Trash this site!

by 30 replies
34
Howdy Fellas,

I've never posted in here before, but I'm rolling a new site out next week, and putting a fairly good chunk into email/direct mail to kick things off. So... I thought I would throw myself to the proverbial wolves.

Charter Boat Sites | Web Design and Trip Booking for Charter Boat Captains

If you don't mind, take a gander around and see what you think. I welcome negative (constructive) comments as much as (maybe even more than) positive ones. I'm still testing and tweaking some things, but will be hitting the marketing hard on Monday.

Thanks!
#website design #site #trash
  • I wont trash it cuz I kinda like it. The design is simple and appealing, but I would do something to the main text, its not engaging me as much as you would want.
    • [1] reply
    • Boy, you could call the design a lot of things, but simple isn't the first one that comes to mind. If anything I was concerned I may have gone over the top with graphics.
  • The site is awesome, loaded with great graphics. I just want to point out that the typography seems a bit small or as for me "not that appealing". A little more improvement and you are ready to set sail.

    I hope this helps.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks. That's something that I was concerned with. I'll make some changes.
  • i don't like the slide images, it appears to be very huge and took so long to load. and the site map doesn't fit at the bottom. you might want to place it in different page. i hope you don't get offended with my honest here.
    • [1] reply
    • No offense taken at all. It is a very graphic heavy site, which was the intent.
  • The background image is not matching the background color. Maybe you can use this #000105 for the background color, so that it blends with the background.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks. Sometimes we get so caught up in the big stuff that the little obvious details get missed. Made the change, and I like it better. Just need to clean up a few of the images that used #000000 to blend into the background (like the bottom image)
  • Uuughh! Too much black! It's all black then the color just kinda pukes all over my mind's eye.
    I think for a lot of people, it's going to make the charter boat idea scary. Do you want to envision a black, bottomless ocean with sea monsters when getting on a boat, or a pristine, crystal clear sea? If it were my site, I would probably change all the black to a beautiful blue color, and maybe add a gradient so it darkens near the bottom of a page.

    Also, I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but there's watermarks all over your image. Not sure if that's intentional, or not. None of the watermarked text seems to be relevant to the charter boat business.

    You said to trash it, so there ya go.

    Edit: Oh I see, it's a site to sell charter boat sites! I thought it was a charter boat business site. I still stand by what I said though.
    • [1] reply
    • I may actually take you up on the blue/water thing. Not a bad idea. It's an easy enough change. I'd never done anything in black before, so I wanted to give it a whirl. Keep in mind that my market is about as far away from "IM" as it gets. Simple, clean, basic aren't going to get it. Most of these guys are still living in 1999 tech-wise, so the goal was something that pops or wows them. The "watermarks", uh, yeah. I put 'em there.
      • [1] reply
  • aw man, nothing to rib apart:-(

    I love your site! It's about time someone put the fun and originality back into design. On that 7 mistakes page i fell in love with that damn frog and wanted to fill out the form. good stuff
    • [1] reply
    • Yes! I went put together a few frogs before deciding on that one, and then spent a while thinking about whether or not I would keep it. It came down to just liking the little bugger too much.

      I'm starting with an email blast, and will be linking half directly to the "7 Mistakes" page - and half to the home page. Any bets on which converts better? My money is on 7 Mistakes, if I can keep them around long enough to read the sales copy.
  • your site is great and beautiful, i like it.
  • I would swap the social media icons with the phone number (put number on top and social buttons on bottom) The big word HELP, I don't like it, the other words look nice but the word HELP looks low quality. Also, I don't really like the font the "Websites FOR Fishermen, BY Fishermen. Need more trips? That's what we do." is written in. At the bottom, "charterboatsites.com
    nick@stoneflymarketing.com" should be bold, or a different color. Also, change the border color around that face pic on bottom left with something other then white.
    • [1] reply
    • I was thinking about switching up the # and SM icons. Now I will. What's your issue with the "help"? Too gaudy, or font, color? I'm good with the font. Personally, it's a little over the top, but I was thinking about testing it out. I'll probably keep it, but I get what you're saying.

      Agreed on the "for fishermen, by fishermen" font. It was on my list. As well as the two links you mentioned. Thanks for the input.
  • I guess I am confused on why you say nothing about mobile websites and APPS. This seems to be a perfect fit for charter boat owners and their customers.
    I really like the site expect for this omission.
    • [1] reply
    • Agreed, but I'm keeping it super simple for right now. I'll verbally upsell those without a doubt. When I put together my actual company site, I completed disregarded what I read on here: i.e., keep it simple and focus on one service/product. That was a mistake. I'm going to start with one specific, tangible service, and then take it from there. I intend to host every single one of these, but don't mention it on the site. I also do SEO, email list management, and a host of other things. None of it is on there now, and for a reason. That may change, but I'm sticking with simple for now. Thanks though!
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • The site is great
    Just a little suggestion, maybe you can make the drop down menu of "Contact" a little bit more obvious. Right now the text color is gray which is blend in to the background color. You might want to change it to lighter gray or white.
    • [1] reply
    • Hmmm. It's supposed to be white, and change to red on mouse over.
  • My first impression is that there are too many different fonts on the home page. The font in the sliders seems to clash with the font in the site logo (top left).

    I like the background image.
    • [1] reply
    • Agreed in general. I'm sticking to my guns though on the slider font. I'll see if I can standardize the rest though. Thanks!
  • I think the call to action should stand out a bit more, ie the quote button or the call now on the top right
  • CC, high five, wonderful looking website! I think you partnered the black background with the inner design very well. I agree with yanl ... in that I would make at least the Quote button stand out more. Maybe make it a different style than the "Read More".
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks. I didn't quite understand Yanl, because I already felt like it was a bit gaudy. I can maybe see a different style to make it pop more though. I'll see what I can come up with. My email campaign is generating quite a bit of traffic already, but more is better. I may just hold off of the snail mail campaign. I'm not sure I could handle much more on my own, and don't have a lot of interest in "scaling it up". I enjoy life too much to deal with an office and employees.
  • The site is ok
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks. I was trying my darndest to pull together one like that sweet landing page in your signature. I just couldn't pull it off. Oh well, maybe some day...
  • Banned
    Some small changes that could drastically clean up your homepage imo:

    1. The main text area in the middle just doesn't look nice, especially when there is such a pretty looking header above it. Separating it into two columns and adding an image, testimonials, or anything you like would make it look a lot nicer.

    If anything, reduce your line-height by a few pixels. It'll look a lot cleaner, trust me. There's not much of a difference between your line-height and paragraph margins, so it doesn't look very clean.

    2. Have you tried playing around with other fonts? I think an arial 14px with #000 color text for your body paragraphs could look nice and make it cleaner.

    3. Add a little more margin or padding above your footer headers. It's too cramped at the top.


    Also, are you aware of the links in your footer? Do you own Stonefly Marketing? There are two links pointing to their site, one with your keyword as the anchor text.
    • [1] reply
    • Yep. Stonefly Marketing is me. Pretty horrid from a design perspective, but that's what I started with and haven't had enough breathing room to go back and make it right. Still working out where that anchor text should be pointing, but for now that's it. Thanks for the other suggestions. I have a (bad) habit of focusing on the big picture and letting the details slide. I'm a bit of a hack when it comes to this stuff. I think I know what looks good, until I get input from folks who know better.

      I'll play around with the changes and go from there. Much appreciated.
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  • 34

    Trash this site!

    Howdy Fellas, I've never posted in here before, but I'm rolling a new site out next week, and putting a fairly good chunk into email/direct mail to kick things off. So... I thought I would throw myself to the proverbial wolves.