Advice for my site...

11 years ago

Looks good, I really like the header/custom logo.

Your sidebar looks a bit crowded with ads, you might rather want to use a plugin like max banner ads or similar that randomly rotates through 3-5 banners. Then figure out the highest converting ones and keep using these in your sidebar, instead of throwing like 10 into it.

For the content, it's good that you mix it up with pictures and videos, definitely makes it less boring to read. However, you should break up the text a bit more into paragraphs, right now I stare at sometimes really big text blocks and don't even want to read it.

Last thing, your navigation bar seems to be a bit crowded as well, maybe stick to 5-10 important options and try to put the rest into subcategories/drop downs.

Overall though your site looks really good and the opt-in form fits well.

Hope that helps!

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MammothStrength

11 years ago

I appreciate the feedback. The Logo itself was the only thing on the site that I didn't do. I wrestled with photoshop for longer than I care to admit (first time using it) to make the banner, and everything else.

Marketing is NOT my forte'. So I need all the insight I can get. With ten posts on the front page it leaves such a long sidebar that I didn't want it to be empty. Would switching it to maybe 5 posts on the front page help that issue? I will try to work on the paragraph problem. It's funny though I look at it from the eyes of a writer and sometimes think they are too short. Have to adjust my point of view.

The navigation bar will be adjusted. I still have to load the product pages, because besides information I will be selling actual products (strength equipment), along with services (athletic training).

The site has only been live since Feb 1st, and the functionality is nowhere near where I want it to be yet, but it sort of looks like I want it to. Still a work in progress, and considering as of Feb 1st I had ZERO knowledge of ANY of this; I am ok with my slow development.

Thanks again.

Thanks
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scorpio9

11 years ago

Very good effort for first site. here are one or two tips that may make it more user friendlier, (imho)
The page is a bit long for my liking, look at most good blogs and you'll find that the homepage either have snippets to the full posts or they limit posts to 2-3 on the front page.

The header is too high, consequently your optin form is below the fold (people wont see it immediately, all right you have a popup).
Also the paragraphs a tad too long to read properly. What you have to remember is people dont like to have to concentrate too much especially when reading from screen (causes eye strain) so you should make it easy on the viewers' eyes use short paragraphs and use 2-3 <h3 tag> headings to break up paragraphs, use your keywords in the headings for SEO purposes.

With my screen resolution the page is about an inch too wide so I have to scroll to see what's on the right, then scroll to see what's on the left, this is off putting for alot of people so you will lose them.

You done a decent job on the design but have ignored SEO, that is very important if you want to get high PR and SERP ranking .

getting it launched is a big step and you've done it! just keep working at it to make it better. (my first site is still in top four of Google results after 5-6 years and I still tweak it to this day to make it rank better)

good luck
Lee

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afreshohio

11 years ago

Originally Posted by scorpio9

Very good effort for first site. here are one or two tips that may make it more user friendlier, (imho)
The page is a bit long for my liking, look at most good blogs and you'll find that the homepage either have snippets to the full posts or they limit posts to 2-3 on the front page.

The header is too high, consequently your optin form is below the fold (people wont see it immediately, all right you have a popup).
Also the paragraphs a tad too long to read properly. What you have to remember is people dont like to have to concentrate too much especially when reading from screen (causes eye strain) so you should make it easy on the viewers' eyes use short paragraphs and use 2-3 <h3 tag> headings to break up paragraphs, use your keywords in the headings for SEO purposes.

With my screen resolution the page is about an inch too wide so I have to scroll to see what's on the right, then scroll to see what's on the left, this is off putting for alot of people so you will lose them.

You done a decent job on the design but have ignored SEO, that is very important if you want to get high PR and SERP ranking .

getting it launched is a big step and you've done it! just keep working at it to make it better. (my first site is still in top four of Google results after 5-6 years and I still tweak it to this day to make it rank better)

good luck
Lee

I agree here with Lee on the page being a little long and the header being pretty tall, but I think the layout/structure works and it really does look pretty cool! Nice work!

