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Websites Done a lot since my last review - can I get another now

Discussion in 'Reviews' started by eVentureBiz, May 1, 2008.

  1. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    Hey guys - months ago I posted my website up for review and community feedback. Thanks to Linx, emilypal, and a few others for helping me push my coding and design limits and forcing me to expand my knowledge.

    I'd appreciate an updated review of my company's website.

    The home page is the most important, but if you have time, here are the pages I'd like reviewed:

    - home page - community forum

    - The Relax Cafe - Web Hosting

    I'm approaching the web hosting industry from a different angle. Our site is totally different from others out there.

    Do you think this works for me?

    How well does the website flow and do the pages compliment one another well?

    Honest reviews are taken constructively.

    Thanks -
     
  2. pezboy45

    pezboy45 Mod/Design & Coder [Pro]

    Alright.
    First thing is, wow.
    I really like it!
    What are you using to run the system, or is it just a solid website, no CMS.
    I'm really liking the flow of things.
    Just, one thing you could fix, and that's on the web development page.
    Its a bit confusing with all of those plus and minus things.
    And all the opening and closing, and crap.

    You should get rid of that, it doesn't add much to your site, and it being gone won't make it loose anything.

    Good luck,
    Andrew
     
  3. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    Hey Andrew. Thanks, your compliment made me say, "cool."

    I'm using phpBB3 for my community forum which I've modded and customized the template a little, a WordPress template for my blog, and the same template with all its php functions removed for my website, which is just a static website with a css file now.

    I use the <!-- include --> function in Microsoft Frontpage to keep the menu system easy to edit site-wide.

    I'm glad you found the flow of things to work well. Our site is quite large and I've been working real hard to make sure everything fits together and flows easily.

    About the web development page, the drop down menu system is something new I just added. I'm glad to get your feedback as I've been a little on the fence whether to keep this or not.

    The main reason for the menus was without them, the content on that page was quite long, so I tried to shorten up the look of it a little. I think you're right though, I might just remove it and consider tightening up the text.

    Thanks for the feedback, bro -
     
  4. pezboy45

    pezboy45 Mod/Design & Coder [Pro]

    Also, for the <!-- Include -->
    Do you mean the SSI (Server Side Include) code?

    Or, you could keep it long, and just use anchors to at the top, and at each part of the content:
    ex.
    ---Anchor links---
    --Content--
    -HR-
    ---Anchor links---
    --content--
    -HR-
    ---Anchor links---
    --Content--
    -HR-
    ---Anchor links---
    --content--
    -HR-
    Also, on the right hand side of the content put a small "^top" link to return them to the top which would be a simple link of <a href="#" title="Return to top">^</a>

    Or, another idea.
    Is, create links ontop of the image at the top of the development page, the one that has the globe.
    And for each part,
    Web Design
    Graphic & Logos
    Content Development
    Website Review

    Have them each link to one of the content things, (the one that opens using ajax) and open it, and close the others, and scroll you down to the area.
    That would be cool.
    And useful.

    Just my thoughts.
    Post when you change, so I can take a look.
     
  5. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    Thanks Andrew. Yeah before the drop down menus I used an image map to make web design, graphics, content development, and review anchor links. I may go back to that, I'll wait though and see what kind of feedback I get, but I'm pretty sure I'll change it back to that.

    For the include, yes, I believe it is the server side include code. To include other htm files into my homepage, such as my main menu bar, I insert this code in my home page:
    <!--webbot bot="Include" U-Include="includes/main_menu_bar.htm" TAG="BODY" startspan -->
     
  6. pezboy45

    pezboy45 Mod/Design & Coder [Pro]

    SSI (Server Side Includes)

    About that Server Side, its not the proper one.
    Its some weird one I've never seen before.
    The one I use it:
    <!--#include virtual="url/to/file.anything" -->

    You can read more here.
     
  7. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    That's cool. I'll try that one - it may solve a problem I'm having. I'll let you know how it goes when I have time to check on it.

    Thanks
     
  8. pezboy45

    pezboy45 Mod/Design & Coder [Pro]

    What was the problem you were having, maybe I could help you out.
     
  9. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    Thanks pezboy.

    I'm using this drop down menu script for my main horizontal menu's drop down. The problem I'm having is I have to add this script's code in the <head> of each web page I have (a lot of pages).

    I spent the time to copy/paste the code into each page which is fine. However, I'd really rather this be an include file so one simple edit would edit every page's drop down menu.

    As an example, the other day I removed a couple options from my drop down which involved me editing the javascript code on every page on my website.

    Putting the <include> code in my <head> tag isn't working like it does for my main menu include inside the <body> tag.

    Any ideas how to make this work?

    While you're at it, I asked this question in the CSS help area but no one has responded. Do you know how I could make the background side colors of my site an actual image instead of just a color?

    If you take a look at my css file, I have this line up near the top:
    background: #213843 url(../images/template_images/containerbg.gif) repeat-y center;

    The #213843 is the dark color on the sides of my template.
    "containerbg.gif" is my template's image everything hovers over.

    I want to change the #213843 from a color to an image, but I'm
    not sure how.

    Any ideas here?

