Know-How Exchange : Website Critique

Here are my three..
Update background - I like shades of blue or light colors
Update graphic - the picture of the girl looks dated
Layout - too straight ahead for todays market...

I agree that this site could use a big overhaul.

I have done some Joomla (www.joomla.org) sites lately. This is an open source (read free) Content Management System (CMS). This means sites are database driven, allowing you to separate the content from the style (template). The reason I meniton this is that there are many cool templates that can be modified to fit your needs. Check out a bunch of interesting templates at www.RocketTheme.com. This may give you some ideas.

Here are my top three changes, since you asked.
1) Add some color the all white is too stark for my preference.
2) Flesh out your menu systems. It seems that you have a lot of repeats between the menus and the text on the home page. This may help you reduce the length of the homepage.
3) Reduce the length of the home page. Try to make it so that you don't have to scroll too much on any given page.

Enjoy your project,

Mike

What specific reasons are you looking to redesign the site? Poor CTR, feedback from users, need of a refined landing page, or someone just has an itch to scratch?

Frankly, at the risk of bucking the trend, I've always liked your site the way it looked and flowed. Sure - a few tweeks here and there would refine it, however I like the simplistic approach, the lack of a web designer trying to create a Mona Lisa instead of keeping the "too straight ahead" look.

The AdCracker site is for serious persons on a serious mission for serious information. Bad sites inherently look and perform bad. Any of us can spout 10 things to change but what is that your situation? Let us know why you're asking the question.

Bob

If you want to stay with your simple theme, some very simple additions you could make would be:

1. Make the navigation simpler (maybe enhance your top nav to make it more prominent?). I right now do not really know where to click to start. On a homepage, people tend to not read. Just look for keywords or visual pointers to see if this website answers their immediate need. Get them off the homepage and into your content.

2. Your what's hot could also be made into a less text heavy, more visually appealing feature on the homepage. Visitors can drill down and as a side benefit you will find out what items are getting the most attention... Maybe a rotating promo area or several promo areas at the top?

3. Use more of your site's real estate horizontally and less vertically. Visitors now tend to have larger screens and faster connections. Use this to your advantage.

Good luck!

1) Get your home page so most browsers display it w/o scrolling (for your simple goal)

2) Convert from 3-column to 2-column layout (moving your menus into a single structure, and have the menus below your banner or more prominent on the home page).

3) Better integrate your tagline with your home page. If AdCracker is a tool, then make the tools prominent, and help the reader to understand the "big picture".