Is the Professional Look Really Better?

[CarolW.]

that I am not inclined to take the advice of someone who has 100 visitors a
year when I'm seeing over 10,000 a week and that number continues to climb.

That's the reason why I didn't care to offer any tips or advice in
this thread when people, like Bob - Windsun - and yourself, were more
intersted in trying to act 'funny' or wishing to "get in the last
word" - you weren't interested in bettering the site 'cause you
couldn't see past your nose to begin with.

Carol

 

[Greywyvern]

Were I creating a Web site for someone else for a living, I'd be more
inclined to try and support people like yourself who are using Lynx
running
on Unix. You mention that you have script turned off AND images turned
off.
It's just not worth it to me to try and support such people.

How very noble of you.

The primary
purpose of my site is to be a source of charitable giving. That is why
all
of my software is free. I resell templates to try and offset some of my
costs. That's it.

Huh? $30.00 templates to "offset some of your costs" ? I find that very
hard to believe. But you resell them eh? I hope they work in more
browsers than your own website, or I'd very much feel cheated.

As for search engines, they can index the site fine via the site map.

Why not every page? I'm sure your rankings would go up. Right now Google
thinks only one page links to all the pages at your site.

My
search engine page rating for my home page has dropped significantly
because
the page name changed due to an updated code release,

Who's release? Yours? Or FPs? Assumimg you mean URIs here, URIs should
*never* change. Or if they must, at least set up redirects. Did you set
up any 301s for this little "code release"?

but my unique visits
continue to increase. Interestingly, some in the alt.* group have
nastily
sniped that I can't know who is a unique visitor. They are short-sighted
and assume that I have no programmatic design to determine such things.
In
fact, I can tell each unique person who downloads from me, and that's
what
I'm counting.

Each message oozing from your account proves you more and more a pompous
fool who knows very little about the way the internet works.

I guess I'd wrap it up to say (and I'm not directing this at you, Norman)
that I am not inclined to take the advice of someone who has 100
visitors a
year when I'm seeing over 10,000 a week and that number continues to
climb.

Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one, only because
templates are a popular SERP and tons of people are looking for them. I
really don't think it's very difficult for a template site to generate
lots of visits.

The site I manage for my employer gets a similar number of weekly
"visitors" though. As silly as it is to ignore the issues of users in
favour of the advice of webmasters, does that mean you'll take my advice
now?

Grey

 

[Tina - AffordableHOST, Inc,]

That's the reason why I didn't care to offer any tips or advice in
this thread when people, like Bob - Windsun - and yourself, were more
intersted in trying to act 'funny' or wishing to "get in the last
word" - you weren't interested in bettering the site 'cause you
couldn't see past your nose to begin with.

Carol

Well said.

--Tina

 

[Windsun]

That kind of brings up another subject. We have a lot of our email addresses
encoded in Javascript to try and stop the email spam harvest bots. It also
stops anyone with Java turned off. Anyone have any better ideas?

 

[Windsun]

No, the whole problem started because for some reason someone cross posted
to the alt groups. Then a couple of web snobs decided to come here and spend
more time nitpicking on individuals than in discussing the actual pros and
cons.

 

[Toby Inkster]

That kind of brings up another subject. We have a lot of our email
addresses encoded in Javascript to try and stop the email spam harvest
bots. It also stops anyone with Java turned off.

I don't see why it would. It may stop people with Javascript turned off
though.

Anyone have any better ideas?

http://examples.tobyinkster.co.uk/email-hide

 

[Tom Pepper Willett]

If they have java turned off, it will not affect JavaScript.

Tom
| That kind of brings up another subject. We have a lot of our email
addresses
| encoded in Javascript to try and stop the email spam harvest bots. It also
| stops anyone with Java turned off. Anyone have any better ideas?
|
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
| > By the way, a lot of your content is inaccessible for the
| > JavaScript-impaired. Could I respectfully suggest that you include a
| > <noscript>...</noscript> section with alternative hyperlinks to your
| > pages that have URLs generated with JavaScript to make your site
contents
| > accessible to more visitors?
|
|

 

[Norman L. DeForest]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 07:30:05 -0500, Jim Cheshire (JIMCO)


Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one, only because
templates are a popular SERP and tons of people are looking for them. I
really don't think it's very difficult for a template site to generate
lots of visits.

The site I manage for my employer gets a similar number of weekly
"visitors" though. As silly as it is to ignore the issues of users in
favour of the advice of webmasters, does that mean you'll take my advice
now?

