Check on my hack job. Does it look right ?

[Harold Mansfield]

I am not a coder by no means. My design resume' amounts to "let's see if this works" and "what the hell does '?>' mean?"

But I decided to try and do some private advertising on my blog, and needed a more dynamic way to insert video rather than just the sidebars, so I went into the index.php file and played around a little and I would like your opinions.

The middle column where the older posts flow down did not have anything there except the 480x60 banner spot that you see that say's "Follow us on Twitter".

I went in and added the video section just below it, and another one at the bottom of the page just after the posts, and I am thinking about selling the spots.

The videos that I have in those spots now are pretty much like the target advertisers.
Does it look like it's supposed to be there, or does it look like a bad hack job ?
Have I made the blog too heavy to load ?

Basically I don't see anyone else doing it like this in this niche, and the ad networks don't have ads like this for websites and blogs. These ads run on European Television at times and in the U.S., they don't run anywhere.

First link in my sig.

[vangogh]

You managed to fit it in pretty well. It does look like it's supposed to be there. You're right about the page taking awhile to load. It's not horrible, but it was definitely slow.

The Track it Down in the left sidebar looks like it gets cut off. Maybe too much padding on it's left is pushing it to the right edge. Also the headings in the top section (the rotating post thing and the featured events) is hard to read. They'd probably read better without the bold.

Overall the design feels very crowded to me, but I'm guessing you want to include everything that's there.

[Harold Mansfield]

You managed to fit it in pretty well. It does look like it's supposed to be there. You're right about the page taking awhile to load. It's not horrible, but it was definitely slow.

The Track it Down in the left sidebar looks like it gets cut off. Maybe too much padding on it's left is pushing it to the right edge. Also the headings in the top section (the rotating post thing and the featured events) is hard to read. They'd probably read better without the bold.

O.K. I can fix those pretty easily.



Overall the design feels very crowded to me, but I'm guessing you want to include everything that's there.

If you haven't noticed yet..I have a problem:o No matter what , it never feels like enough content, nor that it is organized properly. This is my busiest time of year and I am posting 2-3 times a day, and still leaving stuff out.

I did skim some of the length just now and I am working on combining the ads into a rotating thing in the 480x60 spot, as soon as I find an easy enough to work with script.

I'll work on it some more. Thanks.

Edited:
I did notice one thing...the drop down menu from the categories...gets blocked out by the video. Is there a way to fix that? Especially the "festivals" category.

[vangogh]

Funny. I knew all that stuff in there was on purpose. You do like fitting in as much as possible. I see you fixed the sidebar thing. Looks better now.

Is the drop down issue an IE thing? It looks fine to me in Firefox. It might be because the flash is floated to the right. I used to have problems with Flash in IE when I used positioning. Maybe try floating the text to the left and letting the Flash stay in the document flow.

If that doesn't work you may need to add positioning to your navigation. The whole thing, not just that one drop down and then give the whole menu a z-index above the Flash.

If neither works let me know and I'll see if I can find a solution for you.

[Harold Mansfield]

O.K., you lost me here..



If that doesn't work you may need to add positioning to your navigation. The whole thing, not just that one drop down and then give the whole menu a z-index above the Flash.


Can you point me in the direction of a tutorial, or article on this ?

I am using FF, and the "Music Festivals" drop down goes behind the flask video and then continues on the other side. I have had this happen before, but at the time it was easier to change the whole layout than to deal with it (I know that sounds nuts :()

[billbenson]

Eborg, if you have server side coding questions, you can always post the code here as well and someone will probably be able to help you.

[KristineS]

It looks like the new added stuff is organic to the design but there is a ton going on there. I'm not sure where you want people to look first. It also does take a while to load.

My concern, were I to advertise with you, is that my advertisement would get lost in the jumble of everything that's currently on that site. I have to admit, however, that I don't read a lot of dance/music blogs, so maybe most of them are like that, and advertisers in that category wouldn't mind.

[Harold Mansfield]

My concern, were I to advertise with you, is that my advertisement would get lost in the jumble of everything that's currently on that site. I have to admit, however, that I don't read a lot of dance/music blogs, so maybe most of them are like that, and advertisers in that category wouldn't mind.

It's good to hear that from someone on the outside, obviously when you look at your own site , you can't see it objectively..

Sites in this niche are generally full of content, just to give you an example:

This site is considered a reputable source in this niche:
www. trance. nu

and then this guy popped up recently:

the 12 club.com

as you can see we all have the same press connections.


Most other bloggers in this niche are half assing it, or posting illegal download links.

Readers do expect you to be as bright and expressive as the music itself. You certainly can't do this successfully on a standard template.

I just moved the 480x60 down below the first video to make it stand out more as a focal point.

As far as the load time, it is undoubtedly because I have switched things around from the original code and probably have a lot of errors since I am truly a hack. I will probably have to get someone to clean it up for me.

[Harold Mansfield]

Eborg, if you have server side coding questions, you can always post the code here as well and someone will probably be able to help you.

Well, actually I was wondering is there some sort of tool that I could paste html and.php files into that will clean them up ? Or do I have to have someone do it for me manually ?

[billbenson]

One of the beauties of php is a real programmer can make very concise elegant object oriented code, but people like me can write stuff that works just fine. The elegant code may execute a little faster, particularly multiple database calls when one will do etc., but that generally isn't an issue unless you get into very high traffic sites. A half an hour here and there on simple tutorials and you would be amazed what you can do.

