another adsense newbie asking for site review

I'm in the final stages of building my site: thetoolsmith.com. If any one has the time would you mind taking a look and providing me with some feedback. Thank you for your time

 

Good concept for a site. Ad placement is ok.

The next step is to sort out the header. Is very bland.

 

Hmm, you should have posted this thread here http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23

Anyway, I like the layout

 

Site looks clean ... obviously you need more info on there

you shoulld use the adsense ads at top that are just have the single words in them , they would look like navigation and surely you would get some clicks.

The grey area could use something in it .. not much but a slogan or something to balance it

I personally like the looks

You have things to add in the future by a great start

Mr Crow

 

I agree about the header being well.....bland. I'll try to come up with something for that.

Thanks

 

Ok..I added a slogan. I agree, it did need something a little more.

Thanks again

 

font needs to be a little bigger - otherwise its alright

Its blurry for me

 

Why don't you make your logo background green as well? The grey is, as the other fellow said, somewhat drab.

As well, for Adsense, I recommend putting Adlinks in your left column. Blend the links in to look like the rest of your navigation.

 

I suggest:

• get rid of gray, logo needs to definitely be spiced up
• Use adlinks either as a bar right under logo or in left sidebar
• Blend ads in on right sidebar, the green borders scream ad
• put a large rectangle ad block right under Welcome
• track all changes via channels and you will see which ones get best results.

 

Ok...take another look. I've changed the font on the logo so it's easier to read. I removed the 'screaming' ad links on the right and blended them in the left nav bar. I didn't change the logo background as I think it takes away from the logo...just my opinion.

Thanks

 

No need to justify anything, toolsmith. It's your site, and at the end of the day, you're the one who has to be comfortable with it. Good luck.

 

I personally think Jack Burton hit it on the head , its your site .. I like the grey and the logo.. but heck what do I know

I hope you do well little buddy

THe Crow

 

no need to improve

 

I appreciate all the feedback. I've made some of the changes suggested. Thanks again for all the advice.

 

Hello! I've been designing websites over 10 years so I hope my feedback helps a little. 1. The S is very hard to detect in Smith in the logo. 2. The colors in your logo don't go well together and the yellow isn't represented anywhere on the site. 3. The button look of the logo, and the text with the drop shadow were very popular pre- 1999. Therefore; the style is very outdated and the average user will think the site is not current. 4. The copyright should be at the bottom of the page. I know you want to fill up the space on the top, but, that looks very obviouse. 5. You have too many colors on your page. You should at least attempt to make the hyper link text the same green as your side panel. 6. Changing your font to Arial will make the text cleaner and professional. 7. Honestly! you have to match your colors. The greens should be the same greens. I think you need to change the green side panel to a darker warmer prettier green. 8. Watch out for typos and grammatical mistakes. I have found many in the first paragraph. 9. Get to the point quicker and use headings. There is a lot of text and it takes too long to figure out what your site is about. If they can't figure out what your site is they will never look at the left link. 10. Reiteration: Make headings for each paragraph. It would be probably good to make a bold GREEN title heading as the same green as your left panel. 11. I would get rid of the grey blob, make your logo much smaller, and make the whole top section smaller. That way you won't need to fill in all that space. The big logo is another sign of a pre 1999 site. 12. Put the google links in the top left corner. Please take everything I'm saying as constructive. You don't have to agree with what I'm saying but, if you want people to look at your site as professional, you should really take the advice. If you want you can PM me for further assistance. I will be glad to help.

 

factchecker

My background is in engineering and not design as you have so politely pointed out. I've made the following changes to my index page for further review: 1. The logo is very important as it's used as an icon in my programs so I had to create something that “jumped” out. 2. I removed all the text drop shadows. 3. I moved the copyright to the bottom of the page. 4. Changed the hyper link colors to reflect the green nav bar. 5. Changed the font to arial. 6. I don't expect people to stumble onto my page hence the detailed description of tools being created. 6. Changed heading to green bold to match nav bar. 7. Shrunk the entire top bar including the logo by 25%. I really do appreciate the constructive criticism if you have another minute would you mind taking another look and let me know what you think.

Thanks

 

I like the new look, when I said logo needs spiced up I actually meant banner at top, so sorry about that, the logo design itself is pretty cool.

I think I would still put an adlinks under the banner and track the channel to see if it got any clicks.

Heck, in looking at it again, I think the logo is different enough that you should left and right justify it on the banner and put your text centered in the middle.