Microsoft Office Live Small Business Community

I updated my site www.atruemillionlittlepieces.com I am going crazy can you tell me what you think honestly?

May I be frank? (Actually, I am Dave, but for now, I'll be Frank!)  For me, it was total sensory overload.  The first thing I did was mute the voices.  It was too distracting.  After skimming the pages, and that's how most people surf the net, I'm still really not sure what the site is about.  I think you need to do some radical simplifying.  There are images stuck around that just don't seem to have a purpose.  I would focus on the message and work from there.  Get it down to the bare bones, and be sure that your home page reveals your message clearly.  Everything on your pages, including the images should help to tell the story.  Start simple, and add elements only if they help tell the story and add to the attractiveness of the site.

Let me try and find a couple of sites to look at.  I'll be back.

OK, check here:  http://officelivepages.com/Office_Live_Best_Sites.aspx.  This is one of the sites in the Masters Forum below which you can also reach using the link in my signature.  This page has some good site examples, and the whole site has helpful information on web site building.  Check them out and see if there is anything there you like.  Keep in touch here with your progress and come back with any questions you may have.  Good luck.

www.fidalgoweather.net
Check the Masters Forum for help and good ideas.
For beginners: Getting started with OLSB.

how about now? In addition I added your site link their for you! Also maybe you know about Flash-Menus? I want to install a nice flash menu on every page?

 I didn't look at your site before so not knowing what you changed, to me the site is really distracting. still not really sure what the purpose is, to sell your book? all the little arrows were driving me nuts lolit kind of lacks focus i guess i would say. for example, the slide show doesn't really mean much unless you read an excerpt of your book first( or maybe the whole thing) so many ads are distracting, maybe have less or spread out via other pages .

the way it is now it seems kind of money grubbing. ie the" free" memorials then you ask for a donation in the next sentence and (i think) you start your navigation buttons with donation..that just really turns me off about a site if it seems to be set up to get donations, particularly for a  single individual rather than a charity or something, and not much else.imo if it's a site to sell something be straight forward and say so, don't put it under the guise of something else. otherwise you lose credibility ( all the "I'm not lying" makes it look like you are imo)

and some of your spelling, like infidelity is off 

I'm sorry you had a rough life and i imagine writing about it was good for you but imo you need to make me want to read about it and truthfully the site really didn't accomplish that. maybe you would be better to drop some of the attempts to "catch" people with shortlittle come on phrases and just put an interesting part of the first chapter on the first page. or something from a few chapters that make me want to find out more.  like the part about the burnt spoons, maybe a longer excerpt  with a photo or two of you at that age or something similar,  that could be interesting and make someone want to read more. you could just set that off with some nice clean space and spare down the pages to draw attention to the writing.imo it would be more effective with less carnival/used car salesman hype

In my opinion your site has too much going on. Too much flashing and things moving. Honestly if I had hit your page in a search I would have only stayed about 2-5 seconds. It took me a few minutes to try and figure out the point of your website. What is your goal? What is the purpose of the site? What audience are you trying to reach? It is not clear. Keep it simple and make sure you simply and clearly make that point in just a few seconds of a person visiting. The site seems like a scam to get donations at this point. You are trying too hard to convince people you are telling the truth. Perhaps simply write a book review or announcement like a publishing company would. Hit some of the highlights, peak curiosity. Make the reader want to know more. Define your target market.

I would recommend doing some research on human emotion and color. What emotional response are you trying to evoke? Very quickly I am frustrated and overwhelmed. Red inspires anger and frustration. Large bold print feels like yelling. All that action going on creates anxiety.

The audio made me want to say – give me a break, get over it, stop whining. It gives the feeling of an infomercial scam. When I am trying to get through to a client I use a communication tactic that a learned in a communication class. I talk to the client who is very upset with their dog and life situation the way that I would talk to my 10 year old child to convince them that we will get through this and it will end up better. This works. I also recommend the book “Crucial Conversations”

I guess the site is about your story. Thing I would change technically:

Make the site narrower, size down the pictures and words.

There is a list on the left: Learn more, true life, what he looks like etc. but it is hard to locate that information.

I agree, remove the audio, or make an option that the visitor can click on.

You have a lot of blank space on the about page on the top, right hand side and bottom. I would clean that up.

People can submit their stories, but where can I read them?

