On The To Do List...

Texas — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 22:11:45 +0000

Disaster-Master, adding a gif link to the resource directory from the site's home page is now on tomorrow's to do list.

Thanks for the inspiration.

By the way, here's probably one of the slickest designs and sales-provoking sites around for website critique (besides The Webmaster Forums).

Ever heard of 'em?

http://www.mysitestinks.com/

Busy — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 21:50:10 +0000

Busy - the auto scroll means that if the page content fits in the screen without the need for a scroll bar it removes the 20 pixels (or whatever it is!) of grey from the right side and you don't see the top & bottom arrows. This is only IE5> I think.

NS does this automatic probably why I've never seen it used lol

disaster-master — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 21:41:49 +0000

You will have to forgive me. I tend to type my thoughts sometimes which make sense to me but not everyone else. I also wasn't paying attention to where you said you wanted to put the other links. Thought you were going to add links to the home page but I see now you are adding them to the directory page. My bad.

I still feel that it would be better to have all of your links in the blue bar part and have them arranged in catagories somehow. With the exception of a Home and Contact link that would remain at the top right. That is just how I visualize that I would do it. I am not familiar with the structure of your site so that may not work for you. Any who.....just soak up all of these opinions and advise and come to your own conclusion and it will look just fine.

Ideas for a logo: A printer with the name of your site coming out of it. Or an ink cartridge with the name of your site being spilled out of it. Again, those are just more of my wierd visualations. Can ya draw? LOL

Yes, add something on the home page about the Resource directory. I had to look through several pages before I found it. Not sure what graphics you would use but definately a text link. Or you could change "links" to resources.

mairving — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 20:42:55 +0000

Tex, we are all faced with the same dilemma of speed vs. beauty. Adding a graphic or two will not perceptibly change the speed that the site is accessed. You can still keep it simple and speedy with the addition of a decent logo of probably around 5-7K.

Hmmm, for a logo, you can add some subtle shots of printer cartridges along with a larger logo maybe have a copy of drops of ink to emphasize the ink part. I played around with one that turned out to be only about 3K.

Response: Fancy Logo and Refill Info

Texas — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 19:56:47 +0000

Hi Mark,

Excellent reminder to educate the consumer on the refills. I think I might do that tomorrow.

From my past experience though, selling ink cartridges online, even from my own personal buying experiences, most people already know what they want. Upon arriving at your site, they know which cartridge they need and they know how much they've paid for it in the past. At this point they're comparison shopping...looking for the best price and the fastest way to get to their product.

When it comes to saving money, few people could give a hoot about how your site really looks. Just as long as it's neat and organized, easy to navigate, loads fast and gives them what they need.

Personally, I agree with you on the logo thing. I would prefer having a better visual impact design, however, again I'm faced with the dilemma of beauty versus practicality (file size). The current logo is a tiny 713 bytes and loads in a blink. Whereas a fancy graphic might be above 3K-10K in size, defeating my quick-load mandate.

http://www.inkprintercartridges.com/navlogo.gif

Since everyone else seems to be focusing in on the logo too, when you have free moment, I'd like to hear any suggestions you may have for a better solution to the logo.

Regards,

Texas

Re: Response to Reviews

mairving — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 19:19:41 +0000

Quote: Originally posted by Texas

As for branding the site, developing a tag line, becoming renown or famous, creating a memorable logo, etc...one has to remember, the site serves one basic purpose...to elicit a click-through and cause a sale. Other than needing to built in tables, I suppose what I need is suggestions on marketing the site & its products.

But the point is that it can serve the same purpose by making some minor changes. You don't have to have the fanciest of logos, just something for people to remember your site more.

As far as the marketing suggestion, you might also educate the customer a little. What about refills? Are they any good? Should I buy the mfg brand of cartridge or a generic? These seem like questions that you could answer in a few short sentences.