As for programs that clean up code, I haven't heard of anything and I think it would be very hard to create something. There are editors that catch grammatical errors. I use a php editor called Zend. It works well, but it's pricy. You might see what cb-steve thinks of the new version of DW. He has said he likes it a lot and works mostly in code? Maybe it cleans up a lot of ugly html. I doubt it does much with php though.

cb- steve, if you see this post, how do you like your version of DW as a css editor?

[vangogh]

I came across a post that might deal with your drop down issue (http://www.invisibleinkwebdesigns.com/blog/2009/03/disappearing-list-backgrounds-in-explorer/). The post is discussing something different, but I think the solution may be one to try.

Z-index is something that goes with positioning. When you look at a web page you see it as a 2D thing. The z-index is the third dimension. Think of it as coming out of the monitor or receding back into it.

What might be going on with your drop down is the Flash has a higher z-index and so sits on top of the menu. If the z-index of the menu is increased then it would sit on top and be what's visible. IE has a weird bug with z-index (at least it does in older versions) where the z-index of the container element is what's compared.

Say you have

<div id="z1">
<div id="z5"></div>
</div>

<div id="z3"></div>

with z1, z3, z5 being the z-index of each div as defined in the css. The z5 div might seem like the one that should be on top, but IE sees it as the z3 is greater than the z1 and so shows up over anything inside that div. Since the z5 div is inside of the z1 div IE shows it below the z1 div.

I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't don't worry about. I have a hunch it's not what's causing your issue. It's just something I know caused similar issues for me in the past.

[Harold Mansfield]

Thanks,I'll play around with it and see if i can rectify it.

[Blacktalon]

Have to agree with Kristine here. It's very crowded; I have to give some positiveness here as I'm pretty much in love with the site as I'm a huge club/trance/techno junkie...and this is right up my alley!

Also, you might want to check your drop-down menus at the top: the text blends in with the background once it drops down, almost as though the menu was transparent. <---ignore that

Crud, someone beat me to it.

Other than that, I think it looks decent from a fellow trance-addict's perspective.

Blacktalon

[Harold Mansfield]

Have to agree with Kristine here. It's very crowded; I have to give some positiveness here as I'm pretty much in love with the site as I'm a huge club/trance/techno junkie...and this is right up my alley!

Also, you might want to check your drop-down menus at the top: the text blends in with the background once it drops down, almost as though the menu was transparent. <---ignore that

Crud, someone beat me to it.

Other than that, I think it looks decent from a fellow trance-addict's perspective.

Blacktalon

I'm working on that menu thing. But, being a fan, your opinion may be what others are thinking as well.
I will be working on it tonight before I go out and try to make better use of some space. I could probably make a few cuts.

[Blacktalon]

There are essentially two perspectives at play here:

First, fans of whatever it is you are promoting won't really care so much as to the layout. If it provides decent information on the topics they know and love, then that essentially is all that matters. The background could be pink for all they care, so long as Ferry Corsten, Supermode or Tiesto are shown there in one shape or another.

Second, from a "business" perspective with regards to advertisements and the like. As Kristine and myself have pointed out, for advertisers to show any remote interest here, the layout is rather busy and crowded. But then again, one has to look at it from the perspective of having too much in the way of advertising slots may in fact turn your intended audience off.

They say less is more; I'm a big fan of simplicity, however as long as quality is present even amongst the lesser amount of content, then that's the ideal components of a perefect set-up.

Speaking of incredible music, Supermode's track "Tell My Why" is one of my most favourite in a long time. Love the rehash of Bronski Beat's Smalltown Boy sequence and the mix of Jimmy Somerville belting out "Tell My Why" is just incredible.

Also, there's an amazing mash-up of Destiny's Child's Say My Name and the same beat from Smalltown Boy on youtube. It's actually very good. Do a search for Destiny's Child vs. Bronski Beat. Definitely check it out if you haven't done so already.

[Harold Mansfield]

Interesting that I always hear that the layout is crowded, or too busy when it comes to this blog.
I can't scale back on the content, as it is now I only am posting about 20&#37; of what comes across my desk now, and it is a very busy niche worldwide and there is tons of information every week.

Funny thing is I m actually thinking about changing to a new design that can take even more ad spots and content.

I guess the true test will be if the people that actually suggested it, actually pays for the video spots and runs commercials.

[Blacktalon]

I'm not at your site now, but do you have an RSS feed to send updates to subscribers who are interested in your line of news and updates?

That might be an interesting thing to set up and reduce the amount of clutter.

Blacktalon

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm not at your site now, but do you have an RSS feed to send updates to subscribers who are interested in your line of news and updates?

That might be an interesting thing to set up and reduce the amount of clutter.

Blacktalon

Of course. Top menu has an RSS subscribe button and you can also subscribe by category as well, or follow by Email, Twitter or Facebook for updates too. (http://www.124bpms.com/feed).

I did some restructuring to try and reduce some of the "clutter". Basically I took out some of the text in the left sidebar and converted those listings into little icons with the information "on the hover", and labeled it better so there is a focal point.

I also tried my hand at the Social buttons in the footer....(something we were talking about in Vangogh's Theme options thread.) to reduce text . It came out O.K.

Still trying to scale back a little. I am listening;)

[Harold Mansfield]

On another thread about the specifics of running your own advertisement, I couldn't get this one statement from 'nealrm' out of my head, and it caused me to make more changes:


.....Most advertisers will want to know your market demographics, your site traffic,how the ad will be displayed, what other advertisement will be on the page......

Funny how one phrase in an answer can be extremely helpful. I since changed the left sidebar so that it starts below the video ad section, and pushed the video to start on the left and span across to the right sidebar...that way, there won't be another ad, images or logo next to the video, it will be the focal point..and I still retain function of the sidebar, just a little shorter.

[vangogh]

And now the top looks less cluttered too.