SurvivorShrine.com
Just looking for feedback on the design, layout, graphics and loading times. Any comments would be greatly appreciated and taken into consideration.
Just looking for feedback on the design, layout, graphics and loading times. Any comments would be greatly appreciated and taken into consideration.
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 10:24 — 24th August 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
first thought that entered my mind:
WTF?? Who are they? Where are they? How are they?
I think you need an introduction, mate
Hmmm. looks lik no traffic, but then you have 100 registered members??!!!
Layout 7/10
graphics 6.5/10
loading time 8.72638/10 !
survivorshrine posted this at 11:38 — 24th August 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
I was a bit confused by your review. You mean I should have an introduction as to what the show is about?
The Episode 1: --/-- denotes TV ratings for the show but since it has not come out yet, there is no data for that. What was the comment you were making about this section, that it was extraneous?
The traffic is excellent when the show is on, about 10,000 unique visitors a month (unless that is much lower that what is expected of excellent).
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
Megan posted this at 14:24 — 24th August 2004.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Welcome to TWF! Thanks for doing some other site reviews first, we appreciate it!
This is taking a really long time to load. I don't know if my connection is being slow or what. If I remember I'll try it again another time and see if it's a temporary problem. It's at 2 minutes now and the header hasn't finished downloading. Three minutes and the content is just coming in. Seven minutes and the site still hasn't finished displaying.
Your code is really a mess. Fixing that up according to web standards could make a big difference in the load time.
Now that I can see it the site looks good. There is a lot on the screen to draw people in, although maybe too much for some people. It may be difficult to focus.
What you might want to do for sections that will be filled in later is put a "coming soon" message of some sort, maybe including the date of the new season premiere. I've seen a couple of sections that look curiously empty.
I'm going to come back later and hopefully the site will be loading a little better. It's hard to navigate around when every page is taking forever to load.
Megan
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timmah89 posted this at 15:47 — 25th August 2004.
They have: 13 posts
Joined: May 2004
It took me a long time to load also, probably 6 seconds or so....I think its because of all those pictures you have, but the loading time isn't that big of a deal. Your site looks very nice and it looks like you do a good job on info.
My site has tons of free artiles on making money online, come and check it out www.fastsimplecash.com !
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 17:15 — 25th August 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Hmmm, yes, I think you do need an introduction as to what the show is about.
If there are no results out yet, then remove that section
survivorshrine posted this at 21:44 — 25th August 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
I didn't realize that 6 seconds were considered a long loading time, do you have any idea how I can minimize that without ruining the quality of my site?
The results page was put up to notify users that we would have coverage on that aspect of the show.
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 13:35 — 26th August 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
yes, you could get a different server/host
Megan posted this at 13:37 — 26th August 2004.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
It came up in 5 seconds for me this time. Not bad at all (I'm on a T1). Something must have been wrong with the server the last time I looked.
Definitely work on upgrading your code to valid xhtml with CSS. That will cut down significantly on the amount of code required. Also investigate any plug-in javascripts or ads that are trying to access other sites. That can slow down loading a lot if the third party site is having problems. You could also try reducing the amount of information on the front page. Sometimes less is more.
Megan
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survivorshrine posted this at 19:06 — 26th August 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
xhtml? Where could I go to learn more about that, I have minimal knowledge of CSS, but that would keep me from using repetive font code?
Megan posted this at 20:06 — 26th August 2004.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Yes, absolutely! Try w3schools.com and alistapart.com
jo5eph posted this at 02:43 — 27th August 2004.
They have: 24 posts
Joined: Jul 2004
Yep, a simple uncluttered intro page would be in order. Short and sweet like a mini skirt - long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting. Once you have the audience’s interest then launch into the full content pages. Cluttered front pages always put me off from navigating the site further. Also I don’t like the ad banner with flashing bits in; they always put me off , I find it really difficult to read the text when something is blinking at me.
I really like your colour scheme. It does it for me. The site loaded quick for me, but I am on a 1 meg ADSL. All in all a nice site just ditch the blinking ads and give us a brief intro.
Joe
treepirates.org
rustsafari.com
africantruckdrive.org
mfdc posted this at 10:21 — 27th August 2004.
They have: 160 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Yeah, the last post was spot on. It's a great site to look at but theres way too much information. A simplified home page would be much better. I'm on a T1 connection, loading time was 3.2 sec so thats pretty good.
dbliss posted this at 23:44 — 27th August 2004.
They have: 2 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
A tad much on the senses. De " information overload ".
Main annoyance: Pop up / flashing ads.
Like the color / template scheme, goes well with the subject.
Rich
survivorshrine posted this at 00:01 — 29th August 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Since then, I have included a front page intro and simplified the front page, any thoughts?
