Hello all. I would greatly appreciate some feed-back on my site:

Home | HVAC-Outlet.com

be brutally honest!

Regards,
Parallelworlds

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

I consider that the navigation could be improved. As a new visitor to the site, the main menu leads me to assume that your business is to do with information and advice. Should not “Products” be in the menu bar, instead of tucked away on the left?

There is an awful lot of vertical scrolling on the Home page, with very little to show for the effort. I expected to find something far down the right-hand column.

When I am in Accessories, for example, the main menu bar has Home emphasised.

On the product pages, may I suggest you consider a separator between each product. When I am well down the Digital Thermostats page, for example, I might easily press the wrong Add To Cart button because of the positioning of the button close to the next product in the list. (A smaller Add To Cart Button might do, for the sake of proportion.)

I am still uncertain as to the rationale behind the navigational links across the page near the top of, say, Thermostats and the Online Shop menu at the left, as I chop and change between thermostat type and manufacturer. Expanding the headings might help: “Digital Thermostats from Honeywell”, instead of “Honeywell”, as appropriate.

At the bottom of the Honeywell page, for example, the Display # dropdown offers me the choice of 50. I cannot get 50 to list and so I suppose the drop-down is generic, particularly as the text below the dropdown says “14 of 14”.

The «« Start « Prev 1 Next » End »» at the bottom of the Honeywell page does nothing in my FF 3.0.5 browser.

In the UK such products as yours attract VAT (Value Added Tax). When visiting any shopping site whatsoever, I want to know at a glance whether or not prices include this tax. If there is an equivalent tax in the US then should you not mention it?

Well I’m blowed, I say “in the US”, but on looking again now I cannot find your address. Personally, I will not deal with any shopping site that does not display an address and a telephone number.

As a woodworking enthusiast I have shopped online for tools from the States and been very pleased with the delivery performance. So it might be worth a line telling people like me what geographical regions you supply.

Hope these comments are of help, regards, David.

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Thanks for the review!!!! I greatly appreciate it.

I've made some adjustments based on your review. I would be appreciative if you would take another look at it again and let me know what you think.

As for the taxes here in the states... it's varies from state to state. You're only charged taxes on my site if you order from Idaho... which is where this company is based. It bases your location off of zip-code when you register. Once you register it will bring up the appropriate taxes and show them to the customer as they are browsing.

I've adjusted the vertical scrolling. By removing some of the advertising. and moved the logo to the center of the page and moved the cart and "shop" menus up. This has shortened the left menu.

While I respect your thoughts on the top menu... I don't think I want to change that much. If it becomes an issue I will change it... but for now... I've had no-one else complain of that navigation.

I've removed the Navigational links across the top of the page as you suggested... I think it looks nicer as well. However, I added a navigational link at the top of the product description to take you to the next product within that query. Let me know what you think about that.

Not sure why you're having problems with the Next / previous links... they seem to work fine over three browsers I've tested... Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Exploder on two different computers... Clear the cache maybe?

Shipping is world wide... as described in the shipping policy. However, I've made a gif to make it a little more prominent.

The phone number and address should now be showing.

Thanks a lot for the feedback! I greatly appreciate it. Let me know what you think now!

Http://www.hvac-outlet.com

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

A worthwhile change.

It is an issue for me because I think the top menu does not convey the right message about your business, which I still assume is about selling product. If that is your business, then I cannot comprehend why Products does not appear in the main menu and remains what appears as an afterthought at the left-hand side.

That set of links at top of the product description needs a little work on its appearance, I think.

Best to wait and see if others have my problem with Next, Previous and dropdown, which still persist as far as I am concerned.

Certainly not that I could see, immediately; and I have not found this info after looking for it.

I tried unsuccessfully to find where absence of an address has been commented upon in other posts, which I recall appeared last year.

Product pages are a huge improvement with your new layout. I still think the main headings for these pages could be expanded, eg. “Honeywell Digital Thermostats”.

Regards, David.

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I'm not finding any address or phone contact information either in your site. I too will not purchase from a site that does not provide that information.

Your company name should be at the top of your page in your branding bar. Visitors should not have to scroll halfway down the page to find out who you are.

