Latest Developed Minisite <- what do you think?

[tldrental]

www.BonAppetiteGourmet.com

I added a wordpress forum to this minisite for recipe trading, do you think I have a good transition or bridge between my ministe solution and the wordpress installation?

This took me about 4 hours yesterday to create this, I might have another 2 hours left. I just need to add some more custom content and link to affiliates and I am done.

What do you Think!

[jdk]

Very nice.

[gawnd]

generally quite nice. one small issue - your google ads aren't sized right on the right hand side. it cuts off the "ads by google" part - at least in firefox. that could be an issue with the adsense TOS.

[tldrental]

Thanks, for pointing that out!!

[exponent]

Yes, the ads are cut off in IE-7 and FF-3

[bustermattie]

Really nice. I love the layout and color scheme.

The only suggestion I have is the color of the tag line "Exquisite Italian Cuisine and Italian Gourmet Recipes" is almost too light (on my screen) and gets lost in the header background image.

[tldrental]

wow, thanks for all the great feedback guys!!

[copper]

bit too wide for me.
I rarely see site that I have to scroll side ways.
Other than that, it looks nice.

[tldrental]

bit too wide for me.
I rarely see site that I have to scroll side ways.
Other than that, it looks nice.

That is great info, can you tell me the resolution of your monitor?
I am using 1440x900 and forget that sometimes.

I had to stretch the wrapper a bit so that the forum didn't looked squished using wordpress

http://bonappetitegourmet.com/italia...pes/?page_id=3

[copper]

1024 is my resolution.
I think that's most used resolution.

Perhaps I missed it, but, I do NOT see link to forum on your home page?
I had no idea you had forum on the site until I click the link you posted.

That is great info, can you tell me the resolution of your monitor?
I am using 1440x900 and forget that sometimes.

I had to stretch the wrapper a bit so that the forum didn't looked squished using wordpress

http://bonappetitegourmet.com/italia...pes/?page_id=3

[tldrental]

1024 is my resolution.
I think that's most used resolution............

The front part of the website is my minisite publisher which I tweaked for 1024px, I left the bridged wordpress part of the site as is 1100px otherwise the forum looks to squished.

I also hope I made the forum more apparent on the home page, what do you think?

[tetrapak]

SEO wise you should put the tag cloud high up on the page, would help a lot!

[tldrental]

SEO wise you should put the tag cloud high up on the page, would help a lot!

Can you fill in the blanks as to why that is important?

[Jeroen]

Its a nice colorfull site. nicely done.
If I may make some suggestions:
-the search box is not so obvious, perhaps because of the text and box color being similar.
-Its a detail, but someone using 1024 res. still has to scroll horizontal a bit because of the vertical scroll bar in the browser. (perhaps set it at 960 or so?)
-Nice header picture but not really obvious if you tried to implement a mirror effect?
Other than that, I found the website very attractive and usefull.

[tetrapak]

Can you fill in the blanks as to why that is important?

Placement. You have to have the keywords on top of the page, so SE's know they are important, plus they will be constantly updating - looks like new content all the time.

[tldrental]

I am going to try out the new suggestions, actually implemented most already! Thanks Guys!

If any of you who gave input to this thread want a free link from this site let me know? I will place it at the bottom.

[Gerry]

Well, further confirmation that I need to learn WordPress to add to my Joomla experiences.

From a artist's and consumer perspective, top banners are way too big and busy.

Automatic turnoff.

Can't wait to get out of here!

I am looking at this site on a 19" monitor and all I see is Header graphic and all those ads and absolutely no content, with the exception of the FIRST HEADLINE and two sentences.

As a consumer, I immediately ask myself What in the hell is this all about?







All of these, not in this particular order, are appearing ALL TOGETHER AT ONCE in the top spot.

You have too many ads, too many of the basic same color scheme all wanting attention at once.

Big turn off, in my opinion. It makes me, as a consumer, say bye bye.

I think the rule of thumb for viewing sites is about 6 seconds to keep the viewer's attention to make them want to go deeper into the site. If you fail in that 6 seconds, they are gone.

One ad at a time, rotating, and a different color scheme would be ideal. Mix them up. Otherwise, even keeping the same ads as seen here and rotating them would almost still give the same impression as being the same thing.

Personally, I would kill the top banner all together.

The header graphic is superb. The colors are great, the layout is nice. The right menu bar with ads is very nice.

