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Aspiring Martha

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And I'm pretty sure it may have been the hardest thing I've ever done. Oh my goodness -- my brain hurts! And my neck. And my eyes are crossing. But it is FINISHED!
I did it in Wordpress and used the Avada theme. It IS a beautiful theme. EN - I SOO appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. However, I have to say -- it WASN'T easy for this old gal. Seems like there are so many different possible combinations to make a little tiny change. I learned some coding in the process (out of sheer dogged determination to get this thing up). I also learned how to "really" use my "big" camera that I've had for 10 years but never figured out how to do much more that point and click. (It's pretty cool by the way. I should have learned how to play with that toy long ago!) I also learned how to do photoshop (ugh!). I also learned figured out that %$#! reskey. Did I mention that my brain hurts? I think I may have short-circuited something in there...
Anyway -- I'd love to get your comments and critiques on my site. Is there a way to post something privately to just the members or should I just post it here for a day or two and then take it down?
 
Usually it's a post and delete thing with website reviews. But, put it in your original post, not a second one. You can't edit to remove the link in a secondary post once someone has responded to it.
 
lightbulb.gif
Ohhhh - I didn't realize we could PM each other. Duhhh...
I will pm the link to anyone who wants to weigh in...
 
Awww shoot -- I went ahead it posted my website info on my profile page. Once I'm open and need a place to vent -- I can take it down. For now I'm as "clean" as the new fallen snow (except I still can't make a pie crust. Ha!) Thanks for taking a gander at my site
tounge_smile.gif
 
Aspiring Martha said:
lightbulb.gif
Ohhhh - I didn't realize we could PM each other. Duhhh...
I will pm the link to anyone who wants to weigh in....
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing! First of all, this looks like it is an amazingly perfect place to be a B&B. Most of your photos are gorgeous and your furnishings are tastefully impeccably luxurious!
I am not a fan of all the black, makes it way too subconsciously somber for me. So many of your room photos have a rich gold color in them, why not change the background to something on that tone, and use other gold or umber shades as accents.
I would also start the movement delay of the front page slider sooner. Some of the sliders also show up very grainy on my computer: Trees, fountains, flowers, birds, skyline etc are quite fuzzy and not anywhere near the quality of your other photos.
Also, am really not a fan of canned generic photos such as the woman lounging in the pool or different shots of lovebird couples, unless these are just placeholders for future actual photos of your property or guests. They come off as tacky, which is exactly the opposite of your overall image.
The link to the ST Suite details is broken. The current picture for the C Suite details is extremely grainy.
Your pix for the house in Reasons to Visit are outstanding. Kudos! I would personally start with a photo that is different from your home page staircase photo.
Great job as a newbie building a good website foundation, now it's all about finessing the details.... a never ending process!
Just took another look, you need to shorten the delay on all of your room sliders too! I never even knew there were additional pix, because the first one was on pause for so long. And please get rid of those generic shots of other folks in the room! I want to picture me and Poppa in those rooms! Your beautiful room photos so much more impressive.
 
Install Wordfence plugin, ewww image optimizer, and BP minimize. Set up to increase site load speed, optimize photos and minfy to run faster. I haven't looked yet but I will shortly. Too busy with 5 sites all at once :-( I promise I will learn to say NO!
 
I personally don't like the black. Not inviting at all. I would never put those large room images on the home page. Did you use one of the "theme Templates"? You should have and used full width not boxed for an up to date vibe. If you wan to use room photos, put them in a slider full width and let those wow folks...don't make them scroll for them. ALl of that stuff should be found via you navigation menu. The home page should be short and sweet and draw them in. This is an Avada theme one I have JUST started on...so nothing is the way I want it yet..but see what I mean about the home page.
 
