A few months ago I requested input about my website, the response was truly wonderful, and I again thank all of you that took the time to check out
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and for commenting on it. Well I took your advice, and published a completely new site. I changed my publishing program, my DNS, and my pictures, and yes I did raise my prices just slightly (of course, so did my suppliers). The long and the short of it is What do you think of the new and improved
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If there is anyone that wishes to link exchange please contact snipped-for-privacy@thequeenofbeads.com,we vary much want to build a large link exchange program.
vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from snipped-for-privacy@thequeenofbeads.com (Sally Smardon) :
]
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the DNS servers must not have caught up yet. so far, it comes up "not found".
----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)
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(Jewelry)
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newest creations:
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----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.
I like it very much, Sally. You really did a great job. I found one problem on page 4. The page choices on the bottom of only go up to page 3 when it needs to go to page 5 as well.
Your work is very, very nice but those ornaments are wonderful still! Good job!
----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.
my eyes are bad to start with. and i have a LOT of trouble with dark backgrounds. and *on my computer* a lot of the text is on top of the pictures.
possibly just me and/or my computer and/or my browser settings.
----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)
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(Jewelry)
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newest creations:
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----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.
vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "grenner" :
]For her site you need to be at a min of 1024x768 screen resolution.
okay - i actually do. but that's going to mess a LOT of people up!
----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)
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(Jewelry)
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newest creations:
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----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.
Hi Sally! Your site is very nice to look at and does load quickly. My suggestion would be to have the pages listed by category (Earrings, Ornaments, etc. ) rather than Page 1, Page 2, etc. That way people can go to exactly what they want. Also, have this navigation list at the top of your page, rather than at the bottom. At first I didn't see that you had more than one page. I am having some of the same issues with text as others here. I personally would make the blue text darker and easier to see, and get rid of any red text. Red text on blue background is really hard on the eyes. Also, be sure to check spelling on the About Us page. :) Your pics are really nice, and the layout is fun. Your ornaments are gorgeous! Especially the purple one. Good luck to you!
On Fri, 2 Apr 2004 19:53:32 -0500, vj wrote (in message ):
Nope, not just you. I tried it using two browsers on my Macintosh, and I get that anomaly. The text on the whole front page covers the photos. The "About Us" page is unreadable, with text riding over text.
Page two looks good, but you mixed fonts in the descriptions of the earrings. It's distracting, and makes me wonder why that happened. I'd also like a little information about the metal used in the earwires, because if they're merely silver or gold colored, I can't wear them.
Page 3 has the best photgraphy thus far, and I like the pieces. There is still some overlap of photos and text, but it's minor on this page. There are a couple of typos - "Flurs" is not a word in English. I assume you mean "fleurs," which is French for flowers. Also, your "White Flurs on Red" text seems to accompany a purple ornament.
Page 4 is very sweet, but again has the design running over the text - here the bottom navigation menu is behind your photos. The photos themselves are very nice, and not dull at all. Again, I'd be a lot more likely to buy if I knew the content of the earwires. Perhaps a statement on each earring page that says we only use Sterling SIlver and Gold Filled earwires. Stainless Steel (dirt cheap) earwires can be substituted on request. (And all your earrings are priced too low - make then $20 or $25/pair)
Strangely, I cannot get to page 5 from page 4. This also has the font mixing problem, which might have been done for creative reasons, but doesn't quite make it. It looks like a mistake where the fancy text defaulted back to some basic web font. Again, those pesky Flurs have reappeared, and this time they have drop shadows! Drop Shadows really don't belong on lettering in this context, and it makes it incredibly hard to read.
For some reason on Page 5, you don't want to sell two of the ornaments, maybe they want to stay with you at all costs - they have prices but no "add to cart" buttons. But, you are trying to sell the stars for $15, and have a button, but no picture. If they are the real stars, I suspect that NASA might want to have a word with you.
I know I sound totally picky, and you might not think this matters, but it does. A lot. If people see little amateur errors on a site, they start hearing all the garbage that's shown on TV: a mental picture of some creepy dude looking to steal their identity, working from that "haunted" house on the other side of the tracks. Probably has a criminal record, too. And looks at dirty pictures.
A successful commercial internet site has to reek of respectability. Your "about us" page needs a button at the bottom of every other page. You're using the Paypal secure shopping cart system, which is great - promote that logo on every page of your site: "Trust us, we have Paypal behind us, we're not some fly-by-night joint looking for your credit card number to use for a spending spree."
One gripe about the "About Us" page - the centered text for he whole page is hard to read and looks childish. Left aligned boxed text with no indents is the usual standard. I really like the large type size, though. Many people have vision problems and small print is a real pain. I'm not wild about the "folksy" tone of the page, but that's a Kathy impression and may not matter to anyone else. I generally prefer to see an artist in her studio kind of thing, and never mention that the studio doubles time as the kitchen. I never say I am a home-based anything.
Hope this helps, and you don't think of me as that "old fat B*tch from Boston,"
On Fri, 2 Apr 2004 21:29:51 -0500, vj wrote (in message ):
I am at 1024 x 768 screen resolution, and the text overlapping problem is happening for me, too.
Remember, most people have antiquated computer equipment at home. Even if they have the good stuff at work, most employers aren't really happy to let you shop on their time. When I designed my web sites, I always designed for lowest common denominator. 480 x 640 resolution, and assumed that everyone had dial up service. I didn't do frames, java, animated anything, and relied on good information and clean lines to make my site work.
vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Kathy N-V :
]Remember, most people have antiquated computer equipment at home. Even if ]they have the good stuff at work, most employers aren't really happy to let ]you shop on their time. When I designed my web sites, I always designed for ]lowest common denominator. 480 x 640 resolution, and assumed that everyone ]had dial up service. I didn't do frames, java, animated anything, and relied ]on good information and clean lines to make my site work.
BINGO! exactly, Kathy! [and i'm glad it's not just my monitor!]
----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)
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newest creations:
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----------- I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all.
Overlap is different on different computers. The idiot I used to work for paid his girlfriend to make his website. It looked sucky on my computer, but no overlap. At Carol's house there is overlap galore. For the record, none of that makes me unhappy. LOL.
Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows
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