Rate My Site

12 years ago

I am going to comment only on what I know: the word "blog" is not synonymous with "post".

The big button on your main page inviting to publish a "BLOG" is misleading... at least for those familiar with the blogging terminology: because you do NOT offer signing up for a separate personal blog, just the option to publish a new post on YOUR blog.
If every user was to have his/her own blog, that would look like:
example.com/yourblog/
example.com/myblog/
example.com/johnny/
etc. (or the same on a subdomain: myblog.example.com)

Finally, something from a visitor's point of view: I'd never listen to any SEO "guru" that would say to have your keyword (like "real estate forum") 5 times in the intro paragraphs.
Did you get this advice from some "expert"?

Try to always write for people, not for search engines

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LifeCharge

12 years ago

Istvan, thank you. I hope to be able to enable users to create their own blogs. I have run into a few glitches along the way in creating multisite subdomains. Creating subdomains is not for the faint of heart! It seems like one problem solved brings another to surface. Until I get that under control, I am settling with letting others post on the main blog.

I have reduced the number of "real estate forums" by about 3 since your post (in the 1st paragraph alone!!) I remember reading that you should go keyword crazy in your first paragraph, but I didn't realize how far I took that idea. I also noticed some sloppy spelling errors. I will do more cleanup as well.

Thanks for the feedback.

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Michael Meaney

12 years ago

The copy still seems a bit spammy to me.

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msam029

12 years ago

You need to include social media plugins, addthis etc for making site more social there by getting seo.

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LifeCharge 12 years ago

msam, i have the shareaholic plugin installed, located at the bottom of each page. Is this what you are talking about?
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msam029

12 years ago

The multiple search functionality is a good one

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Trivium

12 years ago

In addition to agreeing with all of what Istvan said, I'd also like to suggest that you review your button graphic design, and also how you integrate them into the page. At present, you appear to have a button nested within a buttonised border (with ample white-space to boot), and this not only seems excessive, but it makes the button graphic completely redundant. Also, the text (and the graphic, if you chose to keep it) would look better centered.

Now, it might be an idea to put the buttons in their own section, and have the text only above and below it, as opposed to having it wrap around - it currently makes the site look a bit messy and unprofessional.

Lastly, and this might just be a matter of personal taste, but I don't like the headers such as "Sponsors", "Realtor groups" etc have a background color the same as the background. It just gives the effect that the background is seeping into the content, and draws more attention to the background itself than is necessary.

I hope you find my feedback helpful.

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LifeCharge

12 years ago

Trivium, I have made a number of your suggested changes, thanks so much. I am curious if there is a better way to make buttons. My existing graphics are jpg. I have seen sites with much better graphics (they sink in when you click them(which i really like), or change color, or do other fancy things). Some graphics actually let you change the text within, which would be really handy.

I moved all the graphic to one line because I had some trouble centering. Do you think the text should be centered too? It is now centered.

Thanks
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Trivium

12 years ago

Originally Posted by LifeCharge

Trivium, I have made a number of your suggested changes, thanks so much. I am curious if there is a better way to make buttons. My existing graphics are jpg. I have seen sites with much better graphics (they sink in when you click them(which i really like), or change color, or do other fancy things). Some graphics actually let you change the text within, which would be really handy.

I moved all the graphic to one line because I had some trouble centering. Do you think the text should be centered too? It is now centered.

Well, there are two ways to achieve the effects you desire in regards to the buttons you're using. You can do this either using javascript, or with CSS (or both).

With CSS, you can change the image using the "a:hover" property (and if you create a graphic of a button in both the pressed and depressed state, then you can set it to change when the user moves their mouse pointer over it). As this involves two or more images, you can just directly edit the subsequent images to achieve whatever effects you desire.

Just google search 'changing image on mouseover' or something to that tune, and you should find plenty explanations, and even pre-baked codes you can just copy and modify to achieve the desired effect.

Also, if you'd rather use CSS or javascript over the other option, just add either CSS/javascript to the search string. Additionally, you can make buttons entirely with CSS (no images required), and some very nice effects can be achieved with these. Might be worth looking into if that's what you're after.

