Updated Website, all opinions welcome

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Big Ron1

Senior Cook
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
286
Location
Houston Texas
I have been tinkering with my website and have made a few changes(espically on Advertising Page). Please browse it and give me opinions. I did it myself and I know it shows, but I like it that way.
Thanks for any feedback!
 
Ron,
You have a fun site - looks like you enjoyed putting it together. I also love the pics on your advertising page!

If I were to add a word of constructive criticism I would say that you have a great graphic on the front page - the portrait of yourself. But the background portraits take attention away from the messages you have on the opening page. Stick with the one single graphic and the page would be less distracting. Again, I say this as a compliment to that really cool art work!
 
I hear what you guys are saying and i will put some thought into it. I am hoping the music gets people into the BBQ mood. No offense taken Stogie, but there is not too much to comprehend, a new fun product to try out. Some will try, some will not. I have learned to live with some people use what they know, and that's it. I had originally included a few in depth blurbs about cookiing and how my rub will help their experience, but most people just want to click quickly and move on. I may try a page for serious cookers with in depth postings on popular common items like we do here. I have also considered a recipe page, but we all know how many recipes we all have so it could take forever to develop that. . .Food for thought. Thanks for all the input!
 
Stogie said:
Ron,

Can't comment on the site. If I hear music, off it goes! Sorry, I just can't stand the distraction as it gets in the way of reading and comprehending what it is you want me to read and comprehend!

If you're lucky, I am the only one who thinks this way (but I personally know of a couple others like me).

No offense intended!

I agree about the music. I don't like it when I click on a link and get blasted by audio, especially if I am work. ;)
 
BlazerQue said:
Stogie said:
Ron,

Can't comment on the site. If I hear music, off it goes! Sorry, I just can't stand the distraction as it gets in the way of reading and comprehending what it is you want me to read and comprehend!

If you're lucky, I am the only one who thinks this way (but I personally know of a couple others like me).

No offense intended!

I agree about the music. I don't like it when I click on a link and get blasted by audio, especially if I am work. ;)

Ya, I agree BIG TIME. The average time a person spends on a web page is about 7 seconds when surfin the net and music just might and usually does drive them away IMO. db
 
I don't care for music on a page either but the one thing I would for sure is move navigation buttons higher up the page. May people will never scroll down the page and find them.
 
My computers volume stays on MUTE .... not an issue here.
If I come across something I need to hear I just unmute it
it's a lot easier that way then getting scared out of my chair
when I open a page and music starts blasting

I often wonder though.....
Do you need to pay rights to use the songs on a website???
Is it some sort of copywrite infringment to just use them without
permission?
After all, you are possibly making money from using thier songs.
Not trying to scare you Ron, just have always wondered the
legality of it all
 
I hope I get big enough to have someone complain i am using their song. If they ever complain I will gladly remove it. I do have an option to mute the music as well for those who do not like it.
 
About me page
Bi Rons Web site said:
Big Ron is a idea I have had for several years now. My name is Ron, and
I was a Chef/Kitchen Manager for several years. I Love to cook and
grill, however I dislike the quality of spice rubs, and seasonings available
in stores. I prefer to make my own. After hearing "You should sell this
stuff!" many times, I decided to develop a recipe. I came up with Big
Ron's Rub. Big Ron's Rub is a secret blend of salts, peppers, and just
the right amount of fresh spices. If you Love to cook and grill, I suggest
you try
Big Ron's Rub: Just Rub It On!

As it is now but put this in and tell me it doesn't look better!

Big Ron is a idea I have had for several years now.

My name is Ron, and I was a Chef/Kitchen Manager for several years. I Love to cook and grill, however I disliked the quality of spice rubs, and seasonings available in stores. I prefer to make my own.

After hearing "You should sell this stuff!" many times, I decided to develop a recipe of my own, and I came up with "Big Ron's Rub".

Big Ron's Rub is a secret blend of salts, peppers, and just the right amount of fresh spices.

If you Love to cook and grill, I suggest you try Big Ron's Rub:
Just Rub It On!

Imagine the possibilities page

Big Rons web site said:
Big Ron's Rub goes great on all types of
foods! Try it for yourself and
remember, Just Rub It On! It is that
simple, clean your meat, chicken, pork or
fish, apply both sides coast to coast
with Big Ron's Rub, let it sit 20 minutes
in room temperature and you are ready
to grill, broil, pan fry, stir fry, blacken
or even deep fry. I also have easy to
follow recipes for your enjoyment. If
you have any suggestions or questions
concerning cooking please feel free to
email me I will do my best to help out.
Thanks for cooking with
Big Ron's Rub: Just Rub It On!
To the left are a few of my personal
dishes. I have Big Ron's Texas Chili.
Under that we have Big Ron's Borracho
Beans, with a hint of fresh Cilantro.
Those won me 3rd place at
The Juke Box Lounge Cook-Off. The
bottom we have My best brisket yet. I
am trying to win with this one, but it is
NOT easy here in Texas! The
competition is more experienced, but I
am determined to win. The final picture
is of my BRAND NEW BBQ PIT. I am
ready to cook, and look forward to more
cook-offs. I am hoping to place at more
events on this pit and have the Big Boys
scratching their heads. I am working on
a recipe page so send my your favorite
recipes and I will be proud to post them.
Also send me your own BBQ photos, as I
want to create a page dedicated to the
Sport/Hobby of BBQ'ing As always
Happy Grillin from Big Ron!!

