Community Website Review

Blikes

Hi guys, I would like someone to tell me what you think of my site if you have time.

It's a sort of community Noticeboard website where people can post events, jobs, buy & sell and more completely free.

Bear in mind it's not finished yet, it's a little slow and the custom fields for each category arent set up yet, plus some more tweaking but i'd like some feedback before i get stuck into the really hard part.

Don't hold back
Thanks

http://bit.ly/bGyV58

lil_lisa

Just FYI, the link is http://sarcastix.byethost3.com

I like the layout, its quite easy. I would maybe suggest putting up a picture and a slogan in the header. Just to give people an idea of what it's like.

Is it being designed and created by a group or just yourself? Well, either, I would suggest putting some sort of contact information up. I always feel a site is more grounded and reliable with this.

Also, are you planning on doing more with the registration? You have to consider that spammers and bots will try to register and post a lot of junk. You should have a barrier for this along with terms and conditions to posting or it is open to anyone to post anything.

Cianos

You have too many categories. Sub categorisation should only be done when there is a need for it. For example in Pets you have 8 sub categories. Why? Is the "Pets" category so busy that you need to reorganise all the content? No. Keeping the content compact makes it easier to browse. The more you sub-categorise, the thinner you spread whatever activity there is on your site. Keep the content compact and you get more views per ad and as such more interest in what you have to offer.

tricky D

Header is too big.

Who are you and how can you be contacted? Put your full contact info including postal address up. Important for trust.

Get a decent domain name.

Learn up on your SEO or else you're pretty much dead in the water.

Why should anyone advertise with you? Give them the reasons and the visitor statistics to justify advertising. You have some of that info but it's buried at the bottom of About.

What's the costs? Prices up front please. Hiding prices annoys potential customers. Is it free? If it is, shout it out. Or is it a tiered advertsing model with or without free? Best model is free basic then a few tiers. (Just found the bit where it says it's free - but that should prominent and on the homepage at the very least)

Privacy policy please.

Consider getting your local directory out and adding stuff in yourself. You need to get to a critical mass sooner than later.

Segment your market better into users and advertisers.

Blikes

lil_lisa wrote: »

Just FYI, the link is http://sarcastix.byethost3.com

I plan on upgrading to a gold hosting account as soon as i've finalised everthing so it will have a proper domain name.

I like the layout, its quite easy. I would maybe suggest putting up a picture and a slogan in the header. Just to give people an idea of what it's like.

I am in the process of photoshopping a banner for the header. That is just temporary.

Is it being designed and created by a group or just yourself? Well, either, I would suggest putting some sort of contact information up. I always feel a site is more grounded and reliable with this.

Just myself, That is something i forgot to do. thanks for your help. i'll get on that.

Also, are you planning on doing more with the registration? You have to consider that spammers and bots will try to register and post a lot of junk. You should have a barrier for this along with terms and conditions to posting or it is open to anyone to post anything.

Perhaps adding a captcha and a terms of conditions to the registration page would help.

Thank you so much for your help and advice.

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You have too many categories. Sub categorisation should only be done when there is a need for it. For example in Pets you have 8 sub categories. Why? Is the "Pets" category so busy that you need to reorganise all the content? No. Keeping the content compact makes it easier to browse. The more you sub-categorise, the thinner you spread whatever activity there is on your site. Keep the content compact and you get more views per ad and as such more interest in what you have to offer.

Thanks for your advice. i see what you mean, i'll strip out the unnecessary ones. Sometimes it takes an outsider to spot what someone else misses. Thank you

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Header is too big.

I need the width for a banner i'm planning but the height could be reduced. thanks.

Who are you and how can you be contacted? Put your full contact info including postal address up. Important for trust.

Forgot about that thanks.

Get a decent domain name.

Planned. upgrading to gold hosting as soon as i've finished everything.

Learn up on your SEO or else you're pretty much dead in the water.

I'm reading up on it and hopefully can get it down
(first proper site)

Why should anyone advertise with you? Give them the reasons and the visitor statistics to justify advertising. You have some of that info but it's buried at the bottom of About.

Thanks for your advice, i'll make it more prominent and work on it.

What's the costs? Prices up front please. Hiding prices annoys potential customers. Is it free? If it is, shout it out. Or is it a tiered advertsing model with or without free? Best model is free basic then a few tiers. (Just found the bit where it says it's free - but that should prominent and on the homepage at the very least)

It's a completely free model, to be paid for by advertising and myself.
thanks for your advice, i'm going to take it onboard.

Privacy policy please.

On the way

Consider getting your local directory out and adding stuff in yourself. You need to get to a critical mass sooner than later.

Thats a good idea. thanks. will do.

Segment your market better into users and advertisers.

Planned.

Thank you for your honest review and Advice everyone. i'm taking it all onboard and now have this page to refer back to which will make it handier for me.

Thank you all so much