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 10:40 — 29th August 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Very Good. very, Very good. I like it a lot. It has a nice explanation/intro on the front page before launching into the full content and you have kept the colour scheme. Has boosted the site infinitely in my opinion.
AyntRyte posted this at 23:20 — 30th August 2004.
He has: 145 posts
Joined: Jun 2004
Something to consider: maybe it was just me, but the title "Survivor Shrine" really threw me off. I entered the site thinking that it would be something like a site for cancer survivors or something
The phrase: "connecting, uniting, unifying" had me convinced of the same. It wasn't until I saw the Survivor logo on the next page (it's mostly hidden on the front page) that I did a double-take 
\\// Robert
The grass is always greener on the other side -- but that's because they use more manure.
AyntRyte posted this at 13:14 — 31st August 2004.
He has: 145 posts
Joined: Jun 2004
It shouldn't be a big deal as long as the search engines properly index your site. Sometimes I just like to have a good laugh at my own expense :blush:
\\// Robert
The grass is always greener on the other side -- but that's because they use more manure.
KarenArt posted this at 03:35 — 3rd September 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
Gee I'm getting in late on this one.
My first comment is although you have a nice entry page, it seems a bit crowded to me. I guess you have to have the ads there which are kind of distracting.
I think you could "clean" the look of this page by deciding between the picture of the people all standing together and the individual faces pictures.
Having them both on here is just a little too much. It's making everything look crowded.
You've really done a commendable job with the inner pages. Keeping so much information tightly catorgorized so you don't have to have everything on one page is sooooo important.
I'm not really a huge fan of black and red (even though I've done it myself).
Reading white text on a black background for long periods of time can really strain the eyes... and red text on black backgrounds can be even worse. For me, the colors you have on your text in the forums is easier on my eyes.
As a side note: I was expecting the logo in the forums to take me to your home page. It took me a moment to find the link above it.
The only other thing that I wasn't expecting was when the spoilers went to another site. It might be nice to let your visitors know that they're not on your site.
Well, these are all my nitpicky suggestions. I think you've done a really great job with this!
gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.
The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!
survivorshrine posted this at 10:06 — 5th September 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Thank you KarenArt, you have been very helpful in my webdesign endeavors.
However, I have run into a couple of problems as a webmaster thus far. I have made contacts with the big honchos that would help me make the site more creditable, etc. The lady that works at CBS and manages press releases etc. had told us that there is currently no space available for our site to do interviews on the booted Survivors, so there is really no way around this.
As for getting the Survivor sites to list us, primarily, we are listed on several established sites with page ranks of around 3-5, however, the two that we would want to continue an affiliation with have constantly shunned us. In fact, one site had put us up for awhile and put us down do to 'an update' that has not been fixed (when other links have clearly been added). I believe it has to do with the relatively small traffic we get compared to them. I have submitted several times, asking politely for a response, but never, have I received a straight up answer as to why the link was never placed on their page.
I am considering AdWords, but I have no idea how that will turn out for me.
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
KarenArt posted this at 11:39 — 5th September 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
I'm not sure how many company executives, managers, ad people, secretaries and personal assistants you'd have to go through to even get to the people appearing on the show.
Also, often participants are restricted to giving interviews to no one at all or only "approved" interviewers for a specific period of time. It's all part of the fun of the experience. It's never as easy as it seems it should be... but isn't it fun to know a little more about it. 
btw: Congratulations on making the contacts and getting the permissions to be legal now! Doesn't it make you feel good?
Since the interviews are out, maybe you can come up with some other "official" content. Pictures and stories (see if you can get access to press realease material), backgrounds, quizzes, games, puzzles, ...hmmm... match the contestant with the situation. Lot's of interesting (and original) things you can still do.
As far as the other site, I have no idea what is happening. The best thing you can do is keep your site as original as you can, legal and updated. Have a nice graphic for others to use to link to you and ask other webmaster's to add you to their links. If they do that's great. If not don't loose any sleep over it. If you keep your site updated and full of great content, you'll be surprised what can happen.
Another option (once your content is all in place) is to start your own webring. If you can keep it going for at least 6 months, you may find that other site wanting you to add them to your list.
Just keep having fun with it!
Who knows what great things may come from it.
gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.
The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!
survivorshrine posted this at 12:03 — 5th September 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
They have contacted me only about obtaining interviews but not about the legality of me using their images. There are several legal aspects about the site I have yet to learn but hopefully I will improve as time goes on. Hmmm, I may meet one of the Survivors soon but I doubt I can divulge any information from the source.
In any case, I have had flashes of feeling wanted by other sites, I just would like to improve listing on Survivors and build a larger fanbase. I really hate to pitch my site as a Survivor community when only four people have registered to the forums and only two have actually posted. This site started out as something to do in my spare time for fun, and I intend to maintain that tradition for another year/season, just trying to find venues of making money because that only adds onto the fun, haha.
