Site review: mintywhite.com

mintywhite · #1 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 11:34 PM

Hi there, I am trying to improve my website and would love some advice.

My main index page is under construction, but please let me know what you think of my forum, tech tips, and daily photo pages.

Any advice is good advice to me. Please be straight with me

Rich

davebarnes · #2 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 08:43 AM

A hodgepodge of unrelated stuff built using standard blog and forum templates.
Nothing of interest (to me).
No consistent look & feel.

mintywhite · #3 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 10:56 AM

Thanks Dave, do you have any suggestions for improvement?

**incrediblehelp** · #4 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 08:35 PM

i would consider thinking why your publishing content and why others would want to visit the website.

mintywhite · #5 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 09:12 PM

incredible - How would you personally go about doing that? I ask because I assume we all do that before we develop. A statement like that is only helpful if there is substance to it. I would appreciate further advice. Thanks for your input so far though - every little helps

**incrediblehelp** · #6 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 09:54 PM

minty you want me to tell you why your building your website and why others should visit it? Sorry these are the things you need to think about before going online and expecting to succeed.

I am just being very straight forward and honest. No one is going to help you unless you decide for yourself on what you want to get accomplished online.

mintywhite · #7 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 02:45 AM

Thanks for the reply.

I know what I want - this is reflected on my site. Success is helping others - my site does that.

My question is not what do you think I should put on my site, rather -- what do you do that helps you "[think] why you're publishing content and why others would want to visit your website."

Surely everyone thinks about this, so what extension to your suggestion should I follow - that I evidently haven't already followed?

Thanks again.

amxfan · #8 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 08:29 AM

I am totally unsure of what you are trying to do. I am confused as to what is your main site. Do you plan on making money? Let me explain a little bit and hopefully you can understand why I am confused. Your first link was to your forums. I followed the link, I came to a site which is a vista forum set up for support. It is a pretty blue forum themed for vista. Other than that it is a typical layout. So I followed your next link to a blog that has the same pretty blue layout and theme on the same topic. Then I follow your third link and I am taken to a blog which is a daily photo. It does not have the common look and feel and is totally off topic. From there I decided to take a look at mintywhite.com, what I am assuming, is your main page. I don't see this as a main page as it is one page with links to five other sites. No common look or feel across the pages, no common topic. I see this quite a bit, but I see people using the blogs and the forums as you have to feed links to their main page, with one link from the bottom of the page of the forums and blogs, to help with backlinks. But this is mostly done if they are feeding a page that sells something. I have no idea of what you are planning on ranking for, or what you are planning on using the page for. It does not look like you are trying to start a design portfolio because a few of your styles are duplicated. It does not appear you are focused on a topic. To me it just looks like you put sites up because you have an interest possibly in those topics. Can you see my confusion here in trying to explain this? I do not see a set path, a road that you are following, I don't even see common ground. Your name of the .com does not even match any of the sites or have any relevancy. I'm not sure if the name of the .com is your personal name, I do not mean to offend, but when I saw mintywhite.com I was thinking toothpaste, or oral health or something of the sort. The only thing in common that I see across all your sites is they are websites on the internet.

Can you help me understand?

**incrediblehelp** · #9 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 10:34 AM

Well said amxfan.

mintywhite · #10 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 11:16 AM

Well put amxfan. Firstly, I have no intentions of making money on my website. I just like web design and wanted to put a website up for my friends to go to - where they can learn how to customize windows. I then realized that there were a lot of other people coming to the site, so I decided it was time to improve the pages.

The main focus of my website is windows customization, maintenance, and enhancement. The photo gallery is just a side as I like photography (not related to the website.)

I am still struggling with my main page at mintywhite.com. I'm just not sure what to put on it, so I linked the three subdomains of my website and then two of my wife's websites.

To explain why I chose the name mintywhite :P most of my favorite websites have random names like whitesoap, uneasysilence etc. I figured I'd go for something random too.

ran_dizolph · #11 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 11:34 AM

Quote:

The main focus of my website is windows customization, maintenance, and enhancement.

Then you really need to hammer that home so people aren't left wondering what they're looking at when they arrive at your site.

It's been said before: You need some consistency and focus across your site. And although I do understand the 'random' name thing, I don't find it all that fitting in this case. It should be a little more reflective of what it is you're trying to do.