Hi all,

I've finally managed to get my website and email up and running (though it's been a totoal nightmare) - www.custardspoon.com

I was hoping for some feedback and look forward to hopefully returning the favour.

Thankyou in advance

Rachel
www.custardspoon.com

This is a very cute site. But, I was distracted by the hand, which made me jump lol and the bubbles and snow flakes falling.

IMHO you may want to tone down the bubbles and falling flakes. The hand, I am not sure about, after the 3 page I was able to read the text but prior to that I was distracted by all of the movement.

Andrea~

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Andrea Jackson
http://www.connecthim.com

I did not like the hand either. And not quite sure why you chose the background and animations. Upon first look I don't think of this of a VA site but I am not sure what you are going for.

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Lee Drozak

Hi Rachel,

To be honest, when I look at the theme of your site I think of a site that is going to be selling ski jackets or something because it is so "winter" oriented. Maybe choose a different Wix theme?

I would have the menu up top instead of at the bottom.

When you say "A new industry has emerged, it's called virtual assistance." - I would change that. VA isn't a new industry.

Then looking at the coding behind your site there is no DOCTYPE declaration (see here how to add a DOCTYPE: http://validator.w3.org/docs/help.html#faq-doctype). There are other errors in coding and deprecated tags used. You might validate your site for HTML/XHTML (http://validator.w3.org/) and CSS (http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/) to look at these errors and warnings. (It does validate for CSS 2.1, but has 4 warnings.) I know, the coding part is confusing - just making you aware of it.

Sorry, don't mean to be such a "negative Nelly" here. You're coming along, so that is a huge step! Maybe go with a different Wix template (unless you're totally married to the one you have)? Just a thought. Everyone has different tastes, so this is only my opinion, so don't be discouraged by my "review" - you do what you like design-wise.

That's enough outta me.

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Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - I rock WordPress customization, XHTML/CSS websites, and Administrative duties.

Hi Rachel,

Like Jules, I agree with her, I wanted to click on those post-it notes and didn't realize that there was a menu, either move it to the top or color it contrasting so it can be found easily.

Cute site but too much going on. flakes, bubbles, hands. If you are really sold on this can it be toned down a little or only do the bubbles once. The bright colors are great and it is always nice to see something different.

One thing I would not change is your name, Absolutely great, like sometimes clients need to be spoon fed or custard spoon led. LOL

Cheers!!

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Bernice
Energy Virtual Assistant

As mentioned above, on first glance I would imagine you're selling winter clothing, running a ski lodge or are a winter vacation planner. I found the movement rather overwhelming and the hand made me jump as well. Couple of small things - the text says inquire, the menu tab says enquire. The tariff tab appears to say Taffiff. I would tone down the movement and perhaps replace the hand with a marquee type flying in text.

Putting together your first website is a huge step forward so don't be discouraged. I'm sure we can all admit to much tinkering, tweaking and revamping our websites over the years, especially those of us like me who are somewhat website challenged and learn as we go along.

Welcome to VAF by the way You've found the best VA forum on the net, lots of great people and tons of information and ideas.

Lynne

I love that you created a Flash-based site. I think that's so important as a company trying to represent a cutting edge trend as Virtual Assistance. NO more of these template looking sites, please!

That being said, there is a lot going on. You might want to consider simplifying.

Same comment here on the background. Under areas of work, the O in Routine office Duties needs to be capitalized like the rest. Under Contact US, the s should not be capitalized. Under Why Choose Custart Spoon - the 2nd to the last paragraph, the A in Alliance should not be capitalized and in the find paragraph, you need punctuation. I'm not a fan of the texted in the post-it notes. It reminds me of a space ship for some reason. Hope this helps!

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The Doctor's Rx
"The Doctor's Prescription for Success"

Originally Posted by bluegreenoffice

I love that you created a Flash-based site. I think that's so important as a company trying to represent a cutting edge trend as Virtual Assistance. NO more of these template looking sites, please!

Sorry, just have to pipe up here about Flash-based sites... They are totally not SEO friendly. A wee bit of Flash might be okay, but not an entirely Flash-based site.

To get a non-template-looking site, use X/HTML and CSS. Check out http://www.csszengarden.com/ for a ton of sites with nary a table or Flash in site. This was one of the sites I found years ago that totally amazed me at the creative things one can do with just X/HTML and CSS. Awesome sites!

Apologies - just had to add my unsolicited 2-cents.

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Jules, SunRise Virtual Solutions - I rock WordPress customization, XHTML/CSS websites, and Administrative duties.

Hi Jules,

No apology necessary - I love hearing people's input! ;o)

I know that used to be the common thinking, and a lot of people just don't know about the updated Flash indexing now used by search engines, like Google, who created new algorithms specifically for the newer sites.

I did some experimenting and was able to optimize my site quite easily. Last week, I even updated my entire site by transferring everything to AS3!!

I'm thrilled that the major search engines are finally getting with it!