Momma Smurf said:
Aspiring Martha said:
lightbulb.gif
Ohhhh - I didn't realize we could PM each other. Duhhh...
I will pm the link to anyone who wants to weigh in....
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing! First of all, this looks like it is an amazingly perfect place to be a B&B. Most of your photos are gorgeous and your furnishings are tastefully impeccably luxurious!
I am not a fan of all the black, makes it way too subconsciously somber for me. So many of your room photos have a rich gold color in them, why not change the background to something on that tone, and use other gold or umber shades as accents.
I would also start the movement delay of the front page slider sooner. Some of the sliders also show up very grainy on my computer: Trees, fountains, flowers, birds, skyline etc are quite fuzzy and not anywhere near the quality of your other photos.
Also, am really not a fan of canned generic photos such as the woman lounging in the pool or different shots of lovebird couples, unless these are just placeholders for future actual photos of your property or guests. They come off as tacky, which is exactly the opposite of your overall image.
The link to the ST Suite details is broken. The current picture for the C Suite details is extremely grainy.
Your pix for the house in Reasons to Visit are outstanding. Kudos! I would personally start with a photo that is different from your home page staircase photo.
Great job as a newbie building a good website foundation, now it's all about finessing the details.... a never ending process!
Just took another look, you need to shorten the delay on all of your room sliders too! I never even knew there were additional pix, because the first one was on pause for so long. And please get rid of those generic shots of other folks in the room! I want to picture me and Poppa in those rooms! Your beautiful room photos so much more impressive.
.
Click to expand...
Mama,
I'm glad to get your feedback on the dark tones. I monkeyed around with the colors for quite a while and couldn't find one I liked - so I gave up and went with the blacks and grays hoping it would add some elegance and depth. I don't think I "tried on" golds -- but I will - that is a great suggestion.
Speed up up the homepage slider. Check.
Ahhh, the blurry outdoor pics -- there's a story behind that story. Most of the outdoor pics were taken the last couple of years with my i-phone camera. I didn't get my fancy-dancy camera out (and learn how to use it) until the last couple of weeks. And of course - everything outside right now is as dead as a doornail (or is it doorknob?). My thinking was that until things spring to life outside - blurry flowers and trees are better than dead ones. The outdoor spaces are such a big part of this house - I hated just leaving them out. Ditto on no picture of the outside of the house - the only ones I have are blurry AND dead - thus the front staircase as pic number one. Besides a front of the house pic -- what would you suggest as the initial first look?
The Boarshead photos are also taken with an iphone because I'm STILL waiting on Docbones to help me get the Christmas Tree and boxes of decorations taken to the storage building - and put the room back together. Better pics will be forthcoming on that.
I'm still looking for the broken ST link. All that I have checked are working. Also - which C suite pic is blurry? Most of those look ok to me - but I may have missed one somewhere.
The stock photo of the women in the sun is indeed a placeholder until they get our pool finished. It's supposed to be finished last Halloween. (Yes -- I did say LAST Halloween.) They've had "three weeks to go until it is finished" since Halloween. They started building it in JUNE of last year and set Halloween as a dropdead finish date. Docbones says, "they said it would be finished by Halloween - they just didn't say Halloween of which year!" (Picture me beating my head against the wall.)
Okie dokey -- I will get rid of all the stock photos.
Awesome feedback!! Thank you, thank you!
 
EmptyNest said:
Install Wordfence plugin, ewww image optimizer, and BP minimize. Set up to increase site load speed, optimize photos and minfy to run faster. I haven't looked yet but I will shortly. Too busy with 5 sites all at once :-( I promise I will learn to say NO!.
Click to expand...
I have a slider with all the full width room pics on the main menu "rooms and rates". I thought it would be convenient to see everything at a glance (if someone wanted to) all on the home page. Perhaps I should take those off completely as they are all duplicated in the slider on the rooms page.
 
Well done! Don't be discouraged. Tweak, tweak, tweak some more. We all start somewhere.
I took a quick look and have to agree that the site is dark. The pictures are also dark for me and take a while to load. I would have them move along more quickly and yes to removing the stock photos. But I understand about the place holders.
 
EmptyNest said:
Install Wordfence plugin, ewww image optimizer, and BP minimize. Set up to increase site load speed, optimize photos and minfy to run faster. I haven't looked yet but I will shortly. Too busy with 5 sites all at once :-( I promise I will learn to say NO!.
Click to expand...
I can't IMAGINE working on 5 websites at once. This ONE about killed me!! I don't know how you do it!
I like the site you have started. I REALLY need a good outside front of the house picture. This house is hard to photograph outside as it is on the side of a hill (the street is alot higher than the house) so you're shooting down at the rooftop - and the house is almost too big to get it all in one shot. I'm going to have to work on that when things green up.
Where did you get the little animated down arrow on the slider? I need that!
I'm going to go play with my colors now...
 
