My first attempt at a website! Would love your feedback...

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
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greenfrog
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My first attempt at a website! Would love your feedback...

Post by greenfrog »

Hi all,

Prompted by the sheer shame of being one of the few people left on this site without a personal website, I've finally published my own! (drumroll...)

www.romanticparisrentals.com is still a work in progress. I need to take more pictures of the neighbourhood, if the sun would decide to stay out long enough and when I'm actually there. :D
I also have a few more pages half-finished, including a What's On in Paris guide, and a page of useful tourism links. They'll be up when they're ready.

I've drawn extensively on the hugely valuable information on this forum so a big "thank you" is due to Paolo and to everyone who's ever said anything about websites.

It's hardly the most glamorous or complicated website but I'd love to hear your opinions on how it looks and reads, what's bad and what's good and what's missing, and if it does the job it's meant to do - ie sell my place!

I also confess to being a bit mystified by the whole SEO thing - I've tried to use keywords but I'm not entirely sure I've done it correctly so any comments on that would be most welcome.

Thank you all in advance!
Elaine
Last edited by greenfrog on Sun Jun 10, 2007 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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enid
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Post by enid »

Just had a quick look befor eIgo to get ready for dinner with firends - I like the clear text and the colour scheme - made me keen to read more. I'll have a longer look tomorrow :)
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Prompted by the sheer shame of being one of the few people left on this site without a personal website, I've finally published my own! (drumroll...)
Ahem I know what you mean Elaine..theres not many of use left :oops: ....
Your site looks lovely very well done ...your place does as well of course :wink: ...
One little niggle is the photo of the bathroom Im not sure how else you could show it but it doesnt photo that well..Im sure some of the others might have advice to give....
But the rest looks absolutely great well done[I bet youre chuffed I would be :wink: ]
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greenfrog
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Post by greenfrog »

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback.
Re the bathroom - yes, I know what you mean. I'm not wildly happy about the photo but I felt I should include something showing the bathroom. I will take another few when I'm over there Monday and hopefully I'll come up with something better!
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Topcat
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Post by Topcat »

I think it looks great. You certainly have a wonderful location.

Entirely agree about the bathroom - in fact I'd go further and say it lets the website down. Could you try a different angle - I think it's the fact that you look directly at the loo that is so offputting, and the shower curtain needs to be pulled straight.

If you have another photo of the apartment, I'd substitute it until you can get a better photo of the bathroom.

To be honest, I'm a bit dubious about bathroom photos altogether, unless you've got some special feature.

TC
Debut novelist at http://tinyurl.com/or89jle

http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
populuvivu
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Post by populuvivu »

Hello Elaine,

It is quite a nice little website. I think it is clear, you understand well what you will find when you arrive in. The bathroom photo is not too bad and i think you can leave it. The bathroom and WC photos are often very hard to make. I have had this problem too. I think it is not absolutely necessary to show it but in your case, it is not shocking if i can say so.
A personal thought: the background color. I think you could improve it. Maybe with a picture of a Montmartre artist ?

Regards.
Let's fight for the rights of corsican people.
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Post by guest 4 »

Hi Elaine,

I think on the whole your site does exactly what it says on the tin, a lovely romantic getaway!! Lose the bathroom picture, take a picture of the kitchen on your knees, you have high ceilings, it will give a greater sense of space.

The main pic on your booking page is great, but the three at the bottom are hard to work out what they actually are. By this stage your prospective guests are already looking to book. Perhaps you should change these for romantic/traditional sights of paris, that will give them the final push to fill out the form.

I think you have a lovely apartment, wish I was twenty again with my lovely hubby!! (memories, memories.)

Ruth
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greenfrog
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Post by greenfrog »

Welcome back, Ruth! A big "thank you" - and to everyone else who's posted - for your kind comments.

Bowing to popular demand :lol: and collective wisdom, I've removed the bathroom photo and replaced it with a pic of the hallway. I feel better that no-one thinks I need to show the bathroom. I wasn't very happy with that pic anyway.

I hope to address some of the other pic issues during the week.

If anyone uses a browser other than IE7, I'd be interested to hear how the site looks. I had some issues with safari in the beginning, which I hope are now ironed out.

E
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Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

it looks beautiful! :-)
I love the currency coverter :-) nice touch!! I may have to steal the idea if you don't mind ;-)

about the bathroom photo....I just clicked a moment ago...so I didn't see it...but...I used to be very FIRM in the NO BATHROOM PHOTOS school of thought...who the heck wants to see a photo of a toilet??! but...I got quite a few comments from another forum when I asked them to look at my photos and said they really wanted to see the bathroom (they were American...we Americans are REALLY into our bathrooms...as my non-American husband will point out any day!) I also was reading a thread in a travel forum (honestly don't remember which one) but...the BIG advice to people booking rentals was to never rent somehere that didn't show a bathroom photo (!) and that you could tell a lot about the place by what condition the bathroom was in...so...I was converted and I now show a (SMALL) photo of my very plain...but clean...bathroom. I still hate showing it...but...like I said...americans are weird about our bathrooms :-) soo...just w anted to point that out :-)

p.s. I have no idea what IE7 is...but the site looks and works great with my Explorer :-)
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Topcat
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Post by Topcat »

Looks good in Firefox too.
TC
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http://wivenhoewriters.blogspot.co.uk/
Contributor to anthology 'In a Word: Murder'
Stu
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Post by Stu »

Looking good there Elaine. If you're lacking some pics of the area, I have some taken recently (April) when Syb and I stayed there with friends (not in your place, but in Montmartre). You can have them gratis if you like? Sacre Coeur, rue Lepic, the steps down from Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Cafe des deux Moulins....let me know? I'd just want a small credit?
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Partridge
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Post by Partridge »

What a fantastic effort Elaine, well done.

I would agree with Pop that I am unsure about the background colour. I don't know why but it seems to say 'America' to me as soon as I clicked on it, as opposed to European, just seems like a warmer colour might be needed.
Don't waste energy on things you can't change.

Costa de la Luz apartment rental
www.ownersdirect.co.uk/spain/S5386.htm
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greenfrog
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Post by greenfrog »

Thanks for all the feedback!

Stu&Syb - thanks for the kind offer of pix. I've taken loads myself now so I think I'm okay. Just need to process them. I may come back to you if I find they're not quite up to scratch!

Musetta - feel free to "steal" the converter link. I "stole" the idea from a friend's site! :lol:

Re the background colour - hmm. Seems to have prompted mixed reactions so I will have a think about it and see the alternatives. If I want to stick to a light colour, it's quite limiting but a stronger colour would mean changing font colours, and more work! More on this later...
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SmileyT
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Post by SmileyT »

Hi Green frog, might I suggest that you adjust the brightness/contrast in your pictures This will give the appearance of much lighter and warmer rooms. If you don't have the software to do this I'll happily adjust them and send back a few variants for you to pick from.

Apart from that very minor comment, I think that your site is clear and simple. It has taken me ages and many different attempts to get things how I want them on my site. It's still not to everyones liking though. So well done.
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greenfrog
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Post by greenfrog »

Hi all,

Following up on some suggestions here, I'm experimenting with background colours.
If you have a moment to look again and see what you think of the alternatives, please...

The home page is the original blue I had; the facilities page and the Montmartre page are now two new alternatives.

Either of them any better??

Thanks, as always for your time and advice.
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