Review needed for social video bookmarking site

I had requested a review in a previous post a couple of weeks ago when my site was in dev. It is now in production and I have made a lot of front end enhancements.

www.myvidster.com

My goal is to create a clean site, but not too clean where it will bores the user. The bookmarking site also acts as a video gallery service for those who want to present their collections to a larger audience.

Thanks!!!

 

Also click around, there is more to the site then just the homepage (wink wink).

 

I like it :]
Simple, clean, and easy to navigate.

 

How about a bit more color on the site?

 

Couple of comments:

• Why have a drop-down box to the left of the search input box if myVidster is the only option? Better to have a hidden input field.
• I'd recommend that you list the "Channels" (or at least the most popular Channels) in the right-hand column -- that's important navigation, and if the videos on the homepage don't include that channel, you can't find it.
• It isn't clear to me the distinction between a Channel and a Gallery.
• I think a well written meta description can substantially increase traffic, as that's what end users will see in the SERPs. You don't have a meta description on your homepage.

Good luck!
-Chris

 

Thanks cbrooks for providing me with some solid feedback. I have added some meta information and fixed the search dropdown. As for the gallery and channel distinction, I am not sure on how to make it clearer for a new visitor.

A channel is a playlist in the gallery (parent child relationship). If you have any ideas on how to make this more understandable please provide.

bablooji
I really suck at front end design what about a background image, do you think that would work?

 

too simple your layout ... can add more color ?

 

Definitely need a bit more color.

 

Thanks for feedback, I have made a few enhancements.

Added some color, login/register box, tag cloud and active galleries on the homepage.
Tag clouds for gallery and channels
Users can now see tags base on Gallery, Channel or the entire network.

 

I just checked the main page. Dont know about the working of ur site script but but the light green color in Newly Popular Tags and light blue color in Active Galleries aren't looking nice...rest site is good in looking but can be improved

 

007A, have any color suggestions???

 

You made good work of SEO already; except that you forgot to add a meta keywords tag. I could eventually recommend you to also experiment with even better mod_rewrite links. http://www.myvidster.com/video/2493 could become http://www.myvidster.com/video/2493/timberland-the-way-i-are.html or something like that. Could improve your Search Engine position quite a lot

I get the impression you already made some good work on the site, but it can still have quite a bunch of improvements.
A first thing is, that you already experimented with some other colors (see the tags at the homepage). I really like that kind of links; why don't you import that to all your site?
Your logo is giving the impression of being "old" in some way - I don't know, just my personal impression

I could recommend an extra feature to your site to, a "member" page; maybe? Where you can see all videos posted by a member? Wasn't it a social video bookmaring site Or here we maybe talk of the "galleries"?

To come back to the rather "empty" looking of the site; maybe you could color the "about myVidster" box? Background blue, white text. By example. I'ld recommend using a background image; maybe.

I like the "login" and "register" switch at the homepage. While its quite easy to accomplish, it isn't seen on many sites, even through it is very useful.
Your site is also with some other trends, like RSS. Good thing!

A last thing I'ld recommend is, to have some kind of disclaimer at your site. A link to a webpage in which you by example describe that myvidster.com or its staff cannot be held responsible for the videos posted ... and stuff like that

Oh. I noticed that you have a big background image when you view a video. DON'T! Keep your design just like on the homepage, else more advanced web developpers get the impression of being a beginners' site, while other visitors might not like the background image. (It's by the way not very related to videos lol). If I say to keep the design the same on all pages; also keep the same fonts (=> login page), colors etc. That makes it a lot better!

Just my 2 cents.
Your site could become quite nice with those few tweaks; and I wish you all luck with it! If you want, you could get through some web 2.0 themes all over the web, and try to create something based on all you saw, and on what you really like.
It's a great beginning already! Definitely keep it up!

 

Thanks I have added a mod rewrite for the videos. For now I am converting the url on the fly. When I get some time I will store the seo formatted url in the database for quick retrieval.

For the logo, I will have my friend who created it work on it again, thanks. As for colors I will play around with it some more. Do you want me to change the colors of the tags?

Member's page and being able to subscribe to a channel and/or gallery is on the todo list. Hopefully I will have a subscription feature added in a few weeks.

I will try some stuff out.

I am getting mixed reviews about the background, the background image is specified by the user. Some people like it because it gives some personalization to their gallery. For now I have disable it so that myVidster has a clean look. In the near future I am going to pitch this site to some venture capitalist. I will work on making the fonts more consistence.

Thanks for the amazing feedback. It really helped me out. Green rep to everyone!!!