EmptyNest said:
Install Wordfence plugin, ewww image optimizer, and BP minimize. Set up to increase site load speed, optimize photos and minfy to run faster. I haven't looked yet but I will shortly. Too busy with 5 sites all at once :-( I promise I will learn to say NO!.
Click to expand...
I installed Ewwww, I can't find BP Minimize, and there are two Wordfence plugins that I found - Wordfence security and Wordfence Assistant. Should I install both?
 
EmptyNest said:
I personally don't like the black. Not inviting at all. I would never put those large room images on the home page. Did you use one of the "theme Templates"? You should have and used full width not boxed for an up to date vibe. If you wan to use room photos, put them in a slider full width and let those wow folks...don't make them scroll for them. ALl of that stuff should be found via you navigation menu. The home page should be short and sweet and draw them in. This is an Avada theme one I have JUST started on...so nothing is the way I want it yet..but see what I mean about the home page..
Click to expand...
How did you do the 'what our guests say' on that new website you're working on?
 
I would like to see your website too, please. You can PM me the link. Thank you!
 
Aspiring Martha said:
Momma Smurf said:
Aspiring Martha said:
lightbulb.gif
Ohhhh - I didn't realize we could PM each other. Duhhh...
I will pm the link to anyone who wants to weigh in....
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing! First of all, this looks like it is an amazingly perfect place to be a B&B. Most of your photos are gorgeous and your furnishings are tastefully impeccably luxurious!
I am not a fan of all the black, makes it way too subconsciously somber for me. So many of your room photos have a rich gold color in them, why not change the background to something on that tone, and use other gold or umber shades as accents.
I would also start the movement delay of the front page slider sooner. Some of the sliders also show up very grainy on my computer: Trees, fountains, flowers, birds, skyline etc are quite fuzzy and not anywhere near the quality of your other photos.
Also, am really not a fan of canned generic photos such as the woman lounging in the pool or different shots of lovebird couples, unless these are just placeholders for future actual photos of your property or guests. They come off as tacky, which is exactly the opposite of your overall image.
The link to the ST Suite details is broken. The current picture for the C Suite details is extremely grainy.
Your pix for the house in Reasons to Visit are outstanding. Kudos! I would personally start with a photo that is different from your home page staircase photo.
Great job as a newbie building a good website foundation, now it's all about finessing the details.... a never ending process!
Just took another look, you need to shorten the delay on all of your room sliders too! I never even knew there were additional pix, because the first one was on pause for so long. And please get rid of those generic shots of other folks in the room! I want to picture me and Poppa in those rooms! Your beautiful room photos so much more impressive.
.
Click to expand...
Mama,
I'm glad to get your feedback on the dark tones. I monkeyed around with the colors for quite a while and couldn't find one I liked - so I gave up and went with the blacks and grays hoping it would add some elegance and depth. I don't think I "tried on" golds -- but I will - that is a great suggestion.
Speed up up the homepage slider. Check.
Ahhh, the blurry outdoor pics -- there's a story behind that story. Most of the outdoor pics were taken the last couple of years with my i-phone camera. I didn't get my fancy-dancy camera out (and learn how to use it) until the last couple of weeks. And of course - everything outside right now is as dead as a doornail (or is it doorknob?). My thinking was that until things spring to life outside - blurry flowers and trees are better than dead ones. The outdoor spaces are such a big part of this house - I hated just leaving them out. Ditto on no picture of the outside of the house - the only ones I have are blurry AND dead - thus the front staircase as pic number one. Besides a front of the house pic -- what would you suggest as the initial first look?
The Boarshead photos are also taken with an iphone because I'm STILL waiting on Docbones to help me get the Christmas Tree and boxes of decorations taken to the storage building - and put the room back together. Better pics will be forthcoming on that.
I'm still looking for the broken ST link. All that I have checked are working. Also - which C suite pic is blurry? Most of those look ok to me - but I may have missed one somewhere.
The stock photo of the women in the sun is indeed a placeholder until they get our pool finished. It's supposed to be finished last Halloween. (Yes -- I did say LAST Halloween.) They've had "three weeks to go until it is finished" since Halloween. They started building it in JUNE of last year and set Halloween as a dropdead finish date. Docbones says, "they said it would be finished by Halloween - they just didn't say Halloween of which year!" (Picture me beating my head against the wall.)
Okie dokey -- I will get rid of all the stock photos.
Awesome feedback!! Thank you, thank you!
.
Click to expand...
The S Suite details link on your Home page goes to Oops broken. And when clicking from the Home page on C Suite details it links to an extremely grainy picture of a bed, no room details, likely just a wrong link?
Changing the colors already has given the site a whole new vibe. I would also suggest changing the overall font color(s) to something in the deeper brown range and a highlight color in the body, perhaps the menu red, again getting rid of the black.
Also, the current menu Title colors are getting lost in the sliders. Is there a way to move them up into the very top header? Or instead of a transparent background, add a co-ordinating colored background so they stand out?
As far as using grainy pix of the outside now, I'd personally prefer not using them at all and simply let the site look more professional until you can shoot what you need. I think the "bad" shots might have a more negative impact on potential guests' quality perceptions than what they don't know they are missing...
 
