Website for Review
http://www.decipheringlife.com

Additional Comments
site has a collection of articles on life. additionally it has a collection of poems, games and other stuff too.

To be bluntly honest if this had not been a review request I would have clicked and left your site immediately.

You need to back up, rethink the site and start over.

Looks like a site from the nineties. Here are a few of the problems.

1. Way too much action.
2. Way too many images.
3. Your header text image is very difficult to read.
4. No color, black and white with no consistency.
5. Horizontal scrolling.
6. Text is overlapping other text in FireFox and Opera.
7. Some of the text runs right up to the container borders in IE.

Taking the problems above and others I didn't list, people will click and runaway from your site not to return. I think you have a good domain name, you just need to get a good site to go with it.

TA wrote:

WHEW -- I left in under 3 seconds and agree with what CE said ... I'll leave it at that, as you don't really want my comments.

well, working on the suggestions.
lets see how it works out

I have worked on what u have said. I tried to fill in some colours and even changed the links.
tried to remove unwanted things from the homepage.. and still improving it...
thanx for ur suggestion... please keep poon guiding me..

My first thought at viewing your home page was "migraine headache" but then I saw the text that said "midlife crisis" and I thought that was more appropriate. 

Here are some comments I have:

Spelling/grammar:
On the left sidebar, under 'videos' it should be "share them". 
You have some problems with incorrect spelling, punctuation, and spacing throughout. 
Under "Life" it should be "midlife crisis", not "mid life crises".
Under "Dreams" , "if u in a place" I assume should be "if YOU are IN  a place".  I personally would never use "U" instead of "you" but if this is personal writing, I guess that is a matter of choice.

I did not check everything on the home page; there is a lot of text. 

Navigation: 
I would strongly suggest you put some kind of navigation bar on the top or bottom of the pages.  I went to the galleria and clicked on abstract, and then I could not figure out how to get back to the home page.  I had to just arrow back, but that is not ideal.

Design:
It is really busy, that is true.  But there is a lot of cool stuff on there.  It is hard to read any of it though because there is so much it is very distracting.  As I scroll around on it, there are many things I want to pursue, it looks like fun.  But it really needs to be better organized.  Maybe break all of it down into a few general categories and then have those items on separate pages?  The truth is that it's hard for me to be too critical of it because it looks like my brain!  I actually like it all.  I am going to check out a lot of the different pages.  But honestly, I would suggest breaking it down and organizing it because not everyone thinks like I do!

Some of the text colors and sizes are hard to read.  If you do break the page down and create some subpages, you will have the space to make the fonts larger.

Miscellaneous:  I clicked on "galleria" and then "abstracts".  Are these photos you have taken?  They are fabulous.  I also looked at the "sceneries" (is that a word?).  They all seemed very blurry.  Also, what about putting captions on the scenery?  It would be nice to know where they were taken.

I hope my comments have helped.  Personally, I like your site a lot.  It makes me want to do one like that!  I think once you organize it and make it a little less busy, it will be really great.  You have a ton of interesting and thought-provoking things on it and I will definitely go back and spend more time on it.

Fay

To start with I do not like the white with black lettering.  It is very hard to read.  You will want to really change that concept and fast.  People like me who wear glasses have to be able to see, even with glasses.

Your overall concept of what you are trying to get acrossed, is good, but a little hard to follow because you have to much on the home page.  it is way to busy I think.

I will have to give it more thought.

Leah

Here is what I thought about your website:

Pros

- I like the purpose of your site, it is interesting to me and also visitors


Cons

- As you can see from the previous reviews, your website needs a lot of improvements. I will list a few I suggest:

1. Remove the radio ad, it isn't relevant to your website
2. Remove the Google Ads, it is at the bottom of the page and useless
3. Remove the galley preview and link at the bottom, you already have links to the galley on the sidebar
4. Remove the search box, it is near the bottom and people rarely search within sites if the navigation is good
5. Remove the visible hit counters and get an invisible one from statcounter.com
6. Remove the links at the very bottom of your site, they are irrelevant to your website
7. Remove the funzone, you already have a games section
8. Remove the box of words, that is why you have a navigation
9. Put the Horoscopes, Relationships, Funbox, and Videos links above the Life, Dreams, and Success Links and put the SitePal icon atthe bottom of that side. This will allow your Personal Area, etc. links to be more visible to visitors
10. Watch your spelling and grammar, you want to seem professional. For example: (If u in a place of knowing in which you know mind is dreaming this fantasy called ‘reality’, then what u live with is the truth that mind is what ‘right now’ is.)

