Ever Wonder?

Well its ummmm colorful

You need a theme and layout, the flames background, multi colored text is working against you, if I came across this site and saw you offering money trees for free I wouldnt take it, your site doesnt look professional so why would I trust you.

A lot of whats under your info is what I see in spam everyday. none of your links are on your site (no I didnt click any) they all go to click thrus.

I am no pro and am on a very tight budget. I am trying hard to promote my affiliation program. And the only reason I try so hard is because I actually believe in the program. I trust the program that I work for. How should I go about instilling that trust in others. I am in the very early learning stages and want any advice you can spare.
MADMAT

Looks like a cheezy porn site.

And the pitch sounds like you're recruiting spammers.

You really believe in your "program"? Just not enough to buy a domain name for it and get it hosted, I guess.

Sorry, that and your free magazine plug kinda leave me cold.

I do have to agree with the others on this one. You seriously need to rethink just about everything on the site, so if you are truly serious about it & 'your program' then please review some of the other sites in this forum. This will give you plenty of ideas for creating a professional looking site and will also do what we ask of you before posting your site for review.

Buy a domain name, who's going to take you seriously otherwise?

Don't use this forum to plug your newsletter. If you want help fine and if people go to the site and think it's of any use to them they'll sign up, but please don't use this as advertising

If you people would give me a little more constructive critisism I would be way more interested in your opinions...but no all I hear is how bad I suck. So I guess you have to be a pro to post here. And if all of you hate my site so much then how come 1 out of every 5 visitors joins my program? Maybe i'll come back when I have a "real" website. (no need to reply this is my last post--thanks anyways)
MADMAT

I am very sorry that you weren't happy with your critiques at the Webmaster Forums. It think that some people sometimes tend to forget what it's like to be a newbie They were just being honest, which generally how critiques go at TWF.

There are many things about your site that have generated these harsh critiques which I don't think you should have been expected to be aware of. When I first saw your post I thought "Smells like spam!". People are so sick of spam on the internet that they tend to become impatient with anything that sounds spam-ish.

There are several things about your site that make it seem unprofessional and makes people think of porn sites. The black background is the first problem - very common on porn sites. Black tends to have a certain connotation when used as a background. Actually, you have to be careful when using any colour as a background. They all have certain feelings associated with them which will be applied to your whole site if you use it in large quantities. Black is a very dramatic colour, which is why it works well for movie and entertainment sites. I think you'll find that most corporate sites use a white background. Why? White doesn't have any strong feelings associated with it. It's the colour of paper, it's fresh and clean, but generally neutral.

The fire effect - why? Does it relate to your program at all or is it there for no reason? Think about why you use design elements, especially if they have strong feelings associated with them. There should be a reason. Why the spinning globes?

The rest of your colours are very bright and don't seem to work well with each other. Use a defined set of three-four colours, including white. If you want your site to be taken seriously these should be fairly neutral tones - nothing too bright.

As someone else mentioned, you also need a domain name. Yes, it's going to cost you money, but sites hosted on free servers just aren't taken seriously.

Another thing is to have a more structured layout. It looks more professional and gives an impression of stability and consistency to your visitors. Lose all the cheesy buttons at the bottom of the page.

That free homepage builder you have is giving me a pop-up asking me to either go and download that program or continue on to your site. Very, very bad! It's trying to send people off of your site. There are many, many totally free HTML editors out there. Just go to http://www.download.com and do a search. In fact, you might even have Microsoft's FrontPage on your computer right now. If you have Netscape Communicator you have NS Composer on your computer. I usually don't reccommend these because they generate horrible code, but they're better than something that's inserting misleading pop-ups into your page.

I clicked on the 10 more reasons link - this site looks good. It's clean, professional looking, it's got a defined design theme with fonts and colours used consistently through out the site. It's got a very corporate looking colour scheme with white background and navy/gold design elements. Navy is trustable. Gold is rich, makes you think of becoming wealthier, making money etc. The text is structured clearly and aligned well. There is no clutter elements. Try to work towards something like this.

I e-mailed this to madmat so hopefully s/he will read this!

