New store finally open!

[Sibemom2002]

Hi, everyone!!

 

Well, it's been about 2 months (or more) of work and the new store I created is up and live. Hometown Scent~sations is a small candle store that I helped a friend with.

 

We would appreciate constructive feedback on layout, format, verbage, etc.

 

The store is live, so please do not make a test purchase. If, however, you wish ot buy something... far be it from me to stop you! :thumbsup:

 

One thing, I do realize that the "click here to enlarge" links display the same size images... I stupidly uploaded all the thumbnail sized images to the /images folder and didn't add the larger images. I do have the documentation for that mod to get that working (anyone want to guess what I'll be doing tonight?).

 

I apprecaite all the answers to my questions (those that I posted and those I found in the archives)! You all are terrific! :)

 

Best Regards,

 

Tami Jones

[Jprisk]

Im likeing the banner but it looks a bit out of place straight onto the white background otherwise a good site.

 

Bravo!!!!

[♥bruyndoncx]

The header area is made for 800x600 I guess, on wider screen, it sits in the middle, while the rest of the page stretches out left and right. I'd make the site resize gracefully to wider screens.

[FalseDawn]

If you're at all serious, get yourself a proper merchant account and a gateway, then you won't need that offputting statement about paypal near your credit cards logo.

Also, your header is either too large (in KB) or your host sucks - looks poor seeing the header loading so sloooowly.

[Andrew Yuen]

banner is in the center of my screen while the store spreads. I am on 1400 X1050 screen. Consider fixing that.

[Guest]

1) footer seems too long - - takes up more real estate than most footers

2) I'd link to PayPal's doc directly rather than keeping a copy on your own website. If it's on your website, there isn't any good way for your customers to know that it's not a doctored copy, or that it's the current copy.

3) I suggest that you rephrase this:

"The above payment types currently available through PayPal, only.". To something perhaps like this:

"Credit card and e-Check Payments accepted via PayPal."

4) I like your infoboxes!

5) The font you use in "Specials for December" doesn't match the font throughout the rest of your site.

6) In your privacy policy you are very specific that you only share customer information with PayPal. Since you're being that specific, you should also specify that you share it with your shipping company(ies).

 

-jared

[gregy]

1) footer seems too long - - takes up more real estate than most footers

2) I'd link to PayPal's doc directly rather than keeping a copy on your own website.  If it's on your website, there isn't any good way for your customers to know that it's not a doctored copy, or that it's the current copy.

3) I suggest that you rephrase this:

"The above payment types currently available through PayPal, only.".  To something perhaps like this:

  "Credit card and e-Check Payments accepted via PayPal." 

4) I like your infoboxes!

5) The font you use in "Specials for December" doesn't match the font throughout the rest of your site.

6) In your privacy policy you are very specific that you only share customer information with PayPal.  Since you're being that specific, you should also specify that you share it with your shipping company(ies).

 

-jared

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

some say it's nothing some say it's a must .. decide yourself and take a look at Validator W3C

 

you have 41 mistake :) .. with a little time they can be solved .. i did manage to pass Validator .. results are HERE

 

bye :thumbsup:

[Sibemom2002]

Im likeing the banner but it looks a bit out of place straight onto the white background otherwise a good site.

 

Bravo!!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks, Jprisk! Yes, I guess I have to do a little "clean up" on the header. Others have listed issues with the fluidity (or lack thereof) of the header compared to the rest of the site. I'll be working on that right after I get my mySQL/php issue worked out on the server... :(

 

Thanks again for the feedback! :)

 

Tami

[Sibemom2002]

The header area is made for 800x600 I guess, on wider screen, it sits in the middle, while the rest of the page stretches out left and right. I'd make the site resize gracefully to wider screens.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi, Catherine!

 

Thanks, and yes, the image was made for 800X600.

 

As soon as I have my server issues worked out (hopefully today), I will be working on that. :)

 

Thanks, again!

 

Tami

[Sibemom2002]

If you're at all serious, get yourself a proper merchant account and a gateway, then you won't need that offputting statement about paypal near your credit cards logo.

Also, your header is either too large (in KB) or your host sucks - looks poor seeing the header loading so sloooowly.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi, FalseDawn - thanks for the feedback!

 

The owners of the store are not ready for a "proper merchant account" and the funds that go along with it. I will re-evaluate the statement near the credit cards and see if I can't make it a little more "friendly".

