Friend started website, need some help with it....

[Mugen_R]

Hey guys, my good friend just started up his own Racing Crew/Performance buisness and he is using some free web host to have his Temporary webpage.

His buisness is called "519Racing"
519Racing

Can anybody pleasehelp us out and give us some Constructive criticism.

Thanks
bartek

[ghetto7o2azn]

well the first thing i didnt like that i noticed was the font of the the links and the text below... plz change... also when you go over the links the back keeps dissapearing and then reappearing... i dont know if thats just my computer... if it isnt, plz change that... aslo i think that the products should be orangized by type, then by company, not just by company... (for example.... turbos - greddy/hks - type of turbo) it would make it much easier to find products

[JeffForSale!]

Get rid of the "cjb.net" url?
A business with a free url isnt exactly..."trustworthy"
And, you're hosting on Homestead?
After all, you need money to make money
Whats up with your Wheels page? It just links to the makers page...maybe you should have a list of whats in stock with pictures?
And if you need someone to make a website look more professional (and a real domain name, and hosting) I can hook you up
Its not free though...

[Mugen_R]

Originally Posted by JeffForSale!

Get rid of the "cjb.net" url?
A business with a free url isnt exactly..."trustworthy"
And, you're hosting on Homestead?
After all, you need money to make money
Whats up with your Wheels page? It just links to the makers page...maybe you should have a list of whats in stock with pictures?
And if you need someone to make a website look more professional (and a real domain name, and hosting) I can hook you up
Its not free though...

Well like I said, he just recently started up. I've dealt with him on many occasions and is a great seller so I know for a fact that he won't stiff anybody.

I agree, the site isn't as what a buisness should have, but for a temporary site that he can refer customer's to it will do for now.

The wheels page is basically what wheels from the manufactureres he can get. I will be helping him out with all these comments you guys provide me.


Also, how much would a real domain name and hosting be????

[Oz]

The first thing that screams out to me is the fact you have a website for an automotive company and there's hardly any pictures of cars!!
Definately needs pics of work completed/cars featured slapped all over the website.

In the limited pics featured in the gallery, there needs to be both consistancy of resolution (clicking on the pics gives pics of widely varying sizes) and there simply needs to be more pics.

There is not enough contrast to focus your attention on particular parts of the website or direct your attention to a logical way to navigate the website. Maybe choose 2-3 things you REALLY want to promote and make them clearly contrast the rest of the colour scheme.

I don't know whether it's intentional or not, but the mouseover script on the nav bar either doesn't work or is absolutely shocking. Change it or remove completely.

There is no clear place where it states exactly what the company does or doesn't do, how long they will take to do it, pricing or why people should choose you over another similar company.

The title graphics at the top need total revision.

There is not a consistant company logo displayed throughout. Needs to be developed.

Scrap the directions section. If your customers can't read a map to get there - do you really want their business?

The email link picture looks COMPLETELY out of place. Doesn't work at all.

I don't like the entire colour scheme used - but perhaps that is just me. It makes the body text difficult to read and the colours are generally associated with depressive moods/downers. Use brighter colours if possible.

Suggest to customers what you specialise in and promote throughout the website. I still (after 10 mins of looking) can't work out whether you simply do exhaust work or whether you can fully build, prep, blueprint and break in a full race engine.

Hope it's been some help

Oz

[519RACING]

Hey guys. Thanks for the comments. i've taken notes and when the time comes, i'm going to pay for a full-fledged site with online transactions and product with our own domain name.

I'm just starting out and the Homestead website was just basically to get our biz on the net and get the word out. It' only costs like $9 a month for what we have there and CJB.net is just a redirection URL so people don't have to try to remember a long Homestead website name

As much as I'd like to get one, I'm laid off indefinitely at the moment and our plant announced before Xams it plans to close in the spring so $$$ for a full bore website unfortunately isn't available as my g/f and i have a luxury apt and a little girl included in our budget.

i know the site is pretty basic and not even remotely close to being up to par with most other websites out there. we just just wanted to get our contact info and product lines out there so people could check things out on their own 24/7 whenever they had time. Our biz is home-based and it is geared mostly towards local sport compact enthusiasts but we wanted to let people elswhere know that we will mail-order parts or allow you to come pick them up.

I was going to go through our local Development Program for Small Businesses but there's way too much red-tape and paperwork and we'd spedn most of our time making reports two or three times a month to submit to the local government office. The way we're doing it now is better because we have no real overhead to worry about or inventory to try to sell off. Until thyings take off we're just making due with what we can for now.

