Critique My Site (June 2007): The Gift Solution

[Ina]

Ted K. has been selling on eBay since 2000 under the User ID, thegiftsolution. He took an early retirement and is now going to go full time with the site, having been selling on eBay full-time for a couple of years.

He started his website, The Gift Solution (http://www.tgiftsolution.com), several years ago and never really did anything with it. Recently, Ted re-designed the site completely, and is looking for feedback on the following areas:

- Is the site easy enough to navigate?

- Does it load fast enough for dialup users?

- Is there enough information on the landing page to hold the interest of a potential customer to a point where they would visit other pages on the site?

Ted says, "Those are really the 3 major feedback areas that is a major concern to me, however, I will gladly except any and all feedback on the site as I want to make sure it is right before I start advertising it."

Visit Ted's site at:
http://www.tgiftsolution.com

And leave your comments and feedback below!
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Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com

[Tregaque]

Ted.
Would you say that the main page is perhaps a little formal?
As you are selling inventory that is often a fun thing perhaps a little more jollity or livelier graphics?
I'm not generally a big fan of all singing all dancing homepages,they can extremely annoying, but the first impression I get is of a site that is selling something expensive,and maybe a bit select.
Other than that it seems perfectly clear,easy to navigate etc.

Tregaque
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http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Merchfach-Books-and-Collectables

[mainstreetmallonline]

The site layout is reasonably friendly but has a few issues. A little more white space left and right of the content would go a long way. Some of the content on the home page would be better suited to separate pages, making the home page less long. The left-menu format is not used on the links page for no apparent reason making it somewhat incongruous. I found button load and cycle times to be slow and inconsistent. Perhaps a different JavaScript would help.

The "Best Viewed By IE" logo at the bottom accomplishes nothing except to offend those who choose to use a different browser. Fire Fox usage is growing rapidly and any good website designer will consider all main stream browsers in their design. Having the biggest... uh... pencil may help in a drawing contest but this form of arrogance has no place when trying to reach out to potential customers.

Coding issues abound. There is no DOCTYPE statement, now a requirement. Excess META tags do nothing for load speed or SEO. Excessive Front Page specific code is a hinderance in SEO. A number of other SEO issues abound.

Generally it's a "nice" site but it needs a lot of work to become a "good" site.
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[fromthecountry]

The site loads ok, but the home page has too much text at the top and not enough graphics to hold my interest at first. You might trying putting a sample of your work at the top of the frame, or maybe in the top border. Right now, the top border is too wide and too dominating....where's your product?!

You need to correct the spelling error on the Mouse Pad graphic and use "Your." Also, check the spelling at the bottom of the page of "well KNOWN credit card processing company....." This bottom portion of the page is also too wide, and could use some color or graphics.

Why do you display the screen resolution? Is it important to the sale of your product? For example, if I view your site at a different resolution, will I see a distorted view of your products? If not, skip the screen test.

The "credibility check" link is a nice touch, especially since you have 100% feedback after an unbelievable 2000+ transactions! Congratulations! However, the day I looked at your feedback page, none of your sales had been for customized mouse pads, t-shirts or children's jewelry, so, as a potential buyer, I still don't know how other buyers have rated your personalized products. Instead, it looks like your "personalized products" are just a side line for you....I potential buyer might think "I wonder if he'll be in this business tomorrow? Maybe I shouldn't sned him any of my money....." Instead, you might put "XX years selling on eBay, with 100% feedback!" or something lihe that.

How much are spending to advertise the site? Unlike your items on eBay, buyers have to find YOU first, so plan on funding your Google Adwords account, and get listed with Yahoo. You'll need to spend some time, and some $$, with the search engine services, since you've got a lot of competition with the personalized mouse pads and t-shirts.

Good luck in your efforts!

Rick

[thegiftsolution]

I wanted to take the time to thank all of you for your input on the site. Some very good suggestions that I will be working on in the next few days.

One comment I did not understand is, it is Too Wide, if you come back, can you explain what you mean by that. I guess the question would be what screen resolution are viewing the site?

[mainstreetmallonline]

When it comes to coding for screen resolution there is no easy solution. We can pretty much ignore the less-than-one-percent of users that are still on 640x480. It is unlikely they represent any serious group of Internet shoppers. However, even though the number of 800x600 users is dwindling, I think there is a good argument for coding a paged with the content contained in a fixed-width area of about 750 pixels or so.

This tends to be about the width that text can be easily scanned on most monitors by moving the eyes but not the head. Left position or center this area. Use the remaining area to the right or both sides to display non-essential information, ads, pretty background or a solid color as you please. Keeping all content in the 750 pixel wide "box" will mean no left-right scrolling on any monitor or screen resolution from 800x600 up.

Remember, it's about selling not impressing the next wide screen junkie.
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[dougadam]

The page loaded quick. The navigation looks good. But the site looks bland.
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[freckles863]

I would add a little more graphics, and format the text so its clearer to read. But otherwise it looks very nicely done.