My New Video Calibration Site is in Beta, Tell me what you think... (1 Viewer)

[Gregg Loewen]

Link Removed
For starters the ISF logo / me leaning pic has to go!
A special thank you to Bill Slack, friend, fellow HT enthusiast, and unemployed computer geek, for setting up the site.
Let me know your thoughts,
thanks
Gregg

 

[Stevie O]

Greg,
A few comments on what looks like a great site..
On the Pricing page are they US$? Important to us Canadians!
Also a few minor typos on the "Info" page
Lense strippingLens striping may improve color consistency across the entire screen as after a standard calibration the color temperature may be 6500 K at the screen’s center but may vary by as much as 4000 degrees from the far left to far right sides of the screen. Lense strippingLens striping may reduce this temperature difference to less than 500 degrees, which is below the threshold of visual acuity
Best Regards
Steve

 

[Craig S]

Looks pretty good, Gregg (& Bill)!
There's one major thing you'll want to fix fast - your "Lion Audio" logo (the vertical bitmap on the left side) says "Lion Audo".
The rest is from the nit-picking department:
On the Services page I would add punctuation to the first couple of lines to avoid run-on sentences. Before:

I provide full service calibrations, not just gray scale correction and front panel adjustment. Your video display device cost a small fortune - don’t you want it to be able to display the most detailed and accurate picture possible?

I would change "pre evaluation" to "pre-evaluation"
Also on the Services page, there are a couple of duplicated phrases like the one Stevie pointed out: "Grey scaleGrayscale" and "EepromEEPROM".
You may also want to add a glossary, to further explain such terms as "lens-striping", "Herman TLV", etc. Your goal would be any large TV owner coming to your site from anywhere would be able to get a good idea of what you offer, without having to wade through HTF, Keohi, etc.
P.S. Hey Gregg, how's the Tony Chachere's holding up?

 

[Bill Slack]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I'm aware of some of those, thanks for taking the time to proof read it though. I need to go through and re-do most of the images from photoshop->jpeg. For a final cut of it.
Glad to see it's getting a good response so far... Technically I'm great with photoshop, but I have no artistic skill.
I've only looked at it in IE as well, so if there are problems with your browser of choice, let me know. I'll make sure it looks good on a number of different ones myself. It's pretty simple HTML, so I think it should all be fine!

 

[Jereme D]

Artistically, there's room for improvement site-wide. :-o

Just call my name and I'll hear you scream! AIM: jeremedavid

 

[Bill Slack]

Like I said, I'm no artist.

However, I consider the use of Flash and most CSS, etc. unacceptable for a commercial site, unless there is also a fall-back version. It's gotta make Netscape 4.7, IE4, Opera, and Konqueror happy...

 

[Keith Paynter]

Is that Super Beta? At least it's not in VHS test. (It was gonna be said at some time!)

Wonderfully understated - that's a good thing. Lots of luck, and hope it takes you far.

 

[Jereme D]

However, I consider the use of Flash and most CSS, etc. unacceptable for a commercial site, unless there is also a fall-back version. It's gotta make Netscape 4.7, IE4, Opera, and Konqueror happy...

I'm assuming that you check the site logs..... Is the number of people that visit that site with those older browsers significant enough to warrant the abandonment of those 'new' technologies?

On my site over the past few months, out of fifty thousand people, the total number of people using less than v5.0 browsers is less than 800. That's the combined total for all less than v5.0 and non-standard browsers. I expect the results to be skewed for my site though since it's specifically for those interested in graphics and webdesign.

I'm curious as to what the dominant browser(s) are that are accessing your site? And also, what is the percentage of your total hits that is made up by outdated browsers?

 

[Parker Clack]

Bill:

I have to agree with you on needing to make your site so that it works with as many browsers as possible. I had to take out the CSS stuff with vBulletin so people that had problems with displaying the pages could view us. I just wish they would all get on the same page as far as HTML layout is concerned.

