Finally started a website. Check it out and give feedback please?

[tb144050]

Tonight, I actually worked on assembling a website. It is still not complete, and I have nothing listed as "available" right now, but I have a lot of my Breeder's pictures, Breeding Plans, and my first Hatchlings listed. Check it out and add it to your bookmarks if you like it!! I will be working on it daily to add the rest of my breeders, breeding plans, etc etc...and hopefully I will be listing some exquisite Leopards this month.

Even though I know several things that I WILL be adding, I would appreciate any kind feedback based on what you see and/or what you would like to see.

Thanks!

TJ @ Ark-La-Tex Leopards
ArkLaTex Leopards - 2014 Breeders

 

[indyana]

Overall, I think the website looks great! Very simple and easy to navigate.

For feedback, you may want to retake a few of the pictures to increase the quality when you have time. Notably, the head shot for g10 on the Breeders page is very washed out, and the g10 x g12 Pairings picture is not as nice as the other pairing pictures.

Congrats on the newest RAPTOR hatchling! Hadn't seen that one yet.

 

[indyana]

Oh, you should definitely get an about/contact page up ASAP, with links to your FB page, email, or other preferred contact information. I know I always look for that right away when I visit a new site, to see where folks are located, what their mission statement is, etc.

 

[tb144050]

Thanks for the input!! Those are indeed some good things for me to improve/add. I definitely need to learn the best "lighting methods" and photography. lol It is currently there as a "rough sketch".

 

[tb144050]

I had a photoshoot for 6 more of my breeders today. Then spent a couple of hours editing/prepping photos and updating the website. :O I still need to finish the "Breeding Plans" page and I still have alot more that I want to add to the whole site.

**Indyana, I changed those photos first thing this morning..lol

 

[indyana]

Looks good, TJ! :main_thumbsup:

 

[staceyleigh]

Nice website! Love the little hatchling pics, too cute!

 

[tb144050]

Thanks, Stacy! I added more to the "Breeding Plans" section and I finally got all my Breeder's listed.

After the entire site is "generally constructed", I will go back and add ALOTT of photo galleries of all the cute pics I have taken...ESPECIALLY cute little babies!!!

 

[tb144050]

Stacy, I added a few pics of each baby. And there is now 2 ways to get to the baby pics:

1) Click on "2014 hatchlings" and then click on the baby-pic to see more pics of that baby....or....
2) Hover the mouse over "2014 hatchlings" and then click on the Menu that pops out.

 

[tb144050]

Added 3 to 5 pictures of each breeder... added a couple of my best Marble Eye pics to the Marble Eye breeders' pages (camera is good but not the best).

 

[indyana]

Like all the pictures. Can't wait to see more babies though!

You haven't been getting any of that crazy weather out there, have you? Was watching on the news this morning, and it's been an awful week for the middle of the U.S..

 

[tb144050]

Like all the pictures. Can't wait to see more babies though!

You haven't been getting any of that crazy weather out there, have you? Was watching on the news this morning, and it's been an awful week for the middle of the U.S..

I am excited too see more babies too!! I haven't been keeping up with the weather, but luckily it has not "chased me down" either. This week, I have barely seen any rain...just dark and cloudy on most days. I guess I need to find out what is going on in the nearby states.

 

[tb144050]

oooooo....I just watched the news..... ouch

 

[tb144050]

Indyana, you jinxed me. I turned on the news/weather report (while out of town) and saw 2 "Doppler indicated tornados" in Texarkana. One of them was about 2 blocks from my house, and the other was about 14 blocks from my house. Luckily for EVERYONE, it was just rotating clouds...NO tornados at all!!

Anyway, back to geckos!! I got three more hatchlings 2 days ago, and expect 2 more (any time now). So I went back to the website and added some new "hatchling" pages with pics. I also added a lot of "navigation" links for easy browsing and sorting. You can even look at a "breeding pair" and click to see JUST THEIR BABIES if you want to compare phenotypes.

 

[indyana]

Whoops, glad everything's okay!

New babies are adorable.

 

[Olympus]

Love the teal! I feel like there's something missing, like there should be a home page to land on (maybe have the Home page be the About page with just a few extras.) If you look at other breeder websites you'll see what I mean. Home is where you have a little blurb about yourself and your mission statement, have a few choice breeders/hatchlings featured, and update with news (like "we'll be at so-and-so show!") etc.

 

[tb144050]

I was thinking the same thing the other day. But I have been working to keep improving the site, and keep my critters cared for. Just updating the site is proving to be a lengthy process (with all the new "cross-linking" I added.). In later years, I wont have time to "cross-link" everything. There will be way too many for me to keep up. One day soon, I will improve the "Ark/La/Tex" logo in the corner and get a better "landing page" set up.

 

[EasiGeckos]

Overall I think its a great start. I work in the IT field as a QA Automation engineer, so my job is to break and find defaults with web pages, web applications and developed code. But I like to be straight forward and honest with people, so here we go.

Positives:
-You have a website and its live! A lot of people don't even take this step, but great job!
-A lot of the pictures are fantastic and really show off your geckos
-You have solid content that can fill your pages

Negatives:
-A lot of attention gets drawn to the left side of the page with the menu and the photos. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it makes the site feel empty and a bit unorganized. My suggestion would be to get a theme or re factor the html/css to adjust and center the content on the page. This will even out things and give your site a better "flow".
-Typically a person visiting a site tends to only stay on a certain page for a short period of time. With a lot of photos/content that you have to scroll through page after page to get to could possibly get lost or not even consumed by the user. My suggestion would be to instead, display your content in a tile fashion with a small description above each tile. This way you add more content to the visible page without drowning out the entire page with one single photo.
-A lot of your contact information along with your social media is either blocked by page pop ups or blends in with the page. This sort of information should be easy to find and should be readily available to your consumers. Also when displaying your webpage links you do not have to include the https://, this will clean up your URLs and make them more "clickable".
-A good solid logo to represent your business/hobby. Something that defines you and that people can recognize is "you".
-Titles/names for your menu slide out options

I could list more but that would be my OCD kicking in I hope some of this helps and if you have any questions I would be happy to help. Fantastic job so far and I look forward to seeing your site grow and transform as you slowly progress.

Gregory

 

[tb144050]

I will have to see what I can do. That's a lot of suggestions and some of it is controlled by the GUI of the Weebly "web page builder." I am going to try to keep it "organized" (with links to relevant topics). I agree that it is easy for someone to get lost if they are randomly clicking links that look interesting....such as: click on "Breeding pairs"...click to "See their hatchlings"...(I see that I can view all the hatchlings in the Gallery, so I....) .....click to see the "Hatchlings Gallery. It's a lot easier to "browse" if they stay in one section at a time.

Some of the other things, I will try to improve on. I am starting to think that maybe I should just create a Facebook "available for sale" folder, but I genuinely want to provide valuable photos and information of the entire family.

 

[EasiGeckos]

Please, I apologize if I came off as a jerk. Over all your site is wonderful and a fantastic start. Over time I'm sure you can slowly tweak it and make it a great site. Don't give up on it just cause silly ol me put in a few critiques. Having a web site AND a Facebook page could only benefit you. Social media is a huge way to network with other like minded people. Id say keep the web site and move forward with a Facebook page. Either way you cant go wrong. Best of luck!

Gregory