Here goes nothin' ! (Full Version)

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JNeill -> Here goes nothin' ! (7/4/2002 12:20:40)

Well, after looking in on the critique of other' s sites for some time, I guess it' s about time for me to get " worked over" too! :)

As you look at my site, please keep in mind that I' ve tried to make it as search engine friendly as possible. That' s why you won' t see any fancy stuff. (Plus, I' m pretty much " fancy stuff" ignorant)!

My primary motive for improving the site is to increase sales, of course, so I' m hoping I can utilize suggestions that might improve the conversion rate.

Thanks very much! Here it is: www.universalwater.net

Jereme



EWD -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/4/2002 17:26:32)

Hi! Wow -lots of content! I opened it at 800x600 and was looking for site links then noticed the sidways scroll. Most people might not see your links and leave not knowing what else is there. Perhaps you could set the table to 100% instead of a fixed width, so it would be fluid regardless of screen resolution.

I think I would be inclined to use light blue or light aqua instead of gray for the backgrounds... more clean-watery looking. [:)]

On some pages the font is a little large and I noticed one picture that said click for a larger picture and it was only about a quarter-inch larger.

On one of the products pages (filters), there was a lot of space between items that might look nicer if it was tightened up.

All small things. You' ve done a nice job of orgainzing so much material!



_gail -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/4/2002 17:27:52)

Hi Jereme,

Here' s a few comments. Most are very subjective so please accept them in that light.

First, when I enter the site I the first thing I see is NIVERSAL WATER. Huh?! I think you need the U in the logo name. It should be larger than the rest of the type with the glass of water within it. I like your idea and think it will be more effective when using the U.

Credit cards: Do you really need them at the top of the page since you have them also at the bottom? I arrive at your site and the first message is, hey this guy is looking for my money. That' s okay, but let me learn a little about your product before hitting me over the head for my plastic. You have this on all pages I' ve looked at and I just don' t think it' s a sound business approach.

The gray areas: the type is too large, imho.

Speaking of the gray areas, what colors do most people think about when water comes to mind? I think they are blue, crystal white, maybe a touch of green. Psychologically, more use of such colors in your site may be more appropriate. Not that every color in the site needs to be a cool color. I' m a great believer that colors have a psychological impact and should be considered in all sorts of advertising.

Take a peek at the colors your competition uses. And I bet they' ve paid big bucks for a fancy, Madison Avenue-type advertising firm to advise which ones to use based on consumer research for this type of product.

http://www.culligan.com

Hope this helps a bit.

gail




Charles W Davis -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/4/2002 17:34:59)

Jereme,

I would suggest that you remove the first set of credit card logos. All business are after money, but don' t hit the potential buyer in the face with it!

This is the second site that I have reviewed today that looked the same in NN 6.2, IE 6, and Opera 6 browsers. Congratulations! Only once before has this happened.

EWD' s comment regarding the font size being large is on the money. Imagine my image of the site with my browser set to " Larger" font when I opened the page. (I had just completed reviewing a site that that required the setting).

I wish that we could have had a well system such as you are offering when we lived in the mountains south of San Jose, CA.



emily -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/4/2002 22:49:11)

[:)]Jereme,

I also think that you' ve done a great job in organizing all the info - it' s nicely broken down into ' common sense' categories... like it! On a personal level (and this may be just me) I always look for the navigation either at the top of the page or on the left... for some reason it looks odd to me on the right? But that could be just me, so take it with a pinch of salt. The suggestion made by Gail about adding a bit more color is a good one too.

Overall - Good Job, hooray Jereme!



Gil -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/5/2002 0:18:14)

The side to side scroll is really annoying. And you mentioned search engine ranking - you' re probably going to get penalized for the use of the word water too many times in your keywords [:@]



Charles W Davis -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/5/2002 11:28:13)

Jereme,

Regarding Gils comment:
quote:

the word water too many times in your keywords


I believe the limit for many search engines is three!



JNeill -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/5/2002 14:15:11)

Thanks much for all your advice!

I had NO idea that the site looked like that in 800x600! That IS extremely annoying! Now, I' ve just gotta figure out how to fix it...............suggestions?

Good ideas about the colors and credit cards too. Those I know how to fix and will do so immediately.

About the font size: Does all the font appear to be too big? In other words, should I lower the size a notch or so across the board, or is it just certain copy that needs to be adjusted?

Also, Gail I' ve been struggling with that doggone U since the site' s inception! :) I know exactly what you mean! The water glass is a gif, so I don' t know how I could put it inside a letter U, but I like the idea for the same reason you mentioned. I' ve considered getting rid of it altogether, but I seem to be attached to it for some reason!

Thanks to everyone again and I' m looking forward to more of your thoughts. I' m off to change colors and delete credit cards!

Jereme



_gail -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/5/2002 14:54:40)

quote:

ORIGINAL

The water glass is a gif, so I don' t know how I could put it inside a letter U, but I like the idea for the same reason you mentioned. I' ve considered getting rid of it altogether, but I seem to be attached to it for some reason!



Don' t get rid of it!

Do you have a photo editing program? Such a program permits you to combine graphics and text via layers. For example, you' d make the U the appropriate size on one layer, then move and superimpose it over the glass of water which is on the other layer. They are combined when you save as a gif or jpg.

If you tell us the program you use to edit your graphics, then some of us would be better able to help. If you don' t have such a program, email me the file and I' ll give it a shot. I think the font you' re using is Optane.

As to general text I usually use 10 point, verdana or arial. If you look at most well designed websites, they use smaller text.

gail

btw, it will be a long time, if ever, that I make comments about code but I' d sure ask someone who is knowledgeable about the number of key words you' re using. There' s lots of good stuff in these forums on search engine optimization. Here' s a good start:

http://www.outfront.net/tutorials_02/business/se_intro1.htm



VBMedia -> RE: RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/5/2002 19:39:25)

It wasn' t the keywords tag (that tag, for the record is largely ignored these days) that caused alarm but the number of times you have " water" and " filter" in those hyperlinks down the bottom is sailing very close to the wind.

Rest assured, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you will get penalised for that unless you review it.



JNeill -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 10:11:41)

Whew! Changing all that stuff took me longer than I thought it would! I was up all night! :(

Okay, the credit cards are gone. All the font is smaller. The side to side scroll is gone. (I hope! It works on my monitor anyway!) And, I did a Photoshop number on the water glass gif. Didn' t even know I had Photoshop. First time I ever used it and it probably shows!

Sure do appreciate everybodies time! Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Jereme



JNeill -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 10:13:53)

Oh yeah, and I changed the color too! :)



_gail -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 10:30:57)

quote:

ORIGINAL: JNeill

Whew! Changing all that stuff took me longer than I thought it would! I was up all night! :(


LOL. As I recently said to someone, no gain without pain, particularly in this wild world of web design!

I do like the changes but will offer a few more suggestions.

I' d try making some of those bold table borders thinner, perhaps even making them a light blue or similar color. They are rather overpowering right now.

The U is much improved but I think the glass of water looks a bit lost. Can you try making the glass of water larger so it fills the entire U? In other words, the U becomes the glass. I' d personally like to see no white space between the sides and bottom of the U.

If you decide to give this a try, use the scale feature of photoshop but don' t forget to hold down the SHIFT key while scaling so the graphic is constrained and does not become distorted.

gail

Almost forgot, I' d like to see the U nudged a tad bit closer to the rest of the word.



JNeill -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 11:15:40)

Hi Gail! I wondered about that too. I changed the border around the links, however I' ve never been able to change the border around the heading area. I can either lose them or leave them, but I can' t change the color or the width! Go figure! No matter what color or width I choose, they' re always black in normal view and gray in preview.

I' ll get to work on the U, but I' m learning as I go, so no promises! :)

Jereme



_gail -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 11:39:02)

I believe you' ve used the Border menu icon (looks like a little square, sometimes with straight lines in it). This menu is not the same as right-clicking inside a table or cell to change various border settings. If I' m correct, click in a cell or table, then use the menu via the drop-down arrow to deselect any and all borders.

