Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I had my website redesigned a while back and thought it would be great to get some different opinions on my site.

My website is the basis of my business it is completely online, no office building.

Does it look professional?

Does it keep your attention for long period of time?

If you wanted to buy my service, was all the information you need on the website?

Does the sale pitch catch your attention and interest?

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Kansas Direct mail Service & Kansas Business Netwok

Hi Sergio,

I viewed in Firefox 3.  I don`t like the font used, it appears to be smeared and a bit blurry.

If you are proud of your circulation, I`d put something on the front page asking visitors if they`d like to reach over X local consumers [and add some traits about your readers].

After reading a bit, I`m unclear whether you are looking for advertisers for your weekly magazine or if you are looking for customers to use you as a supplier of direct mail pieces.

I didn`t see a font blurring issue, FireFox 1.x, but did see other problems with type and layout.

First, though, your branding. Your company name "Business Associates" tells us nothing about the coupon and sales business. That`s not a problem, IF you have something that DOES tell us the info. But instead, you have an advertisement in your main banner for some company that has nothing to do with you.

If I didn`t know better, I`d have hit the site, seen the banner ad, and assumed you`re a Web development company.

The menu navigation bar to the right of the content, under the login area is messed up. The line-spacing is far to large, and there`s line wrapping going on that makes it confusing. I thought you had two separate links: One for "Vision &" and the other for "Mission."

"Affordable Rates," "Full Page..." and "Color Ads..." all are underlined but aren`t links. That, and they have some error characters in front of each item. I assume this is a bullet list that doesn`t render correctly. Even if it were showing right, it doesn`t really tell me much. I`d want to click each item to learn more.

All these issues can be fixed, typically by the developer. But the one that YOU have to fix is your branding strategy. That`s a conceptual marketing strategy and it seems to be missing. A good example of the same problem is the current US Republican party marketing plan. There isn`t one, and nobody knows what the political party means or stands for.

Think of your company as a political candidate. "Vote for Business Associates because....." What?

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Kansas Direct mail Service & Kansas Business Netwok

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

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Kansas Direct mail Service & Kansas Business Netwok

Yikes! Now the whole page is so wide, half of it was completely off the right-hand side of the screen entirely. It looked almost like there was "no" content on the home page! :-) Sump`n`s not right...

When did you see that Craig?  It looks fine to me.....had me spooked for a second

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Kansas Direct mail Service & Kansas Business Netwok

Looks fine here on Firefox 3.
As to the blurry fonts, I see a problem with the white on blue nav buttons.  Try using a near white (240,240,240) or put a shadow under the text, or both.  Blue is a difficult text background.



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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Based on Kathy`s FireFox 3.x, I looked at it on my system, this time in IE6 and the page doesn`t extend past the right monitor edge. So it`s definitely a FF1 issue.

I think I may know what the "blurry text" refers to. It`s in the banner, "Web Site Design & Hosting." The drop shadow in contrast with the font color makes it appear blurred if you don`t look at it closely. With a casual glance, or out of the corner of your eye.

To fix it, either lighten or get rid of the drop shadow, or you`ll need a different font color for the text in the banner ad. That`s the only possible place I can see where anything looks blurred at all. Everything else is pretty clear.