A few weeks to go ..

[vdellegrazie]

Hey there.. well we're still building the site, but I wanted to get a few opinions to see if we're heading in the right direction. It's still being built, so there's no need to comment on the minor details, but rather the general look. It is a modified HostGator template, with some Flash thrown in, etc. Check it out at http://www.sbdata.net/index.htm

http://www.sbdata.net will only get you the under construction page so please use the link above. Constructive criticism is welcome... thanks in advance for your time ..

- Vito

[David]

Hi. This is just personal preference but I find music by default very annoying. The flash menu and animation is fine if that's what you're into, but I would have the music off by default and just have a link to turn it on. Also, it took about 3 seconds for the flash to load for me and I have what is usually a very fast cable connection, so people on dsl or dialup will not like it. You might experiment with just having the flash on the home page and just a web optimized graphic on all subsequent pages.

Just one other note is that your hosting plans page should be updated so that the BASIC, STANDARD, ADVANCED boxes match the Personal, Standard, Advanced, Corporate options. Hope this helps.

David

[Serra]

Originally Posted by vdellegrazie

Hey there.. well we're still building the site, but I wanted to get a few opinions to see if we're heading in the right direction. It's still being built, so there's no need to comment on the minor details, but rather the general look. It is a modified HostGator template, with some Flash thrown in, etc. Check it out at http://www.sbdata.net/index.htm

Ditto the music. I couldn't figure how to turn it off and that is a big turn off for me. I work late at night and can't stand extra noise coming from sites.

I might question for business model a little, do people actually want 25mb accounts any more? (for just less than $4.00 a month) With HG they can get a 3.5gb account for just less than $7.00 a month.

[vdellegrazie]

Originally Posted by David

Hi. This is just personal preference but I find music by default very annoying. The flash menu and animation is fine if that's what you're into, but I would have the music off by default and just have a link to turn it on. Also, it took about 3 seconds for the flash to load for me and I have what is usually a very fast cable connection, so people on dsl or dialup will not like it. You might experiment with just having the flash on the home page and just a web optimized graphic on all subsequent pages.

Just one other note is that your hosting plans page should be updated so that the BASIC, STANDARD, ADVANCED boxes match the Personal, Standard, Advanced, Corporate options. Hope this helps.

David

Hey David, thanks for your help.. I'm still workin' on it, and I realize I have a lot of minor things to fix ... I know the music would get annoying, so that's why it's only on the index page... that Flash file on the homepage is 800k or so ... the subsequent page flash headers are only 137k (no sound, less animation) so they should load quick and from my testing the music always shuts off when you navigate away from the index page... anyway, I'll stop rambling on... thanks again for your help.. take care..

- Vito

[vdellegrazie]

Originally Posted by Serra

Ditto the music. I couldn't figure how to turn it off and that is a big turn off for me. I work late at night and can't stand extra noise coming from sites.

I might question for business model a little, do people actually want 25mb accounts any more? (for just less than $4.00 a month) With HG they can get a 3.5gb account for just less than $7.00 a month.

Did the music stay on after you moved away from the homepage? and so far I've got 2 sites on that 3.50 plan.. and I haven't really opened yet... still gotta set up the shopping cart and a billing system... but thanks for your time... take care

- Vito

[justG]

"from my testing the music always shuts off when you navigate away from the index page..."

Music that cannot be turned off by your visitors greatly increases the probability that they will indeed be navigating away from your homepage... to another site. Default music is barely tolerable on personal sites; it has no place on a business site. Then again, with an element of your page that's 800K in size, you're pretty much turning people away at the door.

The objective of any marketing tool is to tell people what you want them to know (about yourself, your company, your product, whatever). The magic of producing a web site lies in caring less about how *you* want to present that information and more about how your visitors want to receive it.

Good luck.

[Serra]

Originally Posted by justG

"from my testing the music always shuts off when you navigate away from the index page..."

One way to prevent this is to spawn the music/sound in a popup window. Then the sound will continue to play as they navigate. I did this for a shopping site I created. (The only site I've ever done with sound) I told the client that I wasn't about to put music on a site, but when I heard the music, I was fairly impressed. It actually worked. I got some fairly nice comments back from people who went to the site.

[vdellegrazie]

Originally Posted by Serra

One way to prevent this is to spawn the music/sound in a popup window. Then the sound will continue to play as they navigate. I did this for a shopping site I created. (The only site I've ever done with sound) I told the client that I wasn't about to put music on a site, but when I heard the music, I was fairly impressed. It actually worked. I got some fairly nice comments back from people who went to the site.

Well actually I wanted it to play only on the main page, it was just a house loop anyway so it'd get played out very quickly. But as of right now I've removed the music completely due to the suggestions I've received from everyone. Thanks for all your help, and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

- Vito

[Guerrero]

table (prices) into the frame, where you need to scroll is very ugly.

present your information as simple as possible. take away the "pretty" flash intro, you're not selling star design.

simple is better.

[skegfast]

I feel your pain - I'm working on getting my site up and running at the moment too. I'm worrying that my main banner is too big at 35k In these days of broadband it's easy to forget the poor paupers on dialup. I had to live with a very crap 56k connection at work and it got to the stage where I gave up on more sites than I ever visited.

Course, it all depends who your target market is. I'm aiming at the non-savvy types that just want somebody to take care of things for them, whether it be a blog, some forums for their club or a basic, static, small business site with a cart thrown in if they ask nicely (and pay...). Thus, my main site is going to be simple and stoneage friendly - I'm a simple, stoneage friendly kinda gal

If I knew flash well enough and I was aiming for those types of people then I'd show off my skills if I had any too though!

Ah, you've got me out of lurkdom! I changed hosts to hostgator a few months ago, lost my job and was impressed with HG so figured I'd upgrade to a resellers account and see if I could make money on something I've been doing for friends and friends of friends for years. I'm sure I won't make money, but I won't know if I don't try! At the very least I've got my hosting fees covered, which is more than I've manged in the past

Cheers,
Skeg

[Guerrero]

but I won't know if I don't try!

Good luck!

[skegfast]

I'm gonna need it! All the best with yours too. I've still got a lot to learn I'll be posting in here sooner rather than later with a url (probably later rather than sooner if I don't get my 'stuff' sorted)

(Edit for bad smelling)