XSitePro Website Design Software Message Board

Scholarship coaching web site: http://www.collegescholarshipplan.com

Here's a new web site to check out (and even pass along to friends and relative who have high schoolers). The site is selling
scholarship coaching memberships, but there is lots of valuable material, links and advice on the site for free.

The overall site was designed by a graphics designer and a committee and then handed to me to make work. Had I been brought in during the
planning stages the site would be less complex and more search engine friendly. The principals' insistence on the slideshow spanning
the entire width of the home page precluded using a left panel. A couple other major pages knocked out using a right panel.
Thankfully, XSP makes tables easy. Also, I immediately took the 890px site width and expanded it to 950px.
I added some additional navigation using CSS.

There were times that I thought that XSP would not be able to handle the requirements of the site but with
CSS, JavaScript and gritty determination, I made it work. Release was delayed for a couple months as the principals
kept adding to the site as it was being developed. It is a testament to XSite Pro that it allowed me to add in the
additions.

Counting the "popup" pages, there are over 150 pages on the site. Something that the project management capabilities made
easier. My main gripe is the lack of control over the number of the CSS pages created and used when "Ignore Page Layout Completely" is used.

The member site is the same design but with lots more content. Member signup and access is handled using aMember.
I'm also the webmaster and still doing some cleanup, tweaks and maintenance.

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XSitePro runs great on HostGator (WordPress does, too)

Hmm, I put in one of my sites http://www.mrsmarts.com but I think the post got deleted ( no spamming here ) I don't even have my autoresponder setup geesh, was just showing off with it.

Anyways, I built a site for ( my only friend ) my brother http://www.chriscarpunky.com any suggestions on how to make look this more professional would be appreciated.

Thanks

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MrSmarts

Here are my thoughts:

1) Your images need reworking. Grainy images are bad. Forget about gif transparency. If you need transparency use png 24 images. I noticed you removed the background on a bunch. Forget about removing the background. Just put in a nice image and consider using a 2px-5px border on the image. The border can easily be added if you put the image in the middle of a 9x9 table and set the table background to a specific color.

2) Remove the "as seen on TV" at the top of the page unless you are selling a product produced on an infomercial.

3) I would ditch the background gray and use a nice yellow gradient for the background.

4) I would make heavy use of rounded corners, drop shadows, and "Out of Bounds" image techniques. Lots of photoshop skills required here.

5) remove the huge footer with the add for the TV station and put in a Nav menu with links to all your other pages.

6) Use the left column for testimonials. Notch down the column padding to 5 px. And put in as many testamonials as you can reasonably fit. Feel free to have it extend far below the other website content. (maybe you want to consider putting testimonials only in the right column so you can put in custom right columns?)

7) rewrite your home page. You are selling a service - not giving an about us page. Tell the benefits of having Chris working at your next event. People buy benefits, not features. They want to know whats in it for them.

8.) center the menu on the info bar. And use different colors in it.

9) Use fixed prices. If commute time is involved mention a separate fixed fee for the commute.

10) include SHORT videos of his performances and include lots of applause. The more short videos the better. Mostly you want the applause and can miss most of the magic trick.

11) Make the contact info in the header bigger - and make sure the email is a click-able contact link.

12) put a header at the top of each page so the visitor know what page they are on.

13) Add a favicon. Perhaps just a magicians top hat. I think favicons are a nice finishing technique that add professionalism.

I think your site has lots of potential. Don't give up. If you need specific help, send me a PM and I'll be glad to give a hand.

Wishing you the best.

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Jeramiah Townsend, President

Get the web 2.0 style Graphical Borders Package for XSP for **FREE**

Your other website is in the OTHER "show your websites" thread. There are two on here

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Got an XsitePro Website - click here

Two Have worked on www.karscot.com, www.tailknottr.com

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http://www.marketingtips.com/interneten ... b/t/645972
Quickly and easily create video scribes of your products or service, or whiteboard presentations and tutorials http://bit.ly/Y4eRXA

Apologies for not showing any of my sites yet, but I would like to share a few XSP items on a new site which is just at it's early stages.

These 'tips' (if you will) are not necessarily documented and I use them cautiously. I also have to check them again periodically and with each XSP update. So far they have held up OK.

Fliud Site Width: I have included an external CSS, downstream from the XSP CSS (via Global Scripts - In Head Section), that uses/alters the XSP CSS setup. On this site the mimimum width is 750px and maximum is 950px.

The CSS contains code for different browsers and where one browser doesn't recognize another browser's code, I just let the browser generate a 'harmless' CSS error (which many CSS sites do anyway).

Naturally there are on page considerations to fluid width (eg: image repeating, paragraphing and table widths etc), but the CSS mentioned above is how I achieve the variable width from the CSS perspective.

