http://www.talkofnaija.com

Looking for some harsh criticism actually, the site is still in the developing stages, but would like to hear your ideas on the design, its funcionability etc. Just looking for ways to improve what we are trying to do with the site.

I know people do this here all the time and it probably gets boring, but please if you could review the site it would be greatly appreciated

Beautiful concept but the black background is a bit harsh on the eyes and also, you should gather traffic to your site before slapping it with ads.

thanks niyyie, but I dont get it, what is the benefit of taking the ads down before I have traffic, I know Im not making anything right now, but atleast we can generate some amount of revenue, no?

It helps a bit with retaining visitors. You can't make money from day one. Build a community before bringing money into the equation. It's a psychological thing for site users seeing a new website.

The ads are not a problem. Your site lives or dies based on whether its contents are worth reading.

Do you mean users get turned off from the site when they see an ad banner on the site? Im am mos def not a fan of google ads anyway, its just that the concept is would be hard to run by my partners.

And I do agree with you Seun, content is means alot, look at Nairaland, one of the most basic sites on earth, yet they have 5 new members every minute. But right now im not really worried about the content, just the looks and the function. How user friendly it is and what is just corny on it

Of course, content rains supreme anyday anytime. My point was, since this is a new site, it'd be a better idea for you to focus on building a regular stream of traffic before focusing on ads.

One way of building regular traffic is posting quality content.

Google Adsense is one of the best ways of monetizing a website. There's nothing wrong with Adsense.

He has pasted the code for the ads and that's all there is to it. There's no 'focus' involved.
Yes, he should just forget about the ads and start building up the content, but removing them isn't it.

Thanks alot the both of you, but really i just wanted advise on the looks and functionability of the site, actually even better your first impression once you got on to it.

so:

1) font size is too small (yeah, I know you have an adjust font size thingie at the top, but if you put that up there, that tells me you really need to increase the size)

2) I had to scroll down to get to your navigation links. why?


3) perhaps cos of the blk background, the page seemed kind of busy. Coupled with the small font sizes, I found things hard to read.

I hope these help.

I think the only thing I would dissagree with you is the font size. If you think it looks busy now then it gets really messy with larger font.

yes the navigation thing is a problem, but we most absolutely have to have that banner there. we double it up for notices as well, wish i could incorporate both oh well.

The black bkg was my idea, I still love it, but it seems we catch alot of wahala for it so maybe we might have to part ways , thanks

its too messy, u need to be more organised.
what is the layout u want, its crucial that u make the layout flow, and thats not what its doing
what colour do u want to use, and use it.
make the font the same throught.
And its too bright.
ur adverts is too big

@ Blue sky

Im using CSS, i dont know how much more you can get the layout to flow, every page is the same apart from content. Same 3 fonts, same 3 colors. The brightness has been brought up before but I think its different on everyones computer, because Ive looked at it on different comps and it always looks different.

Do you mean the Naija runs ad is too big on the side? I made it that way to coincide with the navigation panel, I think its the adsense ad thats too small throwing it off.

there are better joomla structure you can find and edit the templates



joomlahut.com

joomlashack.com

I think the only thing I would dissagree with you is the font size. If you think it looks busy now then it gets really messy with larger font.

Then by all means, reduce content on the page(s) so it isn't that busy

Hi Point

Here are my observations based on visiting just the home page:

[list]
[li]There's too much content and it looks a bit messy [/li]
[li]Under the Naija star interview, the electric blue heading against the black background is too harsh [/li]
[li]It doesn't seem to have a layout. The text boxes in the login form need to be spaced out and properly aligned[/li]
[li]Some of the banners and images are too big and take up a lot of space[/li]
[li]There are many spelling errors[/li]
[li]You have 3 google Ad banners on the main page. You are also asking for donations AND you are selling ringtones. Thought it was a bit much (Maybe it's just me ). The donation image should reflect that donations are via paypal[/li]
[li]Why do you have a search box at the top, another one at the bottom and a link to another search page under main menu?[/li]
[li]Nearer the top of the page, you have links to Home|Newspapers|Ringtones|Contact us. You also have the same links again under main menu[/li]
[/list]

HTH

Lol, thanks blk raven, umm, lol the google ads are staying for obvious reasons, i guess we have to make them less conspicuous. you dont think that if the bottons on the navigation are spaced out it wont look messier? and what should I allign them with? The ringtones is just part of what we're doing. if you go to the about us, you see that we are trying to do everything, (which i already know is going to create alot of problems) Spelling mistakes are a no no and thanks for pointing that out as well as the pay pal thing.

Everyone keeps saying its messy,

I have no idea of how to change that, smaller images but I dont think even that will solve the problem.
How did it feel when you surfed the site? or did you, please someone do it, let me know if its slow, unconnected hard to navigate, boring etc.

lol, everyone hates my colour scheme this is going to be a problem, thanks raven

Hi point,

you don't think that if the bottons on the navigation are spaced out it wont look messier?

I was referring to the login form only. Everything in the login form area looks squashed together.

and what should I allign them with?

Not sure how to explain it. Have a look at the login form on this site: http://www.gibraltarlivemusic.com/. The login form is similar to yours except that yours is on the left side of the page.

Everyone keeps saying its messy

It's true. If you look at http://www.gibraltarlivemusic.com/. It's a music site with a lot of content but it is structured and easy on the eye.

How did it feel when you surfed the site? or did you, please someone do it, let me know if its slow, unconnected hard to navigate, boring etc.

I visited your site myself and on first impression, I thought was very messy (sorry ). I am not a fan of sites with black backgrounds (they hurt my eyes), but I am aware that some others may like it. The pages take some time to load, even the ones without any images. I enjoyed watching the music video and reading the star interview so no, it's not boring. It has potential and as you said, it's still work in progress. You really should consider reducing the size of those images.

Why not use a simpler Joomla template (without all the heading graphics and navigation buttons) especially as you have a lot of content and images on your site?

Good luck

raven, why are you hiding your email, ur def the first person i want to contact as soon as I make changes, you hurt my feelings in a good way. No but seriously you better still be posting on here once i make changes or ill get mad

Hi Point

I'm glad that you found my review constructive. I always hide my email addy on forums but I will still be posting here (I think I'm addicted to this site ).

I'm not a fan of sites that automatically start blaring music when you first visit them -- especially when they're not a musical artist's web site.

great point on the music, its aannoying to me too

Blk Raven basically said everything. But let me just add a couple of things,

There's too much going on on the home page, and the fonts are iconsistent. For instance, the Nigerian entertainment Awards story. Because u somehow managed to squeeze in the mp3 player into the same space as links on the story, i didn't know at first that they were there.

And instead of putting a whole full article on the home page, why don't you just put snippets of each with a 'read more' link?

And the colours are bad on the eys as yo've already been told. If you must use blue, use a softer shade of blue.

Try categorizing the areas of the page. If you must put so much stuff on it, then partition them with thin lines or something. As they are, they just look jumbled together and unappealing.

I understand you're trying to make revenue, but what you're dong with the google ads has a name, and it's called overkill.. If you are so hell bent on the three, make them different types, like text links on one corner, and picture ads on another, as they are right now with ur layout, they just make the page look veery WORDY.

Finally, the picture for that Treez interview, why don't you align the text around it, so that space won't be there?

Just a few tips.


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