Opinions On My New Website Please

lawndart

Hey all,

Long time lurker here. I would love it if you guys could take a look at my homepage that I just finished and offer your opinions. Right now there isn't much content, and I'm still working on my other pages, but the home page is ready. Anybody with 56k, I would appreciate it if you can tell me how long the loading time is, with the flash animations.

Thanks in Advance

www.sifinishline.com

Pearce Services

It looks original, I like it. What did you use to develope this?

Chris G

That's nice! I like your slide show, but sometimes I can't tell what you did in the picture. Floor? Window? Furniture, (kidding)? You know what I mean? I would suggest a one word title for some of them that fades up with the picture, (or to be real cool delay the fade 1/4 sec, and have it dissolve 1/4 sec before the picture does). Use a discreet font, and maybe opaque the type a bit.

The pictures at the bottom don't link to anything, will they soon? And make sure you buy whatever trial version of your slide show program is.

I'm not a big fan of the black and white checkerboard...it's kind of race car...ish.

Sorry if I'm being too critical. It looks like you do fabulous work, so I think your website should reflect the same sort of cohesive look.

lawndart

Thanks for your comments guys,

Pearce, I used Coffee Cup html editor, although I wrote most of the HTML myself

Chris, I will use your suggestion of the text in my slideshow, because I feel you're right. What you see right now is just a basic template of my home page. When it's complete, I will link those pictures on the bottom of my site. I'm not a big fan of the black and white checker board theme myself, however the name of my company is Finish Line Construction. Race car-ish is what I'm trying to accomplish.

I'm in the Finish Carpentry business for 10 years now working for a well known contractor out here in my area. I decided to take the plunge, and start my own company recently. What I'm lacking right now is a business identity. I'm designing my logo, along with this website. The reason I choose the checker board theme is because, I own a 2006 Ford Mustang, and a 2006 Ford Econoline 350. Both are black, and I plan on using them both for work. The mustang will be used for appointments, and meetings. I figured I could vinyl wrap both these vehicles out here for some nice exposure. It would certainly highlight my mustang, and my drag racing hobby. Even thought of the slogan "Taking your project to the finish line"

I'm open to other suggestion about my website, and my business identity if anyone else wants to chime in. Thanks

mickeyco

I took a look, it needs some work, I use an older browser and the site comes up on the left and the tables aren't aligned and sized properly (it looks better in IE), there's several missing pictures on the bottom and none of the links are working. I'd take off the tourist pics, you serve Staten Island and your customers live there so they're probably familiar with the ferry and the narrows bridge, although I might put the narrows bridge in the logo or something (that bridge is to Staten Island what the Arch is to St. Louis, it's all over everything). I'm not a big fan of flash on websites, although I think just about everyone one has the plug-in now, I may have to rethink my stance, anyhow I would just use a slideshow with out the thumbnails, the one you have is a pain in the a$$. Need a banner or logo at the top. On the good side I like black and white and don't mind the checkerboard pattern. I recently did some display boards for Chevy-Vette Fest and still have my "car stuff" CD, loaded with checker flags, so here's an idea:

http://www.mickeyco.com/pom/fl/

One of the Chevy-Vette Fest Signs

Attached Images

 

Jcllc

Very good content on the first page and the flash present. at the beginning is great also. I use broadband so it loads pretty quick. Keep us up to date on the progress.

lawndart

Finally got around to completing my site over the holiday. It took some time, but I think I'm getting pretty good at web design . Please critique the new design and layout.

sifinishline.com

Thanks in advance
Lawndart

King of Crown

I dont get what Mickeyco did. Did you redesign his website?

__________________
Real nice guys

SMI-GenContr

Lawndart (had to LOL at that name...brought back memories of when I was a kid and my brothers were playing lawndarts in the back yard and one brother accidently hit the other one in the head with one of them. Not the plastic type they have now. The good old fashioned metal darts.)