If you insist on keeping those banner ads (I would not or find some that are different colors) I would interspace them between the text in the body.

People are here to see gourmet stuff, not ads.

Start out with text to draw them in. After about every third text, interject and ad.

Personally, I would absolutely bring the Amazon carosel widget up to be perhaps the first one that shows. I have done very very well with this widget. This is a superb ad, rotating, and all the books are perhaps very sellable products. I would get rid of the home cooking book and add perhaps The Silver Spoon (the book of Italian recipes - ) and anything by Biba Caggiano. Another great one would be Venato by Della Croce. The reason I mention these is they are reputed chefs, Very colorful books, and some are best sellers. The Silver Spoon only recently has been translated into english. It literally was the de facto Italian cookbook and was typically given to the new brides as a gift.

The reason I mention these books in particular is I actually have them, we use them, and some are best sellers. All someone has to do is click the image and read all about it.

I would kill the Drink Seltzer and perhaps find a more appropriate banner dealing with your subject matter. One thing that is crucial is a good wine affiliate. No Italian cook or dinner patron would dare cook or eat without wine.

Even on the right menu...again, inter space text, ads, text, ads....balance. I see four boxes of ads, small google text, more boxes, etc....

Make it balanced at about 3 to one.

Also, I see five Google links. Unless I am mistaken the limit is three. So please double check to keep from feeling the Google Boot.

An absolutely fantastic book for all web masters, developers, and programmers to read (including any one who wants to make a site) is Don't Make Me Think. Should be a MUST READ for everyone in every facet of life, not just web sites. The concept is you do not want your viewers to have to "work" to find stuff on your site. If they have to look too much and figure out what the heck is going on, where is this, where is that, what happens if I press this, where is this going to take me - all thoughts and "think" processes that happen in a few milliseconds that we all do but are so unaware of when we design sites. Seriously, this book is the bible of site building and content, layout, and design. And it is small keeping with the philosophy of the author.

I have one site that the average time spent by a visitor is 2 minutes 43 seconds. The longest documented thus far is almost 13 minutes. I do whatever I can to keep them on my site. To me, that is the key to a website... keeping the viewer by immediately letting them know that Here! is the content you are looking for.

If you can't do it in 5 or 6 seconds, your site is not successful. If they leave your site then all the ads and affiliates in the world won't help you and the next thing you know the CJ and Linkshare affiliates will drop you for "non-performance.

Well, now you know never to invite me to your coming out party again. I can not lose the artist and teacher in me. It is too much a part of my life and what I like to do. When you ask for a critique, it is nothing more than receiving public criticism or praise for a piece of work or art. Sites, to me, are art and artforms.

It is a huge disservice to praise something that is not praiseworthy. I am prepared to back up all my claims if need be.

The point of this is to make your site which has many good things going on to eliminate the bad things to make that site even better for the viewer and consumer.

Never lose site of the fact that you too are a consumer.

Step away and get detached from your work and look at it and ask your self all those serious questions I pointed out.

Your whole goal is to monitize a site to make money.

So make money.

Make it simple.

Don't Make Me Work

Don't Make Me Think.

And that, my friends, is my Sunday sermon.

Amen.

NFL time.

Use your own amazon link and find it and make your first sale...to yourself.

[tldrental]

........

A lot of valid points to consider, thanks! I will be adding text content gradually little by little, for the appearance of growth.

I think I will move the top banners and replace them with the Seltzer. I like the look, it give it the New York Time Square appeal.

FYI - if you have to many Google ads, Google will disable the extras automatically.

I use a combination of Ad Units and Link Units in accordance to there TOS. Which is 3 and 2.

Link Units tend to provide better PPC value in my experience, but just not clicked as much.


Hey, I think my form mail is broken, could someone please try and register to the forum and let me know if you received an email with password? I would appreciate it.

[nattydomain]

To me the layout is nice but the banners look pixelated...Also when I see banners together like that I think of the old geocities days....you need to space them out throught the site more.

Also does this domain have any traffic or was this a fresh reg? Reason I ask is im starting to build out a few sites but the domain itself has no real traffic

[tldrental]

Also does this domain have any traffic or was this a fresh reg? Reason I ask is im starting to build out a few sites but the domain itself has no real traffic

This is a very fresh reg of a few weeks, but it didn't get a name server or see the light of the internet until 4 days ago and Google and Yahoo already can see it if you type bonappetitegourmet.com, good sign I would say.