# My new site is up and running!



## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

Yea, I bought buildor.com the other day and redirected traffic to this site. I get 1 - 3 people a day who type that into the browser.


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## Woodcrafter74 (Oct 5, 2005)

Very nice, I need to make one observation though. On the List of Services page, the bolded titles are directly under the pictures from the previous section. Like, directly under the nicely painted room picture it says "Exterior Painting Servies" and under the pressure washing picture it says "concrete staining". Maybe just putting a thin border above and below each section would help set it off.

That was the biggest thing I could find--so good job!!!


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## A+Carpenter (Apr 19, 2005)

Always Greener said:


> Very good advice..We all miss spell but you still want them to visit your site.



I misspell on perpus. Due to some people just now knowing the correct way. If you misspell in the meta section you will get more hits to your site.


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## nadonailer (Nov 15, 2005)

Great site!!


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## slickshift (Jun 14, 2005)

Oh hey, I keep forgetting to tell you
I got my first actual newsletter
Not the one I got when I signed up, which had a lot of "Put Content Here" spaces lol

It's a nice newsletter
Looks great!


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## AAPaint (Apr 18, 2005)

Hey thanks slick. So you got the second one, and it was missing things? Could you explain more?


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## slickshift (Jun 14, 2005)

No the first one was basic
The one I got immediately when I signed up for it
You can see in my previous post I mention I signed up, and before I got done typing, it showed up

I'd say nothing was blank, but it was set-up funny
Not all the links and content was/were up yet
Looked good though

If you want to see exactly what I got, PM me an e-mail addy and I'll forward them to you
I'm sure I saved them


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## slickshift (Jun 14, 2005)

slickshift said:


> I'd say nothing was blank, but it was set-up funny


Not funny, template-y
Ya know...lol


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## RowdyRed94 (Jan 23, 2006)

I'm going to be brutally honest, because as a web developer I've always found "it looks great" to be completely unhelpful. To me, it looks like a template site. It has no character, and way too much text. In a business like yours, you need to stress your work. I think you need to simplify, make your sales points stand out, and show some of your work on the front page. As it is, it's just another generic template site.

I'm as anal as they come when it comes to spelling, grammar, and readability, but that's not what I consider the downside to your site. I didn't even bother reading it all because, frankly, I found the site to be incredibly boring. That being said, you probably did get your money's worth. Graphics designers are spendy, and you certainly don't want a "my nephew knows HTML" site that was done with FrontPage. So in that light, it's fine. 

Trying to help. Please don't be offended.


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## AAPaint (Apr 18, 2005)

Hey Rowdy. Thanks for the input. So far, I am happy with the site. It is selling better than the old one, and generating a lot more traffic. I will give it time to see the results before I do anything more with it. 

The beauty of it is this. I can have it completely re-designed if I need it, but I think at this time it's best to see what my investment brings in return. It's purpose is to sell, and so far it's doing pretty good.


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## RowdyRed94 (Jan 23, 2006)

Good for you. I'm curious how you guage the traffic and sales results for it. "Hits" are useless since they're a merely a count of the downloaded files (so if you have 16 small images on your front page, one visitor generates at least 17 hits). "Unique visitors" is much more useful. Are you getting detailed data logs, or are you hearing from customers that they found you through the site? I've always wondered about that with my site. Of course, we only do a few homes a year, so it's a tougher situation.


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## A+Carpenter (Apr 19, 2005)

RowdyRed94 said:


> Good for you. I'm curious how you guage the traffic and sales results for it. "Hits" are useless since they're a merely a count of the downloaded files (so if you have 16 small images on your front page, one visitor generates at least 17 hits). "Unique visitors" is much more useful. Are you getting detailed data logs, or are you hearing from customers that they found you through the site? I've always wondered about that with my site. Of course, we only do a few homes a year, so it's a tougher situation.


Hey Rowdy you mentioned you are A WEB SITE developer? go to my site on my signature line and tell me what you think about mine?


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## RowdyRed94 (Jan 23, 2006)

I've looked at yours before, Adam. I'd have to say it's about the nicest website ever to use woodgrain graphics. ;-)

Seriously, I like it, but you need help with spelling and whatnot. "Photos", like most plural words, should not have an apostrophe. You also use capitalization in a random fashion: 



> 24 Hr Home Repair and Remodel- sample Photo's
> 
> * Sub-Area Repairs, Bathroom Remodels, Complete Re-tile, Showers & Floor repair, Deck, Patio and Balcony Installation and Repair, Siding & Trim Repair/Replacement, Vinyl and Tile Floor replacement, Hurricane storm damage experts , and more...


I'd stick to using capitalization in actual titles and at the beginning of sentences. Skip it in your lists except for proper nouns.

I'd put in a little margin (or padding, depending on your structure) at the right side to get the text off the scrollbar, say 10 pixels or so. No biggie. 

When linking to your sub-pages, you can eliminate the 'index.htm' on the end of the URLs. The server knows to look there, first. For example, the link on your 'projects' button is http://www.crosswindsconstruction.com/projects/index.html, where it would only need to be http://www.crosswindsconstruction.com/projects/. Retain the trailing '/' to speed up the process, but it's not required. In that same vein, your 'home' link can often simply be '/' (as in <a href="/">). If that doesn't work, use the full URL (http://www.crosswindsconstruction.com) so that 'index.htm' doesn't show up. It's cleaner for anyone bookmarking or whatever and looks more professional, IMO.

Be careful where you open new windows. I use target=_blank for sending people to vendors and such, but there's no good reason to open additional windows in your own site, like you do for your photo galleries. It renders the user's 'back' button useless, takes more computer resources, and requires the visitor to keep track of extra windows. It adds up to hassle and annoyance. 

Otherwise, I think it's quite nice. How has your feedback been? Oh, that photo on the 'contact' page needs work. 

BTW, I welcome criticism on my site. I'm aware that it could use more content, unfortunately I'm not in advertising, so I'm struggling with that. Any ideas are appreciated.


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## AAPaint (Apr 18, 2005)

RowdyRed94 said:


> Good for you. I'm curious how you guage the traffic and sales results for it. "Hits" are useless since they're a merely a count of the downloaded files (so if you have 16 small images on your front page, one visitor generates at least 17 hits). "Unique visitors" is much more useful. Are you getting detailed data logs, or are you hearing from customers that they found you through the site? I've always wondered about that with my site. Of course, we only do a few homes a year, so it's a tougher situation.


Hey Rowdy. I use to have my hosting through hostgator.com and had awstats and about 10 other ways to view my stats there, and I watched closely. Since switching it to Footbridge Media, they don't have a stats program for the sites they host. I followed the advice of GeorgeZ and took a look at www.web-stat.com Turns out, he's right, their stats tracking is phenomenal. You can literally follow the path each person takes as they look through the site and a ton of other good things. You should check it out. 

Oh yeah, I wanted to touch on one more subject. Everything I've read about selling on the internet supports having a good amount of text, and if you look deeper into my site there is a ton of good information.


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## RowdyRed94 (Jan 23, 2006)

Thanks for the tip, uh, Mr. Paint.  I'll check it out. And you're right, content is king. My problem is deciding what to put up.


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## 747 (Jan 21, 2005)

Nice site. I like where you can play with paint colors on rooms through the sherwin williams.


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## A+Carpenter (Apr 19, 2005)

I love your site. I had this site built for me with the aid of a family member that is extremely talented with art. I had a site that was all macked out with flash.7 and the people I was looking to direct my market at had dial up. -So I killed the flahy one and went simple for them-

So we went HTML all the way. We are looking into macro media right now. I really just use the website for ref with my customers and prospective clients. You know the small people IE: homeowner’s that butter my account with jobs here and there.

I love the paint scheme coordinator you have installed on the site of yours. The web has come along way since the old school days. 

The pic of me is coming down asap and all the colors are changing. 

I have had some good feedback on the site and look for more from any others.
Thanks for your time and your knowledge.

Adam Meider


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## mtpgoat (Feb 24, 2006)

artbuhsconstruction.com/ - shorten your glow around menu options / nice use of divs / change village of creekside to jpg due to shadow, and add alt text, take a look at your site on some browsers...it basically does not exist.

aaqualitypainting.com/ - your site is using "pull" design...something that amazon, yahoo, and many other main sites use. Think of it this way...your site is your "store". If you were a flooring store would stop someone at the door and say "hardwood, carpet, or tile?" Then based on there choice you PUSH them that way. That is why pull is better. Here is some great "pull" sites...

kbhomes.com (made by 2advanced.com the best design firm in the US)
bluefly.com
amazon.com
tnvacation.com/
fantasyinteractive.com (best design firm in the world)

I hope that I helped.


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## AAPaint (Apr 18, 2005)

Hey mtpgoat, thanks for the comments. Is there anything you would improve about my site?


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## mtpgoat (Feb 24, 2006)

As Grumpy stated before in the forum, your SEO is important because you want people to see you as "first". So I would work on the SEO of the site. Here are some things to consider....

the speed it loads
how does it look text based (no images)
alt tags
H1, H2, H3 tags
content
image size & quality
people linking to you is HUGE

how to to do so...

table-less design (if you see the word table in your design 90% of the time that is bad). It clutters the size of the site. By just messing with your tables and images I was able to reduce the size of your site by 50%.
A sites text should be viewed in 8 seconds MAX. Yours it pretty good at that. Just try to move away from tables.

Your H1 tags need to POP more in the source.

Now think of what terms you want to be high up in search enginges for...Make that part of your content. Make sure the designer is doing the most behind the scenes to increase SEO.

Now about the look of the site. When I begin to build my site it will be with the mindset that people will click into or out of your site in 10 seconds. So I want images, and "hook" text to be displayed quickly. With your site I don't see that. True you are using "pull" design, but I would like to see them get hooked in.

The following is some sites that do so IMO. Again I like your site but I wanted to give you a "tough" critique to help you out the most that I can.

http://www.cope.ltd.uk/ (notice how you can change the text size)
http://www.thegladecornwall.com/experience_cornwall.htm
http://www.klassische-gartenmoebel.de/
http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/2006/
http://www.leejeans.com/home.asp

I hope that helped


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## mickeyco (May 13, 2006)

AAPaint,
I agree if the round logo is your corporate identity I would definitely incorporate into the site. I am waiting for my ride and did another revision for you to look at.

Kevin


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