Business Website Review

[ajaonyx47]

All ... please review my business website and comment on any of the following (as well as anything else you want to comment on ...

I am in the beginning of a site redesign ... but I want to incorporate any comments or suggestions I receive from here ... before I finalize the new site.

1) Does the website "message" come across clearly?? Is it clear what the product is ...??

2) Is the business opportunity associated with our product readily accessible and clearly explained??

3) Does the contact information stand out??

4) Should I make the "News" page stand out more?? I think this media information is pretty powerful ... so I'm considering making it more prominent.

Thanks in advance for all the great advice!!

Raymond
http://HoneyIShrunkOurMortgage.com

[ajaonyx47]

Hello, hello ... is there anybody out there?? Just nod if you can hear me ...

Is there anyone at all??

(extra points if you can name the lyrics) ...

No one wants to review my business website?? Don't everyone jump in at once ... might get crowded in here ... (smile) ...

[Charles Sweeney]

Excellent name! Good luck with the Trademark application.

Big header, fixed width. Have I missed a newly passed law that states all sites must have this?

Your information is all over the place. The page desperately needs structure and cleaning up.

Dollar signs and pictures of Dollar bills are a HUGE turn-off for me. Makes it look like a stupid meaningless get-rich-quick scheme.

(I didn't see your second post when I made mine. I reviewed it without being asked twice! Having said that, if I did see your second post I might not have reviewed it.)

[mycwcgr]

Your website is very good, but it's a little difficult to find navigation menu, because the menu use a normal font and color, I think the menu should locate in top and in line.

[gordong1968]

I didn't understand the purpose of your site. Is it to save money on your mortgage? To become a reseller? Purchase a website? Earn extra money? The focus is all over the place.

I am not judging your product or services, but most visitors are going to immediately hit the back button on their browser without taking the time to investigate your content.

My specific recommendations to help improve your site:

1) Get rid of the big dollar sign and the falling money imagery. It looks like an infomercial.

2) Your site content is actually pulled from three different domains: honeyishrunkmortgage.com, u1stfinancial.com and xmission.com. This approach can make your site appear untrustworthy.

3) Remove the family photo from your home page. You want this to look like a serious financial services page.

4) Content is all over the place. Clarify the purpose of your site so that a visitor can see what you do in the first couple of seconds. Only use content that supports this focus.

5) Few people are interesting in ordering a website from their mortgage broker or financial adviser. It's great if you want to develop websites, but do this as a separate business with its own domain.

6) Why disable right mouse clicks? It causes annoying pop-up dialogs and there is no reason for it. (Are you trying to prevent visitors from viewing your source? From saving the pictures? Disabling the right click won't prevent either of these.)

7) Combine and streamline the disclaimers at the bottom of your page. There is a disclaimer for United First and a separate one for Honey I Shrunk Our mortgage.

8) The tables based design you are using looks very "dated" and give the appearance of a modified template.

Best of luck with your site!!

[Talita]

The colours are nice and work well together. However the home page feels to 'busy' for me - there's just too much going on and you don't know where to start. The other pages are much better.

I agree with Charles in regards to the dollar signs and bills, they don't appeal to me either.

[jpatton]

I like the colors that you chose for the website to start with. The gray box for Call or Email me now for a doesn't quite match up interms of size with the rest of the logo in firefox.

I don't care for the gray box containing your contact information I would find a more attractive way to present that data.

You navigation is not readily apparent to me. You might look for a way to place it somewhere that its more easily noticed.

John

[shahab6]

way too much info on the first page.

[ajaonyx47]

Thank you all for your comments and inputs.

Some of the feedback is about things I have already noted ... some of it is new ... but all very valuable. I appreciate it. I am in the middle of site redesign and will take all of this feedback to heart.

I will respond again with some answers to a few questions raised ... but again ... I appreciate the input and your taking your time to do the reviews.

Raymond

[JLHC]

Sorry as I may have some harsh comments here...

1stly, too many things in your homepage.

2nd, your font size & type makes your site looks unprofessional.

3rd, the homepage is too long, try shorten it as visitors would not like to scroll a lot.

4th, the words (explanations) & pictures looks confusing.

5th, "Website Design / Domain Name Registration / Customized Email Accounts
Order Your Own Website Today" makes me wonder what is your site content about.

Hope you'll redesign your site according to the comments that is stated by everybody here as they all give very constructive comments.
Sorry for being a little harsh.

Hope to see your redesigned site soon.

[keyeraines]

Coming from a mortgage background, the first thing I thought was unprofessional. I mean that respectfully. There is way too much going on for anyone to take you seriously. When you are talking about potentially handling the greatest asset that most people have, you definitely want to be seen as professional. I think you can accomplish this by removing some of the images, like the money and the family photo. Secondly, I would remove this totally "Website Design / Domain Name Registration / Customized Email Accounts
Order Your Own Website Today". I would also take this off the main page:

Are you a Mortgage Broker?
Real Estate Agent?
Insurance Agent?
Certified Public Accountant?
Financial Planner?
Click here to find out how you can offer this program to your clients.

You should choose whether you want your home page to be consumer focused or business partner focused. Don't mixed to two as it seems like an affiliate program or MLM when you offer others to sell the same product you are offering to your consumers all at the same time.

