REVIEW REQUEST www.bigwads.com

On this forum, we help review other people's sites before we ask for a review ourselves. I'm sure you noticed the text in bold before you started this thread...

Quote: Review Other Sites - We do ask that if you request input on your site, you review at least three other sites first. The existence of the Website Critique Area depends on the willingness of members to give feedback to others.

thats ok.. but as I am a newbie...how can i really say how good a site is? i could review some sites..but I am sure you could do without the ramblings of an amatuer!!

Hi bigwads, Welcome to TWF
We do ask everyone to review at least 3 sites because getting feedback from any level can be of benefit to webmasters as it gives a wider option of opinions.

I just had a quick look at your site and it's not to bad for a newbie but it just looks like a heap of links, try to get a theme going and keep it constant through out the site. Things like font and link sizes should be the same and using bold text for highlighting of important stuff.
I see your using a lot of inline CSS, using an inline or external style sheet would make your life a lot easier, especially where editing is involved.

OK OK you made me feel ever so guilty!! so i reviewed a few sites,
How do I create a theme on a site that will be more for searching? I was kinda hoping that it would be good for hand reviewed sites to be listed,(in exchange for a link back)sort of traffic sharing if you like. would it work?

If you are creating a directory then fine, yes it is a list of links and there is nothing wrong with that, nor wanting reciprocal links back or listing affilated sites in categories, heck that's what my site is! Are any of the category pages supposed to be working?

You need to think about usability, at the moment you have to scroll down forever to see all the categories. They should be all visible near the top of the screen. Your main priority should be making it easy for visitors to find things, then on each page have a link for website owners to add their site. Plus you have a horizontal scrollbar at 800*600.

As you are obviously just starting out, I personally, & from experience, think that you should allow sites to be listed without stipulating that they must place a reciprocal link back. Reason for this? You have a zero page rank and many people wont link to you until you have a reasonable PR, so my advise is to build up your directory first then you can set rules for being listed.

As for the design, you need to get something that'll grab people's attention and make them want to search through your site. I would try something other than black & red as these colours tend to have certain conitations for people, more associated with adult sites IME. The logo is blurry so you'll need to sort that out to give a professional look to the site.

Good start but needs more thought for the actual layout of the categories.

category pages not working yet,apart from "family tree". I appreciate your comments on the rest of the layout, how about if I shorten the left list to "main" categories, the have the sublistings on seperate pages?
I will have a re-think about the colours too

I think that on the first page you should have the links to the categories in the main part of the screen with maybe just a short paragraph about the aims of the site above it. Leave out the part on site submission and have a separate page for that if you wish. On the inner pages I would just have the main categories listed which go to a category page which then lists all the other sub categories.

Also once on the actual pages with the content your heading should be the title for that category and not 'Search Galore!' and make the link text size bigger as many people will just find that far too small.

bigwads,
"WEBMASTERS...GET TRAFFIC!...CHOOSE A CATEGORY...SUBMIT YOUR SITE!"
A webmaster sees that and first thing he looks at is your Google PR, which happens to not exist yet. And what does exist is a link farm in the making. And asking webmasters to link to a link farm is a disservice. It only hurts their PR.
Sorry to be harsh, but it seems to have no inherent value of its own.

Comment accepted john, no hard feelings eh?
How do I differentiate between a "link farm" and a "directory"? jeez, how can I make this domain work for me? any ideas will be accepted, thought about, and then I'll probably go for a beer! (or 10)lol.
Do I need some "plug in" content? (like news etc)or do I scrap the whole concept?
by the way, I also built a subdomain you might like to look at, but I'M NOT CHANGING IT! it is family tree stuff...find it at bigwads.com/fletcher
thank you all for being soooo honest "blub.. snivel"

Surf around the net, find some sites you like, some that you would trust, want to look around. Now think about why you like these sites, why you trust them, why you want to look around. Is it colour, is it layout, the way the content is displayed, the pictures ...
forget about the plugin news idea, everyone has it, me personally would go to a big news site like cnn if I wanted to read the news, that way I could read all of it, not only bits that take me here, there and everywhere.

that blue on the other site is bright

I think that you should surf the web a little more for ideas. It looks like you lost momentem or somthing. Your links are plain jane looking and it really looks like a Frontpage website. I would maybe get some ideas from a web template site for ideas.

What might help is getting more than one webpage editor.

OK EVERYBODY! I have now changed the whole thing! I think it looks better but I am a bit biased hehe, I would appreciate further comments as long as they are polite!!

I can't remember what it looked like before - sorry.