 

The header *is* a bit large. I've reduced the slices relatively small (each 3k or less). I'd be curious to know how you are accessing the site... Dial up? DSL? Cable? I have two T1 lines here at work, and dial up at home. While the images are a bit slow at home, I didn't think it was that bad... And well within 8 - 12 seconds to load the whole page... I've been quite pleased with my host, so I'm not sure it's their doing...

 

Has anyone else found the heading to be really slow loading? And does anyone have any suggestions as to how to determine if it's my host that's slowing things down?

 

Thanks, again!

Tami

[Sibemom2002]

banner is in the center of my screen while the store spreads. I am on 1400 X1050 screen. Consider fixing that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks, Andy! Yes, the fluidity of the header (or lack there of) is the first thing I will be tackling. I appreciate you reviewing the site! So, any tips on how to view a site at that high of a resolution - without having to buy a huge, new monitor?? Sorry if this is a really stupid question - and I'm thinking I know the answer, but I guess I just haven't had enough coffee this morning... :(

 

Thanks, again!

 

Tami

[Sibemom2002]

some say it's nothing some say it's a must .. decide yourself and take a look at Validator W3C

 

you have 41 mistake :) .. with a little time they can be solved .. i did manage to pass Validator .. results are HERE

 

bye  :thumbsup:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi, Greg!

 

Thanks for running it through the validator! Yes, it is important to me, and shame on me for not already doing it! I'll look at the errors, and work on fixing them.

 

Since you are obviously gifted in troubleshooting the errors in the validator... :) If I get stuck (and I mean really stuck!), do you mind if I run one or two by you?

 

Again, thanks for the review and the reminder!!

 

Tami

[gregy]

hi Tami

 

be sure i will help you with all my best i can do .. that's why community stands for, right? :)

[Sibemom2002]

hi Tami

 

be sure i will help you with all my best i can do .. that's why community stands for, right? :)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hey, Greg!

 

Thanks a million - yes, that's what I was hoping the community was for... :)

 

Right now, I am fighting with my server - seems that it is having some hardware issues... <sigh>. It's always something. As soon as my host has it back up and running, I'll run the validator (since now all it's returning is errors off of the error message), and begin chipping away at the issues.

 

I think I'll work on that before working on the header - I know it's not as pretty as it could be, but it's not a disaster. I think I'd rather be compliant than pretty, at least at the moment! :)

 

Tami

[Sibemom2002]

1) footer seems too long - - takes up more real estate than most footers

2) I'd link to PayPal's doc directly rather than keeping a copy on your own website.  If it's on your website, there isn't any good way for your customers to know that it's not a doctored copy, or that it's the current copy.

3) I suggest that you rephrase this:

"The above payment types currently available through PayPal, only.".  To something perhaps like this:

  "Credit card and e-Check Payments accepted via PayPal." 

4) I like your infoboxes!

5) The font you use in "Specials for December" doesn't match the font throughout the rest of your site.

6) In your privacy policy you are very specific that you only share customer information with PayPal.  Since you're being that specific, you should also specify that you share it with your shipping company(ies).

 

-jared

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi, Jared!

 

Thanks for taking the time to really give the site a good once over! I appreciate you being so very thorough! :)

 

I have the punch list printed out and will start tackling it one item at a time. Another member suggested that I also go through the W3C validation, which is also on the "to do" list.

 

Great suggestion about linking directly to PayPal's document - I'll definitely do that - it takes a pretty big chunk on disk space, anyway.

 

I will definitely change the verbage on the PayPal stuff - I agree that it doesn't sound too friendly, nor as professional as I'd like...

 

Also, you've made an excellent point about the privacy policy, and I will indeed include the USPS as another company who information is shared with (that is the only shipping method currently available).

 

What would you say is the average amount of space that a footer uses? I know that most are quite small... So, how much is too much? 50 pixels tall? Or is there really no rule of thumb? Perhaps, I should make an infobox just for payment types accepted and remove that section out of the footer. Do you think that would decrease the size enough?

 

Again, I really want to thank you for all your wonderful feedback!! I truly appreciate it! I'll get to work on the changes just as soon as my server is back up and running. It had a hardware failure - the hard drive is hosed, and has been replaced. The OS and cPanel install should be finished by 3pm EDT, and my accounts restored by 5 pm. And here I thought it was just a database problem... <sigh> Then it's back to work!! :)

 

Tami

[gregy]

Hey, Greg!

