MarMachine website

Does not explain what you do, what you do WELL, what you WANT to do, what you WANT to do WELL, and the difference between all these.

No pics.

Usual comments about lousy navigati> Ok! So I'm stupid. I think it would be somewhat intelligent to include

Well, I have a comment, Leigh. When I go look at your ebay auctions, the location shows up as "United States" when I'm looking at all the auctions at once. A newish ebay feature allows you to show the location and even sort by location, and there must be some trap when you are entering an auction which makes it show up as "United States" instead of "Costa Mesa, CA" which is of course where you are. So take a look at that.

For everyone else, Leigh is a good guy to buy from in my experience; also looks to me to be a pretty fair machinist.

Grant Erwin Kirkland, Washington

Equipment list -> 404 About: Eye cancer! Blue letters on red background.

And what do you do?

Nick

CA Truck Man.

But you know what ruck is (from rucksack AKA backback). So he's one with a cat on his back. Only knew that with old long haired wimen. But ...

Nick

Ok, here's several things to think about.

• As Nick mentioned, your color choices are a bit intense.

• Go to
  formatting link
  and enter your page address in the URL field and check out what it finds. Do it for each page. It gets a zillion errors on the line that links eBay, but this is probably not a real problem. It does find some other errors which may be mainly typos.

If you use the Firefox browser, I suggest installing the "Web Developer" extension. One feature is a tool item that lets you validate the page you are looking at with one click.

• For your lists of items, I would suggest using html definition lists, something like this... dl dt 1st thing title /dt dd description of 1st thing /dd dt 2nd thing title /dt dd description of 2nd thing /dd /dl

(I left out the angle brackets around the tags so as not to confuse any html newsreaders.)

It'll take some work to split what you have, but this should make the items stand out better for people trying to do a quick browse.

• Your links like "back to main" are absolute rather than relative. Make them relative and then the pages will work with each other no matter where they live. In your case you are linking back to "http://[something].com/marmach/marmach.htm" (which happens not to exist now.) Make it just "marmach.htm" or "../marmach.htm" if you need to go up a level -- then the browser will link relative to where it is now.

Check all of your links while developing and again after you put the pages on the internet.

• At least one of your pages still has the title "untitled page". Give it a real title that makes sense. Besides just looking better in the browser, it is one of the main things that search engines look at when finding your pages.

Stop using an AOL member page for a company web page- no matter how professional your company is, the AOL page and e-mail address makes it look like you're a cheapskate working out of a toolshed. Real companies use their company name as their domain name.

-Carl

222 89977 body >Ok! So I'm stupid. I think it would be somewhat intelligent to include

Stop using an AOL member page for a company web page- no matter how professional your company is, the AOL page and e-mail address makes it look like you're a cheapskate working out of a toolshed. Real companies use their company name as their domain name.

-Carl

I have a feeling that the current AOL home is temporary.

According to :

O.K. I can do more with that. :-)

The first thing that I notice is that the "back" link from the machines-for-sale page is pointing somewhere wrong.

I note that that page appears to be a single page with multiple entry points -- you might want to break it up into multiple pages so when it grows it does drown someone in lathes who is looking for a drill press. Download time can be a killer, as is the case in the pages of at least one of the sites which sells VFDs and motors.

Of course, some of the other links don't go anywhere yet as well, but the "back" links should be fixed early. Of course, the browser's own back arrow will still work -- unless someone gets passed a link to a sub-page and they want to see what else you offer -- or how to contact you. "Equipment list" is one which leads nowhere, instead of to an "under construction" page.

FWIW -- I'm visitor 114 -- and visitor 117. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Hey Leigh,

Nice and plain, EASY to read. At least one link did not work for me in two tries (EQUIPMENT LIST).

It is a bit subtle as to what your operation is. Does any of this affect the number or location of the hits one would get during a Google?

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

Looks pretty amateur. Are you a pro machinist or an amateur? How do you want to come across? (Yes, these are rhetorical questions.) I would suggest you hire a pro designer and a copy writer.

Some specifics:

The "about" graf should be on the opening page. If the visitor doesn't "get" what you do from the first page, they probably won't bother looking further.

Bad nav/missing links as others noted. You also need your own domain.

Each page should have consistent elements. As a starting point, think in terms of a "letterhead."

Mar Machine logo should be anti-aliased, it's got the jaggies.

Are the "products" you manufacture important? If so, why are they at the bottom of the page? I would move them to a more prominent place (maybe the home page) and add pictures.

No pictures anywhere on the site.

On 1 May 2006 13:11:17 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, snipped-for-privacy@AOL.COM quickly quoth:

That's a wee bit different from the 2003 site start, Leigh.

So, is Pete working off a machinery purchase by trading the site work? If not, I might be talked into it. (Web development is my day job.)

Remind Pete never to enlarge a graphic via HTML, it makes even more jaggy, such as the header graphic below:

------------------------------------------------------- Have you read the new book "What Would Machiavelli Do?" ----------------------------

Dynamic, Interactive Websites!

--------------------------------------------------------

Which is what he got. If he had said he was going to use

, fine and dandy. Other folks have already pointed out the graphics and functionality problems- my beef is that a home page looks cheap.

-Carl

Though others have said the same, but I will add that more pics are needed. How one can think that someone will become interested in a several hundred (or thousand) dollar item without photos has always been a mystery to me. You are *selling*, are you not?