Would you stay or would you go?

[neurodude]

:cool: Good day,
They say you never make any money from your first affiliate site. Hopefully I can prove them wrong. I have almost completed my first round of programming on this site. I plan on going through it again and adding a couple more affiliates and any suggestions that you guys and gals may give.
Please check out The Puppy Depot (http://puppystore.schnauzerlover.com). Would you give it a chance if you were surfing for products for your puppy? Any changes you would make? Please only look at the first three categories (carriers, leashes, grooming) as I have not quite completed the others.
Thanks for your valuable time!
Respectfully,
AL
Tampa, Florida

[Jona]

Honestly, your design looks very early ‘90s — in fact, there is almost no design at all. I think you should model your web site after someone successful such as Amazon or eBay — not that their sites look good (though Amazon’s most recent redesign is by far the best ever), but the way they’ve decided to present the information on the site is very helpful, understandable and easy to use. A successful web site, especially one which could appear illegitimate to critics, must focus on its users more than itself. Make your site look good, but make sure that it’s very easy to use (that means that “so cool” effect you have on your menu needs to go, because it just makes me wait longer before I can read the menu items I want to look at). Hope this helps.

[LiLcRaZyFuZzY]

i had to wait so long for that menu to load, though my connection is relatively fast

[neurodude]

Thanks Jona. Would you stick or would you move on?

LilCrazyFuzzy, are you talking about the navigation menu?

[dera]

sorry, when the design looks bad i assume the content is the same.

[LiLcRaZyFuZzY]

yes i wa talking about the navigation menu

[dera]

yes that does drag down the site it looks like an egg, all moving, should be more fixed together...

[neurodude]

Thanks...boy you guys are tough :-)
Can you give a quick opinion on the actual product pages? Yes they have the same annoying navigation menu....for now. Heres a link to one of them (http://puppystore.schnauzerlover.com/html/clippers.html). Each page has content along with the products for sale...

[KDLA]

Hi neurodude -

I agree with Jona about the design. It reminds me of my first attempt at web design. Although completing the site is a wonderful fete unto itself, having it look professional is the truly celebrated end.

One thing that might help with the design is to use CSS styles and positioning, instead of the tables-based layout you've used. There is greater freedom with CSS, and you can create many nice effects (without javascripting) for your navigation menu. Using CSS will also greatly decrease the amount of coding on your pages, making them much faster to load. (I won't go into the many other problems tables cause -- I'm sure someone else will comment about this - it's a forum favorite.)

Look at some of the pet sites out there, note the things that you like (and don't like) about each one, and meld all those aspects into one design. It's all about making things professional, not glitzy or cool. When you're creating a site that's going to require people to pay for things, professionalism is key to future sales. Your design should be like letterhead stationery - simple, clear, and interesting - and not detract from the content.

You've done a great job on dividing the merchandise into clear and concise categories. Once you create an equally concise and organized design, you'll be on your way!

Good Luck -
KDLA

[Jona]

Neurodude, at this point in time, I’d move on. In fact, I did. As the owner of two golden labs, I can’t really say that I would be interested in purchasing from your site. There was nothing visible on the main page that caught my eye. This is why I suggested working on your design more so that products of interest will be quickly available to your visitors. See where I’m coming from?

[dera]

Thanks...boy you guys are tough :-)
Can you give a quick opinion on the actual product pages? Yes they have the same annoying navigation menu....for now. Heres a link to one of them (http://puppystore.schnauzerlover.com/html/clippers.html). Each page has content along with the products for sale...
to much content in one page a faster loading time would be better

[neurodude]

I see what you all mean. Gonna work on the menus, general look, professionalism and content.
Will start by redoing the menu system today. Anybody here been successful with an affiliate program? What do you think about Adsense? Believe it or not, I'm pulling in $$ everyday through adsense on this site. Not enough to live on but surprisingly a significant amount!
AL

[KDLA]

This is just my personal opinion, but I think you should hold off on the affiliate program until your website not only becomes more professional looking, but also generates a solid customer base. When I view commercial sites and debate whether or not I plan to purchase from them, multiple ads from other services serve as a detractor. They clutter up the design, and convey the sense that the site isn't exactly stable, like those posted on free web hosting services.

But, like I wrote, this is just my opinion. It's from an Internet user's point of view - I'm a designer for a non-commercial (government) agency.

Good Luck!
KDLA

[neurodude]

Can you recommend a good (free) newsletter website or program that I could use? I'd like to offer a newsletter to sign up for but my webhost (for whatever reason) can't get my form to write to a file on their server. Are there any sites that can host just the newsletter part for me?
Thanks KDLA, I appreciate your honesty.

[dera]

do you have php n mysql i could suggest one for you if you have that

[neurodude]

Yes I do...but not too fluent. Are there instructions?

[dera]

cpanel has one, (this is up to ur host if you have cpanelx) PHPlist http://www.tincan.co.uk/