I really do appreciate all the comments and suggestions. Keep them coming because even though I've been in the Honda building/racing/show scene for a number of years now (racing my '95 C ivic seriously now for about a year and a half) we are new to the whole business aspect of things and we dont' want to bite off more than we can chew.

again, thanks for the replies and feel free to post more. we could use the help

P.S. We're still working on the site so that's why some things haven't been finished or still have to created. There's not much we can do with Homestead aside from what you see there.

Steve-O.
519RACING Performance & Image

[Cl0ak]

Being a web designer myself I know how hard it can be to get a site running the way you want it to be. But i'll offer my .02 cents, the first thing that turned me off was the graphical layout, a few are a bit off and the color scheme makes me want to do a hit and run, read it and get off it quick as possible. It just doesn't scream professional to me, more of a geocities special.

I think it just needs a major visual rehaul, but you have a good start. And if your paying 10.00 a month for that, you could get a cheap bargain bin domain name/hosting for just a tad more if you shop around.

[519RACING]

Originally Posted by Cl0ak

Being a web designer myself I know how hard it can be to get a site running the way you want it to be. But i'll offer my .02 cents, the first thing that turned me off was the graphical layout, a few are a bit off and the color scheme makes me want to do a hit and run, read it and get off it quick as possible. It just doesn't scream professional to me, more of a geocities special.

I think it just needs a major visual rehaul, but you have a good start. And if your paying 10.00 a month for that, you could get a cheap bargain bin domain name/hosting for just a tad more if you shop around.

thanks cloak. i was trying to go with a mechanical theme for the site but i guess it backfired on me LOL. I'll see if i can change the templates to something else. i liked the geocities comment because it was actually the rist place i looked to start one LOL

i dont' know how to do code or anything like that and that's why i go the Homestead SiteBuilder because it stores all the editing on my laptop and wheni go online i just publish it to the web. it was nicebecause i didn'thave to be online to edit or view the webpage.

like you said, it's a start...althought not a very pretty one

[519RACING]

I'm just going to go with a striaght navy blue theme and use textured buttons and hea dliners and things like that.

here's a sample of it:
http://519racing.homestead.com/Welcome.html

good? bad? maybe?

hopefully something like that one doesn't make anyone feel like massacreing a small village LOL

P.S. the email link only works I think if you're using a mail program such as Outlook because when i published the page and click on the link my outlook opens up and creates a new email with the address in it. i don't think it will work with browser email programs like Hotmail and such

[FurbyMaX]

For the webhosting problem, why not try 1 & 1 www.oneandone.co.uk ?

[519RACING]

Originally Posted by FurbyMaX

For the webhosting problem, why not try 1 & 1 www.oneandone.co.uk ?

Where can I find a good hosting company that has a beginner-friendly site builder program similar to what Homestead uses?

I dont' know code or website developing so I need a program or hosting company that has a site builder where you pick your template, then your colours, pages, titles, etc. and then you just type in your text and publish it to the web.

1&1 has a builder like that

[Cl0ak]

That's more tolerable with the color scheme. Although I think your main problem presentation wise, are those graphics. Maybe you could design a company logo like Oz said that is consistant, and replace the plain text based logo's. If you want to give it a shot, maybe a few of the guys in the graphic manipulation forum might feel generous and design a couple of logo's for you if your not into graphic design.

The email link (little spinning email link) looks too out of place, belongs more on a geocities special than a business website. Might want to consider using a little text link or having a contact page for more ease of use and a more professional feel to it.

Just go through and try to simplify everything. A good idea would be to have friends and family look it over as if they were customers, often when I'm shopping online or looking at a businesses website, their web site layout can be a determining factor with whether or not I choose to deal with them. You definitly want to make an impression that says "hey, we're pro's at what we do, and we want to show it off". Alot of companies pay $10,000 to a web designer and still don't get that look, but you can do it if you just pretend that your the customer, and look at what you would want to see on a companies website.

Maybe take a look around at some other companies websites to get a feel for certain styles and themes. There are also plenty of pre-made templates avalible for download on the internet that can be customized pretty simply. Of course you don't want a template that every other website has but it may give you some idea's. With some sharper looking logo's and maybe a nicer side bar it'll look altmost pro. Just my .02 cents though.

[519RACING]

thanks for all the advice guys

i'm leaving for an all expense paid three day snowboarding trip tomorrow morning to Blue Mountain (near Barrie here in Ontario) with the family and i'm bringing our laptop with me. i'll work on getting alot of the changes made and then publish it to the web when i get home

[ghetto7o2azn]

hmmm.... its better but one thing i know about page designing is that you dont want more than 3 colors in your scheme... i like a black, white, red scheme myself... or even a blue, white, black... but to me right now it looks like you have too many colors... and the page semes to be a bit scattered... or not evenly distributed... there is nothing on the right side.. it seems like something is missing over there