What do you think of my Revamped Site?

[TheGreatSatan]

My website was just a personal site to show off my mods, but now it's evolving into something more public. I'm going to start some PC repair on the side (thus my contest) and if it goes well I'll even make it legal with the gov't by aquiring a tax number.

My site has been modified to a How-To platform and a means to contact me. I want people to be able to go there and learn how to add a window, remove a virus, etc on their own or have me do it for them locally. I know it's no TBCS, but with how little I know of building web sites it's not that horrible. I just want an honest opinion and maybe some criticism too.

www.pcmodhouse.com

[BuzzKillington]

I feel it'd look more professional without the embossing, or maybe just lessen the value.

[TheGreatSatan]

embossing?

[BuzzKillington]

The bevel/emboss on the side grey sidebar.

[Diamon]

And please change the font. People's minds WILL start to wander elsewhere when they see that font :)

[slaveofconvention]

I know it's no TBCS, but with how little I know of building web sites it's not that horrible.

This is one of those comments which means the world to people like us, who know you and know you're new to this area. People who'll take it on board and "judge" your work based on your capabilities.
Unfortunately it doesn't hold any water when joe public comes by the site and finds something which is unprofessional in appearance, which this is (along with the vast majority of personal pages out there).

It's almost impossible to create something that looks professional when you're first getting started. I can remember the first few sites I did, and when I look back on them now, I cringe.

The golden rules for web design, in my personal opinion and experience are
1. Keep it simple. Something easy on the eyes, clean and tidy, well laid out will already start to look professional.
2. Make sure the first thing that someone sees will either tell them why the site is there, what you do, or at the very least, give enough information to make them want to click for more detail.
3. Find the right balance between casual and imperious. You don't want to come across as a local good-ol-boy who really doesn't have a clue. Equally, you don't want to give the impression that you're going to be the kind of person who'll look down on someone either - it's a tricky act to pull off - sound like you know what you're doing, without making the reader feel stupid.
4. Choose two fonts, and stick to them. One for titles, usually a san-serif font - and one for content - often a serif font. Titles can be nice and smooth and attractive looking but if there's a block of text, serif fonts tend to be easier on the eyes.
5. Always have someone else proof read anything you intend to put online. If you make a spelling mistake, and it's not a typo, when you read it, you'll think it's correct. Someone else may well spot an error you didn't even know WAS an error.

The three main things I'd suggest for the site are as follows.
1. Change the colour and typeface of the font. Dark grey is every bit as legible as black, but is a little less harsh. Get a font which is not uni-spaced. Smaller letters should take up less space - that's why you can't see clearly where there is or isn't a space in some areas of your site. Times New Roman is a decent starting point - it's installed on pretty much every computer so you'll know the site looks the way you want it to.
2. Get rid of the "geek" factor in your graphics. The kind of people who'll "get it" are the kind who'll fix it themselves. For the average user, it just looks a bit odd. We may know what the <!-- and --> are about, but it just looks a touch out of place to joe public.
3. Get a non-geeky friend to look over the site and give you his/her opinion. Ask what makes sense, what doesn't. What appeals and what looks "wrong". Take those answers and work towards fixing them.

On a seperate note, I'd make sure your callout charge is the smallest charge you have if you're going to offer a "pay for a service, get the callout free" deal. Otherwise you'll end up being called out to clean a PC and get less than the callout would have been. You might want to have the callout include the first xx minutes on site - personally, I charge about the same for turning up, £20, and if whatever I do takes less than 30 mins, that's all they pay. After that, it's about negotiating. Fixed prices are a dangerous game. You offer a Virus removal for $50. I'm sure you know, from experience, while MOST virii can be removed in under an hour, sometimes you get a PC that's so slow, the scan alone can take 2-3 hours - you don't want to end up spending a whole day somewhere and being stuck with a fixed fee for your time. Downloading different programs might take seconds at home on a decent connection, but you will get customers with slow connections too - even if you take all of your programs with you on a CD, even the updates can take chunks of time.

Please don't think I'm just trying to rain on your ideas. I've been doing what you're about to start doing for years now. Every single customer I have, I have from a recommendation - I've never advertised or produced a flyer - and I keep them happy by keeping the prices low. You may want (space issues permitting) to offer an on-site and off-site service. I personally charge substantially less if a customer lets me take a PC away and bring it back fixed as opposed to being there for as long as it takes. The first option lets you work on more than one computer at a time, or even stop for meals, tv, whatever, whereas on-site is 100% consuming.

I can't comment on the data collection policies of the US tax people, but I know that here, in the UK, they have dedicated teams who watch free-ads papers, newspaper classified, even shop window ads to see if they can catch someone working and not reporting it, so until you do go legit, be careful how far out there you let your ads reach.

If you want some cleaner sharper looking graphic work for the site. Let me know. I'm pretty swamped at the moment, but I could probably put some things together pretty quickly which you could literally just overwrite the existing files with, without changing too much code, and it'd look sharper. If you want a bit more in-depth help, I might be able to do that too, although I have no experience with the software you used to build that site as it stands - I could, however give you some raw HTML to put up instead which might be a little cleaner.

[TheGreatSatan]

There-in lies the problem. My site is run through tripod and I use their "Site Builder." I have only so many themes to use and only so many fonts. I did take Dreamweaver, but hate coding a website. I've been using Tripod for about 4 years now and do like it for the most part, but will always be limited as to what I can do. And no, I have no intention of moving my site, since I would then have to deal with HTML, xHTML or whatever.

I will however, try to go with some of your suggestions.

[Oneslowz28]

One word. DRUPAL!

[Twigsoffury]

ironman mod kicks butt so far dude,

That front panel mask is stolen right from the vento 3600


I like the website to :D

[TheGreatSatan]

That front panel mask is stolen right from the vento 3600

I thought it was familiar:think:

[Snowman]

Okay I am going to avoid stating my opinion here because it wouldnt be very constructive and I have been in this place before. If you want to drop tripod hosting and get you a nice css and use the graphical side of site design on tripod I will host it for you for free, and I can give you the url for where it would be hosted. Just offering.

[Drum Thumper]

One word. DRUPAL!

+1 to this.

[TheGreatSatan]

I don't know what that is....