I wasn't gonna respond to this but I think I will anyway since I am opinated. I kinda agree with madmat. There are a few here who really, really come down hard when critiquing sites for others. I think that everyone should be a bit more selective in their wording of their opinions sometimes because people come here for help and this forum is not beyond getting a bad reputation for having a__holes as members. I remember what it was like when I did my first web site and I have to say that I sure am glad that I didn't know where TWF was at that time because I would have been very discouraged. True enough, when people ask for a critique they should get one but there are somethings better left unsaid or said with a little more finesse. From this point on I know that I will be more aware of what I say when helping others.

Just my 2 cents.

I really wasnt going to come back here but I think you deserve a praise. You are a great moderator. I was not going to return here not becuase of the brutal critique but because there was nothing helpful provided afterwards. I wanted you guys to rip my site up but I also wanted to know how to put it back together again. This is all brand new to me. I threw that site together in about a half hour using a crappy (free)html editor (my html knowledge is limited but growing). I got some results from that site (so I stuck with it) but I soon realized that there was so much more that can be done (even for free). So I came here to seek sound advice from profsionals but I would be surprised if there is anyone here as professional as Megan has shown to be. Thanks ALOT MEGAN you really got me thinking I had no idea about some of the things you pointed out to me.
MADMAT (he)

P.S. Oh yeah thanks for for the support DISASTER-MASTER

Glad you came back madmat. There are really some very talented guys and gals here and most are willing to help you in anyway they can. Just keep in mind that you will get a wide variety of opinions here and that everyone has one.

I see that you got rid of the fire border and fire on the title. You mostly see the fire graphics on fire department sites. It really wasn't appropriate for the type site you have. Also, the different colored text appears "beginnerish" looking. But hey, I did it with my first site and I am sure that most everyone else here has made a beginnerish site too. I am a big fan of white backgrounds and just plain old black text for the main content. You can then choose any color that you want to accent your site with and it will usually look pretty good. You site is now down but if I remember correctly you didn't have that much content on the page and there wasn't any navigation either. Maybe you could research the topic of your site and come up with more content.?? You can then reduce the size of your text. That will help too as the big bold text looks funky. Actually, Megan summed up your site real good. You should take her advise and if someone else suggests something that strikes your fancy give it a try. That is a good way to learn.

I really don't want to say anything else without looking at your site so I will wait until you get it back up.

Good luck!!

Well, I'm glad I can be of help to you. I hope you will stick around here and give the others another chance This is usually a pretty fun friendly place to be.

I was rethinking the domain name issue and I'm wondering if you really need to bother with that. First of all, a lot of people don't even notice or care what the URL of a site is. If you look at listings of common searches some of them are actually things like yahoo.com or hotmail.com. So a lot of people don't even know what the location bar is even for. Secondly, from what I understand you're just trying to let others know about this program - it's not your program, you're just reccomending it to people. Not having a domain makes you look like just a regular person not some big nasty business So, not having a domain could even work to your advantage if you look at it that way.

The problem now is that the host you're on now keeps going down - I've had problems twice today already accessing your site. And then, of course, it's virtually impossible to find a good free webspace provider with no ads that is going to stay that way! You get what you pay for

The most important thing about a web page is that it should be seen. Why else is it made? You will have to make the page visible to others who surf on the web.

First ; You will have to submit it to many different search engines.

Second ; You will have to learn more about .
Here is a link to more information about meta tags ; http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.html

Third ; All these things will take time and is not done in one week.

Fourth ; Appreciate every comment you get. Thats the only way to do better. I appreciate all the help I've got here on The Webmasters Forum. And I know it have made our pages much better. I could not have done this without their help. I've spent 2-3 years now making and remaking TAS Foundation pages. And I'm all "selfmade/self educated". If you want to learn more you will need to browse trough the pages and questions here on this forums pages. There you will see what others have done and the comment they get. For me this isa school of webmastering. The more you learn in this world the more you understand that you can't or don't know.

Five ; I also started with a black background and I have another background now.

