Review Request : dougploss.com

Welcome to TWF

Can you please follow the rules and review some of the others sites as per the Posting Agreement

Thanks

no problem, will critique at least 3 websites!

Dyno

I don't know my country music but black, yellow and red gives me a evil impression that a godly one. He looks like bit of a bad arse, but I know from personal experience, looks don't make a person.
The page took a long time to load on dialup, looking at your code you can tell your using an editor to create the code, heaps of empty td tags and use of image maps when text links would do.
I like your black and white photos (brown/white) but these would stand out more with a white background (see how black and white photos are framed).
The pictures page could be broken down into a few pages, The dude himself, then links to other pages with friends, family and life etc, and use a bit more text around each image. Remember more than likely people wont know who this guy is so you have to sell him on every page.

On the index page it says "now playing ...." and the link under it is to a .mp3 file. I'm so glad you dont actually have any music playing - its one of the most annoying things with no off button.

Don't suppose you have a .wav file or anything under 500kb avaliable, I wouldn't mind hearing what his mix sounds like. I'm on dialup so mp3's are out of the question.

I totally agree with Busy about the background, partly because I just don't like black backgrounds and partly because I think it will look 100 times better using white. I also think that you need to get a better logo, as it is now it actually looks tacky to me. Now I come to think about it with the colours and the logo it looks like a cheap porn site - not the image he will want I'm sure!

I have just realised that all the text (well most of it) is actually an image! NO! Text should be html text and the only time you use graphics for text is for the logo or styled headings, etc. No wonder your page takes a while to load on dial-up!!

I would suggest using Verdana for the font for the main text as it is cleaner on screen and gives a more professional look.

Good start but I stongly suggest that you start to learn html properly, along with css and make sure you have a relevant title on each page, not 'index - Page: 1 of 1' is should be something like 'Doug Ploss, christian country singer & songwriter'

A good start but now start tweeking

dyno first of all it happened to me as well, you have to review other sites first to be reviewed. So here I am reviewing other people's sites.

Anyway about your website. Generally it is a good site, very informative, straight forward navigation...etc But from the design side I think you could work more on it. Try to give it a nice layout design, rather than just put everything in squares on their places. For me the whole site does not stick together, the parts of the websites don't have a bond. So you could perhaps give it a nice layout and join all the parts together?

Once again, I disagree about the black background. Perfectly appropriate in this case. Most importantly, it goes well with those photos. On a white background those photos wouldn't look nearly as good. One idea would be to pick out the tan from the photo tint and use that instead of yellow. Then tone down the red a little so it's less bright (you could completely re-do this with a tan base and black & red accents. That would be sharp).

The logo could use a little work here. Slide "Ploss" over a bit so the P lines up with the U in "Doug". That will give it a more unified look. Also tone down the effect just a little bit. Another thing to do is work on the navbar. Learn some CSS so you can style those links and make them look more attractive.

Otherwise this isn't a bad start. Keep working and you'll have something great!

cheap porn! good one... but really, i looked at that site and didn't think country at all... but then again, it's "country with an edge"...

Ok guys, I toned things down some per your suggestions, also changed the logo design.

Let me know if this is better... dougploss.com

Thanks,
Dyno

Very nice site. Personally, I really like the background - it sets the mood nicely. I found the information very informative, and enjoyed the photo galleries.

Very nice job, I wouldn't change a thing.

Quote: He is a bit of a bad arse, but Jesus saved his soul! That IS the exact theme we are going for!

But then add something WHITE to your site for contrast, I would say a pigeon