I like the purpose of your site and I think it has potention if you apply these changes and the changes suggested by other reviews. You are on the right track. Good luck!

jasiel wrote:

Here is what I thought about your website:

Pros

- I like the purpose of your site, it is interesting to me and also visitors


Cons

- As you can see from the previous reviews, your website needs a lot of improvements. I will list a few I suggest:

1. Remove the radio ad, it isn't relevant to your website
2. Remove the Google Ads, it is at the bottom of the page and useless
3. Remove the galley preview and link at the bottom, you already have links to the galley on the sidebar
4. Remove the search box, it is near the bottom and people rarely search within sites if the navigation is good
5. Remove the visible hit counters and get an invisible one from statcounter.com
6. Remove the links at the very bottom of your site, they are irrelevant to your website
7. Remove the funzone, you already have a games section
8. Remove the box of words, that is why you have a navigation
9. Put the Horoscopes, Relationships, Funbox, and Videos links above the Life, Dreams, and Success Links and put the SitePal icon atthe bottom of that side. This will allow your Personal Area, etc. links to be more visible to visitors
10. Watch your spelling and grammar, you want to seem professional. For example: (If u in a place of knowing in which you know mind is dreaming this fantasy called ‘reality’, then what u live with is the truth that mind is what ‘right now’ is.)

I like the purpose of your site and I think it has potention if you apply these changes and the changes suggested by other reviews. You are on the right track. Good luck!

Thank you for your time, I am really over whelmed by your response.
The things you have mentioned are helpful and i am making changes according to them thank you.
I'll message you when i am over with the modifications, looking forward for your more help.
Thanking you again for your time and effort.

doggypanache wrote:

My first thought at viewing your home page was "migraine headache" but then I saw the text that said "midlife crisis" and I thought that was more appropriate. 

Fay

Thank you doggypanache
Your effort really helps, I am already up for the changes you have suggested and I'll try to get my homepage less crowdy. I'll contact you after the modifications.
soughting for your kind help.
thanking you again,

you've password protected your site?

matte wrote:

you've password protected your site?

No it is not having any password protected area... why do ask so?

cipher wrote:

matte wrote:

you've password protected your site?

No it is not having any password protected area... why do ask so?

Hello Cipher,

Actually, when I checked earlier on I found it was password protected too...but whatever has happened it's now OK.

How are you going with what people have suggested previously?

I have a few other questions for you too...if that's OK.

If you could make a quick list of the things people can do on your site, what would they be?
Describe in one or two sentences what your site is all about? (I'm deliberately asking you this question because I feel your meta description is too vague)
Why don't you have a doco type declaration?
Why does the link to your E-Card page have soooo many pop-up and flashing ads? (it's a real turn-off...I mean really bad for your site...I mean seriously bad that no one would want to go back again)


I'd really like to see you do well. If we could get you to to be a little clearer about what you are trying to achieve, I'll think you'll progress much quicker with your website.

All the best,

Elizabeth Richardson

Dear Jasiel,
Your advice worked out well i suppose... I like the way it looks now... lets see what others have to say.
I have worked on your suggestions points viz;
1,2,4,5,6,10
3---> I'll add some galleries and then act on this thing in a better manner. will be doing that soon...
7---> I'll add some games and remove some links and so will remove the fun section eventually.
8---> which boxes are u talking about,.. life, dreams, success... they make the body of the page... i need some text in middle section to spread the content evenly... and this tell the purpose of the site...   if u are talking about the pagination... It acts as an index to the articles that are in my site.. the viewer can have a brief introduction and if interested he can read further...
9---> as i cannot remove the boxes... i'll have to figure out some other way to get attention at these sections . these are also major sections of the site.

with your recomendations I have also added some more colour to the site... and even changed the head banner for the whole site.

I have put all the major sections in the scrolling links at the middle of the site... do you think it is suitable there.
how do i promote my toolbar and offer it as a major service provided by the site... i think it is not very much visible to the viewer...

Hello Elizabeth,
Kindly give my site a visit as i have made an attempt to modify it according to the suggestions.
You were right about the gallery link , actually the redirection for that link was not working properly... i have now removed it from my site's pages.
You are again right about the meta tags of my site... I am not getting any traffic from the search engines too... can you help me with the meta tags... I have just generated meta tags from online generators. I haven't been able to optimize them since.
are meta tags required for every page of the site?


this is my site's description in two lines...
This site wanders into the thoughts of life  it tries to decipher its meaning and recollect its purpose
the site is about life dreams,success and relationships. You will find very meaningful thoughts  poems. It considers art as a form of description of life, see the arts based on themes of life. Not ignoring the fun side of life, it caters games, funlinks and fun stuff is sure to bind you up.