Six ; Great design means using great graphic programs to make your own things. But its a study if you are going to learn all this in one year. There are schools in Norway that are very expensive and last a whole year to make webmasters and so on. Have a look at this page http://www.hah.net/p5/ it's in Norwegian but gives you a little hint about what can be done. I use this page alot because it shows you how to make things like logos, pictures which are put together to look like one picture and so on.

Seven ; Get your page analysed with those great free tools out there.They give you a feedback on problems with your page and also suggest what to do. http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/
http://www.softwareqatest.com/qatweb1.html
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/

When trying to sell something or getting some one to sign up for something Dark colors have been proven to give them a negetive thought pattren. 2nd point: I like the Globe.

I am experimenting with a few other free html editors I will repost as soon as my new site is up. It will be real soon thanks again.

Ok guys and gals let me have it. This is my new and hopefully improved site. I am having trouble uploading it to my ISP at the moment so I put it up temporarily using geocities free service. I also still have the problem with my html editor. When you click on any of my links it tries to redirect them to their home site instead of my link destination. Well I purchased the full version so that will be gone soon (they have been really slow responding or it would be gone already). Please just close the dumb geocities banner and tell me how the site looks.
Thanks everyone.........MADMAT
here is my temp. URL
http://www.geocities.com/galaxyboy72001/www/index-new_sfi.html

now thats looking a lot better, I think you even see the difference it makes - good on ya.

A few things I'd suggest thou, make the text something like verdana and ont use bold, verdana is a nice take notice font without being to computer generated.

not to sure about the dark red and dark green thou, maybe lighten them a little?

you should make the "six-figure income" text at the top into a banner or remove it all together as you have the black/gold one under it.

one or two small things but your on your way to a professional looking site that people will stop and look at, cant promise they will sign up but at least now they will stop and look, then its your job with your content to sell them - keep it up

oh my we have been busy.

Here goes my opinions:
I don't think you really need the title at the very top if you are going to use the one that is in gold in the middle. The gold one is more of a logo..... which you need. You could get rid of the one at the top and move everything up getting rid of that white space. Maybe put a contact link and site map link at the top right. Then have your main navigation where it is on the left.

The black borders around your tables look a bit wide to me. Looks like you have used layers which I am a little unfamilar with so I can't comment on that much.

I am not fond of the green on brown and brown on green. It doesn't show up very well. Bold text not necessary. You have enough content to fill up the space with non-bold text. It will look more professional too. The blue text doesn't match. Sure you are not color blind? hehehe:) just kidding.

You need something at the bottom...not exactly sure. The text looks like it may fall out at anytime. I would close in that middle table at the bottom.

That Cool Page button on the bottom right just scared the crap out of me. hahaha!!! It talks when you mouseover.

Try some more color schemes and see if you can find something that matches a little better.

Don't give up. I sometimes go through 100 dozen color schemes before I am satisfied with one. You are headed in the right direction so trudge on!!

The description meta tag should tell the viewer what to expect when he visits your page.
Example
"Learn how to make a six figure income on Internet"
Because the title and the description is what search engines show!!!

Noone will find you page if these are the search words on search engines.
Example
"income,earn,money,internet,home,office,job,free ......"
these words will be found by search engines and when people search for these words it is more likely that your page will be one of those others which are shown as a search result.

But you are learning. Keep working. Take the other advises you get too.

Thanks alot guys I am gonna take all of that into account and then I will post again. And no I'm not color blind, but I am not very good with color cordination. What I think looks good my girlfriend usually hates. So mabye I'll get her opinion. Great advice from all of you thanks so much! MADMAT

Ok I know you guys are problably getting sick of looking at this site but if you'll give it one more shot it would really make my day. Thanks again,
MADMAT

Hmmm... you have the right idea. It is way to busy though. I am not crazy about the two side borders being above the middle one. And you need some...a lot...of organization here. The page is way to long and I think most people would just scan over it and go on. Speaking of scanning...you should un-bold the text and only emphasize small bits of it for people who do scan (which is a large majority) while looking over a web site. Also, if you made your font 13 or 14px instead of 16 that would shorten up the page considerably. And scale down the others too.

I see now what the problem is with your logo. You have used height/width tags to resize it. That image that you used for you logo is actually only 180width X 126 height. That is why it looks so pixely. Do you have some sort of graphics program that you could create a new logo with?