 

Thanks a million - yes, that's what I was hoping the community was for... :)

 

Right now, I am fighting with my server - seems that it is having some hardware issues... <sigh>. It's always something. As soon as my host has it back up and running, I'll run the validator (since now all it's returning is errors off of the error message), and begin chipping away at the issues.

 

I think I'll work on that before working on the header - I know it's not as pretty as it could be, but it's not a disaster. I think I'd rather be compliant than pretty, at least at the moment! :)

 

Tami

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

i also thought that it works well .. but when i viewed it with Firefox i noticed some strange positions of borders and images ... now when W3C passed, everything looks good in IE in Netscape in Firefox .. pure satisfaction :D

[gregy]

here we go ...

first of all add these line to every file

 

in the first row, before <html>

<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

 

then add into stylesheet.css into body tag

margin : 0;

 

and in all files in catalog delete

marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" topmargin="0" bottommargin="0" leftmargin="0"

they are in the body tag .. pretty at the top .. right behind </head>

 

for now .. then we will se later ahead .. PLEASE DO BACKUP .. i have different templates as you have .. but html is pretty the same .. but you never know :)

 

awaitting your report :)

[gregy]

two more thing ..

 

you have two <head> tags

 

  1: <html>
 2: <head>
 3: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
 4: </head>
 5: 
 6: <body>
 7: <!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
 8: 
 9: <html dir="LTR" lang="en">
10: <head>
11: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> ......

 

your first line should look like this

 

<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<html dir="LTR" lang="en">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-

 

and another .. everywhere you have line for javascript .. like

 

<script language="javascript" src="includes/general.js">

you should have

 

<script language="javascript" src="includes/general.js" type="text/javascript">

 

make this corrections .. then we will see what is with meta tags .. pretty meesed up ..

[gregy]

for example these are mine first rows .. down to <body>

<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html dir="LTR" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1250">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="EXPIRES" CONTENT="0">
<META NAME="DISTRIBUTION" CONTENT="GLOBAL">
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Predprodaja vstopnic za vse večje koncerte v Sloveniji, Avstriji, Italiji, na Hrva?kem, Nemčiji ter ostalih dr?avah Evrope. Prav tako prodajamo vstopnice za ?portne prireditve, ko?arko, nogomet, na koncu koncev pa nam tudi vstopnice za gledali?ča niso tuje!">
<META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="Vstopnice.com - Koncertni Portal">
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="vstopnice, koncerti, ?kuc, bebe, prireditve, predprodaja, koncert, vstopnice, hard rock shop, u2, pink floyd, rock, kreditna, kartica, spletna trgovina, ?ov, glasba, opera, ticketshop, webshop">
<META NAME="COPYRIGHT" CONTENT="Copyright (c) 2002 by Vstopnice.com - Koncertni Portal">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW">
<META NAME="REVISIT-AFTER" CONTENT="1 DAYS">
<META NAME="RATING" CONTENT="GENERAL">
<title>Vstopnice.com - Edini Pravi Naslov za Va? Koncert!</title>
<base href="http://www.vstopnice.com/shop/">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css">

</head>
<body>

 

compare with yours .. and find best solutions with meta tags for you

 

sorry for mistake in first post above with codes .. you should add that first line into all files in CATALOG ..

[Jprisk]

Another thing :D The HomeTown site is of high quality and easy on the eyes but the to images located at :

 

https://www.hometownscentsations.com/catalo...ages/nolead.jpg

 

and

 

https://www.hometownscentsations.com/catalo...es/safewick.jpg

 

do not seem up to the websites standards.

 

As again Bravo!

[Sibemom2002]

Another thing  :D The HomeTown site is of high quality and easy on the eyes but the to images located at :

 

https://www.hometownscentsations.com/catalo...ages/nolead.jpg

 

and

 

https://www.hometownscentsations.com/catalo...es/safewick.jpg

 

do not seem up to the websites standards.

 

As again Bravo!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thank you for the kind words. Unfortunately, the two images you refer to are not ours, and the linked site requires no changes be made to them. They are "industry standard" safety links that all (if not most) candle manufacturers are affiliated with. Yes, I'd really like to modify them, and contacted Candle Safety.org, but they do not want anyone "messing with" their logos. As is understandable...

 

Thanks, again!

