Name: Carly
Site: One Blonde From A Small Town
Review completed on: 9/10/07
SPLASH PAGE
It's been a while since I've had to dive into a splash page. Excuse the lame pun, I'm not feeling 100% today.
Splash pages serve as an unnecessary barrier for the visitor - when they go to your site they expect to see it straight away, but instead they have to go through this obstacle first which can prove annoying for some. I read somewhere that 25% of visitors to a website will just X out of the page if they're presented with a splash, and I know that they're not ideal for search engines either. Back in the day, splash pages were used by many as a means of letting the visitor know what requirements / rules they needed to comply to upon entry to the site. Screen resolution at this, using this internet browser, not to mention "Love and respect", heh. The main reason splash pages have 'died out' is because it is no longer an acceptable practice to demand these things from your visitor - you should be catering to them and not the other way around. If your site looks shit on Firefox, don't put up a splash page telling people so. Make your site look good on this browser instead! It's all about catering to the visitors needs.
Now, the above is just a general rant about the average splash page. Yours is not average in that it doesn't state any viewing requirements by way of what browser / resolution. That does not
mean that your splash is any less pointless, in fact it is even more so because all it is is an enter graphic with a miniscule iframe underneath, with a few lines of text reading something along the lines of
how the visitor needs to read the rules and immature behaviour is unacceptable. That's fair enough, but at the end of the day if someone wants to act like an ass on your site they're not
going to let a few lines on a splash page stop them.
To be perfectly honest I'd say that removing this splash page would be a great idea. Any small requirements you do have can always be displayed on your sidebar instead.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Well, I'm redoing this section because you've changed your layout halfway through the reviewing process. I had pretty much completed your review after working on it off and on over a period of two days.
You probably weren't aware that I was in the middle of reviewing you (although I'm sure you would have noticed my IP in your stats) but just a heads up if you're ever going to submit for a review anywhere else - it always pays to let the reviewer know if you're going to make any layout changes to your site. For all you know the reviewer may be working on your site at the time, and I can tell you it's quite annoying having to rewrite certain sections because the layout has changed.
I'm liking this layout better than your former one - it's more accessible for a start. Your previous header image would keep loading over and over again for some strange reason. Thankfully your new one is not behaving in this way!
LAYOUT
This new header image is definitely easier to look at than the other one. It's creative and colouful, I really like it! What a shame, then, that you've stuck an iframe underneath it to display your content! The use of iframes has definitely been phased out in the last few years as more people are converting to PHP. With PHP, you can include a file into your index page and it'll all show up as one page, instead of being stuck in a poky little frame. Since you're hosted I assume you have PHP at your disposal? Yes? Good! Check out this tutorial on how to convert from iFrames and you'll be good to go. This tutorial also tells you how to convert to PHP includes. Teamed with a tableless (CSS) two column layout, you could make something identical to what you've got now (if you wanted to) but without the prehistoric iFrames! The good times will surely roll once you have moved away from ye frames of olde. Such a move would no doubt be effortless if you follow the instructions in the links above. I followed them myself last year when I converted from iFrames so I know first hand that the transition is as easy as pie.
Lastly, how come your latest blog talking about your new layout is dated June 5th 2007?
CONTENT
First up comes your Site section, which consists of a small write up about the history of your site, followed by a series of past layout images. You have been around a while, I agree. I first reviewed you just short of two years ago! In various parts of your write up you've got a lot as "alot", which isn't correct. Also, "geocities' needs a capital G because it is the name of a freeserver. Ah, I remember Geocities well..my site exceeded its bandwidth limit on an almost daily basis, haha. You say that you have been making websites for 5-6 years and have taken a course in webdesign at your local college. I'm sure then that you would have learnt about PHP and its benefits, as well as how to make a layout that renders correctly on multiple browsers, blah blah blah? Best to take heed of what you learnt and apply these skills to your site, gurlie.
