http://www.realestateeflyers.com

oomwrtu · #1 (**permalink**) 07-17-2003, 08:10 PM

This is my first major website attempt although I have worked on several smaller personal pages. This is also my venture into the world of e-business, so the ease of navigation and clarity of material is of utmost importance. The address is http://www.realestateeflyers.com

I would appreciate any comments, criticisms, and suggestions. I am a new member and am looking to get to know everybody and learn from all of you.

vwebworld · #2 (**permalink**) 07-17-2003, 10:04 PM

Simple and clean site which is a plus.

Two things I would suggest:

First, eliminate the use of frames. I know it
seems to make it easier to build and navigate but
the drawbacks (aside from some people hating frames)
are with the search engines.... and you want the search
engines to find you.

Second, I read the site but I didn't get what "eflyers" are,
how they work, and so for me, I can't decide if they are
for me. Your comparison chart is good but why is eflyers
cheaper (or the others most expensive)?

Who would use this service? ... in other words, say why
home owners or realtors benefit from Eflyers.

~Roland

Thomas_Briggs · #3 (**permalink**) 07-17-2003, 10:21 PM

Again I will share with you the best advice I have recieved here and share with everyone.
Shrink your home page so that when someone visits they see the entire page without scrolling.
Use your links to provide more information, but the purpose of your home page should tell the visitor WHAT YOU DO period. If they are interested they will visit other pages or links and if they are not graphics and design will not keep them.

oomwrtu · #4 (**permalink**) 07-18-2003, 08:00 AM

Thanks for your advice! About keeping everything as small as possible: I am hoping to use text links instead of the big buttons to shrink the nav bar and allow for a larger main page (http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=919).

I will also get rid of the frames, I didn't know it affected search engine results, I thought it would just send a spider and go through the frames. Glad you told me that.

I guess I should have explained what EFlyers are. This site is directed at real estate agents, and they would have some knowledge of what it is, although now that I look back, I do see that there really is no "explanation" of what they are.

After working on and looking at this site for 3 weeks, I began to think it was almost perfect. I appreciate the new views.

splinter · #5 (**permalink**) 07-18-2003, 09:44 AM

Just a few things to say.

1. Get rid of the counter. Find yourself a decent .php script that logs that information invisibly. It just looks amaturish.

2. The "Pricing" button seems to be in the wrong place. I think this is an error and not intentional but half of it is hidden as it is too far over to the right.

3. The whole site just looks a bit, well, boring. Put more pictures in, add quotes from satisfied customers.

4. Put the "Why RE Eflyers?" On a seperate page. This will reduce the size of the main page.

grom · #6 (**permalink**) 07-18-2003, 12:48 PM

My best advice is to make the left navigation buttons the same size ... not based on the length of the text. It hurts the eyes right now!

Good business concept.

grom

wendylee · #7 (**permalink**) 07-18-2003, 02:19 PM

Hello oomwrtu,
My turn, lol, I did go to your flyer site and yes I do agree with vwebworld, but, instead of getting rid of the use of frames, just move the left frame over to the right, so the search engines can spider you better. You did see mine and I know I have a lot of text, but the search engines love it. The pictures part is rather tricky and will take some more creativity on your part when it comes to putting them on your main page, less is more, but vissual organization is better. What I did is, go to the major search engines one by one, then do a search on what it is your selling as a customer, then don't click any sponsored site, but just look for a non-sponsored site in the results, hit that top listed non-sponsered page so you can see what it looks like. These top pages will pretty much help the idea of being able to be found on the search engines and they will also show you layouts that the search engines love.

The navigation buttons I agree with grom as what he said is true, they should be uniform in size or do what I did if you like and make them text links instead. I used a template on my site that did help a lot more than what I have been doing since 1996 on that site. I'm not a webmaster by trade. lol

Well, I hope the best for you, take care and thank you for your reply to my topic as I value it very much and do put it to good use:)

uk2usa · #8 (**permalink**) 07-18-2003, 06:16 PM

Thanks for the comments on my site.