I'm not crazy for the style of your top menu. The large moving bar to highlight the menu items is annoying. Also, when I click on Products in the menu, it takes me to the same page that is your home page.

The single biggest problem is your header. If I was looking for HVAC stuff I would turn around a leave immediately as I would think it's a photographers site or some kind of personal blog. Seriously, dead trees and snowy fields as your lead images on an ecommerce site? And get rid of the Google adwords and link exchange. I see that and I think "not a serious business person, buy somewhere else". I've never seen those things on a corporate website. If you went to Toyota Cars, Trucks, SUVs & Accessories or Coca-Cola Global: Soft Drinks & Beverage Products or Levi.com: The Official Levi's® Jeans Store and saw adwords and a link exchange button what would you think? Would it make you question the integrity of their business?

Hi parallelworlds,


I concur on the top graphic, not germaine and way too big. Also, unless you are viewing at least 1024 wide, you have to scroll vertically. That is bad for the people still using 800x600.

Get rid of the google search function at the top. you have a search box under the tool link anyway.

You also have two areas for username and password. is that necessary?

My guess is you also have too much here:
<meta name="keywords" content="HVAC, Venstar, Honeywell, Yellow Jacket, Ritchie,Nu-Calgon, Fieldpiece, HVAC-Outlet.com,Thermostats,heating, air conditioning, tools, multimeter, evap coil cleaner, evaporator coil cleaner, condenser coil cleaner,AC, Air conditioning." />

Take out spaces after the commas but you might want to focus on 3-5 key terms. dont even tell Webnauts I said that! he will say I might have learned a thing or two from him.

looks like you have way too much blank space at the end too. that might just be in firefox tho.

Holy Crap, I refreshed the page, wondering why you would have your logo where it is and why you would have a link on it and the banner graphic changes. BAD. you want your brand to be consistent. at the top I would make it a multiple graphic. your logo on the left most 1/3 and the other 2/3 would be logo's of the products you carry, the logos everyone knows on site, GE, Honeywell, Coil etc. Liberate their logos from their sites.

Just a few suggestions. Maybe I will get you to redo our logo!

Good luck and I look forward to your thoughts.

Michael

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How about showing some people in a heated or cooled indoor environment.

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Great feedback everyone. I appreciate it. I've made some adjustments. I may scrap the top image I've not decided on that yet.

My thinking behind the image in the top bar was to change it with the seasons. Since it's winter you have winter scenery... spring you'll have spring scenery, fall... fall... summer summer. Obviously not a favorite on this form. Not sure what else to put up In that void up there though...

I've changed the menu to just links... seems to be lacking though. Maybe that's just me.

Keep the feedback coming! I appreciate all your time!

OH... and the contact page is fixed... I updated it... but forgot to apply the changes to the site. the contact-us link should now work.

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

The "void" is where your branding bar/header should be. Your logo belongs in the branding bar. It should be the first thing a visitor sees, not halfway down the page off to the left. If you really want to have photos at the top of your page, then use them in a branding bar. I also agree with the others that the outdoor scenic photos are not appropriate for what you are selling. Try creating a branding bar that includes your logo and a smaller version of more approriate photos.

Hate the menu bar at the very top of the page. It should be under your branding bar. Also the text font is too small in both the top and bottom menus. Also, the font color of your bottom menu is nearly the same color as your background making it very difficult to see.

Sorry, but a post office address and still no phone number does not instill confidence in me to order from you.

Your Home page and Products page are the same page??????

Well, I can understand the address issues. However since this is a home based business I'm not about to put that address out for the public. It's an online store only. No pick-ups from the address. I'm sure you could understand that... and it hasn't really hindered sales on the site. Phone Number is updated... It was hidden for some reason.

Can't seem to win on the menu. When it's under the header people complain when its on top people complain. I'll see if I can find a compromise.

The home page and products page are not the same. Try clearing your cache if you visited the site before. The products page brings you right to the Thermostats page.

Again... I appreciate the feedback. I'll make more adjustments to the "Void" tonight. We'll see what I can come up with.

