Rate my web design site please

Discussion in 'Reviews' started by jquindlen, Feb 4, 2007.

  1. #1
    Hey there. This is my web design site, and it's a work in progress. The amount of text on the front page is there mainly for marketing and seo purposes. I'm wondering what you think about the site, specifically I'm wondering:

    1) Does the site sell you on web design services?

    2) If yes, what specifically does. If no, what turns you off from using the service


    Any other criticism and feedback is definitely welcome.
     
    jquindlen, Feb 4, 2007 IP
  2. 8everything

    8everything Peon

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    #2
    1) Yes it does
    2) The clean profession design suits your services (use of colors, gradient and header design). My impression of your services is that you offer more.. business-type / professional-style website designs rather than .. creative artistic designs.. (which is a good thing if that's the client base you're targeting for)

    - What I would like to see is the name of your site slightly bolder (so it stands out more from the background)
     
    8everything, Feb 4, 2007 IP
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  3. astra

    astra Peon

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    #3
    I like the site. Nice and clean. There are few things that I don't like though:

    1) Jumping buttons on home page - big turn off as this effect does not look professional and is pretty annoying. Besides when you mouse over the area with "make a good first impression" text, you see these margins that usually indicate hot spot around the whole area where the buttons "jump" (IE6). You obviously do not want that to happen.

    2) Your e-mail on the very top of your home page. It's gmail!!

    3) I did not like the bevelled effect on two boxes ("Free quote" and "Professional results demand..."). Looks too bulky to me.

    4) This is something I like a lot: you are educating your visitors about the importance of good marketing. And according to your copy you are also providing it to a certain degree.

    What I would do is put that way closer to the top of your page as well as highlight it more so it will attract more attention. Bring the Free Quote box down lower. I feel that your potential customers need to understand what is involved in building a successful web site (amount of work) and then go to getting a quote, not other way around.

    From my personal experience folks are still under impression that simply building a pretty looking site for their business will automatically draw success to them. What is worse, many don't even have a clear idea what they want to achieve by putting their local business online and what CAN be achieved by doing it.

    Therefore I would give educating public in this direction one of the biggest priority in web design business.

    5) If I was you, I would think of all the benefits that make your web design business stand out from the crowd (and this particular crowd is pretty big!). Put all this at the very top of your page as a header.

    Right now I only see you stress the "first impression" part, but you build your sites with so much more, so HIGHLIGHT IT. It is a huge bonus for you.

    One more thing (this is just me thinking out loud), as someone with web design background I realize how vitally important constant marketing efforts are for a business web site to deliver good results. I don't quite see how it is possible to limit this part to just initially optimizing client's site for SE's, provide some back links etc and stop there. May be I missed something in your copy, if so, I apologize.

    Internet marketing is a non-stop process. As long as a web site exists it needs to be worked on in this direction. And I don't even think this is 100% web designer's responsibility, because they simply can't stay with each of their client marketing and adjusting their sites to internet condition all the time.

    What I was thinking - may be consider being an affiliate with Internet Marketing firms, educate your clients about what needs to be done for their web sites, so they become an asset to the business. So that after "building" part is done, your clients won't stop there, but will be able to maintain the growth either by themselves (because no one knows their particular client's needs etc better than them) or hire someone who actually knows what they are doing to be in touch with them constantly. I believe that this might bring you additional revenue as well and be one of the biggest advantages your clients will receive from working with you.

    Best regards,
    astra
     
    astra, Feb 4, 2007 IP
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  4. Andrei Savu

    Andrei Savu Guest

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    #4
    hello.

    the site looks good overall but there are some things to improve:
    -a contact button on the first page
    -the same type of menu all over the site(it's a flash menu on the first page and
    HTML menu on the other pages)
    - in the portfolio page it would be great to make the left-side images clickable so you can zoom these, because at the moment the page is not really useful

    hope it helps.
     
    Andrei Savu, Feb 4, 2007 IP
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  5. jquindlen

    jquindlen Notable Member

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    #5
    astra, thanks for the in depth review. Everything you said made great sense, and I'm definitely going to take your advice. You're totally right about the constant nature of internet marketing. I'm going to look into more options on how to fulfill that need with my customers.

    Green rep for everyone in the thread. :)

    Also, I'm working on designing an affiliate program, where referrals for new work will earn you 1/5th of the bid. That's means on a $500 project, you'd earn $100 simply for providing me with the client. I'll be promoting this once the affiliate system is complete, so if you look around DP or on my site in the next few weeks, you'll be able to get a piece of the action.

    Thanks again everyone!
     
    jquindlen, Feb 4, 2007 IP
  6. funkymario

    funkymario Notable Member

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    #6
    Its a nice website, very clean and professional, wish u good luck for ur business!
     
    funkymario, Feb 4, 2007 IP
  7. astra

    astra Peon

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    #7

    You are very welcome! I think you are doing an amazing job on your site and care for your customers' sucess alot! You are going to do great!

    astra
     
    astra, Feb 4, 2007 IP
  8. jdR!pper

    jdR!pper Peon

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    #8
    Comments:

    1. The email address that's displayed on the top right hand corner of your page doesn't seem good in there.

    2. Flash presentation is a bit slow. I think a faster and livelier one will be more attractive.

    3. The bottom part of your page needs some image. It's pure text and I think reader will easily get tired reading it.

    Hope these helps. :D
     
    jdR!pper, Feb 5, 2007 IP
  9. zk0

    zk0 Peon

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    #9
    1) No

    It's way too much text on the frontpage!
     
    zk0, Feb 5, 2007 IP
  10. Kassi

    Kassi Peon

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    #10
    Wow! The site looks awesome! I would not say that it sells design stuff; it looks more like a corporate site.I think to make it design selling try changing your banner with clouds with some animation maybe with drawing process, or creating a collage. In addition, I think that you logo could be colorful, try to colorize the gray graphics on the background (adding spectrum effect).
     
    Kassi, Feb 6, 2007 IP
  11. signorm68

    signorm68 Well-Known Member

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    #11
    exactly what I would say about Your site
     
    signorm68, Feb 9, 2007 IP
  12. xarkob

    xarkob Banned

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    #12
    it's too much text to read, write something simple and just sell smb
     
    xarkob, Feb 19, 2007 IP