Anywho... Your website looks awesome. I like the orange, gray, black and white combo of colors; very pleasing to the eyes. Do you have to have the slide show on every page? It would give you more room on your other pages without it. My personal opinion on the slide show is that it is annoying. Whenever you change pages it starts at the beginning again, that's why I suggest not having it on every page.

I sure do wish you were located in Virginia. We're looking for a quality finish carpenter. We do alot of work in Class A buildings and the tenants demand a good quality product in their casework.

MattCoops

Nice looking website
Love the logo.

Not everybody has a fast connection able to view flash animations.

The slideshow is great.
I'd leave it.

But add a gallery link, that leads to a nice HTML presentation

Another good thing is add your website link to your signature on this site.
It's a good way to get backlinks, and bump your site up in google rankings.
A good web site is nothing if noone can find it.

You can find free SEO tools out there to optimize your site.
WebCEO is good also. And it's free.
And google analytics is great to track visitors, keywords, and links.

Good luck

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

lawndart

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to get a link to my site as soon as I've made 15 posts . I'm also thinking of letting footbridge media handle all my SEO from here on out.

MattCoops

we thought of using footbridge til they wanted to charge $600 for startup fee. then like 50 or 60 bucks for month to type up some articles and post our link on a few sites

but we already have our site made up (so the 600 is pretty extreme)
we can take that 600 a lot further in other advertising medias that will have a lot more return

we took our site to #1 on google search for "tile contractor charlotte"
all on our own for FREE, putting a few hours in over weekend to work on optimizing

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

mickeyco

Nice Logo I see you had it done over at sitepoint. thumbsup:

N o one made me do this I'll explain later.

http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace...?contestid=416

http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/contest/416?:

MattCoops

interesting post mickey

you sure dug up som dirt on that guy

sad to think some college kid came up with logo and lawdart just tweaked it a little
lawndart,
you could have at least gave the kid a few bucks for books for creating the basis for your logo

in mickeyco's second link, you can tell you stole the idea of the logo submitted by NothingMan (#2)
just added a grill and some smoke on side with a bar around
you didn't even change the CMYK values in photoshop
they're exactly the same
hugh

I personally thought NothingMan's (#4) submission was best with the odometer looking logo

you should have used that for "your" logo

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

Mike Finley

Nice site, better than most.

From a marketing stand point there is one thing that bothers me, it is the repetition of the phrase "*** can be a trying experience for busy homeowners to install."

Are you going after the DIYer market only? Is your customer base people who are DIYers and get over their heads? Reading that makes me think that I am looking at the wrong contractor if I am not the type of person who thinks about doing some of what you do myself.

That phrase might make sense if it fits what you are doing, I do see you install windows for $75.00 apiece, but even if it does I still wouldn't repeat it 8 times.

lawndart

Thanks for the welcome guys. I did have my logo designed on sitepoint, but that is not nothingmans logo. The logo that I used was from one of the entrants called Heracles..

There is nothing Fishy going on here, I like to play around with photoshop, and was at a loss for my logo, besides I needed the image in Vector format and I'm clueless how to work Adobe Illustrator. Thats why I held it. I myself designed both sites with dreamweaver. There was no unfortunate ripping off "college kids logos" Heracles was paid, and he sent me the full file. I even paid a few others entrants there that didnt quite make the cut.

mickeyco

Scooby do.

AAPaint

Doh!! And I just praised his logo work he was doing in the other forum RIGHT before I read this.....

Fishy indeed.

__________________
-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Gordo

Another thing I noticed is he had to ask Dougchips how to turn on his PM button.

Thats like a lead carp asking me how to measure a 1/16".

__________________
Looks like some pros were here.

lawndart

Mikey CO, I've got a suggestion for you, why dont you do something better with your time instead of playing internet detective. Did I step on your toes, by offering free logo design? The fact is this, I've put up quite a few free logos in my post that were designed by me. Go check sitepoint if you like.

Your investigating me is bordering on harassment, and I will not let you continue to do this.

However since you dispute me being a reputable contractor, I'll offer you some proof of my businesses legitimate existance. Here is my NYC home improvements license: