Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (Full Version)

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leighmcc -> Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (6/29/2007 3:56:11)

Hey,

I am new to the forums and would like your opinion on a few different websites I have designed myself. I am a freelance web developer, and also operate a Web Hosting business.

http://www.startyourownwebsite.net
http://www.shokem.com

I'm currently working on a couple new websites, so I will post them when they are more finished.

Leigh McCulloch



Tailslide -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (6/29/2007 4:43:27)

Hi Leigh

Welcome to the forum! I'll dive right in and say that because you're a web developer I'll be much "nit-pickier" (is that a word?) than I would with someone who does it just for fun.

On the first site - you've got a load of coding errors in there which would make me be concerned about the quality of the "make your own sites" thing. There's no use of heading tags to help users and to help with SEO (Google loves heading tags!).

The layout is fixed width but it's too wide for a 800px width screen which is strange - if you're going to go for fixed width rather than elastic or fluid then I'd go for around 760px width to avoid the scrollbar.

There's an odd mix of table-layout and CSS there - it's a really simple layout so I'm not sure why you're using tables at all... Mind you I've just checked again and it's a Joomla site which would explain the coding!

The layout breaks quite quickly when you increase the font-size. Try not to specify heights for things and you'll make it more flexible.

Far as the other site goes - not much to say really, except that you've not bothered to have the stylesheet changer but you've kept all those stylesheet links. I'd dump those if you're not using them.

On the Other Stuff page the menu is broken in Firefox, Opera and IE7.

Also - and this is seriously nit-picking here - you've got about the same amount of comments as you do markup. I generally add in something like: 

<!-- end container -->


or similar which I find really useful - but you've got a load of comments on opening and on closing of divs which add up to a lot of extra stuff in there. I'm just thinking about the added page weight - it's nice to keep things as slimline as possible. Maybe this is something that RapidWeaver puts in for you?



jaybee -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (6/29/2007 7:43:14)

Agree with all the above comments



Larry M. -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (6/29/2007 12:54:25)

Perhaps I've not bridged the generation gap sufficently, but this entre on http://www.shokem.com :

"the simplest website that doesn't suck"


..... has no place to be in place by a so-called "Web Developer"



leighmcc -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (7/2/2007 4:01:21)

Thanks for your points. Yup the site is made with Joomla which is why I have a mixture of tables and CSS. This was the first website I used Joomla for, and I must say I am not impressed.

I'll chase up the errors and excessive comments. I was more interested in what you thought of the design of the website, as I intend on stripping the entire site down to static pages once I settle on the design, i.e. no Joomla and I'll use some custom PHP scripts I have to separate page content from page design.

Thank you for your comments everyone.

Cheers,
Leigh



Mehdi -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (8/3/2007 21:44:07)

I wouldn't have a clue about coding errors so I'll just comment on the design.

It's nice and concise but using images for text links is so Mickey Mouse. It's clear Customizable Templates, Free Website Builder and News have been cut and pasted and to my surprise so where the phone numbers. That's unforgivable. You should be using photoshop for images, not pasting text!



leighmcc -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (8/3/2007 23:24:28)

In some situations it is appropriate to convert images to text, especially if you don't want those areas of documents to be readable by bots. Email addresses and phone numbers bots pick up for advertising. Hence why my footer is images.

The reason I use images for text elsewhere in the design, is because I want a specific look and feel. These other text->image have not been 'cut and pasted'.



d a v e -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (8/4/2007 4:41:05)

"Email addresses and phone numbers bots pick up for advertising. Hence why my footer is images. "
but without the proper alt text attributes then screen reader users or those with images turned off won't have anyway of contacting you either ;)



treetopsranch -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (8/4/2007 20:52:08)

By all means get rid of this "the simplest website that doesn't suck"

It is a crass lowlife statement and cheapens your web site.



dbguide -> RE: Hey I'm new and would like your opinion on my site! (12/14/2007 3:33:23)

two stylistic comments

startyourownwebsite.net <--- looks like an herbal affiliate site; I should know I own an herbal MLM and I try very hard not to make it look like an herbal MLM

startyourownwebsite.net <--- looks a lot easier than networksolutions or monstercommerce ... is it as easy as it looks? ... you are certainly less expensive ... how is the customer service? I am looking for new hosting

ok the last one wasnt stylistic at all [:-]



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