SITE REVIEW: How To Make A Website

Thanks Jerm3462,

I will add a forum later on.

The design of the site is clean enough. I think u only need to change the colour of the header and buttons. It makes it look less like a website and more like a blog.

Hi
I am beginner in website making, and I was looking for some site with basic (and advance) options how to make it. It's pity I did not see this before

The number "2" in the title throws me off from all the numbered lists. Just a minor annoyance.

I don't like how the main page is a huge article and branches off to more sub-articles. I'd have the main sections listed on the front. As little text as you can. Just sum it all up.

You need a main article that goes through, STEP BY STEP everything you need to do to start a website.

My friends really want to learn about making a website, but nobody has the attention span to read through a page long article of "Conceptualizing" and "Planning". They want results, NOW. So I suggest--have a basic, starter article for setting up a "Hello World" website at a free host of your choice. Once they understand the basics--creating an HTML file, uploading it, viewing it--they can start to work on their skills. With your site, it looks like you have to do a lot of reading (and sub-reading) to actually get anything you can play with. Make it hands-on rather than textbook material. If I wanted to learn about webdesign from complete scratch, i'd look for a site that listed every single step I need. No guesswork. Step 1 should be interesting. Have them do something like make a hello world page and then open it. Add some humor. Keep them entertained. Step 2 should be registering a free host and uploading their file... etc etc

Don't encourage people to buy domain names. Go the completely free route until they get the hang of it.

Your site is too busy for my eyes. At first, I didn't know where to go.

Also, font colors need changing. You have some blue links w/ underline. Some blue links w/o underline. And then there's the blue text that, to my surprise and confusion, are not links at all.

Too many navigation items -- needs to be clear cut.

Colors - meh. A bit "deep". A teaching website needs to be a learning environment. Not too many vibrant colors that make it look like a nightclub. Dark blue background is distracting. Maybe lightening that up will help.

Domain name -- I hope you get a lot of search engine traffic. It will be hard for people to spread your site through word-of-mouth. "Hey dude, check out how dash to--the number two--dash make dash a dash website dot com!" Not gonna happen. We all make mistakes with domain names. Pick something classy, original. You can work with this one, sure, but it would help to get a better name. Then set up this one to redirect to the new one.

Last thoughts:
-Too "web2.0-ish".
-Need more sense of direction
-Too many navigation items. Way too many things to click.
-Top navigation could probably be removed.
Home -- make a link to home in your header

Tutorials -- isn't that what all the links on the side are?
Tips -- isn't that what all the links on the side are?
Articles -- isn't that what all the links on the side are?

Sitemap -- if you have a decent navigation you don't need a "map" of your site. Keep it simple.

About Us -- Nobody really visits this page. If needed, put it somewhere out of the way. Maybe at the bottom of the page. Or in smaller text somewhere else. Being so big and prominent, it confuses the user, it's a link that's mostly useless.

Contact Us -- Same as "About Us". Contact is important, but not important enough to be one of the main navigation items.

Sorry if any of that was harsh--I think you have a great idea here. Good design skills (but need to be tweaked to fit the content). You will get so many visitors if you make a website that actually makes it easy to start a website. Good job--as soon as you hit the "sweet spot" it will be smooth sailing from there.

PM me if you'd like. I'd love to give you any more help, if you need it. I was thinking of making one of these sites myself, so if you want to do a partnership or something... we can chat

Peace out.
-Tim

Hi Bogey,

Sure I will appreciate any help that I can get

Thanks

Wow, thanks Tim for the in depth review of my site.

I still have a long way to go with this site, but I will make some the changes that you recommended.

I will PM you.

Thanks again
Lajocar

I don;t like to type this domain, to long.

so will a redirect from a different domain name help?

Say for example a short domain name without dashes.
Will this affect my SEO?

I have changed the hopepage and added a introduction

Check it out now.

The layout is looking good, maybe you should try to monetize your site. Also, i like your ONLINE CODE TESTING LAB, very good for beginners.

cheers

Thanks 2stamler,

I will monetize it at a later stage.

I must still ad troubleshooting, Q&A section, More Advance Tutorials, CSS Tutorials, XHTML, Free Templates

Hi, lajocar. You website looks clear, so I can easily find the information I need. Also the domain is good for SEO, though a bit long.

Here are some of my suggestions
1. Check you website with IE6, IE7 and also firefox, which are the most popular browsers. The same webpage will look different in different browsers, you'd better check it first.
2. I view the HTML of your website, you've missed the important <h1></h1>
3. Some code is useless, for example

you could write a "padding-left" and font size in the *css file.


Regards,
Kena

you could write a "padding-left" and font size in the *css file.


Regards,
Kena[/quote]

Thank for the tips Kena,

I will redo the whole site again and fix a lot of stuff.

Hi, I'll be sending you a PM about your website, as I have an offer.

Thanks