Also, I don't recommend centering text. To me it appears messy, as you have two ragged margins instead of just one (or none, if justified). You can sometimes get away with centering headings, but only do this if it fits with the content.

Lastly, in regards to your images, and you having trouble centering them, have you tried enclosing the images inside a <div> tag (rather than a <p> tag>, and setting it's align attribute to "center"? That usually fixes up any image alignment problems I have

. Also, you are using the "text-align" style attribute to center the content of your <p> tags, and I'm not sure if this actually works to center images. Definitely try using the <div> tag instead.

Hope that helps!

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LifeCharge 12 years ago

Trivium,

I will see what I can do with CSS, I would love to avoid images entirely.

I changed the verbiage back to be left aligned, which I prefer.

Thanks so much for your detailed help, it gets me in the right direction.

Wish me CSS luck, hopefully it is easier than it sounds. I can generally figure things out, with some luck.

Also, you were right, the images were within the <p> tags (are those even called tags, i don't know).

Alrighty, I have some work to do! =)
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Sir Lethal

12 years ago

It's nice for a start, but its kinda too bland. Try to get some graphic designers to design a better template, etc.

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paolocans

12 years ago

It is simple. I think you should improve the design and the colors so that it will become more attractive.

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Trivium

12 years ago

Originally Posted by LifeCharge

Trivium,

I will see what I can do with CSS, I would love to avoid images entirely.

I changed the verbiage back to be left aligned, which I prefer.

Thanks so much for your detailed help, it gets me in the right direction.

Wish me CSS luck, hopefully it is easier than it sounds. I can generally figure things out, with some luck.

Also, you were right, the images were within the <p> tags (are those even called tags, i don't know).

Alrighty, I have some work to do! =)

It looks much nicer now that it's left aligned

. In regards to the buttons, this is a nice site for generating the code for a basic CSS button: CSS Button Generator - Imageless css buttons simplified. After using that, you can then just look up the attributes you want to change the coloring, or whatever else you desire (the site doesn't show all available options).

Originally Posted by paolocans

It is simple. I think you should improve the design and the colors so that it will become more attractive.

It's not always that simple. Besides, the design isn't overly bad, though I do agree there is plenty of room for improvement. For one, the grey background doesn't sit well for me - i reckon a watermark background or something faint, but not featureless, might go towards making the site look a bit nicer.

As mentioned before too, the header backgrounds in the side-bar should definitely be different to the background - it just doesnt look right as it is now. Perhaps a lighter grey, approaching white?

Oh, and I'd probably recommend adding some pictures for a bit of colour, although that's not a top priority at the moment.

Good luck!

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eranivdoll

12 years ago

OK! nothing is wrong. You carry on.

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Shappire1

Banned 12 years ago

[DELETED]

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sandebdavid 12 years ago

Well i'd say it is encouraging for a first. There is room for improvement especially the general outlook/design needs an improvement. That top part that seems to list your major keywords should at least be edited with some css to give it a more visual appeal and also blend it with the image. I know you are trying to optimize it as much as possible but at the end of the day its the impression it will have on its visitors that shall matter most.
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smartyjohn

12 years ago

Now everything Looks pretty, Design of website is professional. Just keep the work going on. "Like this" plugin is attractive and good idea to keep it at the TOP.

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Hthomas

12 years ago

Do some more work on your web template its not touchy if we compare it with other social networking sites.

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LifeCharge

12 years ago

Hi Hthomas, what do you mean "not touchy"? The template is a wordpress template that configures with Buddypress. Customizing the template would be advanced,
and completely foreign to me. I just learned what CSS in this thread =). I googled CSS and have been working on some new buttons, which should be fabulous and eliminate jpg's from the equation.

Thanks
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Azarna 12 years ago

You capitalise a lot of words that shouldn't be capitalised. It interupts the flow for readers imho.
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LifeCharge

12 years ago

Thanks Azarna, you are right. I have corrected on the front page. I remember initially having it all capitalized, but it looked angry. =)

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LifeCharge

12 years ago

Anyone have a suggestion on how to best insert css style code into a wordpress website? I see a few different plugins that allow me to insert css/java code direct into posts and pages but nothing is translating through correctly.