The basic code for getting the site down via tables would be something like this:

<?php
<TABLE border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\">
        <TR>                
            <TD width=\"150\" valign=\"top\">    <!-- Side Nav Bar -->
                <TABLE border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"5\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"150\" bgcolor=\"#ccffff\">
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>Select and Buy Direct</TD>
                    </TR>
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>&nbsp;</TD>
                    </TR>
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>Printer Cartridges</TD>
                    </TR>
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>&nbsp;</TD>
                    </TR>
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>Epson</TD>
                    </TR>
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>HP</TD>
                    </TR>
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>Etc.</TD>
                    </TR>
                </TABLE>    <!-- End Nav Bar  -->
            </TD>    
                <!-- Main Body Table goes here -->        
            <TD width=\"100%\" valign=\"top\">
                <TABLE border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"10\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\">
                    <TR>                            
                        <TD>Main Body Goes Here</TD>
                    </TR>
                </TABLE>
            </TD>
        </TR>
    </TABLE>
?>

Master of Disaster

Texas — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 18:51:42 +0000

Hi Disaster-Master!

So much of what you have said is true. Indeed, that is why I am here at the Webmaster Forum...to hear how others find the attributes of my site.

I'm a little unclear as to exactly what you meant about adding more categories to the left nav...and it's probably my fault. Let me explain my needs more clearly.

All product categories are complete. I refer to additonal categories (or less categories) for the Resource Directory.

http://www.inkprintercartridges.com/resource-directory.html

Also, since I'm looking for "stickyness", any of your suggestions on categories for the free classifieds would be most welcome!

PS- Since the Resource Directory is accessable only via the top nav "links", do you think I should promote it from the index page with a small gif or something?

Thanks,

Texas

Reply to: lacking in visual interest and navigation...

Texas — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 18:32:54 +0000

Megan,

Thanks for your input. I agree with you on its lack of visual interest...to a point. However, I must reiterate that the sole purpose of the site is to attract search engine traffic and redirect to the allyoucanink.com site.

As for allyoucanink.com being visually captivating, perhaps...that is, IF the visitor is connected via cable or DSL. AYCI loads excessively slow and is currently the subject of an ongoing debate between myself and its owner.

Although I have the luxury of DSL and Cable, I preview my pages using a dial-up 56K.

Warm Regards

Response to Reviews

Texas — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 17:58:26 +0000

Howdy!

I'm grateful to everyone for their detailed thoughts and advice for my little ink site. Thank you Busy for welcoming me to the forum and pointing out certain aspects of the site. Take note though, there is a page where I used mouseoevers to disguise URL's in status bar.

http://www.inkprintercartridges.com/all-ink-cartridges.html

Thanks to you Mark for taking the time to provide such well-informed feedback. I couldn't agree with you more.

Webmistress Julia, you my friend, get right to the point! (while at the same time appealing to my male ego...thanks for the compliment) What am I using to create the site? Just as Mark correctly assumed, a WYSIWYG editor. It's called Cool Page. Not only does it render bloated HTML pages with unneeded code, it mandates use of layers, side-stepping tables altogether.

Currently, I am learning pure HTML using notepad & the editor Arachnophilia & working toward becoming more proficient with tables. I do hope to redo all my sites eventually.

I realize & understand the importance of what everyone here has said and I appreciate the comments. Alas, in the end though, the site is only a click-through mechanism to another site...created totally as an affiliate "link site". That is why Busy, the drop down menu URL's open in the same window.

As for the layout & visual appeal, Taff said it perfectly, "The site looks clean but not terribly exciting, although printer cartridges are hardly a sexy topic".

My thoughts exactly Taff. I wanted a site that was simple to navigate and served its purpose, one that loaded quickly and was keyword/phrase weighted to rank well in the search engines. Beyond obvious shortcomings of the editor used to produce the site, I am close to achieving this goal.

As for branding the site, developing a tag line, becoming renown or famous, creating a memorable logo, etc...one has to remember, the site serves one basic purpose...to elicit a click-through and cause a sale. Other than needing to built in tables, I suppose what I need is suggestions on marketing the site & its products.

Given the ink catridge product line & all the competition, this isn't terribly easy to do. I'm attempting to be creative...incorporating special sales prices, a resource directory for related services/products, free classifieds, and exploring various viral marketing avenues (other than tell a friend scripts).

Again, thanks to all for taking time to review my site and I look forward to further ideas/critique anyone has to offer.

All the best,

Texas

Megan — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 17:06:39 +0000

This is another design that I think is lacking in visual interest. You don't really seem to have a strong colour scheme or design style at work here. A more interesting logo would also be an improvement. I agree that the fonts are a little on the small side, and your navbar could use some improvements as well. Give your site some character! This site:

http://www.allyoucanink.com/

Has a neat style, for example, with the ink splatter background coming up before the table content.