Please do a save before you change anything...just in case. Perhaps a moderator can help you here as I still struggle with understanding tables and cells myself.

gail



_gail -> RE: RE: RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 11:49:47)

quote:


the keywords tag (that tag, for the record is largely ignored these days)


here' s a related thread:


http://www.frontpagewebmaster.com/tm.asp?m=77188&appid=&p=&mpage=1&key=&language=&tmode=&s=#77195



JNeill -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 11:57:11)

Actually I went to Format then Borders and Shading to put the borders there. I can remove them that way too, just can' t change them. In other areas on the page, it' s no problem. Just the heading area won' t change.



_gail -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/6/2002 12:21:47)

btw, regarding your gifs with white backgrounds. You can make the backgrounds transparent in FrontPage.

If you click on a graphic, the Pictures toolbar should pop up (make sure it' s checked via View menu > Toolbars). On the Pictures toolbar appears an icon that looks sorta like an exacto knife. It is the Select Transparent color tool.

When you select any one color in the gif with it (usually the background color of the gif), it turns transparent. Now the background color of the cell appears, eliminating the box around the gif.

Give it a try.

You can also make transparent gifs in most photo editing programs.



JNeill -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/8/2002 14:34:48)

Okie dokie! I think the water glass/U looks much better now. Thanks for the suggestion Gail.

Anything else I should change?

Hopefully it' s at least readable in everyone' s browser now that the 800x600 issue is fixed.

Thanks,
Jereme
www.universalwater.net



_gail -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/9/2002 14:51:14)

quote:

ORIGINAL: JNeill

Okie dokie! I think the water glass/U looks much better now.



Hi again,

I' d still like to see the glass widened slightly so you see no white lines between the outside of the glass and the inside of the U. Just scale the glass a little larger. If you' re concerned about the top of the glass appearing slightly above the top of the U, I don' t think it would matter visually at all.

I' d find out what' s making the page extend beyond my screen. As a result , I must use the scroll bar to view the right side links, which I almost missed. Sorry I can' t be of more help here. I' m not qualified to figure things out dealing with code for someone' s site, no less my own.

gail



PBailey -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/9/2002 15:23:02)

Jereme,
m still getting the side to side scroll in 800x600. The links do not show up at all.



Charles W Davis -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/9/2002 22:37:47)

Jereme,

I have looked at the site with IE 6, NN 6.3, and Opera 6.03 at 1024X768. On my 21" monitor, I must maximize to eliminate side to side scrolling.




JNeill -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/9/2002 23:25:54)

Thanks Gail, Paula, Charles.

I thought I had that blasted thing fixed! I think I do have it fixed now.

Gail, I' ll go back to the drawing board on that U.

Thanks again, your time is really appreciated!




JNeill -> RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/10/2002 14:25:40)

Hi Folks,

I think I' ve finally got the U looking decent (I' ll know for sure when I hear from Gail though...hehe). I think it would look better a little lower in relation to the NIVERSAL WATER part, but I don' t know how to get it down there. I' ve tried every alignment combination in picture properties and cell properties, all to no avail. Anyone know how to do it?

Thanks much!

Jereme



_gail -> RE: RE: Here goes nothin' ! (7/10/2002 17:44:50)

quote:

ORIGINAL: JNeill

I think I' ve finally got the U looking decent (I' ll know for sure when I hear from Gail though...hehe).


Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere' s Johnnnny. Ooops, I mean Gail.


quote:

I' ve tried every alignment combination in picture properties and cell properties, all to no avail. Anyone know how to do it?



Sorry Jeremey! I thought you were making the graphic in a photo editing or similar program, then inserting it into FrontPage. Are you? If not, can you do that? You' d have much better control over how the graphic ultimately looks.

I know you' ll want to throw a bucket of water on me, but if you work on this in a photo editing program your glass will no doubt look better. You can see that the lower rim of the upper portion of the glass is already difficult to see.

Hang in there; you' ll get it, the next time it will be a piece of cake, or at least a glass of water. [;)]

gail



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