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Author Topic: Tips, Suggestions & Advice!  (Read 129449 times)
Tatjana Prelog
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Love, friendship and honesty are treasures!!!


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« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2005, 11:28:00 AM »

Hi Tatjana,

If I am not mistake, I believe forums are to make suggestions, ask questions,
offer advice, share ideas, etc..

I wouldn't have posted here if the description didn't state it.

Nice website Tatjana... I  checked it out.. Isn't WS so much
fun!!

Take care,
Stacy Perez

Hello again Stacy!

Thank you for checking my website and I appriciate you like it. As very strong self-chritic I'm not satisfied with it yet, but I'll continue to work on it.

Yes WS is fun, I agree!

And - I've already confessed my mistake and apologized though Chip said it wasn't neccessary!!!

So I apologize once again - I meant nothing bad!!!

Enjoy GDIing and check my website from time to time - maybe you'll se something new!!!

Very yours!
Tatjana
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Have a better day than I ever had!!! Charish the life, true friendship, love and honesty!!

Tatjana
StacyPerez
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Me thinking as usual ..lol


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« Reply #16 on: July 05, 2005, 03:18:57 AM »

Tatjana,

It's okay..   Nothing wrong with making a comment..
Not all that I make are always good..

Take care,
Stacy Perez
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Stacy Perez
"Inspiring and Helping Parents Work From Home"
Bobby Coffman
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« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2005, 02:46:28 PM »

hello all my name is bobby
 i'v joined up under Jamie Mceely and i want to put more then one thing on my site can any one give a "  how to do it type way?"
 is there a certian way i have to di it?  i would really like some feed back.
  thank you.
      Bobby
« Last Edit: July 05, 2005, 02:46:54 PM by ChipSnyder » Logged
Jim Conan
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« Reply #18 on: July 12, 2005, 02:51:16 PM »

Is there a step by step, "flow chart", if you will, for creating webpages offline, and then, importing it into my site ?   thanks,   jc
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Jason Smith
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« Reply #19 on: July 23, 2005, 06:26:21 AM »

I have 2 web pages on my site where I offer other things. but my primary page is set directly for GDI.
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Here's to our shared success! Smiley

Jason
RachelB
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« Reply #20 on: July 28, 2005, 03:38:15 PM »

Hi,

This is just a tip i wanted to share with everyone since I notice that a lot of newbies to website construction seem to be making the same mistake.

90% of internet surfers never scroll down a page!!!

This means that when creating your website, you should try to keep the scrolling on a page to a minimum. Create more pages if necessary to fit all the content in, and pack that homepage (The initial page people arrive at when visiting your website) with the most important points!


Hope this helps

Regards

Rachel
« Last Edit: September 28, 2005, 10:24:06 AM by Nicole Taylor » Logged
Roxanne G
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« Reply #21 on: July 28, 2005, 05:02:45 PM »

Excellent tip!!  I know that I only scroll down if what I originally see looks interesting.  If I go to a website with a lot of small reading to do, I leave.  If the point doesn't come across in the very beginning I leave. 
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Have a great day, after all, today is the first day of the rest of your life!!

Roxanne
Paul Fisher
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« Reply #22 on: July 28, 2005, 06:45:42 PM »

To both of you - Good information! Thanks!
Paul
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"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

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RodB
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« Reply #23 on: July 28, 2005, 10:03:06 PM »

I am not sure I agree with this. You need a strong simple uncluttered message at the top of the screen that tells the surfer this site is a mine of information. If he/she gets this message he/she will scroll down. The number is 7 seconds. If the surfer doesnt get your sales pitch in 7 seconds they are gone.

Also you need text on your front page for the SE Spiders.
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RachelB
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« Reply #24 on: July 29, 2005, 01:39:35 AM »

I agree the strong message needs to be seen immediately. But people are more likely to click to get to further information, then scroll down and read it all.

A strong message needs to be seen immediately, with access to relevant information within 3 clicks and back.

Also you need to promote not only the affiliate program but also the service as well. And propects need to be given the choice as to which part they want to go to.
If a prospect is only interested in the affiliate part, they wont want to read about the service, and vice versa. You need to gauge their interest depending on their need. Therefore I would encourage people to have a homepage which gives both options, allowing people to choose.