Could be broken up.

Big Ron's Rub goes great on all types of foods!

Try it for yourself and remember, Just Rub It On!

It is that simple, clean your meat, chicken, pork or fish, apply both sides coast to coast with Big Ron's Rub, let it sit 20 minutes in room temperature and you are ready to grill, broil, pan fry, stir fry, blacken or even deep fry.

I also have easy to follow recipes for your enjoyment.

If you have any suggestions or questions concerning cooking please feel free to email me; I will do my best to help out.

Thanks for cooking with Big Ron's Rub: Just Rub It On!

To the left are a few pictures of my favorite personal dishes:
I have Big Ron's Texas Chili.
Under that we have Big Ron's Borracho
Beans, with a hint of fresh Cilantro.
Those won me 3rd place at The Juke Box Lounge Cook-Off.
The bottom we have My best brisket yet. I am trying to win with this one, but it is NOT easy here in Texas! The competition is more experienced, but I am determined I am going to win.
The final picture is of my BRAND NEW BBQ PIT. I am ready to cook, and look forward to more cook-offs. I am hoping to place at more events on this pit and have the Big Boys scratching their heads.

I am working on a recipe page so send my your favorite recipes and I will be proud to post them.

You can also send me your own BBQ photos, as I want to create a page dedicated to the Sport/Hobby of BBQ'ing.

As always Happy Grillin' from Big Ron!

The other things that would make a big difference would be to use some compression on all of the pictures and resize them, (or crop them), to the same size, pick one size for the pictures on the left and one size for the pictures on the right, they do not have to be the same size for both, but they could be!

I'd also change the size of the navigation bars or decrease the font size slightly, as the "Imagine the Possibilities" crosses out of the black and over the blue at both edges.

Follow the same text format on all your pages, a sentence then a space then another sentence, if you are putting paragraphs on, make them 3 - 4 sentences maximum!

I too am not fond of the music for a couple of reasons, one is the loading times on a slow dial up, because the music loads over the top of the page, it appears that the page is still downloading over the course of the music, some folks will think the page still has more to load, and this confusion may well turn them away from the site. Secondly as other have said, the blast can be a little more than one wanted announcing that you're doing some surfing when you should be / could be working.
 
Big Ron said:
I hope I get big enough to have someone complain i am using their song.

That's a good one :LOL:
Well said. But I think Smokey Joe has a point.

Ron, thanks for opening yourself up to receiving some constructive criticism about your page. Most people - including me -wouldn't have the guts to open themselves up to scrutiny. However, we all know that when we are bold enough to hear other's thoughts we can only benefit from honest reflection. I suppose the same sort of learning through criticism happens at BBQ comps. It takes guts to hear criticism. It takes more guts to adapt because of good criticism.

Now I'm preaching...
 
Thanks Monty, no guts no glory.

SoEzzy, thanks so much for putting the thought into this. I am at my "real job" now and will read into it when I get home. I really appreciate it. By the way I also love the catering worksheet, I use it all the time.

Thanks again everyone!
 
I would seperate the rub from the catering business. It makes it look like you are only halfway into each. Just my $.02. Good luck on both. Catering is a tough row to hoe!
 
Busy bee

Hey Ron,

I'm in the online advertising industry and have been for the past 5 years. The one main thing I would say is get rid of the background. The text blends into the background so its hard to read. Also in regards to the music, I don't mind but I'm sure others do. Make your mute button more visible.
Keep your site consistent. All the pages should be similar. They shouldn't be so different. The colors should remain consistent. As also should the navigation buttons. They should remain in the same area at all times. I would suggest putting them on the left hand side, and keeping them there. The homepage for example...I need to scroll down to see the navigation buttons. Again you just want to make everything clean and crisp, so that your customers immediately know what's going on. I for example didn't know that you were selling a rub, because I was distracted by everything else ; )

I dig your logo by the way, but I would add some kind of shaker in his hands or on the oven so that it kind of ties in with the rub you are trying to sell.

Hope this helps!!


Feel free to reach out to me for any questions/comments.

Thanks,
mark
 
Back
Top Bottom