DIY Attitude Got Me This Far

How'd I Do On My Design?

  • Very Good

    Votes: 4 50.0%
  • Good

    Votes: 3 37.5%
  • Okay

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bad

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Very Bad

    Votes: 1 12.5%

  • Total voters
    8

@Xpert_Service

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Sep 22, 2015
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So I hired a web designer and for about 2 years wasn't active at all with my web presence. Well... I recently fired him and was forced to do the redesign myself. Despite knowing nothing and it taking over a month, I did it all myself and I am really, really proud.

I guess the other thing I wanted to say was that having the right attitude is paramount to success in my opinion. I had no idea what I was doing, but I read a ton of info, and tried and failed a bunch of times, until I felt confident about what I did.

If you guys do look at my site, any ideas, criticism or praise, is welcome. I suppose a 5 would be the site is very good, 3 okay, and 1 terrible. Hopefully not too many 1's lol.

Thanks, Dan. x-pertservice.com
 

Ric

Lawn Pro
Joined
May 7, 2010
Threads
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5,765
So I hired a web designer and for about 2 years wasn't active at all with my web presence. Well... I recently fired him and was forced to do the redesign myself. Despite knowing nothing and it taking over a month, I did it all myself and I am really, really proud.

I guess the other thing I wanted to say was that having the right attitude is paramount to success in my opinion. I had no idea what I was doing, but I read a ton of info, and tried and failed a bunch of times, until I felt confident about what I did.

If you guys do look at my site, any ideas, criticism or praise, is welcome. I suppose a 5 would be the site is very good, 3 okay, and 1 terrible. Hopefully not too many 1's lol.

Thanks, Dan. x-pertservice.com

When I went to the site it looks good but when I try to use the navigation bar at the top I get The connection was reset and Web Attacked: Malicious Website Script. Also your link in your signature doesn't work, tried it three times and get Server Not Found.

This is what I get from your link:

Server not found

Firefox can't find the server at www.<b>x<.

Check the address for typing errors such as ww.example.com instead of Example Domain
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
Joined
Nov 29, 2014
Threads
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It is a good job but looks like you have fallen into the "look how clever I am trap" and made it a tad too complicated so it takes a while to download on my slow connection and will be impossible for people on dial up.
A web page for Joe Public needs to be quick due to very short attention spans and if your page takes too long they will click on the next link in their Google search.
Professional Web designers load their pages with all sorts of fancy stuff to show potential customers of theirs how smart & proficient they are and to win awards to put on their walls to convince those who don't know any better to hire them.

Compare you downloading to this site I did a while back.
Australian BSA National Rally Home Page
Admittidly we did not want to include Titter or Facebook links which do take a long while to load.
It is written in HTML 2 , well to be pecise, written using a web page authoring programme that codes in HTML 2 because it was 15 years old and was free.

Dump the background lawn photo for a plain green one or a repetative ( called tiled ) grass pattern like the banner on the top of this page.
You could actually do a strip with the mower moving , cutting the grass and it will still load faster than your background photo.
However having moving things on a page is fraught with problems as a lot of browsers will never completely down load the page ( because it is always changing ) so will never allow the viewer to click on anything because it has not finished downloading the page.
It also can create printing problems.
If you want to draw attention to a particular part of the page, use a changing background colour which will download a lot quicker.
Roll overs like in this page
Trophy Winners
Also download very fast and do not need to have finished before the page displays as is the case with the page you wrote.
They are the most complicated thing needed on a page with the exception of the containers for your live Facebook/ twitter links.
The simplier you make the page the less that will go wrong and the more time you will have for making money and the less time you will spend maintaining your page.
The example I used gets updated once or twice a year, if that and has never crashed ever.
Several ind駱endant pages that follow on or link via hot links to each other work better than an endlessly long single page and a fault in any one section will not crash the entire site.
Avoid using any JAVA script in your page because most web hosts interogate your computer before sending down JAVA scripts and if the copy of JAVA on the viewers computer is out of date will dissallow the page loading at all untill the viewer updates their browser.
Not going tto get you any more customers that one.
When working on the web remember the KISS principle, and the silplier the page , the more custom you will get from it.
Consider putting up your essential information as the splash ( first ) page so while the rest of the page is downloading your potential customers are staring at your phone number, operating address , operating footprint & list of services .
Then allow them to click onto their problem to find out how you can solve the problem for them.

I am not trying to denigrate your work which is excellent but rather to get you to think about what your page is actually trying to do and how it should do it.
You are not selling web design, your are selling property services and that should be the focus of your page.
And FWIW the example pages I wrote were the very first web page I ever did, without any web training using a free copy of Adobe Page Mill that was obsolete and included in a Mac Format cover CD as an upgrade promotion.
I have no formal trading in web design and wrote those pages on a superseded Mac Qudra running the old 040 chip.
 

Ric

Lawn Pro
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Bertsmobile you talk about web pages needing to be quick due to very short attention spans of Joe Public. You mite want to considered doing the same to your postings and make them short and to the point?
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
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Touche.
I will wear that.
However I am not trying to sell anything & if readers find my posts boring there is a delete button.
 

Ric

Lawn Pro
Joined
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Touche.
I will wear that.
However I am not trying to sell anything & if readers find my posts boring there is a delete button.

No there is no delete button... only for there own post can members delete a post.
 

@Xpert_Service

Forum Newbie
Joined
Sep 22, 2015
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Thanks for all the replies, I'll take the simplified design into consideration. I've also tried compressing the pictures and page to decrease loading time but have had some trouble in doing so.

Ric- I fixed the link in my signature but as far as the malicious script goes I have no idea how, or why that would happen. If you have any insight I'd appreciate it.
 

motoman

Lawn Addict
Joined
Aug 11, 2011
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Regarding length of responses. I am a bit wordy but try to keep it short (er). Perhaps the best is avoid the John Wayne , man of few words approach, but also the soap box harangue the crowd approach. Keeping personal frustrations short and politics out helps. IMO Americans suffer from anti "book larning" and could use a little more ( I am USA). UH Oh, I got preachy.:banned:
 

Mikel1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2013
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897
Looks very good to me.
I have helped with a few and those were very time consuming.
 

cullmanyardcare

Forum Newbie
Joined
May 2, 2016
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Just taking a quick glance at your website, the web guy we hired showed me a great tips that I would like to share with you. First off great job on your website looks great, the only thing that I would tweak is adding a quote form. Most people that are going to look at your website love seeing a quote form at the top of the page on each page. By the way excellent way to add all of your social media links and how you categorized your menu bar. Hope your company goes well, have a great summer.
 
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