Please offer your opinions

[lydia09]

Hi everybody,
Would anyone mind looking at my new web site, please, and telling me what you think of it? It's a bit of a shell right now; I'll be adding some major content in the near future. But, if anyone could give me some advice on color schemes, images, anything in the look and feel, I'd appreciate it.

Oh, and my site technically is a promotional web site for a group of books I'm writing, I don't mean this post to be an advertisement, though, since I don't quite have them published yet. I hope nobody thinks of it as spam.

I would appreciate it, though, if you think my ideas are interesting, if you'd say so, just because every writer craves feedback.

My site is:
http://lydiascarletswan.x10hosting.com

Thanks,
Lydia

 

[necteraaus]

Well, no offence, but it is a bit plain. I'm not sure what you're books are like, so I can't suggest what exactly to do, but I think if you had a theme somewhat like your book covers, then it would look a lot nicer. It may change as there is more content on there, but it seems a bit rushed currently. But keep at it, and you should end up with a good website.

 

[Zubair]

The is site is very small. Try to make it larger as soon as possible..

 

[lydia09]

Thank you both,
I had a feeling the site currently being small would work against me, thank you for being honest, though. It's going to be small for a little while longer because I've run into a few publishing setbacks, but I'm actively working on other content.

Does it seem rushed because it's small, or is there something about how it's laid out? I didn't take any offense at all about it being plain, I know it is at the moment.

My books are usually thrillers or mysteries with a little dash of romance thrown in every now and then, does that lend itself to any ideas?

Thanks again,
Lydia

 

[necteraaus]

Does it seem rushed because it's small, or is there something about how it's laid out? I didn't take any offense at all about it being plain, I know it is at the moment.

Well, what made me think it was a bit rushed was mainly the navigation menu at the side; it is blocky (well it is a rectangle, lol) and is a bit too long compared to what's actually in it.

My books are usually thrillers or mysteries with a little dash of romance thrown in every now and then, does that lend itself to any ideas?

Well, the colour scheme seems to suit those kinds of books quite well, but maybe you could have like a dark red swirly line background (like these http://images2.layoutsparks.com/1/84615/red-swirls-black-design.jpg) as to me they suit a thriller book. Also, you could have some kind of border around the navigation menu at the side, to make it look nicer.

Hope that helps.

 

[lydia09]

Thanks necteraaus,
That's a great idea, and a great background. Where did you get it? I tried to go to the base site but it didn't seem to exist. Are the images on that site copyright free?
Thanks again,
Lydia

 

[necteraaus]

Thanks necteraaus,
That's a great idea, and a great background. Where did you get it? I tried to go to the base site but it didn't seem to exist. Are the images on that site copyright free?
Thanks again,
Lydia

No problem. I was just searching on Google to try and find an image to explain, so I'm not sure if it is copyright free. Try looking around on image sites such as http://www.deviantart.com/ for abstract like images. I found this one while looking for a background for my site, http://www.psdgraphics.com/backgrounds/red-and-blue-abstract-waves-backgrounds/, but I don't think it's quite right, mainly due to the background being white. Anyway, it looks like you should end up with a good site! :biggrin:

 

[lydia09]

Thanks again necteraaus,
I appreciate the references, looks like I have work to do!
Lydia

 

[necteraaus]

Thanks again necteraaus,
I appreciate the references, looks like I have work to do!
Lydia

Don't worry about it :biggrin: I'm here to help. Make sure you tell us when you've updated the site, so we can have another look. If you want to, you could also give me some Rep That would be nice :biggrin: (You do that if someone's helped you, and it's the in the bottom left corner)

Hope it all goes well.

Edit: Thanks for the Rep Lydia09 :biggrin:

 

[lydia09]

No problem, you were very helpful.

 

[techairlines]

I recommend trying to shrink the header banner size to something more bandwidth friendly. Right now it's now a 300 KB BMP file, which will take a while to download for those on slower connections, such as mine.

I just converted it into a PNG (same dimensions) and it becomes only 13 KB. I recommend using PNG or JPG.

 

[Danielx386]

^^^^That a good point^^^^ Also I don't know about red on black background...... But that could be just me. But nice site

Daniel