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Hans SchuijffMember
Hallo Brad,
Thanks for the suggestions. I could probably do it with jquery, but I wanted some automation on server side, so not to violate amp rules or be dependent on user entry. I knew it should probably entail some regular expression, but didn't want to invent the wheel for something that is already out there.
One of the websites that uses it (CSS-tricks) has responded that they use a plugin and I found a plugin in the registry called "Add anchor links" that seems to do the job nicely and looks well coded. So I'm mostly happy with it.
Thanks again for offering your help.
Hans
Hans SchuijffMemberHi Mitch,
Are you still looking for feedback? If so, my first impressions for what it's worth.
To begin with I reconsider focusing on being cheep the the main proposition. In general I would propose to aim for other qualities beside being cheep (or affordable) since in the end it's just a sideshow to what a customer is looking for and you yourself are not looking for people without budget, obviously. IMO price is only a discussion one needs to have when the value of a service is out of sync with the pricing, but in the end no-one will hire you for primarily the price. Price is only a condition, but not the main value of the proposition. So what's the real proposition? What people do you want to connect with and what are they looking for except affordability? What do they really need and what makes them tick? I miss the value proposition in your main presentation and I'm sure there is a better proposition in there somewhere.
Perhaps something like "We build professional websites for small businesses and start-ups" or "We focus on your website, so you don't have to" or "We'll design your website, so you can focus on your business" or "Fast professional websites, that earn their due" or "Professional websites for almost any budget" or "Professional websites that build your business", or whatever is your value proposition. If you work within a budget-range, you can specify that so you pre-select the right audience.
I remember older versions of Bill Erickson stating that his project size started with 5000 dollar and design + build tended to be a minimum of 12000 dollar. By stating that sort of thing, you don't get people that don't have that kind of budget or don't want to spend that much. "Fully functioning professional websites from 500 dollars" could also be a guideline that pre-selects customers and shows them that you can do it for that kind of budgets. The frontpage can be used somewhat like a landing page and might be a primary sales page on your website. Landing pages tend to be focused and use lots of lists and small texts in combination with icons and pictures and even video's.
To me the current design looks a bit outdated and that affects my expectation of you as a website designer. So what do you communicate and what do you want to communicate? Most modern websites I know use more whitespace, larger font-size and a menu-color the spans the entire width. An excellent example IMO is the current website of Bill Erickson, but also the StudioPress website is an excellent website to learn from. Remember that your own website implicitly communicates what your customers can expect and if it communicates excellence than they might want to explore if you can do it for them too. Otherwise, they may not trust on that and not look any further. They see your website before any other part of your portfolio, so it's design can WOW them from the start or make them leave depending on what they are looking for.
I would try adding more WhiteSpace and consider if a less busy Frontpage image would make the text on top of it more readable. The width of the content area in combination with the font-size, makes a less appetizing read. Having 124 letters on each line (excl. spaces) is not optimal for readability, probably between 70-80 would be more appealing.
An excerpt doesn't need to be that long. It's just an invitation to lure the interested reader in the article, so more focus and less text might work better than more text. Building interest or curiosity could work well. Try to focus the text a bit more and reduce it to the essentials.
Also it looks a bit strange to me that the paragraph text in "How we make your website better from the start" is larger than the other paragraphs. Consider using the same font-size for all paragraphs.
I would seperate the icons on the end more from the text above it. Perhaps differentiate the bg-color perhaps, or something.
Also you could add a contact-form on the bottom. I remember a previous version of Bill Ericksons website that ended with a "Let's Talk" form. The visitor knows immediately what is meant by the page if you add something like that.
Since one of your focus-points is the use of the genesis framework, I would consider the qualities of that framework and communicate them in your design. Most genesis themes are setup with lots of whitespace, larger font-sizes and tend to be rather minimalistic instead of offering all kinds of js-attractions. Genesis themes are focused on speed and readability before anything else. In stead of offering lots of moving parts, they tend to focus on simple and appealing content-presentation, professionalism, speed of delivery and effectiveness in serving the goal of the website. If your theme reflects all that, it would be fitting within the business you choose.
Well, I hope there is something of use in the above. Off course it's only my impression and perhaps your preference is totally different and I respect that. I hope your business will flourish.
Cheers, Hans
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