website critique

[Fieva]

What's up ya'll...

I'm looking for some new opinions on the demo website I'm building. Anything you can think of to make it better than it is (besides Flash because I still need to sit down and learn that). I've got it on a free site as I make a demo and then I'll take all the scripting and graphics over to a paid site that I'm looking at hosting this when it is fully ready. This site is about 75% done so some pages might still be blank and all of the beat links have the same beats listed (but that's just temporary)

It looks good to me, but I'm probably biased on some things. BTW I'll probably get the Hustle Magic site looking somewhat like this one.

Here's the link
http://headturnazmusic.freespaces.com/

Hit me back,
Fiev.

[Cyanide-Depende]

left nav buttons are WAY too big. also, try using div tags instead of frames, frames can cause alot of navigation problems, or browser load problems. You can make a scrolling div tag (layer) and get the same effect. top banner is alittle choppy, and some of the images could be scaled down a little. the layout and graphics look really nice though. Its a nice site.

I didnt look at your source code to see how you're doing SEO but eliminating frames will help out here and give you a better page ranking.

-C$

[REEK BROCK]

Really tight so far Fie.Its clean and it gets to the point.Are you going to have any music playing on entry?It gives an instant example of your work.Your site already blows mine out the water.I know what you mean about the flash too.You want a fast loading site anyway.I know its not finished so i won't get all picky.

[Fieva]

Originally Posted by Cyanide-Depende

left nav buttons are WAY too big. also, try using div tags instead of frames, frames can cause alot of navigation problems, or browser load problems. You can make a scrolling div tag (layer) and get the same effect. top banner is alittle choppy, and some of the images could be scaled down a little. the layout and graphics look really nice though. Its a nice site.

I didnt look at your source code to see how you're doing SEO but eliminating frames will help out here and give you a better page ranking.

-C$

Now that's good info.

I actually thought about killing the banner all together and only using that for advertising wherever I put it. But who knows, I might just resize it and use it where it is. Deep down, I'm thinking if I use that banner as advertisement (which is likely) it might cheapen the site for it to be the first thing people see when they come to it.

Now the images that I used, the banners on each page I scaled down quite a bit...I didn't want them too small, but I cut them down about 1/4th. The links on the left I kept big for now so that when I add a new section I can chop them down, add the new links in and not have a bunch of empty space sitting there.

The div tags....I'm definitely going to have to try that and see what the results of that are.

[Cyanide-Depende]

heres the code for the div tag, you can change the colors and size etc how you want them to be

<div style="border: 0px solid ; padding: 4px; overflow: auto; width: 95%; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); height: 250px;"> TEXT HERE!!! </div>

using the banner for advertising is a good idea, it might free up some nav and content space for you..

Hopefully this helps

-C$

[Change of POETS]

Graphically, I'm not feeling it. The "chrome" font is very "digital" and looks like it was done in MS paint. The nav menu to the left is too large, and the menu bar under the main banner looks like a poorly worded sentence... I mean, it runs together, so it took me a minute to figure out those were different options to check out.

Overall, it just looks too busy. Too much going on, no real focal point. You want people to focus on your content, because that's what your site is pushing... the content. If their eyes are caught up in busy graphics and layout, they won't get to the important stuff in time. Most tests show that a casual surfer will spend 2-3 minutes on your home page, and 30-60 seconds on subsequent pages if they even click through... You need to make them click through, and you need to make them want to read what you put down...

Obviously it's a site to sell beats... So... you need a bangin beat in the background when the site loads. No more than 128kbps and about 30 seconds long, so it loads fast.

That's about it for now... But I urge you to take a look at other sites and their layout, and ditch the amatuer looking graphics, fam. You can do better than that.

[RAM BEATZ]

[soundchaser59]

Looks really good!

One suggestion from experience......

In the long run you are going to want to figure out how to let people send you messages/email but without using a link that opens the surfers email client. I clicked on the email link and it opened up outlook and displayed your email address. Trust me, you dont want that. You dont want to give out your email address so easily. 1 year like that and you will have more spam than you can handle.

It can be done, most web site hosts have their servers configured for some kind of email capability. Keep in mind that the host will not want you to be using an email "relay." Hence, with ASP it's CDONTS and CDOSYS. I dont know what it is with PHP. Flash will do the same thing, and the learning curve is not very steep. It's really easier than it sounds, and it saves you from getting on every spam list in the world.

Instead of opening the cleint email, open another form with blanks to fill in and a "submit" button. The button will "post" all the submitted data to another "server side" form and that server side form sends the message to your email address. The surfer never sees the server side code and never sees your email address.

[Fieva]

Originally Posted by soundchaser59

Looks really good!

One suggestion from experience......

In the long run you are going to want to figure out how to let people send you messages/email but without using a link that opens the surfers email client. I clicked on the email link and it opened up outlook and displayed your email address. Trust me, you dont want that. You dont want to give out your email address so easily. 1 year like that and you will have more spam than you can handle.

It can be done, most web site hosts have their servers configured for some kind of email capability. Keep in mind that the host will not want you to be using an email "relay." Hence, with ASP it's CDONTS and CDOSYS. I dont know what it is with PHP. Flash will do the same thing, and the learning curve is not very steep. It's really easier than it sounds, and it saves you from getting on every spam list in the world.

Instead of opening the cleint email, open another form with blanks to fill in and a "submit" button. The button will "post" all the submitted data to another "server side" form and that server side form sends the message to your email address. The surfer never sees the server side code and never sees your email address.

Now I've used the form option many times...it's good. The email was just thrown in there as a mailto because I didn't create that page...I could go either way on that.

[choctaw]

[QUOTE=Fieva]What's up ya'll..I'm looking for some new opinions on the demo website I'm building.

The main page is TOO busy, by this I mean you have so many things on the home page that it is confusing as to what is important. Some of the fonts are hard to read. The size of your fonts are over powering. But a web page is something only you can creat. So if you like it, fine just read what other folks say about it and don't take it personal. We all have opinions, and some of them are not correct. Type into Google " How not to design a web page ".

[Fieva]

Yeah you're right, I will get a lot of opinions. The link portion on the left will probably get changed up once I add a few more options there. My business partner and I are still discussing changes to the site.

BTW....the site you're probably looking at is the demo site that I wrote. The official site is similar but has probably had more changes than the demo site.
Click the banner to go to the official site if you haven't already.

Me personally, I've had better luck in sales in the past with catchy, busy work instead of just flat, boring pages with a lot of info.

[bknot1]

I read through you demo site Fie..and it sounds like you selling all rights to your beats..is that right..if not you need to added that somewhere on the site..

[choctaw]

Originally Posted by Fieva

Yeah you're right, I will get a lot of opinions. Me personally, I've had better luck in sales in the past with catchy, busy work instead of just flat, boring pages with a lot of info.

Just don't fall prey to the old saying which goes " My minds made up, don't confuse me with the facts ".

[Dogman]

When you get to the play, or buy beats section, the font is ok, but some of teh fonts are fuzzy on the edges, and make my eyes strain a bit at times. And I already wear glasses....
It's mainly the stuff upper right, but some of the other fonts are tiring also.

The layout is pretty easy though, and the color scheme is pretty good.

[Fieva]

LOL I wear them too, I just don't do many pics with them on. I didn't catch that when I wrote the site, but if you get a minute and can tell me which parts are doing that it'd be worth taking a look at.

Fiev.