Hope this clears up a few things

Rachel Bouchet
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B_Wells
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« Reply #25 on: July 31, 2005, 04:18:01 PM »

I just built my Travel Agency on my site but I have sevral other websites for my other businesses! only problem is WS sites don't offer places to ad your other links in. I sure will be glad whe nthey offer more pages to the sites
« Last Edit: July 31, 2005, 04:18:44 PM by Nicole Taylor » Logged
KhristineH
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« Reply #26 on: July 31, 2005, 08:42:59 PM »

I am not so sure I agree that 90% of internet surfers don't scroll down.
Most user's major complaint about scrolling is over any page where you must horizontally scroll. Vertical scrolling doesn't usually bother users unless it goes on endlessly such as more then the length of two pages. These types of sites have chosen to do long listings of various information rather then separating them into appropriately titled pages. This is sloppy by design standards but viewers will scroll it if their interest has been tweeked. I do feel that with a little better planning and logical breaks in information into pages this can be avoided and give the website a more fluid and professional look and feel. I regularly read webpages where I scroll quite a bit to read an article and I don't mind scrolling down for information as I read, but, the information is generally a single article, not groupings of different topics. 
 I think people have to keep in mind what the purpose of their site is and if they are going to do it themselves, learn to plan for that purpose. As a software developer and website designer, I never just sit down and start writing code or throwing a website together. Even if I was using the site builder I would still sit and plan with paper and pencil, mapping out purpose and requirements. If I am responsible for the conent of the site as well as the design, I will make sure I have rough drafts for most if not all of it before I even determine a design.

Size is always a consideration. There is only so much viewable area in any given brower. When I design, I check and test the behavior of my sites in all major browser versions such as Firefox (which is rapidly gaining on IE in usage), IE, Opera and Netscape. For Netscape I test the current version and the  problematic version 4. I want to make sure that the site works and looks the same in them all.

There are also average viewable sizes for different screen resolutions. For instance, many users browse at an 800x600 (this in pixels)  resolution whicih gives a viewable browser size of roughly 750x420. More and more users are browsing at 1024x768. The viewable area for that is about 950x600. Generally we do our best to design within the confines of the parameters for whatever resolution we are targeting. Which one we target often depends on who the target audience is and their browsing statistics.  You never want to go wider then your target resolution viewable area because as I said before, horizontal scrolling is highly annoying to viewers. Vertical scrolling is much more natural for reading and if most have been interested enough to read what you have put in the viewable area, they will not mind scroling down to read more. In that respect, I do agree that you must capture your reader's attention and you don't have alot of time to do that. If you don't do that in the viewable area it really doesn't matter how much is down below it because they will never see it. The thing is, in light of viewable area and screen resolution, if you think about it, someone browsing at 800x600 is going to have less viewable area and will definitely scroll vertically more then someone at a higher resolution. Throw in a persons monitor size and you have more variables in determining how much scrolling someone will have to do. This is why most designers try to stick to standards and design for a specific target resolution.

I have not played around with the sitebuilder very much, I have been too busy with rock band and magician sites to play with it much. I also do much of my design work as full  Flash sites  rather then html because of who my clients are. My feeling about the site builder  is that if you chose a template you liked and carefully planned your content you should not have much trouble with excessive scrolling. You can also do as I do, besides testing in various browsers, change your monitor resolutions to various settings such as 800x600 and 1024x768 and test to see whether it forces horizontal scrolling and how much vertical scrolling is involved. Check other people's sites out at different resolutions to get an idea of what I mean. I did test a page of my site with the site builder at an 800x600 resolution and found there to be no horizontal scrolling and a small amount of vertical scrolling, so using the site builder should make this a non issue for folks.
The sitebuilder allows you six pages of content which is quite a bit of space to get said what most people need too. My brother did his site for his lawnmower business all by himself and he is about as non-technical as they come. If he can do it anyone can.

Just plan and use common sense about the length of the pages. Don't be afraid of some vertical scrolling and avoid horizontal scrolling and things will be fine.

