Website Review and Suggestions

**TripleMoons** · 06:01 PM

It's been a while since I've been on the forums...When did the "tycoontalk" thing happen?

Anyway, this a project I've been working on for a while in my free time. It's up on one of my testing server right now and is not fully functional...Just the design has been completed, functionality and video will be the next phase. I'm aware of the IE7 bugs...Haven't gotten to them yet.

http://ts0.triplemoonsdesign.com

**mpw45233** · 12-30-2010, 11:49 PM

Hi Stephanie, the tycoon thing happened early today I think.

I'm a newbie, but would be happy to give my opinion.

I think the home page looks great, purple is not a color you see often on the internet and it did catch my attention, and was nice to look at.

But when I clicked on "compare plans" I was expecting to see comparisons between your service and iPage Godaddy etc..., not just a description of the different plans.

I'm sure some more polished members will weigh in on this too. Just my 2 cents.

Best of luck to you

**joyce1217** · 12-30-2010, 11:52 PM

The color is catchy.. I will suggest you to add social media links.

**digitaloutlaw** · 12-31-2010, 01:37 AM

I like the design all but the Title image do not like the font at all. Other than that the site looks really nice.

**TripleMoons** · 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpw45233

But when I clicked on "compare plans" I was expecting to see comparisons between your service and iPage Godaddy etc..., not just a description of the different plans.

I see where you're coming from with this, but the paragraph beneath talks about our offered plans, not competing companies.

"We offer variously sized full-featured packages, loaded with plenty of resources and administration tools for building and maintaining a positive Internet presence."

I don't think this is a major issue, I don't think most will get confused with it.

**mpw45233** · 05:02 PM

I wasn't confused by it. And I did read the paragraph under it.

But when I saw the word "compare", the first thing that popped into my mind was my $3.49 a month iPage account, and a Go Daddy commercial I saw on television yesterday. My brain immediately recalled every webhost review I've ever read, and for a brief second, I was thinking about every webhosting company on the planet, except yours. Websurfers have very short attention spans.

If you look at http://www.ipage.com/ there's a compelling list of the reasons you should choose them, followed by an arrow pointing to a large "sign up now" button.

Can someone else chime in on this please?

Like I said above, I'm new. But keep in mind that only a few months back, I was shopping for the exact service you're selling.

**TripleMoons** · 12-31-2010, 05:04 PM

You must have been confused if you had thought I would be offering a comparison of different hosting companies. It does not state that anywhere in any of the text.

I really have no interest in keeping up with the weekly changes of competing hosting companies. The maintenance required to research and edit the site to keep up with it is not something I have time for. Further, it's difficult to compare restrictive hosting accounts to what we have. We do custom coding on our servers for clients that mass marketed hosting companies such as GoDaddy, Yahoo and BlueHost won't allow. That is difficult to explain to the average person.

This isn't for the buyer who's just looking for the cheapest, flashiest host they can find. 95% of the hosting contracts come from our own design clients. This site is just a much nicer location to send them to for sign-up. If it attracts new contracts, great. If not, it still serves its original purpose.

Anyway, thank you for your input.

**mpw45233** · 12-31-2010, 05:23 PM

If your site wasn't intended for the "average person" you should have said so.

I wasn't trying to compare the services offered.

Just my opinion (you did ask)

**TripleMoons** · 12-31-2010, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpw45233

If your site wasn't intended for the "average person" you should have said so.

I wasn't trying to compare the services offered.

Point taken. It's difficult to explain (especially for me, my partner is the one well versed in servers, databases and the like) and their is no point in comparing to the mass-marketed hosting because we can't compete with what we have; we don't offer the same servers and have little restrictions on code and scripts. Anyway, I acknowledge what you're saying.

One thing that has been bugging me about this is sub-page navigation. I'm not in love with it, but I can't think of another solution that doesn't disrupt the general design. What about the login? Is it too repetitive to have it at the top and in the sidebar? I love the sidebar login with the lock graphic, but my concern is that on the pages that do not have a sidebar (their are a handful), removing it from the top would cause a usability issue. If I really needed to, I can always add the sidebar to every page except for the Compare Our Plans page. I have also been considering having the sidebar randomly rotate with what exists now and in-house ads. The $6 special as well as advertising TMD services. This way visitors aren't starring at the same thing over and over again.

