Website review - www.nojunkmail.info

bigbadcon

Hi folks,

Im new to this web dev stuff and have put up my first site that has a tiny bit of coding in the back ground as opposed to just editing html..

Im no designer so Ive used a free template so I cant take credit for the design part but would appreciate any comments you have..


http://www.nojunkmail.info

Thanks

mneylon

Site seems functional, but before I'd buy from it I'd want to see tangible contact details

Is the concept just to show people you dislike junk mail ?

bigbadcon

Deleted User wrote: »

Is the concept just to show people you dislike junk mail ?

The idea is to put the sticker on your front door to stop people putting junk in your letter box..

CuLT

I'm not sure how this is much of an improvement on me typing "no junk mail" into word, printing it out on my home or office printer and using sellotape to stick it to the door, to be honest!

Although, if I had no porch a sticker probably would be handier. Three euro handier? Not sure. Decent price for a big custom vinyl sticker (delivered) though I guess.

I'd also point out that your design almost hides the "no" part in a flurry of colour, the only clear text block being "junk mail please", which could be considered somewhat counter-productive...

bigbadcon

CuLT wrote: »

I'm not sure how this is much of an improvement on me typing "no junk mail" into word, printing it out on my home or office printer and using sellotape to stick it to the door, to be honest!

You do have a point but these stickers are vinyl so are a lot more hard wearing than simply sticking paper to your window.

They are designed for outdoor use so hold up very well against the elements which is important with our climate.

The site is really just an online presence to compliment the offline sales.

The sticker has the website name on it so if some one was interested in getting their own sticker they might go onto the website.

Thanks for the design tip though regarding the "No" part.

I see what you mean alright. Might change the design in the next batch...

Dave!

I'm not wild about the banner tbh, looks very bland, and I'm not loving the colour scheme.

Other than that, looks okay to me! Could I ask you where do you get the stickers printed, or do you do them yourself? PM me if you like

Dave!

Dave! wrote: »

I'm not wild about the banner tbh, looks very bland, and I'm not loving the colour scheme.

Your banner looks pretty much exactly the same.

bigbadcon

blacknight wrote: »

Site seems functional, but before I'd buy from it I'd want to see tangible contact details

Ive added more contact details. This never really occured to me as I know im trustworthy but obviously other people dont thanks for that.

Deleted User wrote: »

Your banner looks pretty much exactly the same.

:P

I think he was referring to the green banner on the site..

Dave!

Yes I was talking about this one



I presume it came as part of the theme/template

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Does it matter what the site looks like when all it is is a rip off to charge €3.75 for a siticker saying "No Junk Mail"? What's the point of the site?

bigbadcon

Caroline Quaint Cook wrote: »

Does it matter what the site looks like when all it is is a rip off to charge €3.75 for a siticker saying "No Junk Mail"? What's the point of the site?

It is €3 a sticker. The rest is to cover the price of the stamp and envelope.

It is also €7 for 3 stickers which you failed to mention.

You will find if you did any research that vinyl stickers are quiet expensive to print.

I didnt ask you to buy a sticker so if you dont have anything relevant to say regarding the technical details of the website I suggest you dont bother posting.

pts

Hi bigbadcon, one or two small comments:

1. I'd remove the white space on both sides of the banner, between the banner and the grey background.
2. The XHTML and CSS don't validate.
3. I think the heading "Sick of Junk Mail? Together we can beat it." isn't as strong as it can be. Unfortunately I can't think of anything better at the moment.
4. Maybe consider a custom banner image, instead of the green image with white text over it. i.e. make an image with the text part of that image, instead of a green background with text over it. If you make it one image you can add some effects to the text, which I think will improve the banner a lot.

These are just some suggestion, off the top of my head. Feel free to ignore if appropriate

ronkmonster

on the environmental issues page

Above facts referenced from Wikipedia..

Looks bad, at least follow the reference links on wikipedia and get the stats from the real sources.

Tim M-U

i like the website design and over all, its really great!

at first, i thought it was to stop email junk mail (might need fixing there), but now since i read through this thread, it makes sense what it is.

where did you download the template, and what software did you use.

bigbadcon

Thanks Tim M-U.

I got the template here.

The site has small bits of .net code to send emails mostly but besides that theres wasnt much coding.

The hard part for me is editing/learning the css.

Enjoying the learning curve though.

Tim M-U

i havent used notepad for making websites because the ftp programmes are a bit dodgy..

congrats on the website and not much wrong

Gordon

I'm not hot on the design of the stickers to be honest, it looks a bit thrown together, I wouldn't want that on my front door. I'm also not sure that a sticker like that would actually stop people from putting crap through my door.

I think you should put some pictures up showing actual doors with the stickers on them.

bigbadcon

Gordon wrote: »

I'm not hot on the design of the stickers to be honest, it looks a bit thrown together, I wouldn't want that on my front door. I'm also not sure that a sticker like that would actually stop people from putting crap through my door.

I think you should put some pictures up showing actual doors with the stickers on them.

Hi Gordon,

Thats fair enough that you dont like the design.

Im not a designer but if you compare it to the other stickers that are out there it does look a lot better.
The stickers do make a big difference to the amount of junk mail you get in the door..

Yeah planning on putting up a couple of pics of stickers on doors soon enough.

Thanks for that

StuartC

I think the design is fine for the content involved.. it could be better of course. You seem to have some SEO in place aswell.

Hope it works out for you.

Stuart

Gordon

bigbadcon wrote: »

Hi Gordon,

Thats fair enough that you dont like the design.

Sorry if I sounded nasty, it was the image getting in the way of things really that made it look cluttered. I was thinking of something clearer like this:



Although without the images is a bit more striking, yet bumpersticky (and Scandinavian).

bigbadcon

Right ive made some changes to the site based on your comments..

1. I have changed the width of the page so there is now no space between the logo and the edge.
2. I have removed the references from wikipedia thing and that put in the correct references.
3. I have put in proper contact details.
4. I have added a picture of a sticker on a letter box using a javascript image rollover.
5. I have checked the validation of the html and css and its fine on every page except for the contact us page where the html is failing due to a problem with a <br> tag. I cant make head nor tail or this error so if some one could help me out that would be great.


Things I havent done yet as I dont have the time at the moment (or possibly the skills)

1. Changed the banner to a custom one.
2. Changed the sticker design.


Any further comments on the current site would be appreciated..

ronkmonster

what is the error with the <br> tag?

bigbadcon

This is it

thanks

ronkmonster

oh you don't have a closing tag for <br> like that i think
you just use <br /> in place of the opening tag.

bigbadcon

Ah I see what the problem is now..

My html is valid in visual studio and there are no sign of the extra <br> anywhere.

It looks like this is an issue with the html that reCapthcha generates.

There doesnt seem to be a fix for it yet.

thanks inallinanyways

bigbadcon

This morning there was a number of emails sent from my site from the "Tell a friend" option regarding different swine flu pills etc.

I have a recapthca option on the contact us form to stop this from happening.

Im wondering what someone would gain from this as..

All the email would say is "Your friend swine flu tablets thought you might be interested in this site. And then has a link to my site.

It would not feature their own website name anywhere.

Im assuming this is an automated program thats running somewhere..

Is there any other ways of stopping this besides putting another recapthca control? (which I dont really want to do)

Im assuming this is quite common.has anyone else experienced this?

S.M.B.

Do you really need that "Tell A Friend" option?

I wouldn't be too impressed receiving any sort of mail from a site condemning junk mail.

tricky D

For FREE, you can get stickers for your postbox saying 'No unsolicited leaflets or canvassers please' by sending off a nice letter to Global Windows complaining about their leaflet spam. The nice MD there will send one back to you.

Dave!

AFAIK the OP is more interested in criticism of the design, etc., rather than the idea.

tricky D

Meh, I know. The site wasn't working for me at the time.



Get a logo for the top left corner

Make fonts bigger and a darker grey for readability.

Add padding between the Tell a Friend input boxes.

Add some styling for the Send and Clear buttons.

Add Privacy Policy info and maybe terms and conditions and disclaimer.

Add order and delivery info.

You should have VAT and company reg numbers somewhere (strictly speaking).

You could dump the validation links - only us developers care about that stuff.

Add links for the environmental info sources.

Have a go at changing some of your tables to divs and using labels for the text before the input boxes.

padocon

What market are you dealing with? As far as I know you can opt-out of "junk mail" with an post.

Tim M-U

padocon wrote: »

What market are you dealing with? As far as I know you can opt-out of "junk mail" with an post.

doing this wont stop people (not from anpost) butn fliers/adverts in your letterbox!

Axwell

Tim M-U wrote: »

doing this wont stop people (not from anpost) butn fliers/adverts in your letterbox!

And you think a sticker saying No Junk Mail will?

Tim M-U

padocon wrote: »

What market are you dealing with? As far as I know you can opt-out of "junk mail" with an post.

because if they disobey the sign, then that would look bad on the company advertised (they would have to speak english though!)

padocon

Tim M-U wrote: »

because if they disobey the sign, then that would look bad on the company advertised (they would have to speak english though!)

In that case I would say your target market is in Dublin & any large citys. Down in Kerry I don't get one leaflet in the door.

dvpower

I'd get rid of the 'Tell A Friend' bit; it seems odd that a website that is against junk mail would be seen to be harvesting email addresses.

padocon

My opinion of the site as it stands, is that I feel insecure. How do I know your are going to ship it?

I know that anyone that buys it you will send one out, but how are they going to know.

I think if you include a phone number, it would help allot, if people had difficulties they could call.

Tim M-U

there is a phone number!

btw: i dont know the person who runs the website but would like the website to susceed!

padocon

I see it now, it should be on the top of each page though. The only way I can see you making any money from this is by selling them on Amazon ect.

bigbadcon

padocon wrote: »

My opinion of the site as it stands, is that I feel insecure. How do I know your are going to ship it?

I know that anyone that buys it you will send one out, but how are they going to know.

I think if you include a phone number, it would help allot, if people had difficulties they could call.

There is a phone number and a house address on the contact us page.

This is the exact same as ordering anything from ebay or anywhere else that uses paypal. There are actually some guarantees from paypal for the amount you have spent anyway.

The reason I dont have tax information posted on the site is because im set up as a sole trader and there isnt a hope in hell im puttin my PPS number on a website :eek:

Im thinking I might just create another page for the "Tell a friend" bit with a recaptha control on it with a link to it form the home page or i might just scrap it..

Il look into the other changes mentioned when I get a chance. Thanks for that.

Regarding the amount of junk mail.. i live in tallaght and before I had my sticker up I received tons of junk mail every day.

Im also quite surprised at how angry some people are getting about my site.
Ive received some abusive emails (some of which are from boards members) saying how disgusted they were with the fact that I was charging for a sticker and am i taking the piss etc.

Believe it or not it is actually optional whether you buy a sticker or not :eek:

Boards members would not be my target market anyway as a lot of people would just print off something and stick it to their door if they really wanted to. Saying that there are a lot of people who wouldnt know how to do this or wouldnt want to do this so this is my target market.

Axwell

bigbadcon wrote: »

The reason I dont have tax information posted on the site is because im set up as a sole trader and there isnt a hope in hell im puttin my PPS number on a website

If you are registered then you have an RBN which you can stick on the site instead of a VAT number.

padocon

I see nothing wrong with the product itself. I think the price is a bit steep, & that the site could be marketed better. You need to make we want to get one.
Like by saying:

Do you want to stop, junk mail?
Are you sick of leaflets & promos?
Do you want to reduce your carbon foot print.
If so then or sticker is a must for you!

Something like that.

Also are the stickers selling? If yes then find out what you are doing right, if no find what you are doing wrong.

I think you need to drop the price a bit, if you can. Start selling more than one sticker. And the most important is advertising.