Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

moriarity: Fascinating idea..Daily Menu. But for every idea there's a lot of work. Can you imagine how much? [The Menu thing was my idea... just a metaphor building off Dinner Bell.] I plan for only dinner recipes. That narrows it. But for every day... that sure would be unique. And would amplify the brand to no end. But executing it..whoa. I'll think about it at half time. I'm curating the recipes. Maybe I can find enough contributors... great photography is required, which limits sourcing. But we'll see.

I'm digesting all other replies [no pun], as well. Continued thanx to all.

One curious thing I found is..You can find 1000's of pics of outdoor eating / grilling islands...just see G Images. But for custom jobs where's the prices? Where's the description of materials? So a guy reads my design post...then sees: "to find out the price and materials for this design... enter email. Nothin for nothin. Almost all social activity on the site has a click option to buy something or hand over an email.

I believe the words blog, forum do nothing today... so putting them in the header is almost futility (for an e-comm site). Adding descriptions, below, sells people on why they need to go there. That's why I added Daily Menu. It's a magazine format that opens things up.

I'll start with your comment "So a guy reads my design post...then sees: "to find out the price and materials for this design... enter email. Nothin for nothin. Almost all social activity on the site has a click option to buy something or hand over an email." - you can have a few "building blocks" with prices - perhaps even an interactive "build your backyard" app? That way they can get a rough idea of what it'll cost. Obviously it'll not include the installation and the groundwork (those are tough to estimate - but then, like the kitchen fitters, you could overcharge for this and take a few knocks without losing the bigger profits).

Now as to daily recipes ... I have a daily "coffee time" email series. Now coming up with 25 emails isn't easy - and it's certainly something I don't do every day. But given a good mood, I can come up with a dozen or more ... half a month's work in the space of a day. Now that does work!

HUGE RED FLAG: "You can find 1000's of pics of outdoor eating / grilling islands...just see G Images."

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

If another site owner owns a BBQ site on which they have images that they've created or paid for and those images appear on Google images and you then take my images from Google Images and use them on your site without seeking the express consent of the image owner you risk being SUED YOU INTO THE GROUND. Don't take images from Google Images. EVER.

And as for the amount of work that it will take for this daily menu … well, it's called work for a reason.

No, Gary. No one's stealing images. The consumer looks at pics. When they start for ideas. But no prices exist, nor details, anywhere (for custom work). But they will exist on my site because I'm lining up several installers whose pics, prices, and other details they're sharing with me. It's barter - their content for free promotion on my site. I'll even do advertising on my site, local to them, to make sure they get enough business to justify spending time explaining their projects, especially if they're gonna play the extra role, at their discretion, as expert in the Forum. I'll only use contractors in geo areas where substantial visitors are coming from. And build a permanent archive of their pics, prices, materials etc.

I agree with those of you who suggest data elements are not arranged correctly. Especially the current About Us belonging in the header, not footer. But I do not think 6 menus in middle of page is too much. I'm confident the eye handles 3's real well..there's 2 columns of 3. If I showed you 8 menus you'd say cut it to 6. LOL. But I guess I could get more descriptive on these menus to help understanding them quicker. I plan to test and adapt the site once people start arriving. In fact there's a lot of testing to do, generally. Including listening to people who pick up the phone.

And I think the tagline needs final tweaking. Maybe no tagline. The Abut Us copy put in the header may work by itself. We'll see. The seal is too big, copy not accurate, and it needs to be far enuf away from the logo not to compete with it. It may have to go altogether if the header gets clogged up. All graphics can be kept and used somewhere else, some other time. Nothing goes wasted.

Gary - "And as for the amount of work that it will take for this daily menu … well, it's called work for a reason" - yet there are times and situations where you're more productive. Realizing this means being able to do a lot of work in a short time.

Goodman's idea about the header is the most valuable. Moriarity's Daily Menu to be executed daily was potentially another great idea but not practical in my mind. Tough to find 365 recipes. Also, in my mind no customer will make a dinner every nite by following a recipe. Too time-consuming and having to get ingredients without notice. My weekend menu plan works better. Thanx for all the help, once again.