I would lik your opinions to help me with my business

[tyrone]

Every fiscal quarter i try to upgrade myself. If you have time would you go to my website: lifestylecustomtile.com and as a potential customer tell me what would you like to see on my website, that would entice you to get work done by my company. This is such a big community, i figured it would be a good place to get opinions from everyday people. Thank you.

ps. When my company is doing well enough, i plan on building a few drag racing tracks for bikes only. Thanks again.

 

[busastalker05]

Looks great easy to navigate well done
only thing that i did not see was an address
might not of seen it tho
otherwise it looks great

 

[twotonevert]

Looks good so far. I would make the pictures thumbnails to the larger pics. Also if you can zoom out to capture the look of the entire room, you can do more with atmosphere. But you dont need those for all the pics. What about different tiles specs? How do I find what tile I want? Keep up the good work bro.

 

[Fastfrog007]

On your homepage, you have...

Products and Services:



Slate Granite Marble Ceramic Porcelain Travertine Glass



I tried to click those for pics and info, not clickable.

On the tabs across the top,

Home Bathrooms Kitchens Living Area Exterior Distributors and Services Contact Us

I clicked those, but had to click another sub-section to see pics (coming soon, no problem still stetting up) Id prefer to just have them there for me to scroll through.

Just my .02, im no marketing or web design expert. Hope it helps

 

[S-R Racing]

Try Holting Bros. Homes., MacIntyer-Mann or Webb Carpets, They usally carry several preimer builders around KC metro. Back in the mid-late 90's we had done several 100 homes in Cedar Creek, Tiffany Springs, & even one in Locke Lloyd. Start dropping cards every where like Case Supply, Mid-Land Tile & Granite,etc. Soon you'll have more work than you can image. Walk in, carry a portfolio of your best jobs and sell yourself. Because of your location,and you had your website listed, I looked,your work will sell itselfThis was back when MacIntyer-Mann was located on 87th St. near Quilvira. I still see plenty of new homes going up all over KC so theres still plenty of installers needed Those mud set marble entryways and custom baths always made getting up Friday morning never a problem Best of luck to ya

 

[majestic12]

I like the site. Working with people who are afraid of the big bad computer I would have thumnail picture of a fireplace with the word "Fireplace." It is more intuitive an interface. They might not know to click the words on of the page.

I think you forget those of on this formum are use to clicking on links. Some of your potential customers may not have the experince or the 12 yearold to help them navigate hyperlinks.

I however love your work, and having done a little in the past I know how skilled you are. Good luck on your work.

 

[tyrone]

thanks guys. i dug into the computer a little more and found out how to make thumbnails to bigger picture. [see backsplashes]. it took like 4 hours just to do that little part but its hella worth it. thanks again for the feedback

 

[jphilipson]

Well, it's hard for me to give an opinion as an "average" user as I am a professional in the web hosting/design/development business. So please don't take offense at any comments I have to offer. My first opinion is that the site appears very amateurish and outdated. I think people in this day and age expect much more of a professional image to be delivered by a companies website. If you are planning on using the website to drive more business, or as a point of contact for your company, I would suggest shelling out some bucks and getting a professional design. If you are pretty comfortable with web coding you can even purchase some really nice premade templates that you can customize yourself that have much more of a professional feel to them.

 

[skydivr]

Boy, does our website need to be updated...

 

[Mr Bogus]

On your homepage, you have...

Products and Services:



Slate Granite Marble Ceramic Porcelain Travertine Glass



I tried to click those for pics and info, not clickable.

On the tabs across the top,

Home Bathrooms Kitchens Living Area Exterior Distributors and Services Contact Us

I clicked those, but had to click another sub-section to see pics (coming soon, no problem still stetting up) Id prefer to just have them there for me to scroll through.

Just my .02, im no marketing or web design expert. Hope it helps

Ditto on the hotlinks (well they look like they should)
SPELL CHECKER> 3 errors that I spotted on main page alone.....

Get a domain... "your own".. it might just be me but as soon as I see a company with a "yahoo" or other "freebie" email address, I back off... too many store fronts with only one goal..

Site template is pretty simple and photos of your work are most important.. the more the better and I would break them out into categories..
Page Titles (meta tag)... are a must.. company name at the least.. other meta tags also need taken care of..(a must for SEO)

Images of your work on every page for every zone...

