So, What do you think about the site?

[Chris]

Have a complaint? A suggestion? I'd love to hear it.

[Mike]

No complaints! Fantastic website, and in my opinion, a lot better than Sitepoint (am I allowed to say that?).

As for suggestions - just get a few more articles up. I've read each one now, need something else to kill time!

Hope this helps,
Mike

[Chris]

I'll be adding atleast an article a day for the month of May.

[snaip]

Originally posted by Mike
No complaints! Fantastic website, and in my opinion, a lot better than Sitepoint (am I allowed to say that?).

Sure! ;)

What really great here, is that there is a follow up of content from basic - advance. Compared to other sites, there is a whole range of content, that might be target to only a group.

Great work Chris! :)

[beley]

I love the site! I think you should add the quick reply mod to the forum though... it sure does save a lot of time.

[toni]

Excellent site, plent of great information.

I have 1 complaint:

I've been reading "how to build a successful website". Each time I finish a section, I have to hit the back button to get to the next section.

Other than that, its good stuff.
Take care,
Toni

[Chris]

Sorry about that Toni, the site is really article driven and the guide is nothing but one page that links to a bunch of articles.

You could just click on the successful website link on the left menu when you're done with a certain section.


Is the quick reply hack a standard vb hack Brandon?

[beley]

AFAIK, I got it off Vbulletin.org which is the defacto standard for all things vbulletin. It works great on my site - I've been using it for some time now. Webhostingtalk uses it also, though I think they modified it just a little.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=34597&highlight=quick+reply

There is the link to the thread but I've attached the hack too (it's just a text file)

[Chris]

Thanks

[Chris]

Well the quick reply hack is installed

[beley]

Does it work???

[beley]

Wow... cool! Great job... that makes it MUCH easier to reply to posts!

[Mike]

Yep, great new addition...

Just a little question Chris - will the articles that you are going to add, concentrate on different subjects than the ones already here? Or are we likely to see some more about SEO (*hoping*).

[toni]

I like the quick reply...if a board has it, its all I use.

I see what you mean about the articles Chris. It won't be a problem after I finish reading the whole site...becuase then Ill only be reading the articles as they are posted.

[Chris]

Right now here is what is planned:

1. Article on buying advertising by someone
2. More ecommerce stuff written by brandon
3. Some more php tutorials and quite a few technical book reviews
4. faking a graphical link (kinda seo, by me)
5. SEO checklist (me)
6. extensive tutorial on images/graphics/design
7. the css article you said you'd write
8. cold fusion primer

[Mike]

All sounds good:)

[Mike]

Just another thing:

If you don't mind me asking, how many hits/uniques/impressions you got so far just from search engines?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

[Chris]

Very very little. The site really isn't in any search engines yet, and likely will not be until June.

[emke]

The site looks great and has already a lot of interesting articles. If you keep up with adding new articles like you plan the site is going to be excellent.

I have some articles about domains (transfering domains, etc) that I wrote a while ago for a site that I never finished. Chris, if you're interested I could send them to you?

[Chris]

Sure I'm interested.

[beley]

I think it's a good thing the site isn't getting a lot of uniques just yet... it gives us some time to get some quality content in before the visitors start arriving. Who wants to get here and only see a handful of articles?

[Chris]

I increased the "Recent Articles" list on the homepage to 10, what do you think?

[Mike]

Didn't look right when I first saw it, but now I have got used to it a little I really like it. It will show new users how much the site has to offer, and get the 'latest forum news' down the screen a little - which isn't very important at the moment.

But having all of those articles does produce a lot of text on the screen, perhaps you could have tiny pictures of some description next to them? If not, then it doesn't make the site look any worse, just makes it look like a 'heavy content' one.

[snaip]

While for some users, 'heavy content' sites look great, I prefer simple sites, with easy navigation. Some sites (usually portal type sites) have so much links on the front page, that you don't know where to start! Users feel frustrated when they are presented with many links. It's better to KISS! ;)

[Chris]

I figured I needed more links on the home page for SEO reasons. I was thinking about adding little boxes of links to the subcategories of the various sections.

[snaip]

That would be a great idea Chris.... But first you need to make sure that all the subcategories has some content in them...

[Mike]

Yeah, would be good that... Isn't there a category which already has that, named contents or something?

[Percept]

Very interesting site Chris, I don't think it's better then SitePoint because I don't think you can compare them really.

Sitepoint is great if you have a dezvelopment problem, Websitepublisher is great to get some good insight in what to expect when starting a website.

Anyway , keep it up I'll be waiting for all those articles :)

[Mike]

It won't be as good as Sitepoint. Sitepoint has over 24,000 members and quite a few of them contribute to articles etc. Also, Sitepoint was started with more than one man.

If you ask me, WebsitePublisher would be upto Sitepoint's quality if it gets at least one article a day - and perhaps more forum members.

For me though, I prefer WebsitePublisher...

[Percept]

Mike , it's not like SP is adding one article a day. They add new articles every 3-4 days I think.

The content here is just enormeous , I've learned so much allready in the last HOURE.

Only thing that is not 100% is the design but it's acceptable ( don't want to sound rude Chris , it's just that design is my thing )

[Mike]

I know, they don't. But to get it a little larger, Websitepublisher probably does for a little while.

And I agree with you about the content. I managed to get a temporary listing of 3rd for 'best website templates' yesterday. This is because I have read Chris's articles over and over again.

To be honest, I don't see anything wrong with the design. I really like the menu style, and it's a content site meant to help you - not a site that needs a top quality design.

[Percept]

Yeah I know but I'm a webdesigner so in my head everything needs a Top quality design , it's the first thing I look at even before content. Site's like Slashdot for instance don't have a chance with me because of design ( or lack thereof ), I close them before you can say "blink".

[Mike]

Whats wrong with this design?

[Percept]

I can only talk on behalf of myself so things I don't like might be appealing to you Mike and vice versa. It's hard having a discussion about design.

[Mike]

Point taken.

Don't suppose you have a portfolio or anything I can browse through? I am real bored and need something to do:D

[Percept]

I'll Pm you.

[Mike]

Cheers:)

Forgot about the guidelines:p

[Chris]

He could post his porfolio... I don't care...

I didn't do this design actually. It was a template I bought from Liz Fulghum. She posts at SP and DO under the name "rabbitdog"

I edited it some though. Changed the color from orange to red for instance. But the base design is hers.

[Mike]

Still like it, I think it's real clever how the menu is combined with the middle of the page.

Do you buy most of your designs?

[Chris]

Eh... it depends... lately its been like half and half.

[Chris]

I've changed the frontpage some... its now got more category links. This was necessary for SEO (or whatever the most recent articles were would have gotten too large of a boost from being on the front page).

[incka]

I've got one suggestion. Change the 30 seconds between replys to 15 or 20 seconds because sometimes I reply to another thread really fast after replying to the first.