New Site, need some opinions

S

ScubaStevo

New member
I had a friend of mine work up a little sample pages of my new site.



http://carcare.chromenight.com/



I'm just wondering how to post my before/after pictures? And an example of a mission statement for the home page.



Opinions on the little pictures there as well.



Some opinions ASAP would be helpful.



Steve :cool:
 
Very nice homepge design. Although, none of the tabs work at this time.



I think the first thing you might want to consider is shortning the web address and keeping it short and simple for people to remember i.e. "superior shine." The web address you have is little long and hard to remember.



That's just my 0.02.
 
Awesome, where did you get the graphic? I see you leave in on a piece of paper in your cars. I think its an awesome look.
 
Beason said:
Awesome, where did you get the graphic? I see you leave in on a piece of paper in your cars. I think its an awesome look.
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The graphic is just shots of cars I've done in the past, and then cropped to make a little design.



As far as the webaddress, its just a temporary hosting site, for me while my friend is making the site.



None of the links work, as I haven't put anything there yet! :)



Steve



Anything that may help improve the site?
 
The site looks really nice. I would suggest the following changes to the opening statement:

Currenlty you have this:

"This site is here to to give you an overview of the services we provide, to show you some of the work we've done and to help you get an estimate of how much to make your car look like new."



The end of the sentence is incomplete. I think you are referring to price (or cost), so you should try the following:



"This site is here to to give you an overview of the services we provide, to show you some of the work we've done and to help you estimate how much it will cost to make your car look new"



If this is not what you are trying to say, you should rearrange it so that it makes more sense. Just a thought. Excellent looking site though.



JJ
 
from a graphics standpoint... it's not bad. I don't know about the small pictures though.. they don't go well together. Meaning they clash against one another. If you were to get the colors to be the same general shade that may work well. I'm working on mine right now. I just have a marker there for now. But I do like your layout. Good job.
 
J.J. said:
The site looks really nice. I would suggest the following changes to the opening statement:

Currenlty you have this:

"This site is here to to give you an overview of the services we provide, to show you some of the work we've done and to help you get an estimate of how much to make your car look like new."



The end of the sentence is incomplete. I think you are referring to price (or cost), so you should try the following:



"This site is here to to give you an overview of the services we provide, to show you some of the work we've done and to help you estimate how much it will cost to make your car look new"



If this is not what you are trying to say, you should rearrange it so that it makes more sense. Just a thought. Excellent looking site though.



JJ
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Its what my friend had put there. I'll put my proper mission statement there once I think of it.



As far as the little pictures, I'll take that into considerationg. Thanks!



Steve
 
Have you considered having the site professional designed. Dan Ekenberg from Mobilework.com designed mine recently. The site turned out great, dan was great to work with and had some very helpful advise as to the layout and certain aspects of the site, and he is very reasonably priced. Here's a link to his site: http://www.mobileworks.com and the link to my site is: http://www.silverliningdetail.com. Just a thought that you may want to look into.



Take care,



Matt Williams

Silver Lining Detail

www.silverliningdetail.com
 
SilverLine said:
Have you considered having the site professional designed. Dan Ekenberg from Mobilework.com designed mine recently. The site turned out great, dan was great to work with and had some very helpful advise as to the layout and certain aspects of the site, and he is very reasonably priced. Here's a link to his site: http://www.mobileworks.com and the link to my site is: http://www.silverliningdetail.com. Just a thought that you may want to look into.



Take care,



Matt Williams

Silver Lining Detail

www.silverliningdetail.com
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No, I haven't. I can't afford that because I'm just a part time backyard warrior during the summer months when school is off. By no means do I make enough to pay someone to make a site for me.



Thanks for the suggestion though.
 
I think it looks really great! One of the things I hate about some detailing business websites is that the creator/owner crams so much onto the homepage, you just scroll and scroll down for what seems like forever with tons of information that should be reserved for tabbing and additional pages. So the fact that you're homepage is simple is great, people won't be overwhelmed because it's easy to navigate. The top graphic is a neat design, sans the little flame scroll - I think it's a little tacky and may imply that you create graphics like that on vehicles....I think it would look better with something else or possibly just the text. The little metallic is neat though.



I'm pretty sure that you work alone, but correct me if I'm wrong. For this reason I don't know if it's completely appropriate to have "we" and "us" used. Using "I" or talking about yourself in the third person would add a personal dimension to your business as people read through your site.