On the survey page: I think I understand your goals with the survey but I would find a way to reword the questions. You are trying to sell me a book to achieve success in my live but the survey tells me you have no confidence, and perhaps you think you are the only person with a hard luck story.

What is all that stuff on your sitemap page? Your sitemap is really important to spiders and such. You may want to ask Royster or Scybyte about having all the games and flash players on that page.

Hope this helps, good luck

Happy Tails

Dog Psychology Help

http://www.dogpsychologyhelp.com

There is no offense taken, I viewed your site and on my screen 'boxes' are cut off. In addition you must have 2000 words on the first page but like myself I am sure people who are interested will read. People who come to my site are readers. If they cannot take the time to read than there not a target customer. All of your points you made I will take into consideration please check it again. I think the site pal says it all for people who do not want to 'read'. More so on the' only person with a hard luck story' if you took more time on my site you would see that is not even remotely true.

By the way in my opinion you need some images on your home page.

Thank you for your feedback

JA

I loved the Video guy. HOW DID YOU DO THAT? Please tell...

Actually sign up with sitepal after your create your 'scene' it says Publish to Office Live Web Sites! Then they give you an HTML Code and bam...I am glad you like it because all I received is negative feedback so far!

JA

It's apparent that you know your way around this whole creating a website thing.  I wish i could say the same.  I was i had the ability to customize my site more.  As far as feed back...there is alot  going on, on you website.  And maybe that could be toned done a little bit.  In other words there are many different forcal point, and the audience can't really play focus on one key thing. 

When you get a chance please provide me feedback as well  www.clarashadowdebnam.com

Vey nice site. It has a whonderful feel to it with all the smiley pictures you have drawn. GO GIRL..... Lol. I can see that you are a great artist. I like the site alot. I hope it brings you what your looking for.

Thank you for letting me know that. Apparently the site looks different on different size computer screens. I am not sure why that is, but I will see if I can find out. When I checked the site on my laptop it was out of order, jumbled. When I am working on the site I use a 20 inch screen.

You sound upset, I am sorry. I was only trying to help. If someone spends 30 seconds on your website that is a long time.  I was trying to give you feedback for the average person who comes to your site, scans it, and makes a decision about what your site is and what is there for them. People are selfish and want to know what is on the site for them. They usually decide that in about 10-15 seconds or less.

I took your advice and added a few pictures, thank you.

Good Luck,

I hope things go well for you.

HappyTails

Happy Tails Dog Psychology Help

www.dogpsychologyhelp.com

I checked here to see what other users have done with SitePal avatars. I like yours.

On the other hand, I think I have a browser issue. Your site requires a very large monitor.  I found a great website this morning about usability and accessibility issues, one that I would like to recommend to all users here.

 http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/

Among other things it said to contain the size of your site. I am not the only user who gets annoyed at having to scroll around the site. It rubs my face in the fact that you have a huge monitor and I don't.

To enhance legibility use left justified and ragged right margins (not centered, as you have on the "about me" page).

Also, about the "about me" page, I don't see anything about using "Wind beneath My Wings" with permission. If I overlooked that, I apologize.  You will find as you move along in your creative career that as you want to enforce your own copyrights, you will want to preserve others' as well.

Finally, check the spelling of "donate" on the home page.

actually Bette Midler is my aunt so she won't mind, besides it wouldn't be breaking any copyright laws! I am not sure where you mean donate? It very well could be an ol thing scrabbling words or codes, it happens. In any event, it works and the site is 800 px wide not sure what size screen you have but on average anything over 900 px wide is large and can be deteced through screen sizes.

Thanks for your input! Joe

Hi,

Although you may have set your site to a certain width your content can push it out much farther.  A 950 width fits on my screen with some room to spare, your site is 3 or 4 inches wider than that and I have to scroll sideways.

If you are interested in being dial up friendly I would look at reducing the size of some of the things you have on your homepage, after waiting several minutes for your site to finish loading I got bored and left. 

I use IE on my laptop, not an unusual setup.

The word donate is spelled doante.

Performance copyrights mean that you are supposed to pay a royalty to either the performer or publisher if you perform a piece in public.  If Bette Midler grants you the right to perform her song on your website, that's wonderful. In that case, it's appropriate to thank her on the site for her permission. 

Thanks for your feedback!

Katharine