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Thank you for your help!!........I'm using the counter to help in showing how much traffic there is here,  so people might want to advertise... I know its low right now but If I leave it alone eventually it will have a much higher # and then hopefully serve its purpose. How do I get the links to adjust to the size accordingly?

I used publisher to do this site. I don't quite care for it, it seems basic.... I just received a copy of Dreamweaver CS3... I haven't loaded it yet, but I hope its a lot better. I don't understand why the links overflow when the resolution is changed..... I forget, some users won't have images.....plus I'm not a great writer.... So I will work on this. How do you do a text ratio test?........

I am really new at this. I am in school for a BS in web development , but I have only had general classes so far... I wanted to get some experience before my development classes begin....... Thank you for your Help and I really like this site so far, its been helpful already.

G'day Penny.

I used publisher to do this site.

That's you #1 problem. Start again from scratch with a proper editor.

My first website was made with publisher 98. I thought it was just the bees knees, at first, till I started to see the problems.

As it happened, the computer technician came around to fix a virus and I asked him about it. He told me I needed a html editor, which is what you need, and also a thumbnail generator, because my site was a presentation of photographs.

Dreamveaver will be fine for you with certain qualifications. If you use it in WYSIWYG mode, the same as Publisher, you'll run into the same problems with text running over, as CE has mentioned.

The problems are because the programme has used "position absolute" to size and position the elements.

While some SR members swear by Dreamveaver and others uphold the cheaper alternative, FrontPage,  nearly all the regulars can hand code to fix up the redundant code of the WYSIWYG editors. For others, a WYSIWYG programme is beneath them and they hand code exclusively.

So save all your content to file and wipe the site. Get a fresh start in Dreamveaver but use the html mode.

You may find it better for learning and getting a start in your brave new world of web design, to start off with a basic html editor and learn from the bottom up. There was a thread a few months back, initiated by ColoEagle, dealing with html editors. Would pay you to check it out.

Oh! And you haven't told us yet how you intend to get your traffic. If you have buckets of cash to splash on print media, radio, TV and billboard advertising, then your current approach will be fine. But if you want search engine traffic, and I think you'll need this, you'll need a reversal in your web design philosophy.

Is the site designed to get commission on sales at eBay? I have no idea of the returns on such a venture but I would guess that you'll need a hundred, maybe a couple of thousand such sites, in order to make a monthly cheque. It would pay you to get some reliable advice on this. Hey! If it was easy, we'd all be filthy rich, huh?

Best wishes with it,
Laurie.

OK.

Now I've only sold a couple of things on eBay, maybe only the one that I can remember. As best as I can recall, the fees that I paid on an item that sold for a couple of hundred bucks was to the order of five bucks.

So, OK. You make a referral for a sale worth $1,000. Maybe the seller pays eBay $25. You get $12.50.

Lets say you want $1,000 a week to pay your wages and overheads. We're talking Australian dollars here. That's 80 x $1000 sales you've got to make.

Now, let's say you have a CTR (click through rate) of 1%. That means that one in 100 of your visitors clicks through and makes a $1,000 purchase (on average).

So you're looking for 8,000 visitors to your site per week from the SEs (search engines). Reckon you can do it, Mate?

You need to do a whole lot of study and research before you commence the website building stage of the business. Develop a business model and a business plan. This is in part because the results of your research must be incorporated into the fabric of your site. It's also because your business plan research will tell you if it's a viable concept and under what conditions.

You'll need to study SEO (search engine optimization) and do your keyword research.

It would pay you to have a look at similar sites to yours, making referrals to eBay, and try and match up sales with referring sites. Put many items on your watch list and see how many sell and for what price. Try this for a variety of products: cameras, computer ink, walking sticks, dog collars, motor bikes, whatever you can think of.

Let's leave it there for now. Don't be put off by my implied skepticism. Do your research and make informed decisions. Give a hoy if you need guidance to resources. There are plenty on the forum in the archived posts and articles.

Please understand that I'm not out to crush you or be nasty in any way. Trying my best to call it as it is. I could have said " Great website. Change the black background to a lighter shade and change the fluro text." That needs saying but it's trivial along side the real issues.

Best wishes,
Laurie.

Last edited by laurie_m (2008-01-09 20:54:27)

Getting people to link to ebay through my site is the tricky part

That's why they give you 50% of their take. If it was easy they'd do it them self and keep their full percentage.

Gypsy has an e-book on SEO. A giveaway at ten bucks. Several members have appreciated it. Click on one of his posts and then click on the link in his signature.

And while your spending money, you can tip my buy me flowers button on the left, if you wish.

Regards,
Laurie.

I used MS Publisher for the web pages........I'm not 100% on how to center it... But I have a new and better program that centers it to any browser used. Now I just have to redo my site so its better .....Thank you for your help!!

You have the content on the opening page. It's in need of work however. I'll make a few amatuer suggestions.

1. Right away you have coding errors - blue links are randomly placed overlaping other content.

2. Your charts for various commodities are hidden by titles - you need some aligning here.

3. I would suggest you add a header to your left colum - Commodities, or some other

4. Get "Precious Metals & Gemstones" - as opposed to PennyRolls - as your headline and purhaps the name of the website.

5. You may want to switch the Navigation and charts columns - that is get your Nav bar on the left.

6. Your choice of colors and fonts leaves me to think you services are "cheap" - on offense - I like your overall background color, easy on the eyes, the other colors need work, in my view. Maybe you could go to a few of your competitors to see what they have done - not to copy but they may have some ideas you can implement.

7. I don't like the Penny name at all - sounds like rolling pennies for bank deposit - and you want to make big bucks, I would think with gold and all, not Pennies - heh heh.

8. Not sure the business you are in with this opening page - do you sell rings with gemstones? do you sell commodity investments? What "Watched Listings" - confusing

9. Work on your Contacts page - skimpy - need an email box (requests).

10. If you have distinct businesses - you may want to have more than one web site - one for each type of client.

John

Last edited by DayTradersWin (2008-01-11 16:52:23)