Honest Opinion of Site (Full Version)

All Forums >> [Web Development] >> Site Critiques



Message

DdYrSstr -> Honest Opinion of Site (5/23/2006 19:30:07)

I have created a site that I intend to use to create mortgage leads. I just would like honest opinions about the site. Please be brutal. I am aware that some links in the menu aren't currently connected (Refinance, Purchase, Equity Line, Credit Tips), I plan to add those pages in the next few days. I am really interested in initial opinions and easy of use. I have a feeling that it comes across a bit amateurish, which would be fair considering I am an amateur. Again, please be brutal as I would like to improve its performance.

https://www.affordyourbills.com

P.S. If you fill in a form please mark the form test so I don't get my hopes up that someone actually went to the site seeking its services.

Thanks you for your time,
Jeremy



rdouglass -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/23/2006 20:41:33)

Hi and Welcome to OutFront.

Nice start.

IMO the text is too large ; felt like you were 'raising your voice' at me. The content amount seems light to me and I'm not sure what the increasing debt is supposed to represent.

However, I liked the quiz stuff a lot and the 'flash card / slide show' like approach. Made me want to click on things more (which is a good thing, no?) and seemed fresh / moving-right-along to me.



dpf -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/23/2006 21:41:06)

nice start but it needs more work to qualify as amateurish



womble -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/24/2006 4:16:56)

Nice start. Your navigation's messed up in Firefox though.



DdYrSstr -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/24/2006 11:42:44)

Thanks for your input rdouglas! I will take your recommendations to heart and get back to work. Thank you.

Jeremy



DdYrSstr -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/24/2006 11:47:10)

Thanks for your help, Womble. I hadn't even check out my site in FoxFire. I just did and it is certainly a new experience. If it hadn't been for your input, I would have continue along the wrong path. I think my next step is to figure out why IE and Firefox have such different ways of showing my site. Thank you.



DdYrSstr -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/24/2006 11:51:24)

Thanks for checking out my site, dpf aka Dan. I appreciate your brutal honesty, but where is the advice? I imagine you checked out the site in FoxFire. Another forum member was kind enough to let me know that FoxFire doesn't agree with my site. Perhaps you could combine your brutal honesty with a little constructive advice? Thanks for checking out my site.



dpf -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/24/2006 12:00:29)

your quote:
quote:

Please be brutal

i apologize if i was overly harsh. however, your site is in a business which is competitive and professional.. start with your business name at the top. without commenting on the penny, the letters are flat, one dimensional and uninteresting - not a professional type logo. you lettering is large and seems designed to fill empty space. take a stroll through some sites in your business and you should see what i mean



DdYrSstr -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/24/2006 12:13:59)

Thanks Dan. That's exactly the type of thing I want to hear. I truly appreciate your honesty. There is no need to apologize for doing exactly what I asked, being brutally honest. I was just hoping for some advice to improve my site, which you have now provided. I will check out others and see what I can learn and adapt to my site. I think you are exactly correct in your evaluation, since the only people who have filled out a form at this point are those who are completely desperate and have tried most ever other effort. Thanks for your input!



golfer -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/24/2006 14:01:11)

Hi there.

I agree with the above comments.

In the finance business credibility is vitally important. IMO you must explain who you are, your background, experience and what you are able to do for people. You need to sell yourself.

At present it is basically just a form filling exercise to generate leads for conversion. I know that is what you are looking for but you must look at the website through a visitors eyes. Anticipate their needs. Make them feel safe/secure. Answer any basic questions they have such as 'Are these people interested in my circumstances/business?'

I feel that you still have quite a bit of work to do on your site.

Good Luck[:)]




kulaysep -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/26/2006 9:45:50)

Hi!
I initially encountered similar problems with my site when viewed in Firefox. After some research, I found out that IE works very well with Frontpage and is quite lenient when it encounters coding defects. Firefox is stricter in interpreting code and will show defects when encountered. I now use FF as my default browser to check my web designs.
I suggest that you redo your layout and preview as often as possible with FF as you go along. If your preview looks ok in FF; it will also look fine in IE.
The best way to improve your web design is to surf the and pick up ideas from other web sites.



DdYrSstr -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/26/2006 10:15:14)

Thanks for your input. I get what you are saying. I think I am going to start fresh.



DAK1220 -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (5/27/2006 14:37:05)

While you're proofing it in Firefox, look at it in Netscape, too. I don't know why I bother continuing to use NS except for misguided brand loyalty, but there are probably a couple dozen other people like me out there. And your borders and text in the menu along the left margin don't line up properly in NS 7 or 8.
This may have something to do with line spacing. I've noticed that NS spaces lines a bit farther apart than IE does. I don't know how to correct this.

Ah! Just noticed something else about that menu. In IE you have nine neat rectangles vertically stacked, with 2 or 3 pixels of vertical space separating each of them. In NS the top five are neatly separated, but the bottom four are a solid block with no separation.

FWIW.

DK



billoutfrontforum -> RE: Honest Opinion of Site (6/20/2006 0:28:43)


OK, here's my two cents worth.

Since I assume you want a professional looking site I suggest you consider hiring a pro to do it for you or purchase a great template and go from there.

Unfortunately, I built my own site from the bottom up. In hindsight what I did was spend precious time trying to reinvent the wheel, except my site has never been --and is still not--as good as what's available from some people who design for a living.

A designer (who is also a member of this forum) offered to polish my site up for free; and polish she did.

I'd already spent hundreds of hours trying to reinvent that wheel and having fun doing it; but it didn't help my business until the third year. That was when I finally got it to looking half ass OK...but still only half ass.

I'm hiring someone soon to work some magic on mine that I wished I'd paid for four years ago.

It was fun building my own site and getting better and better at it, but other than fun it was much wasted time.

Your site looks OK to me, but it looks like you designed it yourself.






Page: [1]

Valid CSS!




Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI
0.09375