REVIEW REQUEST: www.FortifiedIron.com

Can you help us out and review at least 3 other sites as per posting agreement - thanks

im getting around to it. Still trying to soak up knowledge here.

DSL
IE5
800x600

I don't see why there's a scroll to the right in 800x600 - unnecessary. I also don't like the white text on black - not too easy on the eyes. The navigation font for the top and left menus should be larger and easier to read. And if you want the site to look professional, do not center your text. There's also a lot of needless blank space between "Order now" and the bottom of your page. Also, since your navigation remains the same on all the pages I viewed, as well as your logo, what's the point of frames? You're just going to lose visitors whose browsers don't support them.

You're on the right track, so keep up the work.

Deborah Whipp
http://www.acleverpenny.com

Quote: Originally posted by dmwhipp
Also, since your navigation remains the same on all the pages I viewed, as well as your logo, what's the point of frames? You're just going to lose visitors whose browsers don't support them.

Im hosting the site off my own computer, and i've had a lot of trouble getting the IP pointing feature on my domain working. I cant get it to replace my IP address with the domain name, so i just set it to URL framing. I've been meaning to fix it, just dont know how

First thing is the links, if i was a newbie I'd say your page had 5 links (the underlined words). DON'T have links and text the same colour, it's very confusing at the best of times.
use another colour (maybe a blue from the banner) for your section headings (main, articles ...). and another colour for the links, underlined or not is your choice but the links should look like links.

you have a horziontal scroll bar at 800x600, your banner is only 720 width so looked at your code, you have the table width at 729 but then you have the banner cell at 789 which is causing the scroll to happen. you could actually take that banner out of the table (just place before the table) if you wanted to cut down on tables and coding.

Maybe add a few more pictures within the pages, esp on the index sections.
what are the weights weight in, kilograms or pounds?

You could do a lot with this site, you should think about making some sections for the complete newbie, I bet half the people here would't know what a 'bi' is, or 'deads' or 'db flys' (I do ) maybe even have a section showing pictures of all the exercises and postitions, muscles etc and warm down routines etc. I know free weights would be harder as everyone has their own method but a basic picture would help wonders.

Hmm didnt know about the scrolling problem. Havent been down to 800x600 in ages. I'll see what i can do to fix that soon.

I'll experiment with the link colors as well.

Im debating about putting up an exercise section. All i know is that it would use a lot of bandwidth, and maybe piss of my ISP...

Also, i've found that most newbies come to the forums in order to ask questions.

Thanks for the help

For all the limitations you are putting on yourself with the hosting business I don't see why you don't just get it hosted properly. Using frames like this is going to hamper your search engine listings as there is nothing there for them to actually read & no links to follow!

As for the actual design, it's ok. Get rid of the horizontal scrollbar at 800*600 add some colour to the main body of the site and some images too to spice it up a wee bit.

About getting hosted properly.. I Simply cant afford it. Im 15, work 10 hours a week @ minimum wage, so i dont exactly earn much.

Thanks for the advice

let your site earn you some money then, you have a very good topic (health/sports) and if you add enough content then get sponsors for products, giveaways, competitions ... you should at least cover your hosting and domain bills. but dont just plonk some banners on there

Its a good idea. I just know nothing about getting sponsors. Actually, to raise some money we are selling t-shirts... we'll probably only sell about 10-15, but that'll earn my site about $100 profit.

Right now my site isnt big enough to earn any sponsors... only like 60,000 page views a month, 16000 visitors( 4000 unique IPS).. so , its not incredibly popular.

By any chance, do you know of any companys that might be willing to sponsor the site??

Except banner...its Soooo plain..But neat work though

You'd have to add more content before you could look at sponsorship, diets, workouts, health sections, forums maybe ... sponsors will want something in return, like sell their products or whatever so you have to give people a reason to keep returning to your site. if you have a news section related to body building or sports that relates to your topic, don't get to wild and list every sport under the sun, target one area and try cover every angle of it from beginner to pro

Well right now my site has a workout section, article section, and a training journal section. Already have a forum ( http://forums.fortifiediron.com ) .... Thats where a lot of the content is.

Adios
-Deciever