Web page review please

I've recently received a number of comments regarding the design of my site.
My previous site was fine for what it was originally designed to do, which
was to provide further information about me and my company to perspective
clients *after* we had already met.

Well, times change. Most potential customers check out my web site before
they contact me. In fact, almost all of my new customers contact me via
email. The point is that while my web page at one time was simply collateral
material, it is now (hopefully) a sales tool.

I'm aware that the form on the left side of the page doesn't work.
Otherwise, have at it. I appreciate your input.

http://www.miketurco.com/test123/

Mike

"Mike Turco" <miketurco@yahoo-nospam4me.com> wrote in message
news:crj6du01qat@enews1.newsguy.com...
>
>
> I've recently received a number of comments regarding the design of my
> site.
> My previous site was fine for what it was originally designed to do, which
> was to provide further information about me and my company to perspective
> clients *after* we had already met.
>
> Well, times change. Most potential customers check out my web site before
> they contact me. In fact, almost all of my new customers contact me via
> email. The point is that while my web page at one time was simply
> collateral
> material, it is now (hopefully) a sales tool.
>
> I'm aware that the form on the left side of the page doesn't work.
> Otherwise, have at it. I appreciate your input.
>
> http://www.miketurco.com/test123/


Some of the text is much to pale.

>>>> Mike Turco<miketurco@yahoo-nospam4me.com> 1/6/2005 6:11:58 AM >>>

>Well, times change. Most potential customers check out my web site before
>they contact me. In fact, almost all of my new customers contact me via
>email. The point is that while my web page at one time was simply collateral
>material, it is now (hopefully) a sales tool.
>
>I'm aware that the form on the left side of the page doesn't work.
>Otherwise, have at it. I appreciate your input.
>
>http://www.miketurco.com/test123/

Mike,

I think you've made a nice, informative site. Some of the wording in the
Services section seems vague, but are clarified in the Showcase and Customers
pages.

Some of the colors are pale, but are still plenty visible for my taste.

The top menu item Contact wraps in IE6 to where it appears underneath Home,
making the first menu item look like "Home Contact."

I think a smiling picture of yourself would be a nice addition on the About
page.

Personally if I wanted to put my databases online I'd be looking for SQL Server
capabilities. Just wondered if you plan to offer that some time in the future.

Take care,

Sue
http://www.flahec.org

Hi Sue,

"Sue Goodman" <sgoodman@ahec.ufl.edu> wrote

> Some of the colors are pale, but are still plenty visible for my taste.

Some of the links were kind of pale and are being made bold.

> The top menu item Contact wraps in IE6 to where it appears underneath
> Home,
> making the first menu item look like "Home Contact."

Putting that phone number on the right was a pain in the neck but without it
the page doesn't look right.

Based on the type of work I do and my customer profile, and since web design
is not my strong suite, I "assumed" people would be using IE with 1024x768
min resolution. I did design the page such that people can use larger fonts,
and I also tested the entire site in Mozilla. "One day" I'll go with an
off-the-shelf content management system, templates done by a professional,
etc. Right now, I'm kind of stuck doing this stuff myself :-)

> I think a smiling picture of yourself would be a nice addition on the
> About
> page.

How about just a :-)?

I started poking through my pictures & will get one up.

>
> Personally if I wanted to put my databases online I'd be looking for SQL
> Server
> capabilities. Just wondered if you plan to offer that some time in the
> future.

That's an interesting statement, as I've been trying to focus more on the
benefits then technologies. Talking technical seems to be a big turn-off for
most customers. I do offer "expert assistance for consultants and
developers", but the people who take advantage of that service are usually
those who have, say, built their own business database and just need some
features added or debugged.

Thanks,

Mike

My first impression was that it looked like the PAID search results on a search
engine. I would suggest adding a few high quality pictures to soften it up and
get your message across visually.

"Grold" <grold@aol.com> wrote in message
news:crp73c019qr@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
> My first impression was that it looked like the PAID search results on a
> search
> engine. I would suggest adding a few high quality pictures to soften it
> up and
> get your message across visually.
>
>

Interesting you should say that. Occasionally customers want to pay by
charge, and this whole "update the home page" thing started as I was working
on a page that linked out to my paypal account.

I agree that it does need some pictures and things to soften it up.

The page is now at the main URL, miketurco.com. I have some graphics on the
'showcase' page and over time will continue to add graphics on the other
pages too.

Mike

I took down the test page because I posted it to the regular URL, and
because I've made quite a few changes. If you get a chance to look, the page
is at http://miketurco.com -- Thanks

Mike Turco wrote:
> I've recently received a number of comments regarding the design of
my site.
> My previous site was fine for what it was originally designed to do,
which
> was to provide further information about me and my company to
perspective
> clients *after* we had already met.
>
> Well, times change. Most potential customers check out my web site
before
> they contact me. In fact, almost all of my new customers contact me
via
> email. The point is that while my web page at one time was simply
collateral
> material, it is now (hopefully) a sales tool.
>
> I'm aware that the form on the left side of the page doesn't work.
> Otherwise, have at it. I appreciate your input.
>
> http://www.miketurco.com/test123/

Hi Mike,

Is the purpose of your site to educate prospects who already know about
you, or to get people to visit your site via searches for computer
consultants? If you're looking for new prospects via the search
engines, I can make a number of suggestions.

<louminatti@myway.com> wrote
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> Is the purpose of your site to educate prospects who already know about
> you, or to get people to visit your site via searches for computer
> consultants? If you're looking for new prospects via the search
> engines, I can make a number of suggestions.
>

I'm definitely open to your suggestions.

I have been advertising the site and hope to bring people to the site from
my ads. I'm looking at the search engines as a kind of long term thing. I
have been working on titles for the pages, as well as the meta tags for
keywords and description.

Mike

Here's a strange one. We split our advertising $$ between Google Word Ads
and a banner campaign. We got an equal number of hits from each, but 90% of
the people who DID anything, once they reached the site, came from the
banners, which were not targeted anywhere nearly as much as the Word Ads
were. Go figure. Like they say -- test, test, test.
-----
Tom & Kathy Harris
Independent Watkins Managers
Helping build profitable in-home businesses.
www.tkh82.com
tkharris@comcast9.net (take the 9 out to reply)

"Mike Turco" <miketurco@yahoo-nospam4me.com> wrote in message
news:crsqg002s3k@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
>
> <louminatti@myway.com> wrote
> >
> > Hi Mike,
> >
> > Is the purpose of your site to educate prospects who already know about
> > you, or to get people to visit your site via searches for computer
> > consultants? If you're looking for new prospects via the search
> > engines, I can make a number of suggestions.
> >
>
> I'm definitely open to your suggestions.
>
> I have been advertising the site and hope to bring people to the site from
> my ads. I'm looking at the search engines as a kind of long term thing. I
> have been working on titles for the pages, as well as the meta tags for
> keywords and description.
>
> Mike
>
>