Hello Cipher,

Got the message...have some commtments today so will answer you tomorrow OK.
If anyone else is willing to offer some help while I am away - please do -

Back as quick as I can,

Elizabeth

Cipher,

The concept of your site is good. I feel though that you are unable to capitalize on the idea though. There is so much of information, spread all over the place, that I am not able to get a clear idea where should i start from to browse your website.

1) Is it possible for you to work more on organizing the content of your site into broad categories and then displaying those as links on the home page.

2) The table structure on the main page can be hidden. It does not look professional.

3) Move the search button towards the top of the page. It is currently in the middle-right of the page.

That's about it. Wish you luck mate!!

cipher wrote:

this is my site's description in two lines...
This site wanders into the thoughts of life  it tries to decipher its meaning and recollect its purpose
the site is about life dreams,success and relationships. You will find very meaningful thoughts  poems. It considers art as a form of description of life, see the arts based on themes of life. Not ignoring the fun side of life, it caters games, funlinks and fun stuff is sure to bind you up.

Back again...I read your sites description - I'm sure YOU understand what it means, but I don't believe others will - it's too "airy fairy"...sounds like it's been written by someone who has gotten lost and is trying to find their way back by playing games and indulging in bondage.

As far as meta descriptions go, yes, I do believe it's beneficial to have a unique description for each page. Keywords for each page should differ too and should be relevant to that particular page only.

Your landing page needs to list what people can do on the site...and I am usually able to give people some suggestions, but yours is so jumbled the only thing I can do is include a link to what I have done on one of my sites to show you what I mean...http://grateful-chain.com/

Hope you are able to draw something useful from these suggestions.

Elizabeth

Hi
    Well done for having your own website.

My comments are

1. The homepage is too busy, I didn't know where to look first
. The grey boxes with a brief on your articles looked all too messy and the writing was cut off
. The writing on the left hand side panel was too small and extremely hard to read
. The website is a bit dull with too much grey in tone, I definately think a vibrant coloured picture or deeper colours in font need to be added to the site
. I think a main heading at the top of the page only would make it easier to navigate

2. When you click on the articles the article looks lost with the side bars so small in writing and far away

3. A picture with the article would really give life to the site


i HOPE THIS HELPS

Thanks

hello Elizabeth,
I saw your link... that is exactly what my site should have been... I was surprised to see the exact replica of my thoughts there... that is what i want to design. but it would be very hard i guess because i have no automatic databases that can manage all that... neither do i have the skills...
well leave this apart for a moment,
I worked on the meta tags on some inner pages ( the 7 pages of the middle box, that are supposed to be my sites main content ), after some keyword researches i'll modify my index tags too.
I have some questions,
1. Does having a meta tag on my page guarantee its inclusion in search results?
    :?
2. Does my index page be good, if my main content is appearing after scrolling... all i can do is change the content   of the upper boxes time to time (as i have done now...)



It is helping me a lot these days to carry out the modifications according to reviews, It gives me the true perspective and direction to work in...
I would like to thank all you people for helping me out here.
If there is anything I can do to repay the gratitude please do let me know...
thanks again for your generous help.

cipher wrote:

hello Elizabeth,
I saw your link... that is exactly what my site should have been... I was surprised to see the exact replica of my thoughts there... that is what i want to design. but it would be very hard i guess because i have no automatic databases that can manage all that... neither do i have the skills....

All that website is using is free wordpress blogging software - a wonderful resource - and easy to use once you get used to it.

cipher wrote:

I have some questions,
1. Does having a meta tag on my page guarantee its inclusion in search results?

I might not be the right person to ask for a definitive answer on that, but I believe your site will be indexed with or without a meta description - based on your content. The meta description helps to distinguish more precisely what you are attempting to do and is highly recommended.

cipher wrote:

2. Does my index page be good, if my main content is appearing after scrolling... all i can do is change the content   of the upper boxes time to time (as i have done now...)

I'm sorry I do not understand this question...

cipher wrote:

If there is anything I can do to repay the gratitude please do let me know...

Your thank you is very much appreciated. If you like, you can keep on adding your comments to other peoples site reviews too...it doesn't matter how experienced we are, everyone has something valuable to offer. Many people can review others sites based on their experience as a potential customer and that is very beneficial.

Elizabeth