*Link color has been adjusted on the bottom. It was following the CSS layout.

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

OK... made some more adjustments to the menu and header "void". I've greatly appreciated the advice. Don't hold back keep it coming! Think I've found a solution to the address as well. Wont be able to implement it for a little while though so the P.O. will have to do for now.

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

Great job with the header! I like it.

I only have one suggestion and that's to increase the font size of your bottom menu. I'm having a hard time reading it, but then again my eyes are 50+ years old....

At first glance (1024x76, I see your header and your "welcome" section. Where are your products? Nothing has caught my eye yet. Oh, I see...I need to scroll down... Sorry for the sarcasm, but this is how some "picture-oriented" people may react.

My suggestions:
1) Shorten the header height by removing the white-space real estate within your header.
2) Shorten the blue area between the header and main body sections.
3) Move the "forum" and "contact us" to after the product pictures.

Result:
An eye-catching page with pictures!

Why does every one of your pages want me to download a new copy of Adobe Flash Player???

regards,
Getmea

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I agree that the header is a little larger than I would like it. I'll see about shrinking it... However, I would say that over 90% of the customers I'm getting go straight to the product that they were googling or the product category. I have much fewer hits to the main page... I do understand what you are saying though and I will see about making the header section smaller. .

I'm not sure what you mean by moving the forum and contact us to after the product pictures. The Product link does come before those two links. Could you clarify this please?

As far as the flash question I'm assuming it's because of the flash advertisements on the left. Do you have the latest flash plug-in for your browser?

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep working on it.

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

I understand...focus on the selling pages. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a nice book "cover", tho.

I was thinking about moving your product pictures higher up on the initial view of your home page (instead of scrolling vertically to see pictures) by moving your "We just launched..." and "Feel free to contact us..." sections after the products. For instance (top down):

header
text
pictures
text

Generally, "contact us" links are at the bottom of the page. Forums/blogs could probably be anyhere on the page. My personal preference is on the upper lefti have mine on the upper left as it is on my skateboard page (how do people read? top-down, left-right)

Not sure if I have the latest flash. I have an ancient laptop which I try to limit installing extraneous stuff. Yours is the first site ever which prompted me to download.

Good job, all-around!

Getmea

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1. It needs a phone number in the header. I'd never buy from some one unless they had a number on there site.

2. I really don't like the colors. I don't think they look professional, I'd try some different colors.

3. I'd also play with the logo a bit.

4. Not sure why there is a blank space between the nav. and the body.

5. When I click on contact the background color goes to white. It looks better but the design should not change from one page to the next.

6. Clicking on forums does not take me to your forum.

7. The home page needs to be laid out so the products have a better call to action.

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I'm not quite sure why the colors change that's something I'll have to look into. As far as the color selection it's a proven fact that when people see blue on product pages they are more inclined to buy then say if they were to see the color red... or white for that matter. Kind of like the color yellow supposedly triggers hunger. Hence the reason almost all restaurant chains have Yellow in their logos.

Our phone number is in our contact page. I might add it to the header... although this is he first time I've heard of this. I don't typically have a problem buying from places who don't have their phone number in the header... as long as it's easy to find through the contact page. But each person is different and if you think adding it to the header would help I just might do that.

The blank space is stuck in there from the template... I'll probably have to go into the code to shrink the distance between the header and the content. I've heard that a few times actually... so, I'll have to do some digging on that.

I've adjusted the home page to have more product prominence. So, hopefully that is better now.

As far as the logo goes I'm not sure how much adjusting I can do at this point. The orders are going out and the invoices all have our logo. To change it at this point might not be such a good idea. Although.... I guess Pepsi and other major brands go through logo changes every 10 years or so.

Again thank you for all the feedback. I'm still plugging away at it!

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

Yes, but there are different shades of blue.


It's your call however, we've tested this one many many websites and some of those do over $100,000.00 per month.

Make your customers click to look for the information. Good idea.

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When I choose any tub in horizontal menu Home link will be underlined.

One more thing I noticed. I know some people want to make a little (and I mean "little") money hosting google ads throughout their pages. But why would you want to send potential business away from your site?

