Review www.eslhosting.net

esl · #1 10-08-2005, 09:04 AM

Please share your opinions for http://www.eslhosting.net. Be harsh.

Thanks,
Evan

MachineDog · #2 10-08-2005, 10:32 AM

Nice job on the plans and everything. Just wondering, do you have your own dedi or are you a reseller and those reseller plans are just going off HG's?

esl · #3 10-08-2005, 11:23 AM

They are just going off HG's.

#4 10-08-2005, 05:41 PM

I like everything there except for the box in the left hand corner,
"Home/Hosting" and "Click ORDER NOW etc."

That part seems a bit out of place, and maybe needs a more graphical look like all the other boxes have? Or maybe its just the font.

Otherwise I love the site, colorful and looks professional.

esl · #5 10-08-2005, 11:46 PM

Thank you very much! I will change the things you brought up, see To Do List. I am tring to figure out why I am up at 1/4 til 1am.

JeffR · #6 10-09-2005, 07:33 PM

Ok. I'll be brutal. I like your design and site overall.

1) In the flash at the top, the HOSTING link doesn't go anywhere. I mean, when click it, it's going to the default page, which from the homepage doesn't look any different.
2) Under services, you recommend a subject line. Why not just pre-populate it on the mailto: link?

Code:

mailto:myemail@mysite.com?subject=Attn: Tech Support

3) I hate (yes, I hate) the ORDER NOW text as a means of getting the user to read your packages. I just surfed about 30 Hosting sites before joining HostGator and any site I couldn't read the packages without clicking ORDER NOW, I just moved on. I mean, why would I ORDER NOW when I haven't even seen what you have to offer?
4) I find the "whoosh" of the computer a little much EVERY TIME I load a page.
5) I'd remove the "Coming Soon" text from your contact page for your phone numbers. Better to comment again on your Superb Email Support than tell people you don't have your business phone setup yet. IMHO
6) (Final) - Your CSS seems to hide links. There's no underline or other color on the links, so on your SUPPORT page, I couldn't see that the KNOWLEDGE BASE links were clickable until I accidentally moused over them.

Hope that helps. It's just my opinion on stuff, so it don't mean crap. Again, it looks great overall and I wish the best of success.

MachineDog · #7 10-10-2005, 08:30 AM

Lol, never buy a template from template-monster.. I've seen about 4 hosts on this forum alone using the same template..

esl · #8 10-10-2005, 03:38 PM

JeffR- Thank you VERY much, I will look into everything you said. That swish noise is very annoying, I have been looking into changing it already.... Im sure you would of loved it even more before I deleted the music!! lol

I couldn't find a way to change the order now next without having to make the image larger and messing around with the colums, I am not all that good with editing colums and not messing everything up. Thank you for saying what you wanted to say, not only saying the positive stuff.

MachineDog- I have never really worried about running into the same design as my website due to the fact that there are billions of webpages... yes I understand you can tell when a template comes from Template monster by the graphics, (I know HGs didn't, but their server pictures look alot like mine). If you ever see a template just like mine please let me know, thank you for pointing this issue out to me.

Have a great day,
Evan

MachineDog · #9 10-10-2005, 04:52 PM

This shouldn't be quite so hard to do within an hour, what'd take you so long to do this and require scheduling? lol seems wierd. Unless you just have a very tight schedule.

yoseph · #10 10-10-2005, 05:00 PM

2 things but first the positive. The design looks great! And the additions and changes are good ideas. My suggestions are the order now text is small and a pain to click. If you use CSS you could make the whole area the link for us older chaps :wink: And also the header. Forgive me for saying but flash is slow and loads slow. you could easily make that whole header with CSS and web standards minus the animation. That way it would be more accessable and easier to update for promotional POS. My 2 cents make it load fast and reach as many of your potential customer base as you can.

Joe

esl · #11 10-10-2005, 06:12 PM

MachineDog- I do have a very tight schedule.

I admit the times look weird, they are there just to remind me, if I don't put it somewhere I go to atleast one time per day I forget, lol.

yoseph- How would you like the idea of just having a welcome page asking if you would like a flash or non flash verison? I like the idea of making the whole area a link. I will do that for sure. Thank you for your ideas!

