AT LAST my website! please have a look

[greenfrog]

Hi Catherine,

Well done on getting the site together. The house looks lovely.

I agree that more and bigger pix would be good, esp on the home page. I don't like the very large type on the home page - it's a bit too much. I would reduce it and use bullet points or short, one-sentence pars.

(typos: five-bedroomed not five bed roomed; two-storey house)

You have lots of detail on the pages about the interior (love that you have Irish Coffee glasses! and a popcorn machine!) but I think some pix would get the idea across better and faster than all the measurements. (esp since you have it all in feet and inches - none of the continental Europeans will have a clue. Hell, I can barely remember... Also, room sizes on the continent are always in sq metres.)

Your photo gallery of Donegal is gorgeous! Are they all your shots? I don't know if it's possible with a slide show but captions saying where some of the places are would be good.
Perhaps a map on your location page, so that people can situate your cottage.

Best of luck with getting it together!

[catherinedonegal]

hi everyone

so sorry for taking so long to reply to your comments. i have been flat out trying to get the site right. ok, my replies:

windy ~ had a good think about your comments re rates and as we have not increased the price this year i adjusted the shoulder month either side of high season to mid season.

garri ~ i took out the hallway pic and they are now all landscape so should be better for viewing. re the side thingy, i have looked at the above thingys available to me on the prog i am using and they don't really 'work' for me and what i am doing. i have shortened the length of the side thingy, having learned how to do drop downs from each so now able to bunch relevant things together rather than having loads of different links to pages.

katiegirl ~ correct all the typos. whb = wash hand basin

declan ~ exterior. waiting to get a chance to do updated pics. regarding the header, the prog i used keeps the same header for every page and therefore i went for a neutral heading with the intention that i add pics to pages.

austria ~ yes, will have contact page (and other blank pages) ready once the site becomes 'public' as in once i change the address to daisycottagedonegal.com. "a section on how and why you have the property is also helpful ..." tell me more. what do you mean? sounds like something i might do. re links page, i am adding links to each section i write about and once the site is 'public' i will then contact each of them to request links back to me.

greenfrog ~ the large type was caused by my typing the piece up in word so that i could use a different font (which i can't get on the site builder). it looked great on my laptop but husband told me, as you are here, that the font was huge. so i've changed it back to standard font. yes, must add metric measurements (and more pics). and thank you about pics they are all mine (we spend many days around donegal cameras in hand). i will add further non slide show galleries of photographs as with the slide show i can't caption them. and yes, am going to add a google map.

thanks so much everyone for your much appreciated help.

if anyone has time here is the site after more work.

http://catherinemac.weebly.com/


it's still not perfect but certainly improved. well imo anyway [/url]

[Garri]

Catherine, a few quick observations:

1. The grey and red header is bare and seems redundant. Would be better, in my opinion, if you either removed it or used it to accommodate your logo/branding

2. Fly outs, i.e. Drop down menus, seem a bit disconcerting when you mouse over anywhere in this area.

3. Things to do in Donegal: this list is quite long and cuts off at Photography & Art on my screen with the rest of the choices not accessible as I need to scroll down. In doing so, the menu options disappear as I've moved my mouse away from the area in order to move it over to the scroll bar.

You have too many options for vertical navigation to work effectively on your site and I thoroughly recommend that you read the following article:

The Case Against Vertical Navigation

4. Poor SEO as your title meta tags are not descriptive, but this is easily rectified.

[Windy]

I agree with Garri about the flyouts I'm afraid - they're a bit scary!

(Thought provoking link re navigation Garri)

I think the black and red header bar doesn't work with the green embroidery text thing - stylistically quite different.

If I'm honest it looks to me as though you haven't yet found a theme - Do you want to be modern or traditional / folkoric? The top bit could be from a London Boutique hotel whilst the header image is all countryside flowers and weaving. I'mnot sure what you SHOULD be doing , but I'm sure you are not quite there yet. Keep going - the content is there - it just need the right "look".

I also think you need a socking great picture of the front of the property on the front page.

Being a cynic f I ever see a site without one I ask myself why. If I check the gallery and still can't see one I start to think the owner is avoiding showing me something (huge pylon towering over the house, nuclear reactor next door ...). You may have one of these, but if not I think you should be showing a good big house pic right on page 1.

[catherinedonegal]

thanks garri & windy ~ have done lots more work since based on your observations. still not finished of course

[Mountain Goat]

Catherine, you may be tweaking but if I try and follow the link (come on in.....) on your home page I get this:

The site you are looking for has not been published.

If you are the owner of the site, you can fix this message by republishing your site.

MG

[catherinedonegal]

mg ~ just getting husband to check on his laptop here. be back in a min

[catherinedonegal]

mg ~ have temporarily correct that just taking you to the options.

for viewing before i get it all sorted you just have to go to the drop down menus at top of page.

[catherinedonegal]

wow mg! just noticed you got site of the year! GO YOU! congrats

[Mountain Goat]

Catherine, no, it was Garri's Holiday Pad site, not mine, and well deserved....

MG

[catherinedonegal]

oops, apologies garri and well done you!

[Robin]

Thought your site had a lovely fresh clean look and was uncluttered. However although I like the pristine approach a few more large scale photos would be good. I couldn't get the availability page to open.

Robin

[esentziak]

Hi

In Opera, the writing on the home page does not show at all (Daisy Cottage is a 100 year old two storey holiday home ....)

The availability calendar does not show in either Firefox or Opera - did not IE.

You've gone to a lot of trouble on the places to visit/things to do section ! congratulations, it must have taken you hours.

Dominique

[catherinedonegal]

thanks for the comments. the availability calendar should now be there btw.

robin ~ did you click on the pics? they enlarge. or do you mean i should add some larger pics?

Dominique ~ do you have any idea how i could correct the writing not showing? would appreciate knowing so i can try to do something about it. yes, that section took ages!

thanks again folks.

[Blue Shutters]

I am so slow off the mark, I have loved watching your renovations on the blog Catherine, we were in the baptism by fire together (and still are!)

Fantastic to have a website at last, I hve no idea how you rented without one up to now...but good for you. Ours is still very amateur and incomplete, but with other work pressures it has taken a back seat mainly because bookings are relatively good. As long as a site is up to date, with attractive pictures, pricing and availability and easy to contact owners you will not go far wrong.

Then it becomes a "forever" work in progress, and the sky is the limit as and when you have the time. Optomising SEO is a game you can spend all your waking hours on if you wish!

Keep up the good work.