Your Owner section contains a wealth of information, along with some interesting images. I love the pictures of your room, but it's a shame that the marquee script you've used to display them travels fairly quickly across the page. I have to wait for it to come past again to get a better look! Perhaps it'd be better if the marquee getup was left alone...thumbnails all the way, I say. I really like your cork board enter sign, it's very creative. Is that John Lennon and Yoko Ono there? Above this graphic, change pritty magical to pretty magical.
I see you've listed The Matches as one of your favourite bands. Haha as I type this I'm listening to Audio Blood, have you heard that song?
Your Myspace layouts are fine but this page could have been organised a little better with the inclusion of thumbnails that serve as previews.
The mediocre presentation continues on your Links page - and the fact that your subheaders aren't clearly defined is so very apparent. The bolded Affiliates/Link Exchanges/Waiting etc all need to be made larger. As it is now, the links themselves are larger than the headers! Whoops.
And finally for your Other section. I laughed out loud when I read this:
If you tag my tagboard with your opinions on how ugly my layout is, or how much i suck, or any hateful remarks, i will do anything that i please. At least i'm getting something for making layouts, what do you do, tell people you love your mommy and how you went to the store and got some victoria secret panties for your boyfriend who you found out a week later has been cheating on you with a much hotter and more popular cheerleader?Haha, fair enough. This page is where you display all your hate mail - only one example here so far, hope it stays that way for you.
The HTML codes you have provided are very basic and would be more beneficial for beginners over anyone else. Just one thing though - the <s> tag has been deprecated for quite a while now - use <del>
instead.
I loved the Create your own iPod slip page - so creative. The instructions are easy to follow too, and that's always a bonus.
Unfortunately some of your Photos would not load for me since you've stuck so many on the same page. Perhaps dividing them up into categories and sticking them on separate pages could be an option for you - cater for your dialup users.
I like your button links, especially the fact that you've created a variety of sizes. Sweet! This page would be more at home in your Site section I think.
On your contact form, change discusting to disgusting.
SUMMARY
I read the following on your Site page -
I do have to say, I am VERY PROUD of what has become of this site, and would love to get more noticed, and get more content that's worth coming back for.Cool. I'm glad that you're proud of your site - this is the way it should be for all site owners. It can only get better if you convert from iframes to PHP includes and opt for a tableless CSS based layout.
I read somewhere on your site that you did not like people correcting your grammar. I can understand that such an action is annoying, but since you submitted your site to me and all....you get where I'm coming from? Your grammar seems fine to me but the amount of spelling errors present was quite significant - enough for me to be going on about it at the end of your review. I've only corrected a few of them in the review because it'd take all day otherwise! I make sloppy typographical errors all the time but I always make sure to proof read my work before I publish it. Trust me, there are usually a lot of corrections to be made on my part! Errors look amateurish and can create a poor impression of you / your site, showing people that you are not taking your website seriously. After reading certain statements in your content that doesn't seem to be the case at all - but other people may not realise this. In any case it's best to correct ALL of these spelling errors. After all they're mistakes, and what do you do when you make a mistake? You fix it. One of the best ways to catch your own typos and mistakes is by reading the text out loud. Your ear will catch it before your mind does!
Despite the fact that I've just had to rewrite the First Impressions and Layout sections because you've changed your layout overnight, I have enjoyed reviewing you for the most part. Once again though, I cannot stress enough how important it is to let the reviewer know if you're wanting to make some changes - this is especially important to those on the high priority queue. I know that for most people it seems unlikely that I will be reviewing them anytime soon but a good indication of when I am is if you find my IP visiting your site several times, if you're one to check out your statistics. I'm glad you made the layout changes because your site looks much better now (minus the unsightly iFrame) but still, next time let me know yeah? Especially if you're going to convert to PHP and opt for a tableless CSS layout - would love to review you again after you've done this.
You are clearly quite the creative webmaster, and you do have reasonably good content but the way you've chosen to present it is really affecting the overall standard of your site. My advice to you is this - ditch the iframes, rig up a tableless CSS layout and go through every single page and correct all of the spelling errors. That's all it takes. Have fun!
