My New Site (Full Version)

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Chris_Mayer -> My New Site (10/10/2004 16:20:10)

I have just launched my site and feel that I would benefit from getting someone to look and review it's content, so i can make any improvements that are necessary.

I'm also trying to find other words for the service I provide so I can get high listings, any ideas.

www.complete-success.co.uk

Kind regards

Chris



dpf -> RE: My New Site (10/10/2004 16:31:37)

1. check your spelling. eg." I reed books "; "it is entire your choice"
2. your layout is inconsistent.. you have navigation on top on some page, on left on others.
3. this is a pet peeve of mine : you have a page that you chose to call "pricing" - ok, so why arent the prices there? I would leave instantly.
4. your home page has a section "what is life coacj=hing?" you then spend 1/2 of that paragraph talking about other companies not defining it and how you do yet, for my money , the definition you give it inadequates. eg. you mention "techniques" - what are those techniques? you brought it up so if im a potential customer, i want to know.



Donkey -> RE: My New Site (10/10/2004 18:52:32)

At 800 x 600 screen res there is a nasty horizontal scroll.

Your colour scheme doesn't sell the concept to me it doesn't look professional enough.

I don't know (or want to know) exactly what life coaching is all about but it sounds a bit iffy and nebulous as a concept and you need to look as serious and professional as you can if you want to convince the weak willed out there that you are the answer.

There are many other sites offering simillar "transform your life" snake oil type solutions and they all look slick and professional.

If you want to succeed IMHO you may need to shell out a few bob and get a redesign by one of the many professionals who hang out around here. Also your logo is badly in need of a revamp.



d a v e -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 0:06:38)

these 2 words make me leave straight away
"Life Coaching"[;)]



Chris_Mayer -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 4:39:37)

why?



Giomanach -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 5:02:51)

I agree with the above.

The literacy of the site is not very well done, you need to get someone to proof read the content. As has been said, the logo needs re-working, the headers also need re-working.

The nav needs rethinking, when hovering over, or on the page, the green semi-circle hides part of the button text. The colour scheme also does not strike me as anything near professional. For a site like this, you need to use greys, blues and possibly a bit of red, but not green or yellow/cream

The page transitions don't do it any good either, in fact they are now classed as a very amateurish feature to have on a site.

Life Coaching is a very controversial and competitive industry to be in. You will need a site that will stand out from the rest in content, style, design and layout. I personally don't look into things like this, but if you run a Google search on "Life Coaching" you will see what you are up against web wise.

Also, producing a web is not about selling a service, or a product, it's not about providing information about the company and the services, they are all second class. What your main priority should be is (1) A Professional Image and (2) Accessibility.

Selling a professional image of the company via a web site is a large factor in attracting business. Accessibility is now a legality within the UK and US, you must cater for all users, not just those with perfect vision, you need to think about those with disabilities and those with sight impairments.

HTH



jaybee -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 5:44:59)

Chris,

The problem is you've used a FrontPage template. Given that FP has, what, 30 templates and there are how many million websites out there, I'm sure you can guess at the number of sites using exactly the same one.

Your logo is not good. It's too small, fuzzy.

As Dan mentioned above, if you're a professional business you need a professional looking site.

If you're going for the corporate market as well, even if you've just started out, image is vital. The corporates won't touch anything that even looks slighty "home-made"

Now this is not to say you should go out and get a pro to do the site for you but it is to say you need to re-do it. We can help you on these fora if you're willing to invest the time to rework the site.

Take a look at previous postings in this section, it'll give you an idea for the sorts of things people are producing.

For those on here who have queried "Life Coaching" quick translation..... "You can if you think you can"



d a v e -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 9:17:59)

those words are the kind of thing that make me think of get rich quick/self help/pychobabble type stuff that instantly turns me off.



Peppergal -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 11:42:18)

What does the globe in your logo have to do with anything?

You should have pictures of happy successful people - smiling, victorious, satisfied.

I agree with everyone here that the entire site needs to be reworked...completely.

And lose the template. If you feel more comfortable using templates, Thomas Brunt has some nice ones available, all reasonably priced.

http://www.outfront.net/frontpage-web-templates.htm



jaybee -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 11:49:45)

quote:

get rich quick/self help/pychobabble type stuff that instantly turns me off.


Errrrr, what about just believing in yourself?

When I was a kid and went running to my parents saying "I can't do it..." the stock answer was always "You can if you think you can."

It worked and gave me the confidence to tackle all sorts of things that my contemporaries thought I was mad to even think about.

My other half had the opposite. "Don't be silly, you know you can't do that. Your brother's the clever one" It took me 10 years of pushing and prodding to get him to believe in himself.

He was driving buses, bored out of his skull and couldn't see any way out of it. Now he's a DCSE qualified Dell engineer and loving every minute.



Donkey -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 13:12:40)

quote:

quote:

get rich quick/self help/pychobabble type stuff that instantly turns me off.



Errrrr, what about just believing in yourself?

I'm with Dave on this one.
Fine to believe in yourself, but when someone comes along trying to coach you how to do it ? Then it becomes quasi-religious nonsense.
I would rather take my chances in life doing what I want to do not constantly trying to artificially reprogram my brain to make me a different person.
You are what you have become, and if you wake up one morning and decide you don't like it then it's easy enough to change it. "Life Coaching" smacks of control freakery to me and I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

I am told certain mind altering drugs can also help you believe you can do anything, flying like a bird for instance, they say that some of the 60's LSD enthusiasts were still flapping their arms when they hit the pavement.



