Review : votingserver.com

[sv2]

Hi everybody,

I'd like to here what do you think about my website - http://www.votingserver.com

Please tell me your opinion and that's more important - would you like to use a service like my.

Thanks, V.

[Stomple]

Here are my thoughts, in no particular order, just as I notice them:

I like the site design. It is easy to navigate and find everything. Some of the links on your services page don't go to the services, though. I like the robots, but the big robot kind of gets in the way and makes text hard to read when it covers him. Maybe make him smaller or the text wrap around him?

I'm guessing that English is not your first language? I hate to sound mean, but the writing on your site is pretty bad, with very poor grammar. On a personal site, I wouldn't care, but a site that wants my business needs to be well written. You really need to get someone to rewrite everything correctly.

I think your service might be a good idea for some people, but I'm not sure who. Aren't most of your services already available as plug-ins for most CMS and blogging platforms? The shout box looks interesting, though.

I didn't see anywhere how much these services would cost. I see that they are free now, but I know I would never sign up for anything without knowing what it will cost in the future.

I would be very concerned about security and privacy using these services. If they all run on your servers, I'm not sure I would be comfortable with you having access to all that information. These concerns would need to be addressed before I even thought about signing up.

Pop-up windows are bad. Some of us use browsers that block them for a reason. Making pop-ups that get around that is, to be honest, a pretty crappy thing to do. I know I never even look at the pop-ups or pop-unders that get past my browser. I just close them and vow to never visit that site again. Is this the kind of thing you want to be known for?

Is displaying my IP address really necessary?

Sorry if this review sounds harsh, but I wanted to give you my honest opinion.

[sv2]

Thanks for your honest response, Stomple.

Yep, it's bit more harsh than I could expect, but I've to agree with several issues (and yep, proof reading is my pain - but we're going to publish completely new documentations next week).

So, thank you very much for your response. It's really important for me to know that webmasters REALLY think about my service .

Regards, Valentine.

[OnyxDesign]

I like the design, but I have some thoughts about how to improve the website:

- I would remove the visitors tracker info. When I see my country, flag (which is way too big). city name and IP adress I feel kind of watched and a company like yours should be trustworthy.

- about the navigation, I don't like that the side navigation disappears when you visit the detail page of a tool. I also think you should use a nested menu. One item saying services and when you hover it, you see all the services. I would also change the order of pages in the menu. The first 7 pages are all about you and your company and that's not what I'm would be looking for if I visited your site. So begin with the services because that is what counts. If people are interested in your company's history they will visit that page.

[sv2]

Thanks for your response, Onyx.

Yep, you're right about order of menu items. Actually it has to be reverted

Thanks!

[madcaptains]

Hi,
it's easy to navigate into your site. I like your robot mascot!
banner looks nice.

[koolontheweb]

I like your robot mascot too.
I like the site design but I would review the colours used.

[Aussie]

Hi Sv2,

Design
* I think the overall design is clean, which is a great start, but if you're going with a "web 2.0 vibe" and this is a brand new offering, I would like to see something along the lines of these styles, even if only some subtle influences from them and retain the simplicity.
e.g. Softening some corners here and there.

* There are a list of links on the right - are they partners? Recommended sites? Affiliates?
-

The products
* You have entered an area that is saturated. Every other site seems to be the 'ultimate webmaster resource' and all the end users are left with is a massive selection of sites that seem to do the same thing. I'd suggest looking at one thing you do that's different from anyone else and focus on that - bring it to "centre stage" of your site and really OWN that one thing. Don't remove the others, especially if you have worked hard on their development... but you need a focus to rise to the top.

* Some idea of the pricing is essential

* iframes don't exactly light my fire, but will be suitable for start ups that don't want to use open source CMSs which have clean php integration for content.

Overall
* You mentioned proof reading was an issue, but you also said you plan to "publish completely new documentations next week" and the post was last month; so either you still need to work on the proof reading, find a proof reader, or you weren't able to get the planned updates published due to other commitments, yes?
Either way I would suggest you treat that as a priority so you can impress potential clients.

Summary
You've got a better (cleaner) start than most start-ups I've seen, but make sure you have a killer trouble-free product or range of products before you really start marketing. Better to wait and release something amazing later, than to advertise something that flops and causes a backlash... you will never get that advertising money back

Good luck and keep us updated