Alot of what I said, may seem a bit overwhelming to some, but please don't let it. The sitebuilder helps you avoid many of the pitfalls of web design. If you are not using the sitebuilder and building it yourself there are many of us who can help you with that. The only thing I would ask, is that if you do ask for my help or opinion please understand I will be completely honest.  I am not one to say something looks good if I do not think it does. I do not however, say critical things in order to hurt people's feelings. It is only so they can have a better looking website and learn. Web design is not easy and there is a lot to it. I think I have learned many of my lessons the hard way and have had more then a few tell me some of what I did looked terrible. I am still growing and learning my craft. There is a balance between marketer and web designer that must be reached. As a designer there are many things I can do but that doesn't mean I should, I have to keep in mind the needs and purpose of the site. Marketers on the other hand, have some pretty strange ideas about web design. Some of their worst ideas are "popup windows" or disabling the back button so a user must close the browser to escape their site or type a previous address into the address bar to get where they were. If you want to annoy visitors, do those two things or place alot of flashy animated gifs to draw attention to parts of your site. I prefer the KISS method of doing things and not annoying visitors. I know if it would annoy me, I won't do it to a site visitor. This last part is just my opinion and you can take it for it what it's worth or leave it. Wink

If I can be of assistance to anyone let me know even though I am booked pretty heavily at the moment with three websites approaching deadlines. Sorry if this was a bit long winded. If I didn't say some of it very well, forgive me, I just got home from a trip that included long hours of driving. Regardless of any incoherent rambling,, I hope this info is at least somewhat helpful to people.

Khristi
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Khristi
RachelB
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« Reply #27 on: July 31, 2005, 08:54:18 PM »

I agree with what you have to say, and do not discredit any of it. However as a web designer and programmer myself, I am constantly dealing with clients who complain that their websites are not bringing in the necessary hits necessary, to make the website credible for their organisation.

As long as the scrolling is kept to a minimum (Not reams and reams of the stuff) and layed out in an orgranised manner, then that is ok.
However I do believe the hompage of a website should act like the front page of a magazine or brochure, just highlighting the important information, and making things clearly visible to the user, to direct them to where they want to go to get the correct information.

Hope this makes sense.

If anyone needs any help, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards

Rachel Bouchet  Grin
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KhristineH
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« Reply #28 on: August 01, 2005, 03:51:42 PM »

I don't disagree with what you said at all.. However, hit counters usually log the hit when someone opens the site, click throughs are another matter.
If someone isn't getting the responsive hits or clicks they want from a website, it is  more likely is a deeper problem with the site design then scrolling or it  has to do with how the site is being promoted both on and offline.  So many people operate on the idea that "if I build it they will come and if I am selling something they will come and they will buy!". Kind of like Field of Dreams. Poor marketing can be as big or bigger issue then poor site design. .Another thing is distracting animations. Is the site too busy? Not busy enough? Scrolling down is a minor issue compared to that and as I stated before, good design and keeping screen resolution in mind along with viewable area of a site will negate that problem and resolve that issue. The average person and newbies are generally not aware of these issues.  It is good you brought the issue to light but just stating they need to break it up into pages is not enough information to help resolve the issue. My goal was to help in that endeavor. Again, plan your site, map it out, and make sure your navigation clear and will not confuse visitors. Don't disable the normal browser functions such as the back button. Your site should read like a good book and the story it tells should be in a logical order. Pages are like chapters or topics, information should be grouped appropriately.If you have all that together and still get little to no response, check your marketing plan.

Its nice to have a conversation with a fellow programmer/designer. I look forward to conversing on the board with you and everyone else as I have time.

Best,
Khristi
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Khristi
RachelB
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« Reply #29 on: August 01, 2005, 07:51:02 PM »

Thanks and I agree with what you have just said. As far as the lack of hits goes what I was trying to say (which I may not have put across correctly) was that some of my clients complained that although people visited their site, they didnt stay long enough to actually see what the opportunity was. This was brought about by bad design and planning, and having everything slapped onto the homepage.
Cramming loads of information on the homepage is NOT the way to go. The homepage should highlight the main and most important points, like the front page of a magazine does. And clear planning, will make it easy for people to find their way around the site to pages of interest to them.

I never said that a page should NEVER scroll. I am just saying that it should be kept to a minimum.

Anyway I think the bottom line and what we are both trying to get to is PLANNING! For a website to work, it needs careful planning, not only from a design perspective and how it should look, but also the structure and flow of the website is important too.

I hope this helps clearing up any misunderstandings. It would be great to chat with you.

Regards

Rachel Bouchet
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