In a continuous effort to "take the plank of wood out of my own eye before taking out the speck from my neighbour's eye", here is yet another site up for review

Note: All data for now is static, but you should get the picture from the site architecture with respect to what the site will eventually be capable of doing. Site launch is on March 31 and by then, for sure, all data will be dynamic and all copy will be in place.

http://www.propertieswithcash.com/

2 things (the first, major and the second, minor) I don't want to see here, if you don't mind, are:

1) "The site is so simple" or any synonyms/variations to this effect - If I had N1000 for every time I have heard that being said about any of my sites, I would have retired back to Nigeria a multi-millionaire last year

2) "The banner is large" - The client sent me the photos and asked that they be incorporated into one. I have optimized to the best of my ability (though I am open to any suggestions/help to make it smaller ) such that quality isn't compromised: I have saved for the web, cropped, interlaced and reduced quality from 100 to 60 (I use Photoshop by the way).

Thanks and enjoy!!

One thing about this site is that the Frontpage and dreamweaver guys would not understand the magnititude of the job done here: this site was hand-coded without any of the usual WYSIWYG tools.

My2cent I dove hand for this one. I bow with present sir. Pure CSS work. Only one table table, everything is in DIV tags and where you HTMl is not just old HTML, Its the new child--XHTML.

To all those who don't know the work done here beat all the flash moves painting almost all Nigerian sites. This real maximising of the mind.

my2cent I hope sey enough dols fall for this one.

To all designers, esp developers go for would class standards. Websites that would stand out any where in the world. If they can't pay dont do.

Great effort!

@my 2 cents, the website is drab and dull. As someone that has been a lil into housing/property/estate biz, i can confidently tell you that you have to make your site dazzle and attractive to potential buyers.

The header PROP in da header is completely covered with a half house logo

There are 2 conflicting colours in the view properties page

Your fonting could be better. I suggest you use verdana and not trebuchent ms and the size should be consistent

Its looks like an unserious site and at worse a dubious site (419) _{this is exactly how some peeps will see it, not me}

Lastly, potential home owners/buyers aint interested in wat coding yu used to get da site done. They're only interested in the general overlay and aesthetics of da site, cos that will make them come back again and again and even recomment it to their friends.

Hope you find the above suggestions useful

Ugo,

Thanks for your honest remarks.

1) I must confess I have never coded sites for the real estate sector. The person who commissioned me to do this referred me to the following: www.webuyhousesinga.com, www.atlantainvestornetwork.com and 2 others I can't remember right now. Basically, I had seen enough googling around to conclude that there were no sites offering what I offered. Even the client said I was doing too much compared to the other sites in that, as you said, anyone facing financial problems could care less about how the site looks as they are looking for someone to help them out. Oh well.

2) The head prop thing, I didn't see in FF or IE6. I just am now seeing it in IE7 and will correct it ASAP. Thanks for pointing this out

3) I generally use verdana, arial, sans-serif. The client insisted I use comic MS (not trebuchent MS ) saying to him, it would look more "friendly". I almost got a heart attack trying to convince him otherwise, but in the end, he pays the bills, so I had to budge.

4) Conflicting colors on the view properties page has been noted. Since the site is still technically under construction, I am still working on the site. That's just a placeholder but again, thanks for pointing out/confirming my suspicions

5) As for the site being "drab and dull", I take that as a synonym for "simple". All my sites will look drab and dull. It's what makes my work unique from the others. In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To borrow from my client and you (paraphrasing), if someone is in financial trouble, the last thing on their minds is what a site looks like. They are looking for info on how to salvage themselves. So in the end, the bottomline should be that they are able to find the info they need in a user-friendly manner and I believe the site has accomplished that.

6) Of course, I find your suggestions "useful" I am sure from the above, you have seen that I agreed with you a couple of times. At least, in soliciting reviews, I, unlike some others, am putting my sites where my "fingers on the keyboard" are, so to speak.

Looking for more (un)like this

I'll just add a little to what I've seen.

I guessed when you showed it to me earlier that you'd been strong-armed into using a cursive font (as per knowing your style) and the nav looks good in it.

I see you made the width fixed. On higher resolutions (like mine), the space to the right is larger than that to the left. Perhaps aligning the entire block to the center would help.

There's a slight border difference between the hovered and the 'current' state ie the little black border that prevents the white from being continuous. I don't know how to put it but I'm sure you'll understand when you compare.

Cheers, and great job!

It's not bad, but the font you've chosen looks rather unprofessional. Try arial or verdana.

Zahy Zahy, to what do we owe this August visit? It's been at least a year since your last post here. Does it take a site review to bring you out? If so, I will definitely post more

Back to business, I take all comments here seriously, both +ve and -ve, especially if it has to do with stuff I didn't agree to myself but have to bite my lip and do it all the same. Focusing on fonts, those who know me know I use nothing but a combo of arial, verdana, sans-serif but this guy na wa o!

Take a look at www.selltograndma.com - I solicited reviews for this site a while ago but no one posted. You will notice the font is the same and worse still, there is a lot of highlighting, red fonting and capitalizations. Trust me, as Zahy will attest, I have tried my best to tell the client that what he wants me to do flies in the face of me being his "expert" in the field who shd know what to do, but he will hear none of it. I just showed him the link to this thread this morning. He still refuses to budge. So all I have to say is this: expect worse things to come (especially if he asks me to do more sites). It is either I do it or return his money, and sorry, I will not do the latter LOL.

Stuff within my control (centering, banner issue in IE7, color conflicts, etc), I will do over the course of the week. This week, I want to concentrate on the back end.

Thanks though for your comments. As I said, I take them with humility and seriousness. Expect changes that are within my control over the course of the week.

Thanks,

@my2cents
Do you develop websites for free? I'm just asking because I need a website for one of my newly formed business in Lagos. It is a real estate business.

whobethis,

Unfortunately, I don't develop websites for free. That notwithstanding, my prices are very competitive. So why not give me a call so we can do business?

Looking forward to hearing from you via email at itoro@bellsouth.net

Sincerely,

my2cents

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That method of website promotion is known as spamming. It is disgusting.

Here is my 2 cents worth.

I am not sure you have anything to be apologetic for.

People looking for properties are looking for as much information as possible without the clutter. I disagree with the dazzling and attractive bit. I just think you need to deliver the information on the product. This philosophy is not for everyone but it delivers the results for the people I have worked with.

More useful questions would be:

1. Do you know what the site is about
2. Can you find your way easily through the site
3. How easy is it to find our contact details

The success criteria for the sites are based on helping the people that need your product buy your product.

I am not sure you will spend much time in Nairaland if every time you turn up there is a big flash screen - scrolling 'the best forum in the world'. Maybe it is but that is not the point.


Good luck!

Is the following a good real estate site? http://www.AtlantaForeclosureDeals.com. I just saw this on someone's business card.

my2cents, obviously if your working for a client then things such as fonts and colours are beyond your control. The fonts however give it a real "my first site using dreamweaver" feel. Noone that visits the site once it's up is going to care whether you used tables or not. Appearance does make up for some aspect of site building.

I also feel as simple as the look is, it really could be simplier. There are some unneccesary pages (see http://www.atlantaforeclosuredeals.com/) I think they accomplish everything you're trying to do, simply

Your navigation is spot on though

I also feel as simple as the look is, it really could be simplier.

POINT,

How else would I have justified charging the guy as much as I did?

On a serious note though, I beg to differ with the simplicity of the site you just showed me. I personally would take 10 "short" pages over one extra long page any day.