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View Full Version : Had some free time on my hands



Harold Mansfield
09-16-2009, 03:09 AM
Just like it said...I think we all own our own name sake domain, so I had some time to actually put something on it.

Not a whole lot of customizing on this one, just added a few more fields, added to the background. I just really liked the simplicity of the design. One page. No scrolling, just click the navigation menu.

What do you think ?

Link (http://www.haroldmansfield.com)

bacterozoid
09-16-2009, 06:39 AM
Looks pretty slick. The wordpress graphic needs some work, though. I can see the white along the edge and it looks like the select tool actually got rid of some stuff that was supposed to be there.

I like the fact that it feels very open...it just feels right.

I don't know that you meant for this, but in Firefox I see the vertical scrollbar and I can move up and down the page without the nav links.

Harold Mansfield
09-16-2009, 09:56 AM
Looks pretty slick. The wordpress graphic needs some work, though. I can see the white along the edge and it looks like the select tool actually got rid of some stuff that was supposed to be there.

Yeah, when Iwas playing around with it, there was that little section that looks like residue on the wall from the sticker ? I wasn't sure to leave that or not. Maybe I'll go back and touch that up a little, I was getting a little sleepy towards the end.




I like the fact that it feels very open...it just feels right.
I don't know that you meant for this, but in Firefox I see the vertical scrollbar and I can move up and down the page without the nav links.

Yeah, I though I'd leave it in there just in case, too many people don't have all their browser updates and such and I haven't tested it to work on anything but FF 3.4.(or what ever we are on)

Business Attorney
09-16-2009, 10:54 AM
I think it looks very nice. I notice that in your navigation you have "Prototypes" but the corresponding content section is labeled "Portfolio." Was that intentional?

Harold Mansfield
09-16-2009, 11:29 AM
I think it looks very nice. I notice that in your navigation you have "Prototypes" but the corresponding content section is labeled "Portfolio." Was that intentional?

Yes and No. 2 B honest, I'm not sure what I want there, I just needed to fill the section to get a feel for how it looked filled with content.:o

Since I'm new on the services end, I'm thinking half my own sites, and half work I've done for others (of course that would require me to hack the theme to get it to look right)...or leave it as prototypes of raw templates that can be customized.

I may want to change that to testimonials later...I think they would look cool there. I'm not exactly sold on the word "prototypes" either...little things like that will bug me for hours, but it's too big not to worry about, even though it's just basically a vanity site...just something I wanted to have something for people who remember, and Google my name..or maybe use it as some kind of online resume'...I'll probably have it figured out by the end of the day.

billbenson
09-16-2009, 12:52 PM
One thought in marketing yourself as a developer is that you can "show success" in your own sites. Most developers / designers can show their business site(s) and a portfolio. I suspect in most cases the sites are turned over to customers at some point, so ongoing site development or stats can't be shown.

What you can show is that you can put your sites high in G, they make $x, show stats if appropriate etc. It positions you as a competent webmaster who also does design for others rather than a designer / developer that occasionally may do a site for himself. Gives you a big plus in suggesting marketing techniques from twitter to SEO. You can pitch affiliate knowledge, multiple revenue streams etc as well. It gives you a different niche than most developers.

Just a thought.

KristineS
09-16-2009, 02:38 PM
I think it looks nice. Not sure that I like the line out in the About Me paragraph, but I get what you're trying to do there.

I think it's a nice clean design.

There are a few wording weirdnesses though. "A combined talent" in the About Me paragraph, isn't really good English. Are you talking about a talent pool or a combination of talents? Also, at the end of that same sentence, shouldn't it be copywriters?

Harold Mansfield
09-16-2009, 03:02 PM
I think it looks nice. Not sure that I like the line out in the About Me paragraph, but I get what you're trying to do there.

I think it's a nice clean design.

There are a few wording weirdnesses though. "A combined talent" in the About Me paragraph, isn't really good English. Are you talking about a talent pool or a combination of talents? Also, at the end of that same sentence, shouldn't it be copywriters?

Yeah, but at present I only have one copywriter. I could probably change around some of the text, and make things a little simpler, but that could probably be said for many of my own sites..I am constantly reading and rewriting text, especially the intro.

