I swear I'm not advertising

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

http://www.asmallorange.com/services/hosting/

I redid the whole hosting section of my site and I'd like some comments or suggestions. The basic idea was to provide additional information and break things up into more logical groups. Everything should validate as XHTML compliant. Anything else you guys think I'm missing out on? I've heard tons of good things so far, but I'm hoping for some constructive critcism. SniperX provided some good ideas last time (such as page titles, which I've added), so maybe there's some other smarty pants around :D

Thanks a bunch guys :)

Had to sneak it in: You can use the coupon code 'neodeal' for 20% off any order for life

[mimeryme]

One question: why's the monitor there? I like how the blue brings contrast to the orange/white scheme, but I don't immediately see the purpose for the seemingly extra graphic.

[sanctified Veteran]

thread closed

j/k :p

[XLS]

Thread un-closed :happy:

:p

[darkstar559]

Very very very Nice Price/Bandwidth ratio there. I'll be sure to be one of your happy customers once I get the money. Just curious, where are your servers located.. and if i get for example 60GB bandwidth, there's no rule like "i have to use below 10% of your resources or i well get kicked off the hosting"?? In other words.. no hidden rules right?

:D

Last question.. Ive noticed I have to get a domain first, what sites do you reccomend for purchasing cheap and reliable domains?

Yeah, and the layout is looking very nice.. keep it up

[lnmnky]

Not being an ar$e, but some things to improve on in your code...

: Cut out tags like [table] and

. Use styles. If you want [div] to butt up against each other, use a float (I'm sure you're aware).

: Why use style sheets if you are going to use inline styles like style="background : #fff;"? Cut them out.

: Why use an image map, when separate images will suffice?

: Try to avoid using [br] just for padding, I'm sure you could use styles.

: Don't use a [h2] unless you've used a [h1], and then use a [h1] for your main heading only.

that's all I can find for now....

I like the graphics, good work. Why not change the monitor for a more "server" type image, to emphasise the hosting aspect?

[xSammyx]

i dont understand why any one would get the tiny package. it is more expensive than small but offers less?

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

Very very very Nice Price/Bandwidth ratio there. I'll be sure to be one of your happy customers once I get the money. Just curious, where are your servers located.. and if i get for example 60GB bandwidth, there's no rule like "i have to use below 10% of your resources or i well get kicked off the hosting"?? In other words.. no hidden rules right?

:D

Last question.. Ive noticed I have to get a domain first, what sites do you reccomend for purchasing cheap and reliable domains?

Yeah, and the layout is looking very nice.. keep it up

- If you want to know where we're hosted, you should check out this page: http://www.asmallorange.com/services/hosting/facilities.php ;)

- No limit restrictions. If youre site demands it, we'll just move it to a more spacious server. However, that doesn't excempt malicious or avoidable usage.

- Godaddy.com is your best bet. I highly recommend them :)

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

i dont understand why any one would get the tiny package. it is more expensive than small but offers less?

That's $30 per year, which is $2.50 a month.

[Storm]

*cough* Circlehosting.net *cough* ;) :pinch:

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

: Cut out tags like [table] and

. Use styles. If you want [div] to butt up against each other, use a float (I'm sure you're aware).

: Why use style sheets if you are going to use inline styles like style="background : #fff;"? Cut them out.

: Why use an image map, when separate images will suffice?

: Try to avoid using [br] just for padding, I'm sure you could use styles.

: Don't use a [h2] unless you've used a [h1], and then use a [h1] for your main heading only.

that's all I can find for now....

I like the graphics, good work. Why not change the monitor for a more "server" type image, to emphasise the hosting aspect?

I have used styles where I can, but to get the layout I want in a cross-browser environment, I need to use some tables. It still validates, and looks better regardless of the browser.

I use inline styles for elements that aren't generic. That is, if I'm not reusing the class in other sections of the site, why put it in the file that everyone downloads regardless of visiting the page that needs it?

I do agree there, but I would have to class and style things, and that just requires extra keystrokes for the same effect.

The H1 isn't used beccause I don't need something that big. I want the option to have larger text in the future, and the current h2 is just about normal size.

About the monitor icon: I didn't have a more appropriate choice for icons to put there and wasn't able to come up with anything that I truely liked on my own. I like the blue contrast with the orange text and that it presents a welcoming feel to it. If anyone knows of any free graphics (or wants to make one :D) that I can use in it's place, I'd be much appreciative for the tip.

[Fedr0]

The skin on the forums is the best one I've seen on every Invision Board I've visited. Good work! (Y)

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

The skin on the forums is the best one I've seen on every Invision Board I've visited. Good work! (Y)

Wow, thanks :) Wasn't really that much work, just some style modifications and a few changes here and there.

[DJ Specs]

Nice price! Hope the reliability is as good!

[Banzai]

cool graphics if i had a credit card i might just go for the tiny.

[PTX]

very nice hosting service! i think it's the best! :yes:

:D

[Guest Dan C]

Timdorr's server rock (Y) very reliable and trustworthy. :)

Anyway, I'm really liking the site design so far :)

[rpm]

Trying not to start a problem but MXP who owns G-Hosting posted a thread a while ago about his company's design and it was locked immediatly. :wacko:

[Redestium]

Yeah I saw this banner ad on Neowin and actually clicked on it. The service looks awesome, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a customer in the coming weeks.

[TheDogsBed]

Really nice improvements, timdorr.

The way the eye is now dragged to the small orange sub-menu, by the large orange text makes a world of difference and makes for much more logical and easier navigation.

I like the small new splashes of colour, but feel that the little image of the mouse and graphics tablet doesn't quite fit with the paragraph its lining or with the other nicely coloured images.

Overall, an incredible difference which, in my view, makes the site so much better in terms of use and readibility of information, though I would still like to see a "contact" of some form or another made a little more prominent.

Excellent work though.

[Max Veteran]

Nice site :) Make it XHTML 1.0 Strict! :p

[Fantmx]

Site looks very nice. Two things I noticed though. The image for the facilities does not have a transparent background. I'm guessing because I am using IE 6 and microsoft did such a wonderful job of supporting transparent pngs. Secondly, in your facilities section, it might be nice to list the server specs and what scripting languages people can use. Other than those two things, it looks really good.

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

Overall, an incredible difference which, in my view, makes the site so much better in terms of use and readibility of information, though I would still like to see a "contact" of some form or another made a little more prominent.

Can you elaborate on this a bit? Do you mean some sort of "Contact our sales staff right now!" sort of link?

[TheDogsBed]

Nice site :) Make it XHTML 1.0 Strict! :p

Yeah and then you call tell potential clients, "look we're XHTML 1.0 Strict" and they'll be just sooo impressed and want to sign up immediately. :rolleyes:

[Tim Dorr Veteran]

Site looks very nice. Two things I noticed though. The image for the facilities does not have a transparent background. I'm guessing because I am using IE 6 and microsoft did such a wonderful job of supporting transparent pngs. Secondly, in your facilities section, it might be nice to list the server specs and what scripting languages people can use. Other than those two things, it looks really good.

I like the specs idea, I'll have to add that to the facilities page. Thanks :)

[TheDogsBed]

Can you elaborate on this a bit? Do you mean some sort of "Contact our sales staff right now!" sort of link?

OK. When reading a site, you have to think of where the eye-line is likely to be and where it isn't likely to be. Given that most people associate the very top with there being just a logo and a header up there, it's not usually considered an "important" area to the eye.

Instead, especially in your line of business, the prices, and the features are of greater importance. Ergo, their eye-line is going to be mainly at the same level as the base text. I firmly believe that a healthy garnishing of "contact" links in the text does absolutely no harm whatsoever. If I was going to buy from you it would be at the point you've convinced me by the prices or other text. That, to me, is the second you want to make it as easy as possible for the client to make the next move.

Having it tucked away at the top doesn't seem to respond to this technique very well, in my opinion.