Hen & Frog review forums

Looks good! I like the hen and frog idea - it's cute and catchy. The colour scheme is nice, and the design is clean and easy to follow.

THe only thing I could suggest is that you might want to thinnka bout making the header at the top a little shorter. Also, your images are really messed up in NS 6 (not aligning properly) so you might want to check that out.

Another thing to think about is that you could be getting visitors from all over the world, not just the UK and maybe the US. It really depends on how you market the site though.

Are you planning on having all of the posts looking like the announcement post? It's a little bit hard to read - not enough contrast between font colour and background colour.

Nice site..smooth flow..easy navigation..simple layout..now all you need are people..You need to design a marketing plan in order to lure posters to your forums. I'm not sure what being an associate entails but try to get away with some free advertising with amazon in return for some good clients, for example your posters will use amazon when they buy their books..in other words, "hits with a kick". Or get amazon to create you a link "Book discussion area".

How ever you decide to attack it..Since you are starting out I am assuming you are starting with zero capital..so try a couple banner exchanges with other book sites, making their traffic, yours. Post a couple messages to start things off..Make sure you are submitted to the top ten search engines..if SEOd properly they will account for 98% of all search related hits. Don't bother with the other 1600 small search engines. I find they just don't produce and won't be worth your time submitting to. I'll give you a link on my site..maybe it will send you a couple posters..

Thanks,
Graham Hurlburt

Thanks for the advice, and the link Graham!
I've just bought http://www.henandfrog.co.uk so please update the link to this new address.

Megan Jack...
AAAAAAAAArgh. Netscape 6.
How has it managed to cock up what is simply a list of graphics? IE, and older netscape has no problem. Netscape 6 NEVER get's it right.
However, I've had a bit of a tweak, try it now.
And thanks for the feedback.
Oh, and the contrast between the text and the backgroud...it's fine in IE. Netscape even renders COLOURS differently!

Nope, still looks messed up. Tee hee - the frog has the hen's feet and the frog's feet are sitting in the middle of nowhere! You're going to have to put all those images in a table instead of just lining them up like that. I mean- put each individual image in its own table cell.

The site looks great, I live the frog and hen idea. My only suggestion is to make an introductory post in each of your forums, inviting others to post a topic. Getting a forum off the ground can be very difficult. Many people will not post in a forum that is not active. I know it is a catch 22 but you will need to get some activity in there before if you want it to take off. Ask your friends to join you and start up a discussion. At least there will be something in there so new people coming to your forum will feel better about participating.

Quote: Originally posted by Megan Jack
Nope, still looks messed up. Tee hee - the frog has the hen's feet and the frog's feet are sitting in the middle of nowhere! You're going to have to put all those images in a table instead of just lining them up like that. I mean- put each individual image in its own table cell.

So why can't netscape6 do this very simple thing?
The pixel size of the images on the top adds up to exactly the same as the bottom half. How can it get it wrong?
I'll be damned if I'm re-writing it just for one browser that is so incompatable, even with older versions of it's self that it can't cope with a simple list of "img"'s
Maybe I should make a redirect that sends users or NS6 to the download page for IE.

Yes I know, I'm in a snit. It just really annoys me. Why can't they come up with a standard for browsers that really is a standard?
It's all a pain in the bum.
Back to the drawing board.

And so ends my rant. Sorry.