In my opinion, the use of multiple fonts, colors and sizes shouts sales page. Perhaps I point this out because I am not a fan of sales pages and they turn me off.

Overall, I think the design is really nice. I think the majority of the areas you can improve on would definitely be content.

[jt_va]

moronic.

[rbfree]

Hi ajaonyx47,

I agree (with other reviewers) that your intended purpose and audience are unclear. I always ask myself, what is this site supposed to offer me? I couldn't answer that question with this site.

When reading a site, I start in the upper left hand corner and work down and right searching for meaning. Depending upon the content, I'll either go down, right, or at an angle.

So, maybe in that general area (NW), you could offer a simple, active, and clear statement about what the owners of this website are offering.

I see lots of conspicuous negative space in a very large header. Could you optimize your use of space and make more room for an intro statement?

Also, I find the large, black, underlined links gaudy. Perhaps you can restyle them to make them equally noticeable yet more subtle. Finesse over force.

And I agree about the family photo. It doesn't seem appropriate to me.

Well, I wish you the best, and I hope you find these remarks helpful.

[ajaonyx47]

All,

Thank you for your feedback. I completely redesigned the website to incorporate some of the comments and feedback that I received. Please take another look if you get a chance.

http://HoneyIShrunkOurMortgage.com

[jamestflynn]

Hello,

Overall I think the site is simple and to the point which is a good thing. One thing I might do is change the background color in the main body of the page to make the main text stand out a little better. I think it gets a little subdued in the gradient.

There a couple of logical parts of the page

Header , Nav , main content, and bottom links, and footer

For the header:

The top newsletter link with magazine cover graphic. If this was moved to the left a little and center it to the left of the Honey I Shrunk Our Mortgage™!!! logo text and then bring the contact info and photo to the right of the logo text. So basically make the newsletter, logo and contact info on one line bringing the rest of the page content up.

Nav is fine

Main content is fine

Bottom links I would add some kind of visual separation between those links and the rest of the page. Maybe just add a little css box (http://www.html.it/articoli/nifty/nifty1.html) with with a title of news and resources.

[Bikespot]

Truthfully , it looks like you got some little kid to design the site.

Not professional looking at all. To simple , not liking the colors.

The name of the site is unique , i like it.

[coopr]

Hello

You need to look credible in this marketplace and I'm afraid your website looks home-made. If people are going to trust your advice you should look big enough to know what you are talking about and strong enough to be there in twelve months time.

The name is good and conveys what your offering is. Look at some of the best firms in your marketplace - really credible names - and be very critical about how you stand you against them. This is a branding issue and I'd have to suggest the look and feel of your website undermines any brand you may be trying to develop.

[marketinggallery]

Love the website name! Everybody wants to shrink their mortgage!

Site looks good, yet navigation is a bit confusing.
Layout and design could be better.
Need to strengthen your professional appearance
for this type of industry.


I'll review it later for more indepth feedback...

[maja-atwork]

Sorry sorry sorry,

but a business website should be done by professionals. This looks like a handmade student website from 1999. In your businness the form reflects trust in content. Are you going to a business meeting in Jeans and a handmade Wool Pullover?

[FizixRichard]

Yeah, I agree - looks like a kid made it. I opened the site and didn't take it seriously. Unprofessional, messy, ugly, non-descript and laughable.

Your name even cries out unprofessional. Satirical name puns can be allowed legally and can also be considered professional if everything else is professional and its well selected (quirky doesnt mean unprofessional if its done right).

But this is all wrong.


Offsite links should be obvious, your main menu took me away from your site! Thats not good!

[Yiwu]

I think its too big for me, the font size and the design, I need to use scroll bar to see the information. (1024*768,FF)

[cheesedude]

Hello, hello ... is there anybody out there?? Just nod if you can hear me ...

Is there anyone at all??

(extra points if you can name the lyrics) ...

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb

The site doesn't look like a mortgage site. It's not conservative looking. It's not a bad looking site, it just looks not like a business site. It's also too dark.

As far as capturing attention with your purpose, I think something like:

Pay off your mortgage in 1/2 the time using our innovative Money Merge Account!

Then go on to explain further.

It would be better than:

Through an innovative program called the Money Merge Account™, homeowners across the nation are paying off their mortgages in as little as 1/3 to 1/2 the time.

Also, the site is too wide to fit on a 1024x768 resolution, which I am using. Very few people use 800x600 any more. But you don't want to inconvenience the majority of your visitors with a site that is too wide.

I also think the fonts are too big, especially in the navigation buttons (free analysis, about program). Using too large of a font screams "amateur!".

Take a look at the Countrywide site or other mortgage sites to get an idea of what kind of look they are using. Then you'll get an idea of what is expected of this industry.

[rbfree]

The two images are also distracting, as is. The monopoly tokens (is that what the red, house-looking things are?) significantly diminish the look, and they are in a visually prominent position. (They're pixelated and you can see the jagged white pixel areas where your image editing wasn't precise.) The family photo is also distracting, as the image quality is bad and gives the reader no useful information.

[marita!]

Yikes

[TEmelie]

Hi.
I don't like your website
The background is ok but :
- the main menu is weird can you merge all the items ?
- shrinkinghouses.gif looks bad on the header you need high quality
- font is too big ...
You have some work to do
Wish you the best,
Temelie