This layout is a little to sectiony (my new word of the day), what I mean is the sections don't flow together or look like the fit together (navigation, latest news, top section and maybe bottom)
The mail link should be in your navigation.
because you have the advertising banner where it is there is a horizontal scroll bar at 800x600.
I take its not finished yet (books page is empty etc) but like the joke page has a light blue strip where the news was on the index page, there isnt a horz scroll bar or the little blue section at the right of your banner.
It's getting there just needs a little blending

visual identity. that is what you should be in search of. you have started to define the self / site verbally, now you need to take those thoughts and ideas and pull that thread into a graphic unity. you need a visual identity and allow that to control the appearence of the entire site. right now its scattered pieces fighting to be soaked up by the eye before the next. find your visual identity and use it to structure an appearence.

have fun, its the most important thing.

sean

If you are really newbie, I think the site is good for your skills.
The only thing that i don't like in Your website are buttons in menu - change it with links.

Your colours don't mix man, do you have any "theme colours"? if you do then stick to them

Don't try to use all 256 million colours

Hello again everyone,
I think I have made further improvements, better looking etc.
the family history part of my site now has what i consider to be a good page rank with google,this in turn means that I am getting hits to the main "bigwads" domain.
I have also added some extra free content, which was quite easy to set up, take a look... let me know what you think
now!
http://www.bigwads.com
also... if you think you can make some money with this following link...let me know.
http://filesubmit.com/main.php
thanks

[moderator note] removed affiliate part of link [/note]

Its really quiet busy. The colours are a good start, but tone it down. Pick three or four colours and go with it. Simplify.

Not bad though. Needs work, but has so much content to go on, I am sure if you can organize it nicer you will have a winner here.

I like your enthusiasm, but I really don't understand what your site is all about. It looks like a free-for-all, something-for-everybody site - the kind that search engines and directories will find difficult to classify.

You should settle on a specific theme, like genealogy and build the site around that. That way, the SEs will be able to place you in a niche and web surfers will be able to find your site using keywords like "genealogy", "family tree", etc.. What does genealogy have to do with "big wads"?

It took me a year before I learned this, and my first site looked something like yours.

Hope I don't sound too blunt here. Keep up the good work!

Roy
http://www.webservertimes.com

In response to "what does genealogy have to do with "bigwads"" well the answer...to be honest..... is absolutely nothing! bigwads was just a short and sweet name, there are plenty of sites that sport a short and sweet name (yahoo!,lycos, etc). No offence taken though, I love criticism, it makes the world a better place. It's fun to learn, but I have recieved praise from friends and relatives...and the site is getting slowly more popular. Probably never be a major player amongst your own sites... but I am enjoying the learning curve. Keep the comments coming, I AM LISTENING!!

Glad to hear that your site is getting popular, but if you want to be successful in getting hundreds of hits per day, winning friends and influencing people on the 'Net,etc, you'd best stick to a single theme, and have the products you advertise relate to that theme. As I said earlier, the search engines like "niche" sites much better than the catch-all sites with many links and little content.

For example, if you really want to create a genealogy site, find something specific, like Irish-American Genealogy - and then become an authority on the subject. This gives you more credibility. Write your own articles on Irish-American genealogy. If you want to branch out to related topics, like German-American and Italian-American genealogy, then create separate pages for them, and include buttons on your home page that go to these "related" pages.

See how it works? Your site will be easy for visitors to navigate, and they can find the information they need very quickly.

It might take a year or so before your site is really viable. That's the way it works for most people, so continue to experiment and keep your mind open for advice - like the rest of us here!

Roy:)

My mind is always open!!
This may seem like a daft question, but if you are running a "something for everyone" type of site, then won't the SE'S list each page for its relevance to the subject that is on that particular page?
I am quite happy poodling on with my site, but am I being told that it is a complete "no hoper"?
thanks for all your help so far, it is appreciated.

>>if you are running a "something for everyone" type of site, then won't the SE'S list each page for its relevance to the subject that is on that particular page?<<

Not any more, they don't. Re-read my previous post. SEs today are using human editors to review sites for search term relevance, because search terms have been abused so much.

One example: Using the word "sex" all over your site about tractors. This might have caught surfers' attentions, but when they reached the site, all they saw were pictures of tractors. This makes the search engine look bad.

Another example: A surfer wants to learn about vegetable gardening. He types in "vegetable gardening" at Google and is sent to a site full of seed catalogues. Surfer gets mad and thinks Google sucks.

Therefore: the engines and directories are employing human editors to review sites.

>>I am quite happy poodling on with my site, but am I being told that it is a complete "no hoper"?<<

Not at all. You have to start somewhere. Visit the discussion boards often and ask questions.

Roy:)