Oh well, I didn't expect to do this much summer reading (as in finding out more about design, affiliate programs, etc.). Oh well, a good learning experience I say to all of that.
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
KarenArt posted this at 12:16 — 5th September 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
Yes... now you've seen too much... there's no way out now!
The only real way to build a community is to build up content, be enthusiastic (enjoy this experience) and have patience. It takes time for things to come together.
It sounds like you're definately on the right road. I would keep working to make sure I had permission to use the name, graphics and images. That will go a long way to getting you into the "big boy's" lists.
... and don't forget... you're doing this because you enjoy it.
gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.
The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!
survivorshrine posted this at 04:08 — 30th August 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Thanks heebie, though I am trying to get used to a content-less front intro page, and the subsequent page after that.
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 10:28 — 30th August 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Yeah. In fact I thought it was such an improvement i was almost crying.
No, really I was.
survivorshrine posted this at 10:45 — 30th August 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Thanks, I'm hoping it will drive or at least motivate viewers to stay.
About the flashy ads, I have been using a filter but they are still showing up, it's odd. Anyone familiar with FastClick? In any case, I would just like to develop the site more from here on out so any more suggestions are surely welcomed by me.
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
survivorshrine posted this at 03:11 — 31st August 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Thanks Aynt, your suggestion made sense so I added a mini logo of Survivor to make it more clear.
survivorshrine posted this at 06:10 — 2nd September 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Well, personally it has made things better, lot of positive comments on that front page so far so I'm happy, might focus on the inner pages and getting the loading times down... 5 seconds more on DSL is too much time right?
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
muligruber posted this at 02:45 — 3rd September 2004.
They have: 4 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
For more recognition on what the site is about right away i would make the survivor logo bigger. This way people will know right away what this is about. do you have permission to use it?
survivorshrine posted this at 07:05 — 4th September 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Yikes, could you give me more information on how to get the permission to use it? I have used it in the past but have not had any problems with copyright, etc though I would like to avoid it now if possible.
KarenArt,
- I think I tried to solve the cluttered front page, I like it much better now...
- I don't know how to get around the text issue, it may become an eye sore to look at, all I could do for now is change some of the reds into yellows.
- Just working w/ phpBB, trying to figure that out myself, heh
- How would I approach this, making them know its another site? All of the news are mostly off site...
Thanks for the suggestions/comments
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 08:16 — 4th September 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Just some well-labelled titles? Just experiment with various things
KarenArt posted this at 11:55 — 4th September 2004.
She has: 354 posts
Joined: May 2001
You're front page is much better (at least to me). No crowding, good explination and fun images... who could want more.
As far as getting permissions...
Usually popular people and places will have contact information (emails, phone number or addresses) for you to go through to gain permission. I can't imagine this show is so different than any other that you can't find someone to contact to gain permission to have an "official" fan page. Going through this hoop will not only lend you credibility, but can lead to new friends and professional associations that are worth more than any hassels it would take to get there.
I run an art education site and every month (or so) I have to contact artists, publishers, gallery owners, etc. to get permissions to print lessons and artwork on the site. It takes a lot of time, but now everyone at Northlight books, Sanford, and everyone involved with colored pencils knows me.
Just remember to always be professional and overly polite in all your communication with them.
The same applies to the people who run the spoilers site. I'm sure they'd appreciate a link to their site. You will want to make sure your visitors know that the spoilers are on another site (namely theirs) before you contact them though.
Have fun with this! Use this as an opportunity to make some great new friends.
gotta finish redesigning my sites so I can show them again.
The purpose of education is... to get more jokes!
survivorshrine posted this at 11:31 — 12th September 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Thanks, I have just gotten into the marketing side of the site so we'll see how that turns out, anyone have experience with AdWords from Google?
heebiejeebieclu posted this at 12:28 — 12th September 2004.
They have: 527 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
(Coughs and apologises for his presence)
Ladies and gentlemen I ask you a question:
(embarrased cough) Is AdWords the one on the webmaster's page that you get the money for or the pay-per-click on on Google searches? And how much is the second one?
(stands down and awaits press)
survivorshrine posted this at 21:53 — 12th September 2004.
He has: 21 posts
Joined: Aug 2004
Well heebiejeebieclu,
AdWords are the ad's that appear on like the google search engine (AOL and numerous other affiliates) when you try to search something (under sponsored links for google)
AdSense are those same ads that appear on those search engines, but are placed on webmaster's pages.
Think of the Adwords for advertisers, and Adsense for publishers. Hope that cleared some things up.
http://www.survivorshrine.com/
http://www.survivorshrine.com/portfolio
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