Finally, the word "Samples" to signify your detailing gallery isn't the best word choice IMO. Just use a word/phrase like Gallery or Previous Work.



Other than that I think you're site is awesome and I love that picture graphic on the bottom of the homepage.



Good Luck
 
I think a longer first page, more pics, discription etc. I dont know what it is but a longer first page to fill up at least the sreen just looks more professional. Also the navigation bar, you might wanna change a little make it a little more exciting to match your top graphic. These are just my two cents and seeing as how I have a cardomain for a web page right now I'm not sure how qualified I am to give advise, but just a little something to think about. ;)
 
pigeonbus said:
I think it looks really great! One of the things I hate about some detailing business websites is that the creator/owner crams so much onto the homepage, you just scroll and scroll down for what seems like forever with tons of information that should be reserved for tabbing and additional pages. So the fact that you're homepage is simple is great, people won't be overwhelmed because it's easy to navigate. The top graphic is a neat design, sans the little flame scroll - I think it's a little tacky and may imply that you create graphics like that on vehicles....I think it would look better with something else or possibly just the text. The little metallic is neat though.



I'm pretty sure that you work alone, but correct me if I'm wrong. For this reason I don't know if it's completely appropriate to have "we" and "us" used. Using "I" or talking about yourself in the third person would add a personal dimension to your business as people read through your site.



Finally, the word "Samples" to signify your detailing gallery isn't the best word choice IMO. Just use a word/phrase like Gallery or Previous Work.



Other than that I think you're site is awesome and I love that picture graphic on the bottom of the homepage.



Good Luck
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As for my previouse recomendation to make the first page longer I am with this guy too. I think a good paragraph or two about your business and basics of what you do with large pics in the sides of the writing with the text wrapped around will brake it up but make it come together better. Kinda a crappy way of explaining it but there is no other way. I have the same set up on the flyers I made. Oh ya and with the "we" thing that is a little iffy, some people will view a one man show as a unprofessional person that will do a crappy job, not saying you are. I cant tell you how many people I get that call me and ask if it is just me or if I have other detailers I employ and when I say its just me they usually dont want me to detail their cars anymore. Stupid ya, but that is the way people are. How old are you btw? This could be a correct statement if you tell them its your fathers business, or a family business. I do this sometimes and it goes over a lot better it seems like. Its all about looking professional, because the kind of people who get their cars detailed are the kinda people who look for a profession looking business and not neccesarily their work. Like I said most people have stupid ways of looking at thing, but theres nothing we can do about it.
 
Pontman43 said:
This could be a correct statement if you tell them its your fathers business, or a family business. I do this sometimes and it goes over a lot better it seems like. Its all about looking professional, because the kind of people who get their cars detailed are the kinda people who look for a profession looking business and not neccesarily their work. Like I said most people have stupid ways of looking at thing, but theres nothing we can do about it.
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You shouldn't be lying to the customer about your business status. Honesty is the best policy.



Maybe it's location and personal experience, but I've never encountered a customer who looked for professional image OVER the quality of the job. Sure it ranks on the list, but I think when it comes down to it they really want their vehicle looking good, rather than caring about the number of employees the company has. Many clients enjoy "small-town," personal service, and these are the customers you want anyway; the ones that can really appreciate your hard work.
 
pigeonbus said:
You shouldn't be lying to the customer about your business status. Honesty is the best policy.



Maybe it's location and personal experience, but I've never encountered a customer who looked for professional image OVER the quality of the job. Sure it ranks on the list, but I think when it comes down to it they really want their vehicle looking good, rather than caring about the number of employees the company has. Many clients enjoy "small-town," personal service, and these are the customers you want anyway; the ones that can really appreciate your hard work.
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Ya, like I said, I didn't create the little paragraph. I'm in no way lieing about my business as it not my fathers or my families? I don't know where you guys are getting this from?



I'm thinking for the paragraph that I'll just explain some history and how I got into the business. Then tell them what I do, and why they won't regret choosing my services.
 
I was just stating how you could use we without lieing. Not saying you should lie, because yes that is bad. Just making a point from the average joe's point of view. Sorry I came off differently.

BTW I use "I" on all my flyers and stuff, sometimes use "we" when I get a call, kinda by habbit, although it isn't a lie because I do have two friends that help me out on occation.
 
Oh ya and my dad helps me out on the business side of things. Seeing as how I'm 17 I still dont know all that, but plan to go to college and learn.
 
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