Website Review and Suggestions

**JonathanAlan** · 07-10-2009, 09:34 PM

Hey everyone! I mistakingly posted this in the HTML forum so I'm just moving it here.

I just started my own site and its coming along slowly but surely. It's a leadership development web site. I've been studying leadership for a while and I'm really passionate about it so I wanted to share some knowledge and experiences. I write articles which I post and I have some forums. My site is:

http://www.leader-leadee.com

I only know pretty basic HTML so I decided to build my own site to save money. What do you think of the site design? Layout? Colors? Content? My writing? (if you can call it that)

Let me just get this out there, I am not a web designer/developer. I am by no means good at making web sites. This is the first one I have ever created. I'm lucky it looks this good...

I'm just a beginner writer that tried to save money by building my own site. It's basic HTML, nothing fancy whatsoever. And yes I was going for a simple-professional look. That being said, I'd still appreciate some feedback on how it looks in terms of the layout, links, colors, font, etc.

Thank you for your opinions in advance.

**treyk4** · 11:25 PM

A very usable site is how I would describe it. It's definitely not the prettiest thing out there, but it's clean and easy-to-use, and that's what matters (for the most part). I would recommend that, on the "Archives" page, you make the articles clickable.

With a little bit of work, you could make this into a sleek, sexy, minimalist-style site. I would really recommend that you do a rework of your code to use CSS instead of old code practices such as using <center> and attributes like bgcolor. Just a suggestion.

HTH,
~Trey

**JonathanAlan** · 07-11-2009, 05:38 PM

Thanks for your response!

The articles under the Archives page are already links.

I don't know any CSS at all. I'm happy I got this far with HTML

Is CSS difficult to learn?

**TWD** · 07-11-2009, 07:48 PM

I'm pretty impressed if its your first site. Well done.

Some suggestions:

1) serif fonts are ok if used judiciously. Your main text should be in sans-serif though.
2) A few images would help.
3) Your code doesn't have a DOC Type declaration or a Language type declaration (should be UTF8). Do some google research on those things.
4) Its not good to have your email address naked on the internet. You must be getting lots of spam. Consider a contact form builder. Icebrrg.com or Response-o-matic.com are good.
5) Alexa says your site is ranked about 9million! You need to work on building up backlinks and other SEO. Start by adding more keywords into your TITLE tags.

I like your writing style. Short paragraphs are good.

If you want to learn CSS I recommend
"CSS - The Missing Manual" by O'Reilly.

Best of luck.

**JonathanAlan** · 07-12-2009, 04:37 PM

TWD - awesome advice, thank you!

**mark165** · 07-12-2009, 09:44 PM

I like it, because it is simple! I think you need to mix serif and sans-serif typefaces however. Try using serif for the headings, and sans-serif for the main paragraphs. You could also try using a dark grey font colour for the main paragraphs, as this makes it easier to read.

I think the next step to learn CSS, as said above, and before you get too into what your doing now, learn about "divs". Tables are generally frowned upon for designing a layout, and divs offer much more flexibility. You could try re-designing your site, but with a CSS/Div layout as it shouldn't be too difficult, you'll learn alot along the way!

**JonathanAlan** · 07-13-2009, 06:08 PM

Thanks Mark!

So..what is a DOCTYPE? and why do I need one?

**NewBreed** · 06:29 PM

Not bad for knowing just pure html. You need to validate your html. I'd definitely encourage you to spend some time with some css.

Problems I find:
Too much white space. Makes it boring and easy to get lost in the blizzard of white.
Too much content on the landing page. Who's going to actually read all of that?
Need to structure it into some main points and then have your bulleted items.
Using colored backgrounds to accent your points work well.
There are absolutely no pictures. Also boring.

I'm not trying to attack you, but for someone stumbling or even landing on your page. You have 10 seconds to make them stay. It has to be attractive and the points have to be clear without reading more than a sentence at a time. Then maybe if the user is interested in those few sentences he/she will move on to read some paragraphs. But for your landing page, it's not likely.

Anyways, it's great for not knowing any css. I don't want you to feel bad about your site. But if you want to attract random viewers it's not going to happen. If it's for you to refer your clients to go to... then it's no big deal. I hope this makes sense to you.
Keep in mind if you are not interested in learning or spending money and are interested in making a graphical website. There are "free site builders" for you to use out there. They do all the coding for you, templates to choose from and capable of having blogs/forums.
Good luck.

**Leopard** · 07-13-2009, 07:42 PM

This is excellent for just with a basic amount of knowledge of HTML. I love the simplicity of the site, and you used lots of white space in a very intelligent way. I think it is good the way it is, but if you want to look more modern or to be able to edit it easier, I would use CSS.

**emofree** · 07-14-2009, 12:10 AM

aah the love of the pure html the loading is fast excellent work there. the layout is good at best. the only real lacking there was the graphics. The site will not be ever complete with out some sort of graphics like simple boxed header above or a simple boxed footer below. I know lots of us loves graphics.

**thefandango** · 07-14-2009, 10:01 AM

You need inspiring images of leaders. Try istockphoto, they have tons of stuff very cheap you could place in the page columns to give the site some human faces.

**JonathanAlan** · 07-14-2009, 12:20 PM

Thanks for all the responses!

I have heard I need to spice it up a little. I just checked out istockphoto and I wish I'd have known about it sooner! Thanks for that fandango. I'll definitely throw some photos on my site now.

Good advice about the landing page NewBreed, I appreciate it! I'll try and work on that today and see what happens.

**NewBreed** · 07-14-2009, 01:21 PM

You are crazy by doing this all by html, but it's kind of inspiring to see that you are very motivated to get this thing done by yourself and 0 software. If you need help with anything pm me. I'd be glad to help.
Also if you don't want to spend any money, free image option: http://www.sxc.hu/

**webwizer** · 07-14-2009, 07:18 PM

A couple of thoughts - hope you don't take offense at these.

You need to check your spelling a bit more. Just on your home page there were mistakes right away. For example you typed "absense" but I think it's spelled "absence". And there were others after that.

In a lot of the pages, there is that question mark instead of the quote sign, or other symbol.

I am not sure that having a "Donate" option is a good idea - at least the way you have it set up. To me that just screamed SCAM!

I do like the obvious passion you have for this topic. You have information laid out nicely. Not bad for a first effort.

**JonathanAlan** · 07-14-2009, 10:36 PM

Webwizer -

No offense taken at all! Thanks for pointing out the spelling mistake! I'm still looking for the question mark instead of the quote or symbol...

I put the donate option on there because in case someone wants to donate, i'm not expecting anyone to really donate but whatever, just in case

If you've anymore I'll take it! lol

**cutedesignz** · 07-16-2009, 03:53 PM

make it prettier its soo bland!!

**yellowvenus** · 07-16-2009, 04:38 PM

Your domain name includes a hyphen. That is hard to remember.

**davemies** · 07-16-2009, 11:33 PM

i can't take a site seriously that uses the word "Leadees"

**ITVower** · 07-17-2009, 12:29 AM

First off, your going to a new design, that looks like something you just coded in 1 minute. Finding yourself a new design will make your website more attractive and hook people to it.

Second make the articals sound more professional.
Thanks all

**JonathanAlan** · 07-22-2009, 10:31 PM

I've added some photos and some quotes throughout the site recently, hopefully this makes the site less boring