Looking for comments.

[Emmett]

I would appreciate anyone taking a quick peek at my site and giving me some feedback about it.

Especially those of you with slow speed modems if there is such a thing.

I am especially concerned about my graphics loading ability. There are some Very Large pictures in the Comics Collector category.

 

Thank You

Emmett

www.eqg.biz

[Guest]

stock layout, good clear product pics in the comics section, the large pics in jewelry are a bit blurry, and need direct lighting to make the product look brighter.

 

Nice store - could use some graphics work to bring it alive a bit more.

 

I am on cable, so I can't help you on the graphics loading time issue, sorry :(

 

But I will say that on my connection your site is very fast! :D

[timbeckham]

How about larger, more detailed images of the items, particularly those that are higher priced? Jewelry, in particular, has an emotional appeal. If I was going to spend several hundred dollars on a piece, I would want to know very clearly what I was buying. I did not get a clear picture from the blow-up images you provided.

[Emmett]

Thanks for the tips.

Unfortunately the jewelry pics are as big as available to me.

 

I'm working on the graphics a bit to liven things up just a tad.

 

Thank You

Emmett

[Guest]

Just a quick comment on the images Emmett. They seem huge for thumbnails. Most were over a 100Kb each. 100 Bullets for instance is nearly 173Kb and 4 Horesmen is 273Kb. That might be OK for those on cable or broadband but most are still using 56K modems.

 

Try making thumbnails of your images and using those instead on the category and product pages. There are a couple of good mods in the contribs that will help with this.

 

I just put your default page through a Web Optimizer link and it comes out at 255 seconds to load over a 56K modem. Nobody will wait that long for a page to load.

 

The link is below for you to check.

 

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/

[Guest]

I agree with Strider42. You need to make small thumbnail images and upload them - or try a contrib like -

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,1484

 

Even on my DSL I can see how this would be a slow loader on dial-up. Your images are too big.

 

Other thoughts...

 

1) You only offer dollars so get rid of the currency box.

2) Nothing in the Manufacturers so get rid of it...

3) I question the use of dollar amounts for categories. It's just not descriptive enough for people to see. I'd suggest that you change the Manufacturers to be dollar ranges. Create your main categories as Jewelery, Comix and what ever else. Then assign them a Manufacturer (which is a dollar range). THen you can have the Manufacturers box (renamed view by price) as a seperate selection for viewing. You can see how I did it in my not live site - http://www.wowandzen.com/index.php

4) Finally, I'd also question the use of your splash page. It's a major barrier for people browsing your site. Just make the home page be the front of the catalog.

 

Good luck

 

Mark

[Guest]

Emmit:

 

I'm not sure why, but I didn't get your email. I only got the email you sent via this message board.

 

As for not having a splash page, I'd say that the best way would be to re-install your shopping cart at the root level. That way the default.php (or the index.php if you wish - click here) will be your home page. Then you can install a forum that is integrated with your OSC site - click here.

 

There may be other ways around this. You can create a redirect on your root level index page to place you at the catalog - but that could kill you on the search engines. You could create a mirror image of the catalog default page and install it on the root directory. I'm sure there are dozens of other ideas as well.

 

I'm working on a site right now and the client wanted a splash page. I made one for her but I made it with enough functionality/links that hopefully it will encourage people to browse rather than frustrate (but I've been told by some that it's still bothersome :) - oh well, no one has all the answers :D and nothing is perfect). You can view it here to see what I mean - http://www.mosaic-accents.com/index.php

 

Hope this helps. If you have other questions, just post them and I'll try to answer the best I can.

 

Mark

[Guest]

I just took a quick look at your site again and you're making some good changes in my humble opinion.

 

Two other things to think about...

 

1) Page titles. All page titles now say osCommerce. At minimum you want to promote yourself on your page titles. At maximum you want to maximize your page titles for search engine optimization. Take a look at this contrib... http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,207

 

2) I much prefer your catagories without the dollar amounts. Make sure to change the Manufacturers to "View by Price" or something like that... Actually, that wasn't my point. My point is this... Yes, by default the drop down orders by alphabet. It would be less distracting if you strategically use spaces to re-order the prices. Try placing spaces before the dollar amounts in the first four price ranges. The spaces placed before the price should group them together (but I forget - maybe the space should be infront of the larger numbers). Just play with it and you'll figure it out. I got that tip from BirdBrain here.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

mlb