I've got my web site .... now what ?? 2

[pipingdesigner]

Hi,

I started a web site about 2 years ago, and it's starting to attract quite a lot of interest, about 7000 visits per month, not bad, considering I can only work on it a couple of hours every week due to work and mortgage commitments.

The question is "Can I turn it into a viable business that would allow me to work full time on it .... and how ?"

Any suggestions would be apprecieted.

By the way, it's called

http://www.pipingdesigners.com

if anyone fancies a peek !

Thanks

pipingdesigner

http://www.pipingdesigners.com

 

[SlideRuleEra]

pipingdesigner - I have a (hobby) website similar to yours and am certainly not a skilled as a webmaster (my step-daughter gave me a 30 minute lesson to start, and the rest has been "on-the-job" training).

My advice: Get rid of those ads (except Eng-Tips of course). If it's going to be the basis of your profession, make the web site look professional.

Clicking on your link (above), redirects to another (index) page. If I click on your link, I want to go directly to your home page, not be redirected.

Put your contact information on the home page, where it "jumps out" at visitors - not just hidden away on the "About Us" page.

Best Wishes & keep us informed how it goes, maybe I can gets some tips from you.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[DonPE]

Is it possible to tell how long people stay on your site? Do they visit and linger, or leave quickly. Is it repeat business, or new people? I don't know enough about websites.

I was going to say you've spelled "useful(l) spreadsheets" wrong at the bottom of your homepage, but you're on the other side of the Atlantic, so maybe that's how you guys spell.

Good luck.

 

[jmw]

You could do worse than visit

http://www.sitepronews.com/

for all sorts of helpful information about making your site more effective and there are some other good sites you will find from a google search.

One site was very good, they set out to show how most people seem to design their web sites to discourage people!
Not on your site, but how many people wait for the flash object to load? I always click the enter site now as soon as it appears. Clever gimicky and advertises well the capabilities of modern web design packages but being able to do something isn't a sign you should do it.

Best tip... look at the sites you like best and see what you like about them. (don't use my site as aguide, It takes more effort to redo something than do it right first time! I'll get to it soon)

However, if you need to know what to sell, rather than how best to sell it, sorry... I get any good ideas I may just go for them myself.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[pipingdesigner]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll try to take some of that on board !

Cheers.

pipingdesigner

http://www.pipingdesigners.com

 

[Theophilus]

If you have difficulty coding your own HTML, I strongly recommend DHE Editor. It's 10 Euros for a business site, otherwise it's freeware. I used it on my site to get rid of the constraints of HTML tables. You can find it here:

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/webpublish/fweditors.html

By the way, the "home" page of a site is always called "index.html" or sometimes "default.html". This is to direct a browser to a default page name when only a directory is given, such as pipingdesigners.com/ . Often the browser won't need to display pipingdesigners.com/index.html , but can leave it at the directory name (cleaner). I'm not quite sure why the index.html is displayed in your case.


Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

 

[ColourfulFigsnDiags]

I have extensive experience in webdesign, including dynamic website creation, and while your website looks good there are a few things you could easily fix to make it better.

1) what is with the meta refresh on the entry page? Very bad idea for search engines, and some browsers will block meta refreshes. ... don't do it
2) The black on dark blue writing at the top of the main part of the page is basically impossible to read.
3) Do not use all centered text ... it makes it difficult to read and looks amatureish.
4) Try and keep at least the home page to 1 single page. Always design for 800x600 and no more than 10-15s on a 56k connection for a first time load.
5) Separate the title bar at the top to make it stand out more- perhaps a different coulour or graphic with a black separating bar to highlight the links and the fact that it is where the menu is ... took me a while to find this!
6) KISS ... looks to busy, the points above will help you reduce this, but you must realise that when people browse webpages, they very rarely read any more than the first sentance ... remove the bulk of the text on the home page at least.
7) Put google ads at the bottom if they must be there... or at least only one on one side, but not both.

This is meant as constructive criticism, not having a go. The website really aint that bad, but these litttle thins will help improve it enormously!
Cheers
James