 

Tami

[Sibemom2002]

for example these are mine first rows .. down to <body>

<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html dir="LTR" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1250">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="EXPIRES" CONTENT="0">
<META NAME="DISTRIBUTION" CONTENT="GLOBAL">
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Predprodaja vstopnic za vse večje koncerte v Sloveniji, Avstriji, Italiji, na Hrva?kem, Nemčiji ter ostalih dr?avah Evrope. Prav tako prodajamo vstopnice za ?portne prireditve, ko?arko, nogomet, na koncu koncev pa nam tudi vstopnice za gledali?ča niso tuje!">
<META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="Vstopnice.com - Koncertni Portal">
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="vstopnice, koncerti, ?kuc, bebe, prireditve, predprodaja, koncert, vstopnice, hard rock shop, u2, pink floyd, rock, kreditna, kartica, spletna trgovina, ?ov, glasba, opera, ticketshop, webshop">
<META NAME="COPYRIGHT" CONTENT="Copyright (c) 2002 by Vstopnice.com - Koncertni Portal">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW">
<META NAME="REVISIT-AFTER" CONTENT="1 DAYS">
<META NAME="RATING" CONTENT="GENERAL">
<title>Vstopnice.com - Edini Pravi Naslov za Va? Koncert!</title>
<base href="http://www.vstopnice.com/shop/">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css">

</head>
<body>

 

compare with yours .. and find best solutions with meta tags for you

 

sorry for mistake in first post above with codes .. you should add that first line into all files in CATALOG ..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hi, Greg,

 

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner... I had some personal issues come up that I needed to deal with... First thing I noticed was that most of the hand coded stuff I added was all in xhtml. So, I changed the doctype to recognize the files as xhtml. The reason I had two headers was because the index.php file at the root uses an include statement to bring up /catalog/index.php. I had inadvertantly added <head> and <html> tags to it. Silly me!

 

Anyway, so I've been working on several of the issues that W3C has identified as non-compliant. I'm making head way, but it's SLOW. One thing... Something I changed (and I'm not sure what) has hosed the catagories box. It no longer "stretches" to fit the links. I looked at the source and saw that it is getting 4 catagories correctly from the database, and it should just multiply that by the height of the line (mine is 40px, I think). Perhaps I changed something that I shouldn't have... Would you (or anyone else out there that is better than me with javascript) have an idea what is causing this?

 

Also, if you get a chance to look at the W3C report, there are a few at the top that I've skipped cause I don't have a clue what they mean...

 

Thanks, again,

 

Tami

[CorpBoy]

Something I noticed (forgive me if it was already mentioned):

 

Your categories box doesn't seem to be large enough to accomodate all of the categories. On my screen (1024x768 I.E. 6.0) I'm seeing "Candle Parties" and "Fundraisers" bleeding over the category box bottom into the whitespace and Quick Find box.

 

If you would like/need it, I have a JPG of just that section of the screen saved. PM me and I'll forward it to you

[Taipa]

Another thing  :D The HomeTown site is of high quality and easy on the eyes but the to images located at :

 

https://www.hometownscentsations.com/catalo...ages/nolead.jpg

 

and

 

https://www.hometownscentsations.com/catalo...es/safewick.jpg

 

do not seem up to the websites standards.

 

As again Bravo!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I agree with Jprisk here, those are pretty bad graphics. With the pixilation I see at 1024x768, I can only assume how poor they look at 800x600.

I followed the links back to http://www.leadfreecandles.org/, and I see that's all they offer for websites to use.

 

I have a potential solution: contact the people at leadfreecandles.org, and ask them if they have any graphics that are more "professional" looking. If you did the graphics on your own site yourself, you can offer to re-do their graphics for them. This would benefit not only your shop (because then you'd have graphics that are much more professional), but would also benefit leadfreecandles.org, and any number of stores/websites that use images from leadfreecandles.org

 

EDIT: sorry, I got distracted and took too long to type this reply. I now see you've already contacted http://www.leadfreecandles.org. and they don't want anyone "messing" with their labels. How about, as I suggested, if you offered to "re-do" their labels for them. Would they not appreciate the effort?

[Sibemom2002]

Something I noticed (forgive me if it was already mentioned):

 

Your categories box doesn't seem to be large enough to accomodate all of the categories.  On my screen (1024x768 I.E. 6.0) I'm seeing "Candle Parties" and "Fundraisers" bleeding over the category box bottom into the whitespace and Quick Find box.

 

If you would like/need it, I have a JPG of just that section of the screen saved.  PM me and I'll forward it to you

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yup... Tried to fix one thing (editing non-standard items) and it broke something else (the auto-height of the catagories box)... Not sure how it happened, and I'm still trying to fix it. :( Thanks for pointing it out though - any suggestions of what I did??

 

Tami