I just checked the site out in IE 5.0, IE 6.02, Netscape 4.79, Netscape 6.1 and Opera 6.1 and it looks and loads just fine.

Parker

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Gregg/Bill,
My big advice when companies undergo such an "website for advertising" endevor is twofold:
1) Think about every question anyone has ever asked you about your services. Make sure everything you can think of is included. If you have to- offer a basics page like you have, and create a "more info" link and do not be afraid to go into to detail on services offered.
Make sure to include any other issue anyone has every asked about your service, draft a FAQ if you have to.
2) I would stongly suggest you sit down and author one or two original documents- expecially in your case- about some element of your job or display technology in general. It can be an "explaination" piece on how some devices or processes work- or can be an opinion piece about the nature of your business or thoughts on display devices- whatever ("Beyond Avia and Video Essentials: What Calibration Offers that you Cannot Do Yourself...".)
This original set of articles will be a big help in pulling in potential customers. If you write about something that comes up often on the forum for example- people will link to your article and start right off the bat thinking of you as a knowledgable guy. When they go to consider having their set ISF'd, that info article they read on your site will be a pretty sure bet they will remember you when it comes time to make an appointment.
Since you already had a strong start with your thoughts in the "ISF calibration" thread you started that is now in the archive- you might go through that and write up a full length article about what ISF calibration is and isn't.
Anyway- the main point here is you have to serve two masters in the web game of promoting a business.
One, you have to make sure the info someone would want about you and your services are included (certainly the services area is a good start- but I would add an advanced summary... also I would stick some satisfied customer quotes on the opening page!!)
Two, you have to offer content that might appeal to someone other than potential customers. A commerce site like this is great, but it is essentially a giant billboard. To offer some extra content helps bring in visitors as potential customers and spawns more business and reputation in the related field (heck, avsforum was basically an attempt by AVS to add content to their advertising site!)
-Vince

 

[Bill_Weinreich]

Gregg,

Site looks great.

One of the first things that I looked for was your location/immediate service area. I might suggest putting that on your index page with a link to the tours via a "servicing other locations" link.

Another thing is some like to know the type of equipment used in the calibration. (Product names and model numbers can sound impressive)

One last. I wouldnt put a recommendation link without some recs there.

Building a web page takes many changes. Mine went up Saturday and through recommendations from my friends, I've probably made a dozen changes already.

Bill

 

[Bill Slack]

I just haven't put the recomendations up yet.

 

[Ted Lee]

pretty cool site.

my recommendation is for some sort of before/after shots.

i'm not really sure if something so subtle as ISF calibration can be displayed on a website, but maybe you can use "extreme" examples?

1. show a picture with lots of jaggies

2. show a picture that's way too dark

3. show a picture whose geometry is way off

also, did someone already mention a FAQ section?

anyway, i do like how the site is clean and easy to navigate.

 

[Adam Barratt]

You need to check the spelling of your name ('Greg') in the copyright notices at the bottom of each page. The site looks quite tidy, but does need a spelling and grammar check.

Adam

 

[Bill Slack]

It's a demo... It's a demo... !
There should be a new version up later today.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Going live:
Link Removed and it will automatically link you to the new site (which still needs more help).
Thanks everybody for your help!!!!

 

[Ryan_M_M]

Great site Gregg and Bill and I have to say that's a beautiful young lady in your signature pic Bill.

 

[Bill Slack]

OK. Tommorow is the day to do some more serious work on it. Look for reviews, links, recommendations, proofreading and form-based email submission instead of just a link (which will make things a bit easier to manage by forcing things like tv type/brand, location etc. to be given.)
And everyone... get your set calibrated by Gregg. He does a damn fine job!
Ryan: Yeah she is. She was our waitress at the Hard Rock in LA. She was actually sitting on my lap for the picture. Ooh-la-la!

 

[Drew Bethel]

Ok, I think we've all seen this thread...

 

[Artur Meinild]

There's still a typo in the services section.
Grey scaleGrayscale adjustment to 6500 D Kelvin
... and some of the pictures in the links section are broken...