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ok...i don't mean to be super critical here, but i'm gonna state it. WHY is it that so many MT's sites are visually appauling?????? i am a graphic designer and have been working in marketing for years. as an MT i have searched and searched the web for various massage sites. sites by an individual MT to small practices, from spas to corporate america massage sites. i have come across only a handful that visually keep me on the page.

might i make a suggestion? less is more.

one of the biggest issues i see on sites is that they are crammed with content expecting the visitor to read through. some sites have one page that just scrolls on indefinitely. other sites have poor navigation/organization. and then some just throw anything and everything on the home page. once you do this you risk losing your visitor's attention.


i'm not advocating having only pretty pictures. but a well thought out photo with minimal content which motivates the visitor to take action by either going to another page, calling you or emailing you will do far better than putting everything on your site and hoping your visitor finds what he/she is looking for.

i'd love nothing more than to see our profession become a powerhouse in the medical industry. and as such we need to make the most of the web. but to do so we need to present ourselves professionally and that means polished and organized.

do a search for yourself. compare some medical websites to your own and then decide...is your website really presenting you in the best way possible.

(sorry if this offends any...it is not directed at any one)

let's use our safe haven here to share our sites (i'm working on getting mine up and running) and brainstorm with constructive feedback.

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http://www.massage-glasgow.co.uk

Built it myself, it works as it brings in new clients ever week. Has had lots of compliments and does extremely well in Google.

One quick question, why do people put Google advert on there web sites? Does it really bring in revenue? I wouldn't include it on my site and am just wondering about peoples reasoning?
So, I'm going to completely embarrass myself here, Lisa! I took full advantage of ABMP's free website. You design them yourself and hope for the best. I have never designed a site before. Also, I have the dreaded dial-up. So, I kept everything to a minimum so it wouldn't take forever to load. As this is an extremely new site, I can't really give any feed back on bringing clients in. However, my existing clients love it.

www.tworiversbodyshop.massagetherapy.com
Hey Marissa

I think you've actually got the barebones of a really good site. I love the orange (i'm a huge fan of orange!).

Some advice would be, your menu needs a little work, currently it doesn't change colour when you mouse over an item, it would be good if it did.

Also your image is good but you need one that spans the whole width of the layout.

One last suggestion, is don't centre everything, produce slightly more content so that your lines look ok without being centred.

That is just my opinion, but great job so far. I understand its hard when your just on dial up as you do have to keep file sizes to a minimum but keep working at it.

Marissa Macias said:
So, I'm going to completely embarrass myself here, Lisa! I took full advantage of ABMP's free website. You design them yourself and hope for the best. I have never designed a site before. Also, I have the dreaded dial-up. So, I kept everything to a minimum so it wouldn't take forever to load. As this is an extremely new site, I can't really give any feed back on bringing clients in. However, my existing clients love it.

www.tworiversbodyshop.massagetherapy.com
Hey Marissa,

Your website looks great.

I would try to locate an image where the therapist's fingernails aren't quite so long.

Ouch!!!

Trevor Chisman said:
Hey Marissa

I think you've actually got the barebones of a really good site. I love the orange (i'm a huge fan of orange!).

Some advice would be, your menu needs a little work, currently it doesn't change colour when you mouse over an item, it would be good if it did.

Also your image is good but you need one that spans the whole width of the layout.

One last suggestion, is don't centre everything, produce slightly more content so that your lines look ok without being centred.

That is just my opinion, but great job so far. I understand its hard when your just on dial up as you do have to keep file sizes to a minimum but keep working at it.

Marissa Macias said:
So, I'm going to completely embarrass myself here, Lisa! I took full advantage of ABMP's free website. You design them yourself and hope for the best. I have never designed a site before. Also, I have the dreaded dial-up. So, I kept everything to a minimum so it wouldn't take forever to load. As this is an extremely new site, I can't really give any feed back on bringing clients in. However, my existing clients love it.

www.tworiversbodyshop.massagetherapy.com
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, there's a lot that I can't do due to it being under control of ABMP. It's odd too, because there are suppose to be scroll down tabs. Sometimes they're there, other times it just lists everything on the main page. I can't quite figure out how to fix it. I'll keep on trying!
P.S. I'm trying to make changes at this time and half of them are not "sticking". Bear with me and I will keep at it! It's very aggravating when I know I'm linking the correct things and they are just not applying.
Hi Everyone

http://web.me.com/jmcole5 is my new website that I designed myself. I have no experience designing websites and some feedback would be helpful. I designed it using an Apple and that's the address they gave me. Anybody know of a good site to get a domain name? Also anybody have experience with online gift certificates?
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for putting up that logomaker site. I've been racking my brains trying to come up with a logo on my own and can't afford professional help at this time. That site is great!!
Hi All,

Here is my website: www.handsandspirit.com I welcome all constructive criticism and/or compliments. My wife designed and built it.

Peace
Love the textured background.

Easy navigation – nice

The only thing I might change is the font used for your business name and your name, sans serif fonts are more difficult to read. It is hard to make out letters after your last name.

Perhaps change your name to a serif font and keep your business name in san serif.


Gerry Bunnell said:
Hi All,

Here is my website: www.handsandspirit.com I welcome all constructive criticism and/or compliments. My wife designed and built it.

Peace
Gerry...

one thing i might suggest is to put the "hands" on one line and then "spirt" below it so that the capitol "h" and the capitol "s" in script my twirl within in or around each other. the "and" can be small in between.

as for your name, i agree with Susan in that you don't want that in a script font. you want that to stand out a little away from the name of your business.

also to add some contrast i would have the name of the business and your name in the deep red color but the rest should be black. that information is small and so it's getting lost because of the color.

it would be ok to put the address on one line with bullet points between groups of info...like this:

Montpelier Family Chiropractic • 16603 Mountain Road • Montpelier, VA 23192 • (804) 883-3000

run it along the bottom and then that will free up some "white space" between the 3 modalities and the Business Name/Your Name info.

on the massage page i would put the services list to the left and put the two images on top of each other on the right. the bullets are too stack in the middle. at least on my screen.

finally (sorry) i really like the photo of you on the reiki page versus the one you used for the "about you" page. that photo is a side shot of you and kinda washed out. and since that page is about YOU...you should have the best photo of you on it. maybe use a generic image for reiki.

hope this helps.
Marissa...

i agree with Trevor...don't make everything centered. It's also ok to have white space. i would put the phone numbers on one line for instance.

the welcome could be centered and important contact info should be centered but bulk content is best to be left justified.

maybe you can put the welcoming line in the brown box and bigger to make it stand out even more.

two rivers definitely brings some imagery to mind so you might want to incorporate some water imagery or check out that logo site and look into having some symbol of water for a logo.

in the "about us" break up the paragraphs with a space between the 3.

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