    Thanks bro
     
  10. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    BTW - I'd appreciate other reviews of my site.

    Thanks guys :)
     
  11. pezboy45

    pezboy45 Mod/Design & Coder [Pro]

    Tips for your website.

    All right,
    heres what I've got for the CSS:
    Code:
    #BODY{background-image: ../images/template_images/containerbg.gif; background-repeat:repeat-y; background-position:center}
    It should work just fine, because Dreamweaver made it for me, gotta love it!:D
    And for the menu, heres a solution:
    First, this is the most hassel part.
    You are going to have to change the file type on every single page, you want the SSI to work.
    from .HTM or .HTML to .SHTML
    Once that is done, here comes the easy(er) part.
    HTML:
     <!--#include virtual="includes/main_menu_bar.htm" -->
    And, for your links, you can use
    HTML:
    <!--#echo var="REMOTE_ADDR" -->
    So, you can direct link it, so there are no mistakes.
    So, say you wanted to go to your about page, what you do is:
    HTML:
    <!--#echo var="REMOTE_ADDR" -->/aboutus.htm
    Remember, if you want to use this, you must set your pages to .SHTML
    Including the menu.

    Let me know if there are any problems, I'll be glad to help.
     
  12. emilypal

    emilypal New Member

    Hi eVentureBiz!

    Your site is well done! I really like the way you’ve organized it!

    I believe your site will be highly appreciated. The pages follow-up each other.

    I advise you to mark “Subscribe to the eVentureBiz Blog” somehow. So it could look more welcoming and vivid.

    eVentureBiz, I personally like exploring new graphic elements represented on the web so I was glad to see Graphics & Logos block on your site. Though, I would suggest you to represent more examples of your designs there so your potential visitors could evaluate the logs, banners, etc you develop.


    In spite of the fact that your site is rather informative it isn’t boring and it’s really easy to navigate!


    Thanks for introducing it and good luck to you!
     
  13. ishkey

    ishkey Moderator, Logos, Sports Crests Staff Member Verified Member

    John if you change all your pages to .shtml you will take an enormous perfomance hit on your site. :confused:

    .shtml says "This html file includes Server commands - please parse it before delivering to the browser site" (hence the "s").

    you would be better off reviewing your php ability.
     
  14. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    @emilypal - Could you clarify a little for me. Do you mean mark the subscribe link somewhere on my website so it's easy to get to and inviting or do you mean I should edit that actual sign-up page?

    Can you give me any suggestions from your point of view? Thanks.

    Also, I'll work on getting a few graphics displayed on the logo page. I'll have to talk to my design guy and see what he wants to do since it's technically his work.

    Oh and one more thing, what do you think of the drop down menus on the web development page (the web design, graphics & logos, content, etc)? Like them, hate them, don't care?

    Thanks ...

    @pezboy & ishkey - Two things on .shtml

    1. I'm not as skilled in server commands as I am regular html so I think it's best to stick with what I know best. I have a web coder who is but I have to pay him for his time and plus, "eVentureBiz" is me in digital form - so I need to maintain control.

    2. Yeah it can slow things just a bit and I'll probably stick with the html. I really appreciate the solution, though pezboy.

    @pezboy - I think maybe you misunderstood my issue with the css. I already have this code in my css which does the same thing you showed me:

    background: #213843 url(../images/template_images/containerbg.gif) repeat-y center;

    containerbg.gif is my template all my text, menus, and header hover over. What I'd like to do is make it so I can have some kind of background design as wallpaper on the sides of the template, instead of just a background color of #213843.

    Any clues on how to do this?

    Thanks everyone. I'm taking notes!
     
  15. pezboy45

    pezboy45 Mod/Design & Coder [Pro]

    Yea, create a 5x5 box, of that color.
     
  16. emilypal

    emilypal New Member

    Hello again,

    eVentureBiz I mean making the subscribe link more vivid. I would personally place it a little bit closer to the hearer and mark it with bold or even a larger font. I think everything is OK with your subscribe page. I just want more people to see the link "Subscribe to the eVentureBiz Blog" because I find your tips really helpful.

    I like your dropdown menus but I prefer to make a slight change to them. I think it would be better if I could have some parts of the drop-down menu open in the same time. For example I want to open Web Design and Graphics and Logos blocks at the same time but I can’t do so because as soon as I press Graphics and Logos button Web Design section is immediately closed ))
     
  17. eVentureBiz

    eVentureBiz New Member

    Gotcha ;)

    I'm getting ride of those damn drop down menus LOL - I don'like'em.

    As for the subscribe - I have that big black box in the left corner that screams out subscribe by email and then the rss subscribe in the standard upper right. Is that not enough then?

    Thanks :)
     
  18. ishkey

    ishkey Moderator, Logos, Sports Crests Staff Member Verified Member

  19. emilypal

    emilypal New Member

    Hi eVentureBiz,

    That big black box in the left corner appears only after I click "Subscribe to the eVentureBiz Blog" butoon. I mean making this very button more vivid and not the subscription form ))))
     
  20. pezboy45

    pezboy45 Mod/Design & Coder [Pro]

    Deffinatly have to agree with emily.