Please review my site

[jacksmad1]

hello,

Would you please review my site ? I seem to be getting a fair number of hits on a daily basis, but my conversion rate is rather low.

http://www.volunteerlongdistance.com

Is the site easy to read, navigate ?

What about page layout, is it too busy ?

Load time ?

etc ?

other comments ?


Thanks in advance !

[mike7727]

Loaded in about 9 sec. on my roadrunner connection. Home page is a little busy; perhaps too much content there. I didn't feel immediately compelled to click any of the links. Once I did however, things seemed organized and navigation was easy. I drilled down to the page about filtered access, which is something I am considering for my kids. I am on a Macintosh, IE 5. Everything seemed to work OK.

[mike7727]

I was curious how the name "volunteerlongdistance" came about. It may be in a FAQ somewhere but I didn't take the time to look for it.

[jacksmad1]

I live in Tennessee, the "volunteer state", our state motto.

Thanks for the review.

[Dogma]

You might want to explain that. I was expecting some kind of long distance volunteer service...something to connect distant volunteers.

I have to agree with Mike, the site is busy. The logos in the right column grab my eye away from the text. The orange title and header text almost hurts my eyes against that white background.

Try making your links the same color as the "Quick Links" graphic.

An idea on the logos, try making them all duotone or decrease their opacity. Play around.

Otherwise, the site is okay.

[Gwaihir]

Looking at the color scheme the orange + dark grey seems to be consciously chosen to set the site apart from others, so why still the standard blue in the left and right column and the in-text links?

If the orange is still to 'noisy' despite more consitent use, I suggest you take the background color away from white just a touch.

The logo's on the right indeed take too much attention. Maybe just moving them to the right in their column will help.

[Vin DSL]

The orange is TOTALLY out of place. Other than that, it looks fine...

[Connie]

Originally posted by jacksmad1
hello,

Would you please review my site ? I seem to be getting a fair number of hits on a daily basis, but my conversion rate is rather low.

http://www.volunteerlongdistance.com

Is the site easy to read, navigate ?

What about page layout, is it too busy ?

Load time ?

etc ?

other comments ?


Thanks in advance !

I'm just an "old" MO hillbilly. Your site loads quickly even
on my poor rural connection.

Personally I don't see that much wrong with your colors.
To each his own.

I would not have chosen the orange but I don't think the colors
will turn a prospective buyer off if you have the service they
are looking for. Any way Good Luck!

[Vin DSL]

You know, I just realized something... I'm on a public terminal right now. It's a Dell, dude, with a crummy burned out 17" CRT monitor and cheap video card. The orange looks kinda brown, like a dryed up orange peel or something. When I was looking at his site last night, I was on my PC at the house, with an extremely bright Samsung CDT:

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Moni...tCDT_957MB.htm

On my monitor it looks like Halloween in July. Maybe that's the 'problem.'

[jacksmad1]

I appreciate all the replies and suggestions. I have often wondered about the Tennessee orange color for the logo. I don't know what color to change it to.

Also, I have thought about the company logos on the right. Would it be best to just remove them and somehow highlight the company name? Dogma had suggested either changing them to reduce the colors or opacity, any other ideas ?

Thanks !

[Vin DSL]

Well, if it was me, I'd make the logo color[s] some shade of blue or gray. It's really hard to tell without playing around with it. I go by the way it 'feels,' and the orange doesn't 'feel' good.

As far as the company logos go, I think they look fine. They add some color and life to the page, but some degree of opacity might look nicer. That's a tough call.

I use a highlighter (Java) script on my site for the thumbnail pics and links buttons on the main page. I was using a gradient highlighter before, but it was kind of slow to respond on certain video card/CPU setups, so I went with a regular highlighter instead. The reason I do it is so the pics and buttons don't distract from the central theme of the page. On your site, they seem to fit in nicely. Up to you, bro...

If you need the scripts, here's the URL:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex15/

I'm was using the 'Gradual-Highlight Image Script' before. Now I'm using the 'Highlight Image Script.' Click on the 'WWW' before this message if you want to see it in action.

[katerone]

you really need to work on that logo.