Morticia said:
EmptyNest said:
I personally don't like the black. Not inviting at all. I would never put those large room images on the home page. Did you use one of the "theme Templates"? You should have and used full width not boxed for an up to date vibe. If you wan to use room photos, put them in a slider full width and let those wow folks...don't make them scroll for them. ALl of that stuff should be found via you navigation menu. The home page should be short and sweet and draw them in. This is an Avada theme one I have JUST started on...so nothing is the way I want it yet..but see what I mean about the home page..
Click to expand...
How did you do the 'what our guests say' on that new website you're working on?
.
Click to expand...
LOL -- I hosted my church's women's retreat here (practice run) and my daughter-in-law brought the department she manages at the bank here to do an inservice - again a freebie. The two quotes on the front page are just place holders from the avada theme.
 
EmptyNest said:
I personally don't like the black. Not inviting at all. I would never put those large room images on the home page. Did you use one of the "theme Templates"? You should have and used full width not boxed for an up to date vibe. If you wan to use room photos, put them in a slider full width and let those wow folks...don't make them scroll for them. ALl of that stuff should be found via you navigation menu. The home page should be short and sweet and draw them in. This is an Avada theme one I have JUST started on...so nothing is the way I want it yet..but see what I mean about the home page..
Click to expand...
EN, Is that going to be a slider on the home page? If so - is the text on the image in the title bar - and if so -- how did you make it transparent? Or will you just have a static image there?
I can't figure out how to have a slider on the front page without having the (nontransparent) title bar and a menu bar that is opaque enough to mask any colors that might slide through taking up too much of the picture.
Does that make sense?
 
Aspiring Martha said:
EmptyNest said:
I personally don't like the black. Not inviting at all. I would never put those large room images on the home page. Did you use one of the "theme Templates"? You should have and used full width not boxed for an up to date vibe. If you wan to use room photos, put them in a slider full width and let those wow folks...don't make them scroll for them. ALl of that stuff should be found via you navigation menu. The home page should be short and sweet and draw them in. This is an Avada theme one I have JUST started on...so nothing is the way I want it yet..but see what I mean about the home page..
Click to expand...
EN, Is that going to be a slider on the home page? If so - is the text on the image in the title bar - and if so -- how did you make it transparent? Or will you just have a static image there?
I can't figure out how to have a slider on the front page without having the (nontransparent) title bar and a menu bar that is opaque enough to mask any colors that might slide through taking up too much of the picture.
Does that make sense?
.
Click to expand...
That's why it is good to do an import demo theme and start with that first time till you learn how to tweak things under advanced styling and with custom css. Can't remember if they have a hotel demo theme or not. But that is where to start. You don't want it to look like a do it yourself site. That's why they give you a head start
i am not sure what route I will be taking, depends on what the client wants.
Lots of different way to do sliders. Create a layer slider and then insert it first before the color section. Or just do a full width slider from media elements. Add your photos and slider is good to go. Just read and follow each option. But, be sure you use good quality images. For headers, I use 1920 pixels wide and whatever height you want. This usually gives me the best result.
just looked at your site, yellow unfortunately is a very poor choice for a site color, there is research on it. Google it. JB gave a site years ago where you can find color schemes etc that work well maybe a search here will turn it up. I will look through my bookmarks tomorrow.
the biggest problem right now is your load time,it took forever. No one will wait that long. That is why optimization of high quality images is so important. The ones you have in your slider are not good. If you have photo shop or paint shop pro perhaps you can approve them. They need to be as good quality as your room shots.
running ewwwimage optimizer plug in and or smush it plugin can compress uploaded photos.
 

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