**mpw45233** · 01-01-2011, 02:12 PM

I wasn't suggesting you should try to compare your service to any other company. And most people probably aren't worried about the 2 buck a month price difference.

There could be many reasons people would want to sign up for your service.

I buy fruit at the local produce shop even though Walmart is cheaper and quality is the same.

But if you all ready have clients lined up, I think your wesite should do great.

Sorry about any confusion.

**meo** · 01-01-2011, 03:13 PM

Your Logo doesn't lead to the website index. It could be smaller and/or positioned a bit closer to the page top.

I like the colors and the overall looks. You could play with font color in order to emphasize some text by making the rest a bit grayer.

You could add a bit more space above the h3 titles on your support page to make the content less stuffed.

**TripleMoons** · 01-02-2011, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meo

Your Logo doesn't lead to the website index. It could be smaller and/or positioned a bit closer to the page top.

I might have to consider this for the interior pages. Their is a lot of unused space above the fold and it's not necessary for the logo to be so large in that area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by meo

You could add a bit more space above the h3 titles on your support page to make the content less stuffed.

Yes, good thought. I agree it feels crowded.

**PaulW** · 01-02-2011, 03:10 PM

Nice looking but I don't think it works as a selling page: nothing above the fold is persuading me that you're any different from any other similar company. You claim in meta tag that your customer support is "award winning" but there's nothing visible on the site to say that - so you're either missing a trick or telling a fib.

**TripleMoons** · 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulW

You claim in meta tag that your customer support is "award winning" but there's nothing visible on the site to say that - so you're either missing a trick or telling a fib.

I'll quote myself since apparently it was missed:

Quote:

Just the design has been completed, functionality and video will be the next phase.

In total I need to:

Get an editor to go over all of the content
Add social network sharing
Edit and add the video and audio
Integrate the functionality of the login and purchasing system
Weigh in on the feedback received and make changes I see as a good fit

This site is far from done, thus why it's on one of the testing servers and not live. The intent of my post was to acquire opinions and suggestions since this is in the very early stages of development.

**PaulW** · 01-03-2011, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TripleMoons

I'll quote myself since apparently it was missed

I trust you don't use the sarcastic tone on customers or other people who attempt to respond to a request for free help. Best of luck with that as an attitude.

**TripleMoons** · 01-03-2011, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulW

I trust you don't use the sarcastic tone on customers or other people who attempt to respond to a request for free help. Best of luck with that as an attitude.

Tone is difficult to distinguish accurately in written word. Your assumption was incorrect, I was not being sarcastic in the least. If I had, that would have been all I said, instead I continued with the post citing the other things I had to do with this in relation to the quote.

**wayfarer07** · 01-03-2011, 01:35 PM

Looks good, Stephanie, though the password field should be of type="password" so that the characters are blotted out.

**TripleMoons** · 01-03-2011, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wayfarer07

Looks good, Stephanie, though the password field should be of type="password" so that the characters are blotted out.

Thank you. You're absolutely correct. Thank you for pointing out that over site on my part.

**mcorton** · 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulW

I trust you don't use the sarcastic tone on customers or other people who attempt to respond to a request for free help. Best of luck with that as an attitude.

I saw the humor in her statement. A big chuckle and an, "I thought this would be easy, lol" I also like the color scheme, it's catchy, attractive and not widely used. (If ever) As a user and frequent shopper of webhosts, I'd suggest not using unlimited. It tells many that you oversell your servers and the quality may not be that great and downtime may be a problem. Set a reasonable limit that gives them what they pay for. Most well versed webmasters won't purchase space on a server that offers unlimited features.

Also, none of the links to your CPanel demo worked.

**TripleMoons** · 01-05-2011, 10:18 PM

Yes, none of the actual functionality is on there right now. That's as far as I got during the holiday, now it's back to work!

I've never considered "unlimited" being considered a problem, though you raise a good point. I'll consult my partner with that specific feedback. I guess the issue is, all other major hosts do offer "unlimited" features with their shared hosting, so how does one compete? As a webmaster, what specifically are you looking for in a host in regards to technical aspect of things? The semi-dedicated and dedicated servers will be on another site, this is site is strictly for shared hosting (the majority of our clients).