Peppergal -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 13:44:30)

quote:

"Life Coaching" smacks of control freakery


Yeah, but some people just need someone's help to break out of their own personal prisons.

I dunno. If someone's willing to pay for it, no reason why someone shouldn't try to make a buck doing it. [8|] There must be a market for it.

Probably a lot cheaper and just as effective as a therapist...(barring any mental illness that is)



jaybee -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 13:46:38)

I'm sorry Dave & Donkey but Chris came on here asking for help and advice with his web site not your opinions on his choice of occupation.



Peppergal -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 14:00:30)

quote:

I'm sorry Dave & Donkey but Chris came on here asking for help and advice with his web site not your opinions on his choice of occupation.


Thank you.

This happened before in the puppy diaper thread. I felt really bad how that turned out too.

It's really not our business, is it?



d a v e -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 14:05:14)

i only said that those words had those associations for me...



Donkey -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 14:16:02)

Further to Jaybee's post, I unreservedly apologise if I have offended Chris with my comments. No personal insult was intended.

However, I do believe that it is reasonable to comment on the content of a site in this forum, for instance if someone asked for a critique on a KKK white supremacist site I'm sure there would be a lot of discussion.



jaybee -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 14:23:10)

That is a somewhat different scenario and I would hope that it would either be removed from the forum or ignored by all and sundry. Arguments/discussions about politics, religion, race etc are not the point of Outfront. We have Private Messages and emails for those sort of discussions.

I suggest we leave this where it is and offer Chris our help with his site.



Peppergal -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 14:26:31)

So, perhaps the advice should be for Chris to re-word his content so that it doesn't sound like scam artist psycho-babble.

To that I can certainly agree. The content really needs quite a bit of polishing. I had very little patience to read the entire first page.

It needs to be inspiring and provoking thoughts of "WOW, I could use this guy's help!"

As it is now, it truly is...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz inducing. rather than zippy and inspiring.



Chris_Mayer -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 15:19:36)

Thank you everyone, and I accept your apologies. (For those of you who apologised, or needed to)

I am new to this, I spent hours on my website attempting to make it look professional. Please will someone help me make it look professional and give it what it needs.

I am currently working on the text and will have it just what it needs, but the look is not my forta even tho i have tried.

My budget is very tight, so any help would be very gratefully received and anything I can do for any of you, I would gladly.

Kind regards

chris



d a v e -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 16:06:09)

how about a white with some positive colours? the text colour as it is is quite good. lose the buttons, lose the yellow background, lose the greens and blues

also you have client "client promise" button twice

see attached for a quick idea...

[image]local://upfiles/5827/3DD4D46F252A4FE4ACA407C82B9E44A4.gif[/image]

that's also just my opinion ;)



jaybee -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 17:11:30)

Now that I like.

Chris, do you understand how to get the hyperlinks to work in Dave's example? You won't be using a FP template for this.

quote:

I spent hours on my website attempting to make it look professional


Don't worry, if you could see our first attempts..... we'd probably all hang ourselves. It's like most things, you get better with practice.



Chris_Mayer -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 17:45:59)

Thanks, yeah I like it.

I don't know how to use dream weaver. Is dream weaver the program I need to make my pages, like the example dave gave?

chris



jaybee -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 17:54:37)

NO absolutely not. That can be done in FP just as easily.

It's getting a bit late over here so I'll have a quick play with it in the morning and mail you a template and some instructions.

Dave, have you got the banner handy? Could you mail it over?



PS, are you a male or female Chris? and where are you based?



Peppergal -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 17:58:17)

quote:

Don't worry, if you could see our first attempts..... we'd probably all hang ourselves. It's like most things, you get better with practice.


LOL, you should see my first website attempt - I wanted to make a site for my husband's carpentry business. Well, it's never gotten finished and I'm too embarrassed to show it to anyone. LOL He's getting a new one for Christmas - maybe - . But then again, he hasn't been in a hurry to finish our bathroom....




jaybee -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 18:04:35)

My first one thankfully died a death when they forgot to renew the domain. It was for a work based training company and for some unknown reason I decided to make it really friendly by putting a large purple and green monster in the top left hand corner.

If that wasn't bad enough, the monster was constantly walking, a bit like my avatar actually. [&:]

But then to make matters even worse........

Every few seconds a set of monster footprints trundled across the page!

What was I thinking?????! [:o]



Chris_Mayer -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 18:12:28)

I'm a 25 year old male, based in the united kingdom. Please feel free to ask any other questions



Chris_Mayer -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 18:16:47)

that sounds quit amusing.

I like your message at the end of your signature, its amusing.

I'm from hampshire, well that is where i live now, originally I'm from sussex.

Chris



Peppergal -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 18:18:06)

quote:

Please feel free to ask any other questions


LOL that could be a dangerous invitation.



Peppergal -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 18:19:09)

quote:

If that wasn't bad enough, the monster was constantly walking, a bit like my avatar actually.


Well, that sounds weird, but the footprints sound kinda cute.




dpf -> RE: My New Site (10/11/2004 20:57:36)

my first site was in FP and I was just so fascination with the text that could come shooting in...i had it from the left..the right...top..bottom. oh how clever i felt



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