I've been slowly working on discoveracadia.com, and I think it's finally ready for a review.

The future homepage is located at http://www.discoveracadia.com/futureindex.htm

Please check it out and let me know what you think! Easy navigation is going to be really important, so please let me know if you find any hurdles. It's not complete yet, but the basic design is all done.

Also, if you have any content ideas, please let me know. I'm hoping to especially make good use of the forums. I'm about to try to line up businesses to join as well.

Thank you!

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~Rob
HyperText Design

Latitude 44 - My School Newspaper

Geez... are you even 16 yet? When's your birthday... we'll throw a party in the lounge for you.

This site is going to be great! I love the top graphic and the general layout and colors. The first problem, though, that strikes me is having the word advertise in three places. It detracts from the information of the site and makes the viewer feel like it's main purpose is to gain advertisers. The one above the advertisement you don't need. Keep one link. Consider changing the wording a bit on the text one... "for only pennies a day" tells the viewer you are interested in gaining sponsorship. Try to put a twist on it so it sounds like you are gaining more pertinent information. Maybe something along the lines of:

Mount Desert Island merchants: <link> sign up here </link> to connect with the people visiting our area. (no background color on the link - it has good positioning on the page and doesn't need the extra draw; my preference is left aligned)

On the merchant index:

DiscoverArcadia.com guides visitors in planning their trips to Acadia National Park. We can provide you with the means to connect with your customers. The Discover Arcadia Merchant Network enables you to advertise and have a web site of your own at discounted prices.

Instead of bold, use a different color to highlight... the viewer will automatically finish reading the "discounted prices".

On this same page, have a table that's three cells across with a Standard, Advanced, and Premium breakdown, then a simple form under it for them to fill out for more info. What you have is very detailed, but it's a bit much for me to read let alone someone who knows nothing about this. Suggested:

Discover Arcadia Network Partners receive links in related articles, at DiscoverArcadia's discretion, and a basic listing with a link to your site. If you already have a web site, click here for banner advertising rates.

Standard:

• Custom 5 page site.*
• www.yourname.com**
• 3 updates per year.
• Dependable site hosting.
  

Advanced:

• Custom 10 page site.*
• www.yourname.com**
• 6 updates per year.Dependable site hosting.
• Optimized for search engines.
• Search engine submission (does not guarantee acceptance)
• Limited banner advertising in DiscoverArcadia.com's Island Shop.
• 10% off additional banner advertising. <maybe go 20% off or more - set normal ad rates higher to give the higher discount and make this more attractive>
  

Premium:

• 10 page site - secure ecommerce package.*
• www.yourname.com**
• 6 updates per year.Dependable site hosting.
• Optimized for search engines. (does not guarantee acceptance)
• Limited banner advertising in DiscoverArcadia.com's Island Shop.
• ..% off additional banner advertising.
  

*additional pages $30/each
**succintly describe whether this is included or they are responsible for renewals.
**Additional updates and changes are only $18/hour for all Network Partners.
- Standard fee is $25/hour for work on Advertiser sites not under contract.-

• On each plan, build a sample site and link to it so they can see what might be included.
• Just set up the emails as needed. If they don't realize they'll be having an email address the same as the domain, this will just be another "extra" that will keep them happy along the way.
• Be careful with adding message boards or guestbooks, since nothing is worse than having these with infrequent entries... and you'll be wanting the DiscoverArcadia forums to be the place people return to make comments and add questions.

One more note:

On the home page, instead of "eat a Lobster", try: How to eat our world-famous Maine lobsters. (world-famous, delicous or whatever... just something to simply describe how great they are )

Linda

ps - All just suggestions; take or leave whatever you like. I have a couple of my own area info sites that desperately need a redo and I've had something like this in mind. Thanks for the inspiration to get back to work on them.

[This message has been edited by LB (edited 02-23-2001).]

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Shirley

There must be some kinda way out of here
said the joker to the thief.

Money Tree Systems

You mentioned the forums. Do you think that I need to cut down on the number of forums (have only Recreation, Bar Harbor and Entertainment) until new ones are needed?

I like the idea for sample sites too.

I like your forums. What did you use?
I would start with only one forum... much easier to keep up with and it won't seem so empty. Any posts regarding Arcadia will probably be of general interest to those coming back to read them. >>>> scratch that. I like how you have it set up... wait and see how it goes.

When you have the site done, be sure to send out a news release to the local papers. In this, invite local area residents to add their tips for visitors to the forum.

Linda

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Ruby Marketing

[This message has been edited by LB (edited 02-23-2001).]

I'm using the Snitz Forum. It installed quickly and easily and looks like its going to work really well... awesome.

I haven't gotten to make the changes that were mentioned yet. Linda, I noticed that you changes "X hours of updating" to "X Updates". Any reason why? Is this so I spend less time updating?

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~Rob
HyperText Design

Latitude 44 - My School Newspaper

quote:

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Originally posted by AcadiaGuy:
Hi!

I've been slowly working on discoveracadia.com, and I think it's finally ready for a review.

The future homepage is located at http://www.discoveracadia.com/futureindex.htm

Please check it out and let me know what you think! Easy navigation is going to be really important, so please let me know if you find any hurdles. It's not complete yet, but the basic design is all done.

Also, if you have any content ideas, please let me know. I'm hoping to especially make good use of the forums. I'm about to try to line up businesses to join as well.

Thank you!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by AcadiaGuy:
Linda, I noticed that you changes "X hours of updating" to "X Updates". Any reason why? Is this so I spend less time updating?

---

It'll let you be more flexible. Some may only take a few minutes, some will take longer. It's much easier to keep track of and will keep some clients from nit-picking and taking advantage. Why need to explain why one year they got 6 updates in 3 hours, while the next year they only had 3 updates and the hours are already used up?

If the updates are super-quick to do and you feel like giving the client extra ones for free, you can do that on a per-case basis.

Plus, some clients may worry about how long each update may take. This simplifies things for them also.

Linda

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Ruby Marketing

Sorry... when I resize the browser smaller, I like it!

--Bri

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"Democrat born and democrat bred, and when I die I'll be democrat dead!"
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Work, work, work: http://www.appercept.co.uk
Out of office hours: http://www.darlingbri.co.uk

quote:

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Originally posted by DarlingBri:
I'm at 1024xwhatever-that-is and more than half the screen is black on my monitor.

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Whoa is right! I forgot to check it at 1024 (Im using 800/600). Thanks for the heads-up!