend adding some padding between the product images and the description. This would go a long way. I also suggest changing white text below the white background of the images. Spacing is also needed between the $ and the item below it.

Well done.

Regards,
Howard



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ourmonmouth.com Full-Service Internet Solution Provider and Business/Community directory of Monmouth County New Jersey.

Hey I have not checked back for a while and really I checked out the site again and much better. The header image is less intimidating, the item menu on the left is much cleaner the main paragraph being reduced down looks a lot better and lets me know that I can buy something from your site. I also noticed that you now have a PR of 2 that is awesome it will improve over time. Keep up the good work.

I agree! The site is WAY better than it started. Here`s one editorial change, simply to reduce repetition:

Currently:
On this site you will find some of the finest products made from the finest exotic leather in the world.

Note the repeating "finest."

Should be:
On this site you will find a broad selection of products made from the finest exotic leather in the world.

Could be a "wide" selection, "good" selection, or if you must, "large" selection.

Wow, you people have really helped me!  The site is so much cleaner now and I`ve noticed a sharp bump in sales lately.  This could be because of Valentine`s day but I know the improvements must be affecting conversion rates.  Once again, thanks for the suggestions, I have used most of them.  Please feel free to continue the post if you have more suggestions, or, if someone new reads this post, please feel free to comment.

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"We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of the dreams."

How cool is that, to hear from you that following changes, you have some tangible evidence that at least SOMEthing changed! Yes, it could be a fortunate upturn in your business, or it could be the implementation of some of these ideas. Not so easy to prove, but at least we`re hearing that things are changing for the gooder!

Thanks for the update! ;-)

Taking another look at it, I had an idea to improve the visual of your
homepage. Instead of trying to explain it with words, I did a quick
example with Photoshop.



One of the problems your homepage has is that it`s a bit unorganized in
it`s display. Besides your title image across the top, all elements are
floating on the same brown background. See how I put your Recently
Added items in a lighter brown box? This is also indicative of the look on
your category pages. This change not only features your products more,
but also puts more emphasis on the text above it. And now the
Categories and Information have even more appearance of being in their
own column. When you implement this, make the box the same lighter
brown color as the bar up top with Home, Catalog, My Account, etc.

Also, once those items are in their own box, you no longer have to say
"Below is a list of recently added ostrich leather products". Instead, you
can just say "Recently Added Ostrich Products" And since it`s not a
sentence anymore, rather more of a headline, you can keep your capital
letters without being annoying. :)

That`s a cool idea...! Hadn`t thought of color differentiation as a way to remove text and indicate product or categorical information...!

Thanks Steve,  I`m going to try that out.  I use oscommerce so it usually takes me awhile to hack the code when I want to make changes.  But when I do, I`ll give an update.  Thanks again fellas!



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"We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of the dreams."

I liked your site.  I think it`s pretty well done.  The speed is fine.

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Scott Hearne The SEO Company That GUARANTEES Results www.ClickResponse.net shearne@ClickResponse.net 888-392-1110 x102