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[QUOTE=janeth;413277]So, what you are saying is use one shade of blue throughout?




I can see where that holds water and I will add it to the header soon.



I'm reading your sarcasm loud and clear here. Typically, yes, you would click a link to find contact information or information in general on a site. It's been more recently that sites have posted their number on the front page. Even so, not all major players in the field are doing it.

Amazon for one... granted they are a portal for other sellers. Ebay, again another portal but good luck in contacting them without clicking a link. buy.com... again... clicking a link. I would say that most people are use to clicking links to find content. It's kind of how the WWW works.

I get that it would be more convenient for the customer to not have to look past their nose to find this information so like I said I will add it to the top soon, once my new 800 number is connected I'll be adding it.

Again, the feedback is invaluable! Thank you. Still plugging away.

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

Yeah... I've battled with that for a little while now and once business picks up I'll drop it entirely and start my own advertising campaign... Right now... believe it or not it almost covers my hosting costs.

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

Holy, cr@p! Good for you...

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I wonder how much it cost you?

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Again with the sarcasm... it's cost me nothing but time... I don't pay anyone for advertising, it's strictly been me working on it and spending a lot of my time putting the site together. Thank you very much.

Janeth, I have noticed you've been on here for a long time... since 2003... a couple of months before me... You'd think you would be a little more respectful and less critical of people on here. Like the old adage says... "if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all."

You've made some valid points and I've taken your advice on a few things... and before it's over I'll be doing a few more things you've advised on.

Here's some advice for you. If you feel that you are the resident expert on the topic be humble about it and use tact when giving advice to people... Sandwich your negative comments with good ones. If there are not any good comments to make then at least be polite about it and don't act like you're gods gift to the topic... even if you are.

Again, thank you Janeth for your advice and comments.

Getmea, just FYI, my hosting is cheap. LOL

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

No Sarcasm, I'm serious, When I see AdSense ads on a site I immediately look for another place to spend my money. For me it looks a lot like a going out of business sign. It basically says my site is not producing an income therefore I hope to stay in business by sending my customers to another site and getting paid in pennies.

And I thought you asked for a website review. I should only say nice things about your site?

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That's an opinion that you are entitled to. I don't think you're an average shopper. I see ads on a site and I don't think twice about it. I definately don't think "they must be going out of business because they are using adsense." And the site is doing fine in sales... I'd love to be making 6 figures from it... and at somepoint I'm sure it will... but for now any additional income I can have to maintain the site is welcome.

You totally missed my point. Yes. I wanted a review. Let me put it this way. You ask your boyfriend for an opinion on a dress that you really like and took a long time picking out.

"Does this dress make me look fat." you say.

He responds "Holy cr@p, that makes you look like a whale and makes your butt look big."

Basically tears everything down without giving any constructive critisim and puts you on the defensive immediately. These are all his OPINIONS. Now... what he could have said is:

"That dress looks ok. I think that the color is nice. It makes your breasts look nice, but doesn't do much for the rest of your figure. Why not try this one instead..."

He's complimenting things he likes about the dress (even though he really doesn't like the dress entirely, or maybe at all) without making you feel like sh!t at the same time. You take a lot more out of his critique because he was honest and didn't tear everything you liked about the dress down. See what I'm getting at? You've posted a lot on this site... I've not seen your other reviews or critiques but if they were anything like this one I could see where a lot of people (including myself) would get defensive. People spend a lot of time on their sites, Hours upon hours and are most likely proud of what they have done. They are asking for help to make it better and CONSTRUCTIVE critisim is always welcome. As you can see from the other people that have commented on this thread they are a little less "matter-of-fact" but more "try this instead"

I do appreciate your feedback just don't like your approach... but again that's just one persons opinion.

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

You should have said be gentle.

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I would suggest that when one is asking to be brutally honesty, what they are saying is they want very serious constructive criticism or positive suggestions concerning said idea/site/dress/luncheon meat!

ParallelWorlds simply wants ideas to make his site better, sell better, walk better, talk better! No harm in that.

The problem here is that one cannot always understand inflections when typing as we can with voice.