Code Snippet Variable: One thing I think we all would like is the ability for code snippets to be like variables, hence if we change the snippet, this change would be reflected throughout the whole site.

On the web site mentioned, the code for the domain certification at the bottom of each page changes every few years, and would ordinarily need to be changed on each page. However since the code is 1 line, I have placed it in the Afft Wizard, where the Basic URL field uses 1 line.

This seems to accept 1 line of code and replace the code on each page referencing the Basic URL. I have also been able to condense some multi-line code to 1 line, and use it in the same manner.

I am not sure of the total length of this field, but it seems to work so far.

Ok so once again I am not sure of the XSP validity of using code this way, and I need to check it whenever I update XSP etc, but it seems to work for now.

Anyway the (sample) site is Next Web World: http://NextWebWorld.com

Remember this particular web site is still at it's early stages and I show it from an XSP point of view, not necessarily an overall design perspective.

Hi,

Use tokens if you want to have code that changes every time it's inserted. Regarding your site, the 3 column text is difficult to read, I recommend going back to 1 column.

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-Brett...



XSitePro Templates - $297 | XSitePro Membership Sites, XSitePro Shopping Carts, XSitePro Scripts Integration

The 3 column layout on specific pages has a target purpose at this stage of the site's evolution, which may become apparent later this year. As mentioned I am not after design advice, I am sharing information. Thank you for your thoughts nonetheless, it is appreciated however I just don't want to waste this thread.

I have used tokens extensively in website development, and I am very curious as to how you are using them as code snippets yourself. Are you using them by substituting / compromising certain standard tokens (eg: PROJECTDESCRIPTON). Please share the method you use.

My preference is to use the the aff wizard which then allows snippets to be listed side by side with the code snippets list.

Ok, my site is:

www.bulkupfast.com

The template was designed by Patrick Forbes http://www.xsitepro.com/messageboard/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=487 (off this forum), and you might notice that the main page is also integrated with Wordpress (I used Myles' excellent XSP to Wordpress ebook to do this).

It's not fully populated with content yet, but there's plenty there already for you to see how it all fits together.

The reason I chose Patrick as opposed to anyone else is that he's primarily a designer first, rather than a coder (or a 'Photoshop geek' as he referred to himself). I wanted a site that looked really clean and professional, but still looked like 'fun' (as opposed to some boring business site).

Too many of the so-called 'custom' designed XSP sites just look like the standard boxey XSP templates with different colours - I didn't want just another XSP template, I wanted my own, unique site. To me, the graphics are more important than the coding - no point getting a brilliant coder who can't design sexy looking graphics - you just end up with an efficiently coded, but rubbish/amateurish looking site.

Somehow he managed to translate those vague requirements into the site that exists now.

I should point out that I'm not getting any kickback from Patrick for recommending his work, and he hasn't put me up to it - I just think he deserves the credit for a job excellently done.

I would still like to know your method for using tokens with code snippets. Can you please share your method.

Please feel free to comment on my site .... still a work in progress any feedback appreciated.

http://www.design-redesign.co.uk

Thanks

Still waiting on this one Brett.

Billy,
I'm not getting a lot of love for your site. You have some design skills as attributed by some of the graphics - but it looks like the same graphics over and over again on your site.

I don't get what you do. If I plunge into your site and read I get what you do, but when I pull up your site I don't get it within 30 seconds. It's not communicated. And that's not good from a business perspective.

Your main logo takes up about half, or more, of the screen. This seems like a giant waste of space since the only thing it communicates is your contact information.

It would almost be better to have your gallery on the main page... but truth be told I'm not a fan of that either. I'm on a fast internet connection and yet it takes too long to load for my liking. The interface, though inventive, isn't comfortable for me. And I generally like to stay away from flash since it's not SEO friendly, though fantastic for interactive design.

That's my thoughts. I'd like to see it reworked. Judging from your gallery I know you can do a lot better. I was a fan of your Wellwork Ltd site.

_________________
Jeramiah Townsend, President

Get the web 2.0 style Graphical Borders Package for XSP for **FREE**

Here's a new one I have just completed for a pub in London UK.
It's full of mad Arsenal fans on match days.

http://www.gunnerspubhighbury.co.uk

Hi Everybody, I would like a critique of my latest work in progress : www.wingsofglorygallery.com , I am putting the site together before adding a shopping cart, I am having one major problem, when I update images, the image disappears from Xsite Pro ,and when I update the next page or so it copies that change on a previous page ie that image is no longer visible.
Ho do I ensure that the uploaded images stay active ?
Also I have other sites for you to critique : www.valetudo.com.au , www.gtkwebstrategy.com , www.hillsbellydance.com.au , www.australiancharityfunds.com.au

Regards
Niall