The most popular site on the Chebucto Community Net is for DOS users
and was designed right from the start to be lynx-friendly:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/
The most recent visitation statistics as of this writing are:

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/cgi-bin/urlstats?~ak621/DOS

: Number of visits to main page of /~ak621/DOS/
:
: * Yesterday: 51
: * This month: 578
: * Last month: 623
:
: Number of visits to URLs that match /~ak621/DOS
:
: * Yesterday: 26233
: * This month: 426613
: * Last month: 452291

Add in visits to that user's other pages,
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/
and you get:

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/cgi-bin/urlstats?~ak621

: Number of visits to main page of /~ak621/
:
: * Yesterday: 5
: * This month: 69
: * Last month: 103
:
: Number of visits to URLs that match /~ak621
:
: * Yesterday: 27937
: * This month: 451637
: * Last month: 482307

That was almost half a million page hits last month.

 

[Eric Jarvis]

No, the whole problem started because for some reason someone cross posted
to the alt groups. Then a couple of web snobs decided to come here and spend
more time nitpicking on individuals than in discussing the actual pros and
cons.

Just about all the useful discussion on the actual has come from regulars
in aww. The picking on individuals has only happened because there are a
few Fronr Page evangelisers who insist on posting erroneous or misleading
information, and who are incapable of responding to being corrected
without throwing a tantrum. Sometimes it's quite amusing to goad the more
pompous of these into admitting that they aren't actually the experts they
initially present themselves as.

Of course you in particular, "Windsun", have made no contribution
whatsoever other than to complain. We've got some dumb blowhards on aww,
but at least the group largely works on the basis that one of the
objectives of Usenet is to allow us to learn new things by being shown
better ways to work by people with more or different experience. The
impression you and others have given of microsoft.public.frontpage.client
is that it's full of people who use the newsgroup to boost their ego by
cheerleading each others errors and inaccuracies, or who can't bear not to
have the last word in any argument no matter how clearly wrong they are.
In that sense it's been very useful. It will forever remain on the Google
archive to show those looking for information on how to get the best out
of their software where not to go for advice.

 

[Eric Jarvis]

Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one, only because
templates are a popular SERP and tons of people are looking for them. I
really don't think it's very difficult for a template site to generate
lots of visits.

The site I manage for my employer gets a similar number of weekly
"visitors" though. As silly as it is to ignore the issues of users in
favour of the advice of webmasters, does that mean you'll take my advice
now?

Amusing isn't it. A million uniques a year isn't all that impressive, even
I've worked on sites that have managed that, and I'm by no means in the
big league. Not to demean what it takes to get 10k visitors a week, that's
a reasonable start to build on, but it's hardly statistics that would
tempt most people into a willy waving contest.

 

[Eric Jarvis]

it seemed to increase the # of phone calls and sales disproportionately to
the increase in unique visitors. it's really anecdotal evidence but I
didn't change anything else.

My suspicion is that it's the sort of thing that is entirely dependent on
the nature of the business. So anecdotal experimental evidence is probably
ideal. If it's something where potential customers will see it as a
personal interaction then a photograph may well help engender a feeling of
trust and increase sales.

Horses for courses.

 

[Chris Leeds, MVP-FrontPage]

that was my assumption as well. I really encourage people to simply call me
on the phone. it's folksy and old-school, but that's kind of the way I am.

I would think that having a photo and folksy type stuff on another type of
site for someone with another working style would be counterproductive to
about the same degree as I've found it beneficial.

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP-FrontPage

ContentSeed: great tool for web masters,
a fantastic convenience for site owners.
http://contentseed.com/
--

 

[CarolW.]

No, the whole problem started because for some reason someone cross posted
to the alt groups. Then a couple of web snobs decided to come here and spend
more time nitpicking on individuals than in discussing the actual pros and
cons.

If you say so.

I like how the "web snobs" didn't respond to threads/posts shared in
another group but "decided to come here".

Then again it is odd that you and others, trying to use the
cross-posted thoughts as some sort of reason - like the above shared
one you penned , find it difficult to stop cross-posting when
responding to even fellow "group mates" posts.

Kind of weakens of the argument when you are one of the parties to the
cross-posting 'problem', doesn't it?

Carol

 

[SmakDaddy]

that was my assumption as well. I really encourage people to simply call me
on the phone. it's folksy and old-school, but that's kind of the way I am.

I would think that having a photo and folksy type stuff on another type of
site for someone with another working style would be counterproductive to
about the same degree as I've found it beneficial.

--
Chris Leeds,
Microsoft MVP-FrontPage

ContentSeed: great tool for web masters,
a fantastic convenience for site owners.
http://contentseed.com/

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://contentseed.com

 

[Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)]

Jim Cheshire (JIMCO) wrote:

Let's guess. You log IP addresses?

Wrong guess, but this is a great example of what I'm talking about! It
seems that many in your circles of compadres believe that the total depth of
the pool of wisdom consists of only what they know. In fact, there is much
more to logging activity on your Web site than just IP addresses.

Maybe you need to be a programmer to really understand how to look beyond
the basics.

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO
http://www.jimcoaddins.com

Now offering templates ranging from
affordable standard templates to
powerful e-commerce applications!

 

[Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)]

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://contentseed.com

When the fish aren't biting, the least you could do is change the bait!

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO
http://www.jimcoaddins.com

Now offering templates ranging from
affordable standard templates to
powerful e-commerce applications!

 

[Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)]

No, the whole problem started because for some reason someone cross
posted to the alt groups. Then a couple of web snobs decided to come
here and spend more time nitpicking on individuals than in discussing
the actual pros and cons.

Well said.

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO
http://www.jimcoaddins.com

Now offering templates ranging from
affordable standard templates to
powerful e-commerce applications!

 

[Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)]

If you say so.

I like how the "web snobs" didn't respond to threads/posts shared in
another group but "decided to come here".

Then again it is odd that you and others, trying to use the
cross-posted thoughts as some sort of reason - like the above shared
one you penned , find it difficult to stop cross-posting when
responding to even fellow "group mates" posts.

Kind of weakens of the argument when you are one of the parties to the
cross-posting 'problem', doesn't it?

Are you sure you're not just trying to get the last word?

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO
http://www.jimcoaddins.com

Now offering templates ranging from
affordable standard templates to
powerful e-commerce applications!

 

[SmakDaddy]

When the fish aren't biting, the least you could do is change the bait!

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO
http://www.jimcoaddins.com

Now offering templates ranging from
affordable standard templates to
powerful e-commerce applications!

I'm not baiting, nor scumming for trolls.

Without going into detail as I'm very busy, I was simply passing along info
so he/they/whoever could see what the basic problem there was and fix if
desired.

There's a bunch of errors at the site, yet the main one is there isn't even
an opening <html> tag. Unreal.

I'm a believer in that if you propose to be an educator, or a supplier to
those who need assistance/guidance, that you should at least have your basic
crap together, that you should have, at least, you're own crap together.

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.jimcoaddins.com

 

[Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)]

Huh? $30.00 templates to "offset some of your costs" ? I find that
very hard to believe. But you resell them eh? I hope they work in
more browsers than your own website, or I'd very much feel cheated.

I resell them. I get 20% of that which means $6.00 if someone buys a $30.
Most templates are $15 at most, and 99% of people don't come to my site for
templates. You seem to be stuck on that page yourself, but it's a very
small part of my site.

Each message oozing from your account proves you more and more a
pompous fool who knows very little about the way the internet works.

Well, at the sake of making you look like an ignorant ass, in order to
download a product from me, you have to enter your name and e-mail address.
At that point, a cookie is sent in the response so that you don't have to
enter the information twice. I am counting a unique downloader as one
person downloading one or more add-ins once. I don't count anyone twice.

I keep intricate records on these e-mails when new product announcements go
out and I know exactly what percentage of them don't go to real individuals.

In other words, please refer to my earlier quote about keeping one's mouth
shut.

Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one, only because
templates are a popular SERP and tons of people are looking for them.
I really don't think it's very difficult for a template site to
generate lots of visits.

Once again, my template page is brand new and gets very few hits. That is
not what draws people to my site. Most come for tutorials, reviews, and
add-ins. Just this week, the templates page has been slammed, but that's
likely by you and others around these parts who are getting their jollies
hacking on the site. To each his own.

The site I manage for my employer gets a similar number of weekly
"visitors" though. As silly as it is to ignore the issues of users in
favour of the advice of webmasters, does that mean you'll take my
advice now?

Considering the fact that you've proven yourself to be pretty ignorant in
such areas, no.

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO
http://www.jimcoaddins.com

Now offering templates ranging from
affordable standard templates to
powerful e-commerce applications!