I guess it doesn't really matter what I meant if it's not clear to people when they read it, it is my responsibility to make it clear.
Thanks for the tips Kristine, I'll work on that later today.

Harold Mansfield
09-16-2009, 03:09 PM
One thought in marketing yourself as a developer is that you can "show success" in your own sites. Most developers / designers can show their business site(s) and a portfolio. I suspect in most cases the sites are turned over to customers at some point, so ongoing site development or stats can't be shown.

What you can show is that you can put your sites high in G, they make $x, show stats if appropriate etc. It positions you as a competent webmaster who also does design for others rather than a designer / developer that occasionally may do a site for himself. Gives you a big plus in suggesting marketing techniques from twitter to SEO. You can pitch affiliate knowledge, multiple revenue streams etc as well. It gives you a different niche than most developers.

Just a thought.

And a good thought at that !
I was thinking about showcasing my own working sites that make some money, but on the other hand, I want to stay away from setting up affiliate sites for people...in my experience, expectations are unrealistic when people want sites for extra income, but don't do any of the work themselves, or have anyone in house.

It is a good idea, and I think that maybe on this site (because I do have the "company" site too) maybe I'll get a little more personal with what I do for myself.
I like that Bill...I like it a lot !

Safety Guy
09-24-2009, 03:56 PM
the button are fun... zooooom zzzzzzzzzzoooooooooooooooomm zoom

orion_joel
09-27-2009, 08:13 PM
I like the design, i think any more than what you have could potentially make it appear to bulky for a single page that scrolls as it does though. However it does achieve i suppose the desired result.

I agree that you may be able to show off some more of your own work... Is 124 beats per minute the only site of your own you have achieved what you have achieved with that site? Another thing you could consider is show casing different aspects of different designs or sites to show versatility working on different projects. I actually wrote a post not long ago on my blog about making use of your own projects to form part of your portfolio. Let me know if you would like the link.

Anyhow it is clean and straight forward and i do not think that i have seen a similar styled site, (eg single page scrolling as your one does). I may have but just cannot remember it.

Harold Mansfield
09-30-2009, 02:29 PM
I like the design, i think any more than what you have could potentially make it appear to bulky for a single page that scrolls as it does though. However it does achieve i suppose the desired result.

I agree that you may be able to show off some more of your own work... Is 124 beats per minute the only site of your own you have achieved what you have achieved with that site? Another thing you could consider is show casing different aspects of different designs or sites to show versatility working on different projects. I actually wrote a post not long ago on my blog about making use of your own projects to form part of your portfolio. Let me know if you would like the link.

Anyhow it is clean and straight forward and i do not think that i have seen a similar styled site, (eg single page scrolling as your one does). I may have but just cannot remember it.

All good suggestions, and I am probably going to change the whole thing pretty soon...I'm not really that happy with it (I get like that a lot).

To answer your questions, no I have more sites..most of the others are straight affiliate sites, and I really don't want to get into putting those up for people (unless they have SEO and Marketing skills), so I don't really want to show them.

I turn down people all the time that offer to pay and give a portion of the profits to build them an affiliate site and it's really not worth the time and effort when I could do it for myself in about a day and keep everything. Except for a few things, that is really something you need to roll your sleeves up on and dig in.

I am redesigning a couple of sites that are not all about affiliate sales, and will add them to my portfolio on that site...I should be able to get quite a few in there, but I want them to be perfect.

Harold Mansfield
10-14-2009, 06:38 PM
True to form, I got bored with that really fast and changed the whole thing. It's easy to see how I have purchased so many themes.

I think I'll stick with this layout and just keep adding to it.
Link (http://www.haroldmansfield.com)

aussieroo1
10-28-2009, 03:42 AM
Just like it said...I think we all own our own name sake domain, so I had some time to actually put something on it.

Not a whole lot of customizing on this one, just added a few more fields, added to the background. I just really liked the simplicity of the design. One page. No scrolling, just click the navigation menu.

What do you think ?

Link (http://www.haroldmansfield.com)

Colors (Blue and White) look clean and layout looks professional. Navigation is easy too. I liked the switching of panels on the homepage.