Website critiques

[primrose80]

Hi!
Can anyone please make any suggestions, comments or critiques for my site:
www.fonisol.com/rome/romeindex.htm
I am expecting comments related to color, design and related factors.
Thanks,
Primrose

[linnetwoods]

I made a comment about the site the other day, after you asked for a critique, and I see that it still looks exactly as it did. Perhaps others are wondering why you want comments when it seems you don't really take any notice when you get them - you neither changed the page not posted back to say why you wanted to keep it that way.

Why do I get the impression that you might be trying to use this forum as an advertising platform or to get your 'hit counter' moving? Hope I'm wrong but you can see my point, surely?

Anyway, while we are here - the colour is probably appropriate for a wine company. If you are going to have a header that stretches so far then there is no point in limiting the page content to what looks like the left hand side of a large page. I would either let the page extend to the width of the header or reduce the header width to the page size you are aiming for.

Your advertising banners are a bit disastrously situated. The Wall Street Journal one seems to be plonked any old place and totally detracts from the layout. The travelocity banner at the bottom is still on its default setting (right) which puts it out of whack with the rest of the page contents and the text is still a mess - as I said before, I recommend you put up a table of 2 columns and as many rows as there are separate items (sub-headings) and then put the Item title: in the left column and the text content in the right.

Once all has been distributed thus, make the left column whatever width it has to be so that everything lines up nicely and then justify the text in the right hand column so that it looks professionally done.

Incidentally, I wasn't terribly impressed with the information after all that fanfare about BY travelers FOR travelers - the identical information is all over the Internet. If you are going to start a page with a claim like that, you need to have some gems of local knowledge that would never be found on a 'stock' travel page like those others. I would either put some really interesting low-down on there or remove the remark about the page being BY travelers FOR travelers. It just comes across as silly.

Right, well you have just had about US$30-worth of consultation for free. You will probably ignore this also, but there you go! Do with it as you will and good luck.

[primrose80]

Hi! Thanks for ur msg.
Firstly I am not using this for advertising at all, you took me wrong! The other thing, from your last msg what I understood was that you were alll pointing towards BA, Argentina site. and not the rome site... if I am right. And that is not currently handled by me.
Also you mentioned Wine company, again I am only asking about Rome travel guide (www.fonisol.com/rome/romeindex.htm), wine is a different venture at this stage.

And all these comments I am understanding are related to Rome site and now obviously I will go for changes.
Thanks anyway for your comments and critics and suggestions:)
Also one suggestion I want to ask, Is it a good idea to present 'one's personal opinion/experience' on Rome site, for example lets say I want to put about some restaurant review( my own personal review), do you think that is better. One side of the argument says "yes" coz it gives feeling that someone has great experience being in Rome, on the contrary "its too subjective" and people might not be very impressed with it!
Also ,suppose someone goes to a restaurant after reading recommendation(reviews) from my site, and dont find it good(which is high likelihood coz of different taste of people).. then obviously the business is likely to go down...
Regards,
Primrose

[primrose80]

And I wont ignore any of your suggestions, the US$30-worth of consultation :)
Regards,
Primrose

[linnetwoods]

Oh! I left one zero off! It should have said US$300!:D Only foolin' around. Seriously though, I think I would agree that a critique of a restaurant is a dangerous thing to include but, perhaps you could mention a particular kind of dish that is eaten in Rome more than in other parts of Italy or other world capitals - Gnocchi, Saltimbocca, Bucatini alla Gricia or whatever, that you particularly enjoyed.

Maybe you could describe some little back street, not too far from the centre, with authentic local shops and delightful smells, or a breathtaking view that most people seem to miss because they rush past it on their way to see something else... Where to find a public lavatory in a busy tourist spot can be a very useful bit of knowledge to a traveller who doesn't speak the language and doesn't want to resort to sign language on that particular topic :-)

The trick is to make people feel that they have gained some real local knowledge or been let in on a little-known secret. Seeing as how yours is a wine-based site, I would maybe recollect with some fondness a particular glass, or bottle, of wine enjoyed whilst looking at some particularly Roman sight and tell a little anecdote about discovering how perfectly that particular wine went with the dish I was eating - you don't have to mention who cooked it...

Hope this helps to get you thinking in roughly the right direction - it doesn't matter what you talk about as long as you evoke a desire in the viewer to go and experience some of that if he can and, if not, buy some of what you are selling to get as close to it as possible...

It aslo helps people to see the site as being manned by humans, with whom they can identify, rather than being rather cold and anonymous. Good luck (That's another US$300 down the drain!:D ) !

[primrose80]

Hey!
Thanks!Will implement this very soon and will be back here for a review again:)
Regards,
Primrose