I will be back later after I ponder a while.

It's looking much better and I agree with Busy that perhaps it would look even better by having a longer narrower banner type logo across the top then all three columns coming off that. I notice that you are using layers, my advise would be to use tables as layers can be unpredictable and they are causing a horizontal scroll bar at 800*600 for me in IE5.

My opinion is that your text is too close to the edges of the tables. You should have atleast 1 or 2 mm "air" before/infront of the text. If you look at the bottom of the left coloumn you see that you have different space here and on the text abowe.

You should try having all text with the space in front of "More to come soon ...". Then it will be easier to see, easier to read and so on. Try it and see the difference.

I agree with the others about the longer banner part. I also think that you should do something different with those buttons in the top left corner. They look like they were taken from another site. Were they? You shouldn't do that - it's copyright infringement. The problem is that they don't really have the same look as the rest of the site - different colour schemes is the main problem.

I'm also finding that this is a little bit text heavy. Too much text is bad because it scares people off. Remember how I said that web surfers are lazy. We don't want to read much either. It doesn't help that the text is a little on the large side. I would move the Gery Carson bio to another page and just link it, and also the blurb about "traffic is king". Then maybe get rid of that right column, make the left one wider and your content area will be bigger as well. Either that or keep the left, make the left and right sides equal width, and move some links into the left side. Narrow columns like that shouldn't be used for large amounts text content.

Much, much better!

Hey megan and every one else helping me,

I took those tags from a parent SFI webpage. They allow this 100% but ONLY to promote sfi so i didnt break any rules as far as I can tell. I have made some of the changes you guys have suggested. My main question is to bold or not to bold. This discusion seems to be split 50/50 some are saying to make it bold making it easier to read which makes sense to me. But the other half of you say not to make it bold there bye creating a more professional look. I dont know I have had my girlfriend and another look at it and they both opted for the bold, but I still wonder?
You guys are GREAT MADMAT

I also purchased a domain name and they keep asking me for my name server. What are they taking about? This is my first domain name ever. Is it the address to my website, or is it the name of my FTP host site. I have no clue.

Loose the bold. But you might keep it if it's headlines.

You should have three more meta tags;

Think of your web site as a newspaper, or magazine
when you see bold text you know its a heading, or something important, if everything is bold people can think its to much and move on, as Megan said people in general are lazy.
In newspapers and magazines most people tend to skip past the adverts as they stand out to be them, your site is kind of an advert but you have to make it feel (and look) as if its not.
Try get your point across in as few words as possible (something I should do on these critiques ) dont cut out key information, but seperate unneeded stuff.

make your first page inviting enough for people to want to look/read more, dont try throw it all on one page and hope they read it all. again like newspapers if the heading or first sentence (or paragraph) hasnt caught the readers attention, they will move on, unless they're bored, waiting for a plane or something and read every word of it.

bold and italics should only really be used for important stuff, headings, quotes etc

Since no one has takcled your name server question I will give it a shot. Maybe someone has a better explaination.

Your should get your name server or DNS # from whoever is going to host your site. For example if you purchased your domain name from Network Solutions and are going to use XYZ (example) to host your site then you will have to ask XYZ what their name servers are and then tell Network Solutions these DNS numbers so that they can change them.

You will have two DNS #'s, a primary and secondary, and they will look something like this:

NS.YOURSERVER.COM
NS2.YOURSERVER.COM

You should also get two IP addresses and they will look like this:

209.88.34.120
209.88.34.130

I hope I explained that correctly. If I didn't someone will correct me I'm sure.

I have changed webhotel and that ment that the company I have bought the domain name had to change DNS. So after my opinion this should be correct.

Doesn't look like you want much feedback on your design but are rather looking for increased hits. If I was interested in your service, your lack of layout and time commitment in the design would make me wonder about your intentions and doesn't make me fully embrace your pitch. Some may reason that the ideas you're pitching can't be working that well either if you don't have enough cashflow to afford a ???????.com domain or similar high quality domain.

On the good side, the text is laid out well in short paragraphs that don't span the whole width of the page.