Thanks

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Marmbrust

11 years ago

[quote=MammothStrength;3582614]This is my first site. I finally broke down and bought a premium theme. Interested in any and all feedback.

Thanks

MammothStrength,

I really, really liked your site. I disagree with @Backlinexcellence. I don't think your sidebar is too crowded. Maybe you could break your text up into paragraphs a bit - but, not a biggie. As a fellow marketer, I understand how much time all this takes. I'm sure that the big guru's have 'people' taking care of their sites - but, I know for sure how long it takes to produce a site of this magnitude & I'm very impressed.

As far as making money online, it takes a bit of time to get your site established. I wouldn't count on making a ton of money right away (although we'd all love THIS to be true!);

Congrats again on the awesome site!
Marmbrust

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MammothStrength

11 years ago

Thanks Scorpio...these are all points that will help and I will work on. Like I said, six weeks ago I knew nothing about design, seo or any of it. And as it stands now I don't know much. I know how to get athletes bigger, stronger, faster, and I can string a decent sentence together. Other than that its a work in progress. Which is why the forum is so valuable.

The Header is so tall because I screwed up the logo height and haven't fixed it. That is something I now know how to do. I switched to 5 posts for the first page. I tried it with just the "summaries" and hated the way it looked, maybe it is something I will experiment with again. Like you said...its a marathon not a sprint.

Thanks again everyone.

Thanks

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wahsupermom

11 years ago

Congratulations on your new site. It really is a huge accomplishment to make something out from the new learnings you have on web design for the last few weeks. Also, you're on the right track in making a website about something you are truly passionate about.

For design concerns:

1.) Differentiate the primary navigation from the secondary navigation..maybe in terms of Font size.
2.) Increase the font size of the text in your posts so as not to strain your reader's eyes.
3.) Decrease the size of your opt-in box so that it is located above the fold.
4.) Also, the header is still taking up a lot of space.
5.) Sidebar layout is a little busy...because of the placement of the ads and the other widgets.
6.) I agree with Scorpio9 with having only 2 posts in the first page as it is easier to the eye and won't make your first page too long. You don't necessarily have to just use snippets.

Overall, these are just the design changes that would make your site look better. Of course, on-page SEO is equally important...but just take it a day at a time... And implement what you learn. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and ask around for help.

Good luck!

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bilzz

11 years ago

I appreciate really good work mate ,but you can do more work on header for good impression .Good luck

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signity2

11 years ago

i love your work great keep it up

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MaryWeaver

11 years ago

it is looking good to me but I'm not sure about its SEO work.....

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MammothStrength

11 years ago

wahsupermom, thanks for the tips. These are the little things that would not occur to me for month probably. I appreciate the help.

And then the BIG mistakes like installing Google XML Sitemap plugin for wordpress, and never actually submitting the sitemap.

Teaching people to pick up heavy stuff is WAY easier....

Thanks

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greekst1

11 years ago

Hi Manmoth ! I have checked your website. Your contains are really good but i don't like the image on your homepage. Try to work more on that image and make it with some cool fonts and images. Overall site is good.

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MammothStrength

11 years ago

I resized the header image, but I can't get it to fit right. Every time I decrease the image height settings it automatically moves the image up so there is the same amount of blank black area at the bottom and leaves it crowded at the top. I even cropped the image so there was NOTHING below the words and images and it still added the space and pushed the image upwards when I uploaded it to site.

I am sure it is a simple fix that escapes me at the moment.

Thanks

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unlimitedmarketing

11 years ago

I really like it clean layout, the only thing is it seems like that background just doesn't go . . .

I like the popup thing that comes up, is that getting you a lot of subscribers?

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indianbill007

11 years ago

Great......structured very well

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pixshix

11 years ago

Really looking very professional . It seems it is not 1st struggle. Well Keep it up.

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MammothStrength

11 years ago

Tried to make some adjustments. Still can't get header image right. Removed categories from below the header, and at least got the name portion of the opt-in box above the fold. Downloaded to "excerpt plugins" and had no idea how to get either to work (sad). Slowly but surely getting there.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks

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