I've been trying to add more "meat" to my site in terms of content. Please review and give me your suggestions!


Thanks,

Bruce


http://www.funeral-planning-guide.com/index.html

Hi Bruce and good going. It gets better with every pass. Here are a few of my thoughts: The first thing is the Google Adsense placement. I really don't like that the first thing I see is an ad or a bunch of ads by Google...I almost feel like you would rather I click on one of the ads and leave your site rather than stay and find what I was looking for. Which is why I prefer my Adsense on the right side as a vertical skyscraper...but that's just me. Secondly, I feel the words that are linked to an affiliate product/service could be explained more. Why should I click on that word? To me it looks like random links which have no direct relation to what I'm reading. If you want to direct them to a specific merchant's product/service then talk about that product/service openly. Explain why they need that product/service and how it will benefit them. And I would add personal experiences in your content. For the most part, we have all lost someone and have had to go through the issues you raise so I wanna hear how YOU handled things. What worked best for you...or at the very least why YOU would use the products/services you are advertising. I still don't feel the love or caring that should be running through your text. I think if you can find a way of making your words a little more caring or concerned you might end up with a lot more conversions...but that's just me... All in all though, it's slowly getting to the point where it's going to be a killer site. Take care Bruce and all the best.

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Jazzguy ( Lyle) - My latest site Making money online through creativity and passion

Lyle,

Thanks for your input! I plan to move the adsense ads. I'm currently using sbi to build my site. Once I get weaned off SBI, I'm going to use kompozer or dreamweaver to redesign my site.

Any suggestions or advice on which editor to use? I understand "basic" html, but not css. Need to hone those skills.


Thanks again,


Bruce

Hi Bruce. I use Dreamweaver exclusively. I actually don't design in CSS, much to the horror of some design guys I know. Dreamweaver inputs some CSS code automatically so it's all good. I tend to keep my sites simple with easy navigation and not too many added features like Java scripts or whatnot. I've been doing this for ages and it works for me so don't worry too much about the CSS thing. If you can design a decent looking site in HTML then start with that and then if you want to hone your CSS chops you can do that after the site is up and running. If Kompozer allows you to do that for f free then go with that for the time being. Hope that helps. Take care and all the best.

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Jazzguy ( Lyle) - My latest site Making money online through creativity and passion

If I remember correctly someone here had trouble with Komposer and CSS. Maybe they've fixed it but I'd highly recommend DW as Jazzguy suggests. I also agree with the ad placement. It looks too "adsy" the way you have it now at the top corner of your page. It sticks out so much that it's too obvious that it's an advertisement.

Try either aligning your ads vertically along your content or at least use the 468x60 banner style above your paragraphs using the same background color as your site.

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Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

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I am working on the ad thing. I like your site, the way you have ads in a vertical column next to your content. I have to master DW to do that. Any suggestions on how to speed up the learning curve on DW?


Thanks,


Bruce

What are you doing to try and learn DW? I learned by using existing templates and figuring out how they were created by looking at their code. Have you tried downloading my free 3 column template?

http://www.2createawebsite.com/video...nTemplate.html

__________________
Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 Create a Website | 2 Create a Website Blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent Blog Posts...

Twitter 101 [Video]
My Must-See Blog Posts From 2008
The Problem With The Word "Expert"

No, how do I do that? Thanks so much for offering to help me.

Bruce