howe-templates.info

[ryan2109]

i have gave the site a new design hope yous all like it ive also added a download area, forum, and chat i still need to add downloads so please bare with me. if yous like it please consider joining our forum/chat thanks

what do you all think abou the new design... please leave any comments

the link is: http://www.howe-templates.info

thanks
ryan

 

[Magsite]

To make it quicker for everyone to view here is the full url http://www.howe-templates.info/

 

[TWD-Tony]

A few things spring to mind...

1>I couldn't actually see any templates? If you are going to start a template site then you should add some :wink:
2> (This is my BIGGEST gripe) You have W3C logo's on your site - but when you click them you see that your site IS NOT w3c compliant! :roll: 112 errors on the HTML alone.
3>Advertising - Don't put "advertise here for £2" on the frontpage, it looks like begging - honestly, think about it... you have ZERO content but you have your advertising rates on the frontpage...
4>You have not finished modifying your site's template yet! If you are going to use a 3rd Party template for a site then at least make sure you modify the menu links!

All in all, this looks bad... Sorry but that's my opinion - your site is obviously a 3rd party template, yet you are offering templates? How does that work then....

 

[JoyDivision]

Its the great ebay scam, although its not a scam as such.

The idea is you buy a load of royalty free templates of ebay and then resell them.

The best way to make money from web development is to offer a high quality, friendly service which provides great value for money. Being the best value for money is nothing to with being the cheapest.

People might be able to offer websites for half what I can, but they won't be able to offer fully validated code and great after service customer care. If they do they will be working at a loss.

Validation can take an awful long time, I claim to know XHTML inside out but I still have to make lots of changes in order to get my pages to fully validate as there is always stuff you miss.

I am not sure there is any future in templates as busineses tend to want somthing unique to their needs.

 

[ryan2109]

i have gave the site a new design hope yous all like it ive also added a download area, forum, and chat i still need to add downloads so please bare with me. if yous like it please consider joining our forum/chat thanks

what do you all think abou the new design... please leave any comments

thanks
ryan

 

[bwglaw]

i have gave the site a new design hope yous all like it ive also added a download area, forum, and chat i still need to add downloads so please bare with me. if yous like it please consider joining our forum/chat thanks

what do you all think abou the new design... please leave any comments

the link is: http://www.howe-templates.info

thanks
ryan

Have to concur with comments made above. I enquired further on your site and the contact details should be more transparent to give any customer the confidence to do business with you.

I also note eze-host. That name rings a bell! Your relationship with them needs to be a bit more clearer i.e. people will see you are an affiliate of some kind because you are using their contact form and there appears nothing unique about the service/site. I also know you have howe-hosting which is why I am giving this advice.

On the appearance of the site I would be rather dubious of doing business. That is not to say its a failure but more work needs to be done. Preach what you teach, lead by example etc

Buying sites from ebay - been there and got the t-shirt. We learnt that those sites are not good therefore we totally written them off and never use "clone" sites.

If the service is entirely free, how are you going to make money, unless this is not a business but a hobby.

 

[TWD-Tony]

The new design is worse than the old one! (In my opinion) I hate that kind of template....

I also note eze-host. That name rings a bell! Your relationship with them needs to be a bit more clearer i.e. people will see you are an affiliate of some kind because you are using their contact form and there appears nothing unique about the service/site. I also know you have howe-hosting which is why I am giving this advice.

This is a good point... If you look at your previous posts on this forum - one of them is "What is a server....", you then turn up as Howe-Hosting (and probably eze-host too). :?
It seems that you are trying to create businesses in already saturated markets without bringing anything new to the table, how old are you by the way?

 

[ryan2109]

thanks for your comments and tony i am 26

 

[TWD-Tony]

thanks for your comments and tony i am 26

Sorry for asking that question - but there are far to many "kids" that think that they can run a hosting business from their bedrooms :roll:

I think that in order to stand a chance in the hosting market - you need to find a certain customer to "pitch" at... Niche markets are what it is all about :wink:

 

[JoyDivision]

I am 23 and I sincerely hope I am not one of them kids that think they can run a business from their bedroom.

