[thelist] Could someone take time to review my site?

[Jenn Coker]

gees. i just can't seem to write a *short* response to shit.

I'm agreeing that the centered text, esp. sitting inside that wide table
which doesn't (it should and it could) fit 640x480, is probably not the
most.. appealing to readers. Again, (I say this way toooooo much), there is
a *reason* the newspapers make those sharp lil justified columns.. easy to
read...

Additionally tho, onto the bigger picture. I have no room to talk as I've
been back on my own for a month and a half and *still* have no business site
up *but*.. heh.. this is about your question not mine :)

I think maybe your site might be expressing your personality just fine.. but
what is it saying to your clients? This site probably appeals to or "speaks
to" some audience somewhere.. but is this audience a) big enough for you to
live off of and b) are they even aware of your existence.

Rather than put a bunch of resource into broadening your -market reach- with
*this* site, I suggest broadening your site's appeal. It's a little closer
to home, probably easier and cheaper to control.

Always start a site, even your own, with a business goal in mind.. When you
have a business goal, ("Attract and capture prospects for xyz type of web
work") couple it then with your target audience... This is SO important.
KNOW thy audience... (then get your USER goals.. and so on) Perhaps the
audience  that has money to spend on websites is less concerned with smooth
icy visuals and more concerned with multimedia that produces results,
perhaps they are looking for sites that express quickly and seemlessly what
they do (the three second and three click rules apply here) - If possible,
all sites should get the user to their goal without the user having to think
about it.. reading parapgraph followed by paragraph (esp. if they have to
scroll) is thinking about it.. get their attention first, then let them
choooose to read - Getting them to their goal gets the site to its goal..
therefore, it meets the business goal. Voila. So a question to ask yourself
is, "Is my site doing this?"...

I'd say start there.. And my own personal issues with your "sales pitch", if
you will.. Don't discuss price or your processes for determining price in
text before they've ever heard your voice or contacted you personally.. That
is basically the same same same process process process for every every
every product or service in the world and they know it. In essence, my
discussing price up front like that (without drawing any concrete
conclusions *for* them on price) you have taken their mind from "service" to
"price" and left them there with the ideas of "i still don't know how much
it'll cost.. now what am i doing here again? - oh, thinking about prices -
but i'm looking for a SERVICE..."

 Pick a market, I guess.. either say, "we do everything for $95 an hour"
or.. be the kind that takes their time with the goals of the site and gets
an estimate based on each project.. the latter will prove this price portion
of your site an unnecessary evil.. and if it's the former, you haven't
gotten them to their goal.  Summed up, "until you've built VALUE in the
provider/prospect relationship,  I don't discuss money unless they ask me
straight out"  (and if they ask you before you've built value, before they
know what you can solve for them, tell them it doesn't matter what you
charge as they don't know if it will be money well spent or not - could be
$5, could be $50,000.. doesn't matter.. that's the ol' $5 trick.. ;)

Then of course, do all the stuff for your site you'd do for a client's
site.. like add extra functionality the user can appreciate and "put the
money on the front page". And again, like Richard mentioned, easy up that
text.... we like to read bullets, aligned left/justified text in what
appears to be "skinny enough to read real quick" columns..

k.. HTH a little. - oh.. and if you decide to keep the chic/mermaid lookin
emblem or what have you, i'd spice it up and make it more prominent, maybe
more abstract and tying in with the text of your name..? just a thought.

; j
is there a special tax deduction for time spent bullshitting?