www.freeleadswarehouse.com

[mnywpw]

Hello to all!

Thanks to everyone, especially Grease, for your kind and not so kind critiques. All of them were taken very seriously and much improvement has been done in your names.

It takes us all to make the web a better place to live!

Please review the latest version and let me know what you think.

Those of you who have been following this story will see a very different version this time!

Thank you,

Benjamin De Mers
CEO FreeLeadsWarehouse.com
http://www.freeleadswarehouse.com
webmaster@freeleadswarehouse.com

[MacKlamm]

not exactly sure what the website is about but nice site?

Maybe when clicking on links leave the top constant and change the middle content?

some of the backgrounds are too heavy?

[tjdesigns]

I have very little idea what your website is about. This should be obvious within 3 seconds or people are less likely to use your service. Google is for searching, your website is for selling, remember that!

Regards
Thom of www.TJDesigns.org

[carbonize]

You've set your tables width as 100% but I'm still getting horizontal scroll. I think it's the link buttons adding up to more than 770 or rather the question mark gif pushing it over.

As tjdesigns was saying you need to explain what your site is about on the first page. Also it takes a while to find anything so use the big space with the images to explain who you are, what you are about, and maybe what you will find in each section.

[mnywpw]

I did some work defining the parameters of the site look so that it doesn't break 760 pixels. I also took out the frames.

Site looks cleaner. I also created a flash presentation that you can access using the question mark gif. Explains what we are trying to do.

I hope this helps.

I was thinking about trying to draw attention to the question mark but then I thought, question mark, isn't that for questions?

I also put in alternate text for all the images so that when you hover over them they tell you a story.

I hope this helps as well.

As far as laying out what my site does? I am trying to get away from the three mile scroll. I am so tired of it myself. So I created the flash presentation. Now how do I draw attention to it without wrecking the feel of my site?

As far as a site being about selling... yes and no. I think that a site can be a bout community and developing a community can lead to sales and perhaps more long term sales as you build relationships with people.

That is what we are trying to do. We are not a search engine, we are a managed resource facility. So with that in mind, does anybody have any suggestions about how to get that across without the three mile scroll?

The truth about what I wanted the "feel" to be is like a portal into a different experience on the net that folks might choose to walk around in. Like a mall but for everyday community like things. The closest idea to what I am doing is One Website Way.

Using them as an example is not very good though as I think their site is a little drab and certainly overbearing at times.

So those are my thoughts after reading your suggestions as we all try and get along here.

See you around the forums!

Benjamin

[carbonize]

My comment about using the space over the big picture to explain your site was for two reasons.

1 - To help with your sites search engine placement.

2 - To let people know what they can expect to find as most people will not hunt around a site if the don't know whats on it.

Text only browsers and Browsers for the blind that read out sites cannot read flash so how are they to know what your site is about?

[mnywpw]

Carbonize, thanks for your comments.

I am trying to get to the bottom of this seo thing.

It seems that there are a hundred very practical ways of garnering traffic to your site that have NOTHING to do with SEO and work brilliantly. Perhaps the search engine thing is overblown. Not to say that you can't get traffic that way.

Well rounded is what I say.

Anyhow, I know that I need to have text, but how do you present text without ruining your site.

I hate sites that are just text and I hate sites that are just flash and I hate sites that are just photos (unless they are writers or photographers).

So that being said, I tried to come up with the middle road and ended up with something that is is pretty nondescript.

Oh well.

I really don't feel like starting over but maybe I have to.

It seems like in order to do something that is appealing you have to do it on your easel at home!

The last thought that I had was to try and put together a doorway page that will describe what it is that we are doing and what it is that can be done with the site and use the present form as a resource.

That really is what it is a resource for folks to save them time doing things finding out about things talking to each other. I am trying to build a community here not just of individuals but other communities as well.

I am going to upgrade my forum. Does anybody know where I can get some great forum software?

Also, I need some live chat software. I know live person has a great set up but wow look at the price. Not that we are broke but I would rather spend the money on advertising!

I will go over this with my design team and see what we can come up with.

Some people love the way this thing looks and others think it is a beautiful whale out of water. Still others find this service something that they cannot do without. I am perplexed as to what to do.

I will sort this out though!

Here's to all of you!

WE make a great team.

Words are like dust they can make universes possible or they can clog your pores!

Benjamin

[chadster]

Nice site, but a lot of the graphics are grainy. Don't really know what one could do about that, since I've never worked with Flash. But ah well.

As to the forum deal, I think I could help ya, there. I've tried a couple of forums on my site. I've used the ever-popular phpBB, which this forum also utilizes. It's very good, and very powerful. However, from my personal experience, it can also be a pain to modify.

Another excellent forum, and one we've used for the past year, is Invision Power Board. It's free, if you leave the little "Powered by" link in your template, and you don't mind doing without some tech support features and whatnot. I, personally, have found it much more customizable than phpBB.

Hope those help!

[mnywpw]

How do I install this thing? Can you help?

Thanks

Benjamin

[chadster]

Don't know which one you mean. But...

Invision's installation instructions are in the extracted directory, under: C:\whatever-folder-you-extracted-it-to-on-your-computer\Documentation\Installation Guide\install_guide.html

As for phpBB, you can simply download the user guide here.

Let me know if you need any more help.