Bathrooms (at least 2 typos) Should have an album for showers, sinks, back splash, floor or just by material.. (IE Stone, Porcelain) You gotta get the photos up on the entry page (album covers) not just text links IMO

Kitchens: again photos... (hey no typos)

Living Area
Photos and fix typos

Exterior
Photos and fix typos

Distributers
are any of these "competitors" ? if so, I would not put them here.. why advertise for someone that could possibly take money out of your pocket.. Also, if they are your suppliers.. you are giving customers a chance to "price" your materials out.. Some do not realize you need to make a profit on your "materials" as well as your labor.. Not sure I would want them to be doing that myself..

Contact Us
I like using forms for this... Posting a "real live" email address that is NOT obfuscated will land you in a heap of cow dung.... the spam will bury you... by munging the address you will stop a landslide of spam... I would fix or just remove the email address 100% from the site.. a basic script is below... not my favorite but a starter.. research a bit, then stick with the reply form... Even the reply form has problems with "bots" and you may want to think about a script that forces a human to enter a simple code..

<script type="text/javascript">
var name = 'user';
var at = '@';
var domain = 'example.com';
document.write(name + at + domain);
</script>

I have surfed a ton of "tile, natural stone" sites over the last couple months (my DIY projects are currently marble)

The site is actually one of the "better" DIY jobs I have seen... it is clean and concise.. dont punk it up with a bunch of useless text... I like the visual aspects of these sites as what I am looking for is ideas and someone that can put them into reality.. For me, that is best done with images.. Yes it could have some more "bling" but you gotta crawl before you can walk...

IMO, you start here, decide what your want to really have and then get some professional help... (money well spent)... but at least you are going the right direction

Good job

 

[BBB]

You need to have the most luxurious bathroom and kitchen picture up front and personal on the main page, not just thumbnails. Need location and hours information. Remove the quote, it will confuse some people. Need pics on the individual room pages, not just text. Be very careful about having "photos coming soon" as they convey the message that you're too new to the business. Instead have a section or a portion of text that says you also offer these services. Make sure you have printable versions of the pages.

Looks like you do great work.

 

[tyrone]

im on it!! thank you guys so much. oh and just to make an excuse for my misspelled words all over the place... its becuase im thinking about getting that mr turbo stage 1 elite kit. im surprised i didnt type 'busa' or 'boost' every now and then in the midst of a paragraph. thanks again. and im getting better at this code stuff.

 

[BusaOfDaKnight]

The site looks pretty good; however, there is a TON of white space. Cleaning that up would probably remove the need for scrolling. Coming from the IT world, an important thing to remember is that the less clicks a user has to take to get to information the better.

Agreeing with jphilipson, the site does look a little out of date. I would suggest using Adobe Flex Builder or Silverlight, which will help spruce things up a little. This is mostly personal preference, but it couldn't hurt. If you want to spend a little money on the site, Rent A Coder: How Software Gets Done -- Home of the worlds' largest number of completed software projects allows you to hire someone to do the coding for you. I have heard good things about it, but have never used it.

I have one more comment, which is slightly off topic. I would definitely recommend taking advantage of social networking. Things like FACEBOOK, TWITTER, etc can be a great way to advertise and get people interested. Additionally, it helps spread the word about our business.

 

[tyrone]

Mr bogus. Im not sure if you were saying that you are currently installing marble in your home....but if you were then id like to see some pictures.

 

[Mr Bogus]

here is the last project... the current one is flooring in the entry way and the fireplace .. grrr... Gotta hand it to you guys, it is a lot of work to do it right... the "prep" and layout will put you away for sure...

no photos of entryway.. guess I should get some...

and the fireplace "BEFORE" the hearth is mostly going away and all the firebrick is getting covered... (sorry cellphone pic)

 

[tyrone]

I should work for you!! That looks really nice. What kinda saw did you use?

 

[Mr Bogus]

I should work for you!! That looks really nice. What kinda saw did you use?

nice of you but I know you see the problems (I learned a lot from this project)

Saw... I screwed up and "saved" money... it took hours to cut all that stone without breaking it.. DOH!!

I bought a HF $80 saw... error.

i now own this .. QEP 83200

 

[tyrone]

haha..sweet!! ur ready for business. all you need now is a trowel, 2 buckets and a sponge. start setting up shop. Well done sir.

 

[Mr Bogus]

1/4 square trowel a few buckets, rubber grout trowel thing and ya know what? I have had enough of this stuff already.... leave it to the pro's

 

[tyrone]

haha..i agree!