When I load your first page it does not fit on the screen you can only read "pla" on the place order button at the top and on the left the thrid button down reads "Prici" and is then cut off by the edge of the frame.

I dont know why this is like this I have the resolution set at 800x600 and the font size as small.

hope this helps.

Dan · #9 (**permalink**) 07-20-2003, 10:36 AM

I took both posts seriously and configured my page colors. I hope they work for the eyes now lol.

Anyways, I viewed your site, and here's my verdict:
I love the layout, nice, easy, and very importantly, professional.
I would suggest though, that if you're going to use frames, lose the borders. They distract the eyes from anything you have to talk about.
Resize your "left frame" buttons to be the same size. Buttons that are well formatted to be the same length and size looks and "feels" more comfortable and professional.
The last thing I would recommend is that you replace your guestbook with a user interactive form instead. Guest books are considered "outdated" by most users and people would rather submit to a form than a guestbook just because it makes them feel useful to your site. Also, people view guestbooks as "spam collectors".

Otherthan that. I really liked the site. Tables are well placed and utilized making your page "homey".

Sincerely,
Dan

cyanide · #10 (**permalink**) 07-22-2003, 10:56 PM

well. I won't re-iterate what's already been said, except
definitely get rid of the frames.

now, I gotta ask
why are you on a free host ?
you're trying to run/start a business ?
what are potential clients to think "you can't afford to pay for hosting?"

what kind of message is that saying about your stability and seriousness?

with competitive hosting rates abound, there really is no excuse, if you're serious about running a business.

judy moon · #11 (**permalink**) 07-23-2003, 12:18 AM

As a real estate agent, I think you are providing a good service for your area. In my office we fax flyers (so do all of the other offices) and they are UGLY! Can't see the photos because they turned black, etc. Plus only one goes to the office, so there's no guarantee that all of the agents even see the flyer. With your service, each agent with email gets a copy. And if an agent doesn't have email, he/she probably won't sell the house anyhow.

With regard to the website, I agree with others about the buttons on the left. They should all be the same size and maybe occupy less space. Everyone says spiders can't do frames, but isn't there some way around this, i.e. "noframes" or something in the code?

The example flyer is great. But it needs to fit within the same space as the other information without scrolling from right to left. Need to reduce this or something. As a user, I am accustomed to scrolling up and down, but it's a pain to scroll right and left.

Ruth · #12 (**permalink**) 08-11-2003, 03:19 PM

Hi oomwrtu!

Thanks for reviewing our site, you gave some good suggestions! I wish I could say more, but I kinda like your site as it is... the only "distracting" thing to me was the varying size of the buttons. Are you planning to expand to other geographical areas? We may be dealing w. a real estate co. out in California that might be able to use a service like yours... are you set up to "mass market" your product any time soon?

Take care & good luck,

Ruth

oomwrtu · #13 (**permalink**) 01-13-2004, 09:09 PM

Thank you so much for all of your reviews. I know it has been a while since I have checked in. I can't even use the excuse that I have been working on the page.

I have worked on it some though, and I have a copy of it on the AT&T server. Speaking of the server, does anyone know of a good, reliable service that is about USD1.99-3.99/month for hosting. If you do, do they charge a large transfer fee for a domain? I know I have to look into a fee on the current service, they are usually the ones that charge... ;)

Back to the site, it's not finished, but for general design/layout/appearance how is it? After rereading the posts, I realized I didn't do one important thing, explain what Real Estate EFlyers is on the first page.

I changed colors a bit, I know logo at top looks kind of crummy. I removed "picture buttons" and the frames. It has a width of 770px, so there shouldn't be any viewing problems.

http://realestateeflyers.home.att.net/index.htm

Thank you for your patience and future reviews, I hope to become active in the forums again.