6 months of work so far...

[Bryson]

Hi all,

This is my first post here, and got to say, nice forum, well structured, easy to understand. Bottom line, I like it.

I have been working on a project off and on since November, and I felt it was time to release a little to the world of critical analysis.

Please, rip it apart, tell me the good points and the bad, I can handle it.

I have been doing a lot of work in the "Market" area on the site, let me know what you think as far as the paths, i.e: Home>Market>Computers>Laptops etc.

One thing I have learned it is best to build the framework first, then add content instead of vice-versa.

Let me know what you all think, and please keep in mind, I am going for the business approach, few banners (if any if I can help it) and no drop downs (they take away from the viewers attention of content) as well as tranquility (blues, whites and golds).

Thank you all and keep up the hard work.

Affiliateworkgroup (http://affiliateworkgroup.biz)

[nitroboy]

There must be something wrong I think. I always end with a blank page when I click on one of the links below Market.

The main page is missing a personal touch. Too many free gaps (or maybe it is made for smaller screen resolutions?), no images used, tables used on frontpage are boring,...

Am I right your site is affiliateworkgroup.biz?

[Bryson]

Yes that is correct.

The reason for the tables only right now, and the gaps is because there will be other material which is already set up for those spaces. I'm sorry about my poor description earlier about the "Market". I guess what I meant was I am still working on it, the color scheme and all. I had to make a bunch of page changes, i.e asp to htm, default to main etc. Basically right now in the market area the pages are blank because I am still working on the main page, links, color etc. I learned it is easier to have one page with everything correct on before using it is a template for the others.

As far as the main page, I had icons on the top for different things, Directory, Email, Money, it started to look a lot like Yahoo, (even the pix size was the same) I felt this was a bit in your face with the money issue.

My theory with this site is this, so far I have convinced people who said they could never make a website that they can. I have gotten people excited over the idea. Of course you can see thiere is the usual Webmaster stuff. Eventually I would like to do have a bit of ergonomically friendly products in the market, which are labelled as such. I dont want to promote the usual stuff, you know casinos, free reports, make a dollar a day with this company. In a sum, sort of the Yahoo for the web marketer. I know there are a ton of these sites out there, and a lot are really good. One problem is they are slow to load, two, they are sometimes hard to understand. Three, they have a general od feeling of alienation to the new developing customer, with the exception of FreeSticky.

Its a work in progress, and I hope you will see the true value soon enough.

Thank You for your critique.

[Decker]

It's good clean fast - okay no real content and I can see where the whitespace can still be populated, one thing though.

What with the design will set it apart from others. It looks very much like a page you would get when a URL isn't recognised and gets redirected to a domain name resellers holding page.

That usually results in a closed browser pane, so not a good thing, it still needs something. Not sure what but it has to catch in the first second or two or you'll lose the visitor.

[Bryson]

Hi Decker,

Thanks for the critique.

I've been messing around with Photoshop lately, and I think the Logo Header needs to go. I'm starting to realize that perhaps its a bit too blue. Lights and darks, its all blue. Of course I used Yahoo as my biggest reference, the theory being Yahoo is successful, they lay all the info on the front page for you.

I had some Google ads displayed on top originally a while ago, you know the 2-3 ad text banner. I decided that that was probably a bad idea, looked like every other affiliate website and everyone knows if you click on it the webmaster gets paid.

Do you think perhaps some sort of welcome message would work? I've tried one a few times, and I felt it took away from the content. Welcome to Affiliateworkgroup, blah blah blah. Perhaps something to excite my secondary market (non webmasters and business owners not selling anything on the internet) near the top? Webmasters will know with a name like Affiliateworkgroup in general what the site is about.

The Search by Category on the top I have taken out because I didnt want too much double content going to the same pages. For example, having a link to the Webmaster section, then scrolling down and seeing the Webmaster section. I'm putting a lot of thought into that sort of thing, it makes a site look like there is more content than what there really is.

I have plenty of time to do this site, I work one full time job and after that this is all I do. About 6-8 hours on a workday, and about 8-16 on my days off. Pretty much a fullt time job.

Maybe a logo on top? In the left corner? Different colors? Thanks for your insight.

[Decker]

Logo would help I think and get something in the middle of the page that 'makes' people read it. A welcome message may work :)