Please review my site - www.shoutingtees.com

Sean77771 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 05:49 PM

Hi. I started up this business a month or so ago. I sell funny/custom t-shirts. Would you please review my site so I know what it is that I have to change? Thanks.

www.shoutingtees.com

WoWzers · #2 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 09:27 PM

A good start, though it did not seem to display correctly in Firefox.

T-Shirt's are a pretty good business, so hopefully with some tweaking you can get it right in firefox, and clean it up a little.

Sean77771 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-13-2006, 12:33 AM

Ok, thanks but what should I do with the design? I think it seems unprofessional.

crush123 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-13-2006, 08:56 AM

better to increase the font size of navigation
the top banner is of 603 kb. reduce the file size.
also decrease the height of that banner
i think the width of the banner is more than the size of the screen. looking in 800x600 screen, there is somethink abnormal on right side of the site

Sean77771 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-16-2006, 03:30 PM

Thanks. Actually, I'm going to do a major overhaul on the site... start from scratch. Any thoughts?

weslinda · #6 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 12:09 AM

Sean,

Well, we're here to help so here goes. I'll give you two tips to get your site on it's way.

1. Find a platform.
2. Find a pro.

By finding a quality E-Commerce platform to run on, you'll find that a great site can be easy to manage, and easy to design. With a little bit of homework and planning, you can have an outline that can be presented to a professional designer to get your site off the ground.

I'd look for a designer that has some background with E-Commerce and clothing, to help you build a professional, easy to navigate, search engine friendly site that will promote your products appropriately.

If you would like to discuss your site in more detail, please do not hesitate to PM me, email me or IM me.

Have a great day.

Shaken · #7 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 12:35 AM

I think you need to make your banner more professional looking if you can (depends on what graphics programs you have, and have experience using though). Find a few good colours to theme the site around, and stick with them. A nicely done banner, and well chosen colours give a good overall impression of a site at first glance.

- Stick with a uniform font size for the body text areas, and keep a dark grey/black for it.
- Left align the text too, not centre aligned (looks too kiddy when done that way)
- Stick with uniform colours elsewhere too (3 complimentary colours usually at the most).

Sean77771 · #8 (**permalink**) 10-19-2006, 07:26 AM

Ok, the site has been totally revamped and is up and running. Check it out and let me know if it's better than before!

weslinda · #9 (**permalink**) 10-19-2006, 11:25 AM

You're in the same world. Links and layout not clean or professional, your image of the T-shirt that comes with "blue collar" appears black, you're sending people to another domain to process sales, and there are lots more issues here.

If you are trying to sell a t-shirt to a computer geek, then you'll have to get a lot more effective in the presentation.

Like I shared before, find a pro, find a pro cart, and do it right. Your business partners will thank you.

Sean77771 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-19-2006, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by weslinda

You're in the same world. Links and layout not clean or professional, your image of the T-shirt that comes with "blue collar" appears black, you're sending people to another domain to process sales, and there are lots more issues here.

If you are trying to sell a t-shirt to a computer geek, then you'll have to get a lot more effective in the presentation.

Like I shared before, find a pro, find a pro cart, and do it right. Your business partners will thank you.

Sorry but a pro is not something I can afford. I'm on a practically nonexistent budget and am making do with what I have. Considering, I feel that the site is pretty good as it is, with maybe a few minor tweaks that need to be done.

weslinda · #11 (**permalink**) 10-19-2006, 01:13 PM

If you are on a limited budget, then I would focus on basing the cart off of OSCommerce and spending $150 for a nice E-Commerce template.

I'm not trying to slam you, but it doesn't look good when your graphics don't line up, when your images aren't dead on what you say they are supposed to be, and that you send people outside of your site for processing.

You can control all the processing on your own server with OSCommerce and PayPal. Did you ask anyone what you should do if you are on a limited budget?

You're up against millions of e-commerce sites on the internet, the best question you have to ask yourself is what makes you different, what makes you valuable?

If you're really short on cash and want a developer, you could even try finding a college student in design need a portfolio piece.

There are lots of great ways to get things done right without spending a lot of money, but you'd have to ask. The site is not one I'd personally trust to buy something from.

E-commerce is a tough world, and one that can be great if you do well, or kill you if you don't do it right.

Also, on top of your current efforts, I'd build a MySpace page advertising your shirts, join some techy/gaming groups and do what you can to make lots of friends.

This forum is here to help, but ask the right questions. You wanted a pat on the back for great design, and I have to be honest, it's not great design. I'd rather be honest than liked.

If you want to build a good site, then do it like this.

1. Get OSCommerce and learn how to do a template, or buy one for under $200. OSCommerce is free.
2. Get a PayPal account and tie into OSCommerce, max $20 for the PayPal Pro account you'll need.
3. Get a cheap hosting package, this is easy, there are lots out there.
4. Get an SSL certificate, if you shop, you can get this cheap.
5. Get PHPBB for your forums and run that on your own server also. Match your OSCommerce and PHPBB templates together so you have a similar looking feel across your site.
6. Promote your site. Use MySpace, YouTube, Friendster, and all those types of sites. Make a really unique home video with these shirts in action, post it on YouTube.

This can all be done for under $300 and would give you a better result that what you have in front of you now.

Sean77771 · #12 (**permalink**) 10-24-2006, 07:31 AM

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Webnauts · #13 (**permalink**) 10-24-2006, 10:57 AM

Definetelly CubeCart.

OS Commerce sucks!

hrvoje461 · #14 (**permalink**) 10-24-2006, 02:45 PM

Your site doesn't look very professional but I did see many sites that looks even uglier. If you want that your site looks more professional you should go to some of free or paid templates site and download one or find some professional designer to do job for you.