Have a great day,
Evan

MachineDog · #12 10-10-2005, 06:38 PM

http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/cp/

That works just great.

yoseph · #13 10-10-2005, 06:42 PM

One of the biggest issues concerning sites today IMHO is what technologies to use for what purpose. My personal experience is not to use flash for a biz site unless your making a standalone cart that run client side. Flash is a great tool but when you want to reach 100% of your potential biz flash is not the answer. Who wants to see "dont have a flash plugin waste some time and get one here" while looking into buying webspace? Just some things to think about. here is a great link. They are harsh but makes oyu think. http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/bigg...s-in-2004.html

Joe

Serra · #14 10-12-2005, 07:59 PM

Never put a mailto: link on a website. NEVER! Except in cases where a customer for your web design business has really pissed you off, then put one for every address they have.

If you don't believe me, put a mailto link on your site and watch your spam bin....

Serra · #15 10-12-2005, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yoseph

One of the biggest issues concerning sites today IMHO is what technologies to use for what purpose. My personal experience is not to use flash for a biz site unless your making a standalone cart that run client side.

Well... actually, Flash runs on 98% of systems, so it isn't that big of a problem. (according to macromedia). With some fancy java code, it is possible to catch another 1.9%. That remaining .1% is running some type of lunix box and it is impossible to make them happy.

People over react to Flash. For a website tops, like on the site in this thread, isn't that big of a deal provided one thing is done.

1. All of the links in the Flash are found else where on the page.

What doesn't work are sites that are 100% flash and take for ever to load and are difficult to navigate. Those can't be used for business. I have a client who has a flash top like this one and does $10,000 a month in sales. (via Paypal).

MachineDog · #16 10-13-2005, 08:33 AM

Any web designer or web development company must A. ) Have a java site. or B. ) Have a very VERY clean and efficient XHTML Strict Web site to make for faster loading and less bandwidth usage.

Either way these would look professional. Now in any other business I'd go with B. Take a look at HG who is using B. ;D

esl · #17 10-17-2005, 03:42 PM

As I am sure a few people have noticed I have not gotten ANYTHING done on my website that I listed I would do way before now. My internet was down for a day and my great grandmother is clinging onto life and is not expected to live through the night, therefore I have alot of family matters to deal with. I hope to update my website soon.

Evan

Serra · #18 10-19-2005, 04:50 PM

Sorry to hear about your grandmother, I read the other post about it.

I know how you feel about your site. The worst site I've every done has been my own company site, I just never have time to work on it.

Quote:

Any web designer or web development company must A. ) Have a java site. or B. ) Have a very VERY clean and efficient XHTML Strict Web site to make for faster loading and less bandwidth usage.

My customers don't a clue what Java or XHTML is and wouldn't be able to tell a fast loading site from a slow moving one.

I added a halloween graphic to a customers site and she ask me if I could make the little ghost move... clueless how that would be done. They just don't know anything about it. Maybe some customers are different, but mine are mostly clueless.

stevie · #19 10-26-2005, 12:20 PM

I agree. If your company is providing a full design and maintainence service (I know that's not the purpose of esl hosting, but I just wanna rant off topic for a little bit

) then your clients are likely to be ignorant of web technoligies. I've seen some design sites banging on and on about the technoligies they use, IMHO this is just going to look like an endless stream of meaningless words and acronyms to a potential client who is going to feel intimidated and move on to another site.

As for the question of to Flash or not to Flash. I use Firefox and have problems with Flash animations in that they cause the browser to scroll erraticly and even freeze up. Though it does seem to have improved with the new release. I know it's a minor issue, but when you are selling web services your site needs to appear slick and rock-solid to as many people as possible.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Firefox and Netscape users love thier tabs, and flash menus aren't tab-friendly. I designed a site recently using a Flash menu and got an ear-bashing from the client because the 'open in new tab' option didn't appear when he right-clicked on the links. I try to stick to DHTML as far as possible now.

princom · #20 10-26-2005, 02:14 PM

as much as I know frames are hated I would probly go with an iframe in this case to prevent the flash from loading every time you click a link.

dancerdog3 · #21 11-15-2005, 11:28 PM

Great site, but..... TOO MUCH FLASH!

I really like the clean look and the graphics, but I am not a big fan of things moving around and making noise for no reason. Other than the flash stuff, I think it is a very good site.

justG · #22 11-16-2005, 02:02 AM

Hey, dancerdog3, you must've clicked through to the site just in time, because I just get a message saying that it's "closed" until February, 2006.

Evan, I hope everything's okay with your family. <insert e-hug emoticon here.>

esl · #23 11-16-2005, 04:59 PM

Thanks, justG, my great grandmother passed on a while ago and I have alot of work to do on my site before I open it to the public and start accepting payments. I am aiming for Jan 06, but things come up!