Not gentle Janeth, just honest, serious and without malice. That is not asking too much is it? If he does not take your suggestions, wish him well and a nice adieu!

PW, I think the site is looking better. I would still add some of your products logo in the header, like a GE or Honeywell logo so people know what you are selling and its not Chucks Thermostats.

Good luck.

Michael

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Allellujia!

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I do believe that's what I gave.

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When I ask for a website review my intention is to get as much help as I can as fast as I can. I’d rather everyone cut through the B.S and tell me what I need to fix without trying to candy coat it. The chances of you being my customer is pretty slim and I need to get the site fixed for my next site visitor in hopes of turning him into my next customer.

I made a list of things I would change and thought it would be of more help then telling you what looks good on the site and what doesn’t. The truth of the matter there is nothing on the site I like.
And I’m not trying to be rude but the colors are too bright for me and the header doesn’t tell me anything about what it is you do. The first thing I see is the date and I really doubt someone came to your site to find out what day it is.

I’m not trying to be the all mighty expert however, I thought you wanted some help with the site and there is a good chance that I could help you with it. But it seems that you would rather crisis the way I go about helping then appreciate the help I’ve tried to give.

I’d dump the Google AdSense as well as the CMS you’re using and the links to someone else’s forum. I’d stick with 2 font colors instead of the 7 you are currently using on the home page alone.
I’d make the site wider and I’d redesign the site into one kickass design that said here is what I do.

When I add a product to the cart there is a good chance that I want to buy it however, a box pops up and says the product has been added but does not take me to the cart to buy it. I’ve looked on the site but have no idea how to purchase the product or what to do next. Okay, I added another product and figured it out but have to wonder if others have the same problem.

This is the first site I’ve ever seen that requires me to check my
email before making a purchase. Chances are if they get through the other problems with the site you’ll lose them on this. The site has some serious problems that need to be fixed. But then you’d rather hear me say how good the site looks then try to address any of those problems. If you’re serious about making money online then step one is learning that criticism is what makes us better. It hurts but it’s what it takes to make us better. But that’s not really what you wanted to hear.

So…great looking site.

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Again, it wasn't that I didn't appreciate your feedback. I do. This one has been the best out of all of them. You've actually looked at the site. . It was just the way it was approached. It's called tact... people are a lot more receptive about it if you're not completely condescending to them.

I've since made adjustments to not require registration. When you add a product to your cart it goes straight to the cart. I'm going to hold onto the Adsense for a bit longer. Eventually I will drop it completely. But I appreciate where you are coming from on this. Then again... maybe I will kill it all together. You could be right that those clicks have taken potential sales from my site. I'll be mulling that over too.

I've actually taken quite a bit of your advice and implemented it. I will implement the telephone number at the top of the page once the 800 number is in place... sometime this next week. I agree that having the number at the top will help turn sales and give customers that warm fuzzy that if they ever need to or want to they can find my number right up top. Although, I still have to disagree with you about "having to click to look for content." We're programmed to do that now-a-days. It's not that out of the ordinary.

If you wouldn't mind check it again... let me know what you think . I know you wont like the color. It's back to blue... but it is also throughout the site now and doesn't bounce back and forth between white and blue. Finally found the bit of code that was controlling that.

Regards,
Anthony

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Thermostats and More http://www.hvac-outlet.com

Hi,

I took a look at your site and it's definitely improved with the changes you've made. One thing I would suggest is that you narrow the space between the Categories heading and make the links to the categories a bit larger and perhaps bolder so that they are more visible to your visitors.

Best,
Kathy

You've still got the space between the nav. and the header but the logo looks good and the site looks a lot better with the darker blue background. I'd try it a shade or two darker.

You need to add a mouse over affect on the nav.

The left side of the header looks good but I still don't like the right side.

Let me see if the guys can put something together for the right side of the header that you can either have or at lest give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

And let me see if I can show you a different way to do the content as well.

I'll try to have you something by lunch time tomorrow.

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You should create paging in your site for products.

Documento sin título

This is not perfect but should give you an idea or two on some different ways to set things up.

If not then it’s no big deal.

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