I would like to think that I only the offer the services which I am a professional in though, hosting for example is something I don't know that much about (I can play with Apache but all the complex server issues are beyond me).

For that reason I will not offer a hosting service although I may eventually take out a resale package so my clients can buy hosting of me if they wish.

I think projecting a professional image is very important. This why I have been so reluctant to just spend a night doing a site and then posting it on here, because it would be full of bugs and problems.

I have been developing websites for eight years now, I have both a degree in it and professional experience in which I got a few bonuses for. So I would like to think my age was not a problem. My lack of business experience may be a problem at first but I have enough common sense to monitor what is going on.

 

[TWD-Tony]

I am 23 and I sincerely hope I am not one of them kids that think they can run a business from their bedroom.

Steady On!

The point i was making was that a lot of hosting companies are started by kids (16 and under) while they are still at school... A Template, a Reseller hosting account and a paypal account are all that are needed to start a hosting company.
The reason I asked Ryan that question was that his business "seemed" to fall into that category - If I am wrong then I appologise to Ryan, I was never trying to imply that 23 was to young to run a business! :wink:

You have to understand that "kiddie" hosts are the scurge of the hosting market, the appear - make some cash and then disappear once the owner discovers Pubs / Girls / A Poper Job etc... leaving their clients stranded :x It gives good hosting companies a bad name... :cry:

 

[JoyDivision]

I am 23 and I sincerely hope I am not one of them kids that think they can run a business from their bedroom.

Steady On!

Sorry I know you have always been very supportive : it can be scary at times when so many people are older than me. On the other hand my cousin is just 20 and runs a very good business he setup from scratch, ok its a sweet stall but his business skills have enabled him to make a lot of money from it.

The point i was making was that a lot of hosting companies are started by kids (16 and under) while they are still at school... A Template, a Reseller hosting account and a paypal account are all that are needed to start a hosting company.
The reason I asked Ryan that question was that his business "seemed" to fall into that category - If I am wrong then I appologise to Ryan, I was never trying to imply that 23 was to young to run a business! :wink:

You have to understand that "kiddie" hosts are the scurge of the hosting market, the appear - make some cash and then disappear once the owner discovers Pubs / Girls / A Poper Job etc... leaving their clients stranded :x It gives good hosting companies a bad name... :cry:

Sadly I am all too aware of that, somebody asked how much I would charge for a website, so I said I can't give a price unless I know the exact requirements, she then asked for an example, so I said I did this site for £300 (it was my parents, normaly I would never quote how much I charged a client).

I thought £300 was on the slightly cheap side of the going rate, she thought it was too expensive and said she had a quote for £150, considering her site needs a lot of database back end stuff something is not right.

This why like you I am not going to be cheapest, I would much rather compete on service and value for money.

Certain drop ship companies are similar to all these hosting companies as well, the drop ship companies ask for £25 and they will set up a website for them. Its just a big scam as how are these people ever going to differ form the million other fly by night template driven online shops?

At the end of the say though you're hosting company is likely to be here in five years time becuase it appears to be a long term business which is solid. I am sure it also took many months to setup and plan.

Some people think there is a market just by being there, that is not true, for a corner shop that maybe for web development and hosting it requires a lot of clever marketing to survive.

I think the big mistake Howe is making is his sites just do not look professional, the lack of the phone number and trading address does not inspire confidence either.

Anyway I am off to buy the equipment for my telecommunications system
:wink:

 

[mattk]

Pictures of cheesy smiley Americans - NO!

Times font - NO!

Spelling mistakes - NO!

 

[TWD-Tony]

I have just had a re-visit to howe-templates and discovered the following...

The download area doesn't match the template at all?
The Forums template is still the standard Invision one?

Please consider skinning these to match your main site for credibility :wink:

 

[ryan2109]

thank you all for your comments i will be amending the site in a few weeks

 

[Admiral Collections]

Yeah it's great, how did you get Prince Harry to model for you?

:lol:

Nic :wink: