Fluxii Media Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Finally getting around to posting my website for some thoughts/opinions and any other advice. It's back-end is wordpress. Link: www.decaytion.com so ya i like how it is now but i want more to make it more exciting and give people a reason to visit. Anyways, thoughts? Opinions? Ideas? Anything? Lol :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 andrew_f Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 No offense intended, but it you are trying to sell your web design services shouldn't you be using a theme you made from scratch rather than a publicly available theme? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 No offense intended, but it you are trying to sell your web design services shouldn't you be using a theme you made from scratch rather than a publicly available theme? None taken. I'm actually not that good at wordpress designs. But that theme has been nearly completely re-done by me in photoshop. I've always just done regular websites with php/html. I'm still learning on the wordpress way of life haha :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 andrew_f Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 None taken. I'm actually not that good at wordpress designs. But that theme has been nearly completely re-done by me in photoshop. I've always just done regular websites with php/html. I'm still learning on the wordpress way of life haha :p Then I would recommend either learning WordPress or sticking to something you're more comfortable with for the time being. This is your shop window to the world - it has to be fully yours and as good as you can be, I don't think customising a theme for a system you quite understand cuts it unfortunately. An argument could be made that customers wouldn't know you didn't make the theme itself (you have changed some elements but it is still largely the same) but I think that would be misleading and the better clients know a bit about web design and check the basics on your site - just like I did - before all else. So it's worth investing your time and effort into something you have built from scratch. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Thanks for the advice. I'm going to be exploring wordpress more after i get some rest. I can design it fine, it's just trying to code it in wordpress' code is a bit different for me. But yes, it's on my to-do list and i appreciate what you said. At least you actually have said something compared to the others just lurking the topic haha. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 andrew_f Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Thanks for the advice. I'm going to be exploring wordpress more after i get some rest. I can design it fine, it's just trying to code it in wordpress' code is a bit different for me. But yes, it's on my to-do list and i appreciate what you said. At least you actually have said something compared to the others just lurking the topic haha. :) hehe no problem. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Original Poster Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 sorry but that looks like any other word press design, if you want to sell designs your website has to be **** hot! make them see your different rather then the same as everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Dom Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Also, if this is your portfolio, make the link pop up, took me a while to find out, its hidden, in a corner, in a dull color, with lack of contrast, also, add descriptions to your portfolio, what you did, how you did it, which technologies you used, link to the live thing if its up or to a high res image, also, a quick Bios on the side would be wonderful just to know who you are firsthand... :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Unix2 Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 sorry but that looks like any other word press design, if you want to sell designs your website has to be **** hot! make them see your different rather then the same as everyone else. You could not say better. Any web developer know how important its their own website. Its like showing to the world your piece of art. It has to be unique or at least pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Thank you all for your input. This is why i love neowin. I am going to stick with wordpress but i am going to design a full template myself in photoshop. I will post an image of the concept in a day or so when i get it done. Then i will begin the process of figuring out how to slice it and code it for wordpress. Any links for help on coding it is appreciated. :) Again, thank you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Andrew Lyle Global Moderator Posted January 31, 2011 Global Moderator Share Posted January 31, 2011 Make your website a twitter feed.. that's where blogs are really headed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Michael Collado Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 For what it's worth, I don't agree with Andrew! Some people will still have the attention span to read more than 140 characters in the future XD But it depends on what your website is about. Your About section states that it's a website to get web design rates and stuff, well I'd put that front and center and take away the blog if at all possible, seeing as it isn't a personal website. So put your portfolio on there first or make a splash page with a blurb about what the website is for, otherwise you can get people confused. Look around at some freelance web designer websites to get a feel for what I mean. And if you still really want a self-hosted blog, well put that at decaytion.com/blog, I know there's a plugin to do that somehow with WP! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted February 5, 2011 Author Share Posted February 5, 2011 I've updated my site! I don't use Wordpress anymore. It's all HTML/PHP/Aja/etc. I use FusionNews for adding news/updates/blog posts for it. The design may appear simple, but I plan on doing more with it, for the time being though it's nearly what I wanted it to look like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted February 5, 2011 Author Share Posted February 5, 2011 (edited) I've added some more designs to the whole layout itself, a bit more grunge feel to it. :cool: Also, still seeing what else I could add :p I was also thinking of creating a new forum strictly for web design/web development and name it: design.Decaytion so the link would be http://design.decaytion.com/ for the forums, but not sure yet. What do you guys think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Astrum Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 I like your logo. Yet, try to tweak kerning between A and Y, seems to be too big, and also other letters -- too tight. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 I like your logo. Yet, try to tweak kerning between A and Y, seems to be too big, and also other letters -- too tight. Cheers Changed the logo a bit :) As well as added more content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 mollick2 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 The background image is way too large. I suggest learning how to tile it, theres no reason for a 1920x1200 image @ 1.3 MB when in reality most of the people viewing your site will probably be at 1920x1080 or 1600x900. The animations between pages are quite glitchy it seems, everytime i click a link it collapses and expands again but the previous page is still visible for a brief moment and then switches to the requested page. The contact popup is pointless as it loads to a "contact" page and opens up the pop on top of that page. I would suggest redoing your portfolio page without the automatic popups as well. They just look tacky and pop up in inconvenient spots. I also suggest not using a free webhost that requires their advert, that just kills credibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 The background image is way too large. I suggest learning how to tile it, theres no reason for a 1920x1200 image @ 1.3 MB when in reality most of the people viewing your site will probably be at 1920x1080 or 1600x900. The animations between pages are quite glitchy it seems, everytime i click a link it collapses and expands again but the previous page is still visible for a brief moment and then switches to the requested page. The contact popup is pointless as it loads to a "contact" page and opens up the pop on top of that page. I would suggest redoing your portfolio page without the automatic popups as well. They just look tacky and pop up in inconvenient spots. I also suggest not using a free webhost that requires their advert, that just kills credibility. What free web host? I pay for hosting via GoDaddy. That is my advert that is temporary until I finish up more of the layout; as for the rest, thank you for your feedback, I do take it all serious and will fix things inbetween. AJAX is still new to me so I'm not exactly sure on some things/variables to fix the page transition bug. Also; I know how to tile backgrounds, trust me I've been doing HTML/CSS for years now, I just prefer the larger image, but I will consider what you said still. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Asharae Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 What free web host? I pay for hosting via GoDaddy. That is my advert that is temporary until I finish up more of the layout; as for the rest, thank you for your feedback, I do take it all serious and will fix things inbetween. AJAX is still new to me so I'm not exactly sure on some things/variables to fix the page transition bug. Also; I know how to tile backgrounds, trust me I've been doing HTML/CSS for years now, I just prefer the larger image, but I will consider what you said still. :) I agree with what Mollick2 says, the Ajax contact form, not being harsh is a bit redundant. Have you also thought about what will happen if JavaScript is disabled? Its always best to have a dedicated contact page anyway that contains over important items like phone numbers etc. An idea maybe would be to have the ajax form still, but have it pop up as a kind of quick link at the end of your porfolio. Something along the lines of "Like what you see, get a quick quote about your project today!" as a means to engage who visits your website. Obviously not worded like that though! :p Also, again, your background is waaaay to large, im on a 8mb connection and I had to wait for the background to load. What is the file type of your image? Maybe make it smaller stick some more compression on it if you can get away with it. Also the popups on your portfolio, dont make them automatic, all it will serve to do is annoy people when they have to move the mouse right to the other side of the pop up to get rid of it. Perhaps look into something like Lightbox that you can display a picture and a bit of information about it on there. That way the user can click to find out more, and it wont annoy them. Another option may be to have separate pages for each client. Another thing, dont know if you can, but is there a logo of Safe Creative for dark backgrounds, because its a bit distracting with the white box around it. Apart from that, I really do like the logo, and can see this site being top notch with a bit more tweaking. Good luck! :) Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Cupcakes Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 First things first: Remove your prices and/or quotes. You will either turn off people by them feeling your are "too expensive" and they won't even contact you, or you will find people STILL turned off because you're not attempting to work with more than you might be worth. When I read this: Below is a sample of how I decide my pricing plans for clients. This varies based off of size of site, hours total put in, etc. The average web designer makes around $25-$30 an hour, my average is: $18.20 - $19.50 an hour; sometimes even less. I thought to myself, "Great, this guy will be fine with something akin to $100 of work for 20 hours." Don't sell yourself short like that. You are better off removing your rates page and just putting in services you offer and have a "email for a quote" option OR a form with a dropdown selection of a "sample budget" that they can use and have it populated with (just examples here) >$1000, >$5000, >$1000. From there your personal contact will be able to deduce what the actual cost will be. Again, don't sell yourself short. If a client is willing to pay $1,000 for your work then accept $1,000 and not $500. That's my next step. Stop showing hours. Clients do not like seeing a project broke down by hours. They will think that if you charge hourly then you will try to tack on extra work to take money from them. They like seeing an overall budget with an estimation of how many days it will take to complete the project to 100%. Would you rather see: "The project will cost $1,500 and will be completed in roughly 10 business days." or "I charge $20 per hour and the project will take about 75 hours." Mind you the 10 business days is just allowing extra time for you to spread yourself to allow for some days having little work on said project, etc. It's also just an example so no need for me to assume you'll be anal over said example :p. Do the same for your extra services. Give a general BUDGET and stay far away from hours. Also, not fond of the ajaxed pages for content that should and is most definitely static. If you're going to "separate" your content like that then it would be better to have each on their own page so that your URLs are static. It will help with SEO as well if that's something you're interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 MillionVoltss Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Dont put smileys on you postson your front page, Im sure your a lovely, friendly guy but I think it looks unprofessional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 metallithrax Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 A few things, and i'm not a web designer in any way, so these are just my opinions and things i've noticed. I started doing my research and realized Elements wasn't what I needed to make a design, so I got Paint Shop Pro... quickly learned that it was a piece of sh*t and downloaded Photoshop 7 Not a very professional thing to have on a website selling your services. (in my opinion) Unfortuently - spelling mistakebut something was right. - should be "something wasn't right"as well away from the computer - mayeb should be "as well as away from the computer"Decaytion is a web design company self-owned by Jase Chaos. Jase Chaos also goes by other names, but we'll just stick to this identity - but it also says Jason Parent on the page title. Two identities!On the portfolio page, when you point at the images, the larger preview pops up, but covers up the other pages - maybe better if it pops up under the other images, so that a viewer could just move mouse across from left to right to view all previews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 whoa haven't checked out the Web Design forums in a bit and just noticed a lot more replies... Thank you everyone! I will get to work and fix some errors, as well as fix up some coding/design with the website itself. Omg again, thank you! Goes to show, even after a decade of working on this stuff, there is always more to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Asharae Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 whoa haven't checked out the Web Design forums in a bit and just noticed a lot more replies... Thank you everyone! I will get to work and fix some errors, as well as fix up some coding/design with the website itself. Omg again, thank you! Goes to show, even after a decade of working on this stuff, there is always more to learn. Hehe its good to see that someone is actually willing to take what everyone says on board. I've spoken to people that unfortunately are complete noobs (put it the friendly way). Oh yes, there is always much much more to learn! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Fluxii Media Posted February 13, 2011 Author Share Posted February 13, 2011 I've decided that decaytion.com is going to be a website for paranormal research and a social place for others who are interested in that stuff to sign up via buddypress plugin w/ wordpress. I'll be buying a new domaina and start from scratch with a better name for my web designing. I use a pre-made template for decaytion now. :p i will take all the advice all of you gave me with my new site when i get it. Again thank you all. Mucho love for Neowin. <3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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Fluxii Media
Finally getting around to posting my website for some thoughts/opinions and any other advice. It's back-end is wordpress.
Link: www.decaytion.com
so ya i like how it is now but i want more to make it more exciting and give people a reason to visit.
Anyways, thoughts? Opinions? Ideas? Anything? Lol :)
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