Decided to try a free site ;)
 

I know I'm always on about AVS's but I'm thinking about hiring a buddy to make free sites and TGPs for me. Diversify and prosper is one of my mottos.
So I figured I'd do one myself to get an idea of the time involved.
http://www.clitliquor.com/quebecois/
Can you seasoned free site veterans have a look and feel free to criticize?
Also, if you own a LL can you tell me if you'd reject it and why?
I know I'd list it, but I'm sorta biased that way :D

I don't have a link list and I am not a reviewer, but it looks good to me. How much time have you got invested in it?

Entrez S'il Vous Plait!!

You got a list of French Canadian Link Lists you can submit it to?

Some of the pics are under 1200 & the gallery pages are a little bland (maybe because the background is missing)

Hey SG,

I would list it on my LL, and I don't really see any problems with it. For me as far as time involved, it generally takes me about 2 hours from start to finish on a new freesite. That's downloading / resizing pics / making thumbs, gathering banners/promo, and designing the site.

About two hours, should have taken a bit more but I'm just playing with it more or less. I guess I'm not done yet ;)

LOL! I thought everybody could understand that much French ;) Can always change that though, and the pic size if I can find the damn CD, I just scooped the pics from my hd copy of the AVS site.

Forgot the bg on those two pages for some reason, they're fixed now. When I do AVS sites I have a routine that makes sure everything gets done, haven't done a free site in years so I don't have that routine.

I didn't have to download, but it appears I should resize, so 2 hours sounds about right. I'd like to make it so it's acceptable on all of the big lists so I'll have an idea of wether it's worth it or not. It takes me a lot less time to do a basic feeder AVS site, but they'll get a lot less traffic as well, so I'm just experimenting a bit.

I'm not really sure I like the "The Finest Quebec Pussy!" links that lead to a landing page? It walks the lind of blind advertising, I'm not sure I'd deny for it if I know the submitter, but if I were building it, I'd rather not take that chance.

Nevermind, I actually followed it and saw where you're leading the surfer, but if you confused me on first blush it may confuse others?

I'd list it, but I'm a thoroughly nice guy - unlike those other reviewers. :D I too see the text links that some may consider blind, though I personally have no problem with them. As long as they aren't misleading, I'm fairly easy to get along with (at the moment).

It's a bizarre twist of fate that today I built and sub'd my first free site in about a year, so I'm feeling oddly compassionate towards free site builders.

I'd recognize your name from here and list it, otherwise I'd probably decline it.

What did you build this freesite for? If you built it to receive curious surfers not looking for anything specific, you've done that. (newbies - there is a purpose for making sites like these, and it's not for sales)

on the main page, I'd put a border around the middle ad, or put some space between the top and middle ad. Text makes it seem like one ad.

Also, thumbnail type banners may not get you listed.

You have a lot to learn Grasshopper :D

I can make a free site in about 10 minutes, but normally I take about the 2 hours that everyone above seems to take. Mainly because I like making them, and it breaks up the rest of the mundane clicking links, type of stuff we all do.

Hey Useless, we all know you're a thoroughly nice guy ;) About the text links, well they draw better than banners, give the site a cleaner look, and aren't blind, a bit boastful maybe, but hey ;)
I noticed when reviewing sites that not a lot of people use text links, and I've never been one to do things like everyone else does, which is likely why I won't be doing a lot of free sites ;)
If I do hire this guy to do free sites for me though, I'd be using more text links than most, also using my own content, and likely changing sponsors banners every now and then. If that's going to cause problems .
My deal with this guy is that I provide the content and hosting in exchange for 1 link per page, the other 2 are his. The guy is great with graphics but shitty with words though so I'd likely be at least editing his wording.
I dunno, I may not even do it, I'm happy enough doing what I do, but I've got a lot of CD's kicking around full of content I'll likely never use on my own, so I'm sort of talking myself into it ;)
As long as I don't have to do all the work :D

Yeah, I know I've got a lot to learn :D
I like the border idea, it would make the ad stand out more. I might even put the top ad with the thumbs inside a light blue table? And if I can't use thumbnail type banners I can't see it being very effective for what I want it to do.

And as to why I made it, yeah, I don't really care if it makes any sales, I want to drive traffic mostly to the top ad on the main page and to the bottom ad on the main page. The top one is a long term project I started about 3 months ago that gets a lot of bookmarkers, the bottom one is my link list which has always got a lot of bookmarkersl. I'm thinking the more exposure they get the better for me in the long run. Anything else, if it sells its a bonus.

I used to be able to build them in about 2 hours too. The one I did today took me forever - and that was working with a template. I've got rusty bones, but I really need to get more sites out there. (damn it |cry| )

I thoroughly look forward to that review! And I just know you'll be submitting it to me. |couch|

I agree on all the stuff everyone else said ofcourse :)

I'd probably list it since I speak a little French, I know you and you have a chick from Belgium on your second gallery :D

I would loose the background graphics under text links. It makes them hard to read. You should ensure that surfers do their part by clicking on well positioned and readable text links. Maybe some stand-out colors (yellow, light orange) under text links?

It shows that you are "old school" from design. It's actually a compliment ;)

Is there a general rule to how large or small a thumb nailed image should be?

I'm seeing a lot of thumbs now at 200px on the long side while the shorter side seems to be at 100-120px.

I'd list your site SheepGuy. Simple and clean, I like that. |thumb

UW, did I overlook that free site of yours when I did my reviews this morning?? |huh :D

Thank you, whilst you are around, do you edit each picture and thumb one by one or do you use any software?

Tina

I don't know how UW does it, but I personally make each thumb by hand so that they're a custom size. It only takes a few minutes to do and IMO looks much better than a program generated thumb.

I'll stick my nose in here now...

Sheep Guy - I'd list it...I don't mind thumbs on a banner if they're not linked (like you have it) and while some of your links are borderline blind, they're not sneaky & I know you're not trying any trickery so I wouldn't have a problem with that site.

hehe UW you know we aren't gonna let you get away with that :D

hey Tina! I've been experimenting with thumb sizes and shapes, I generally like to make them a little larger, seems to balance more so I can use bigger text without overwhelming the page. I try to batch process my big pics to save time, although sometimes I have to go back and fiddle with a few of them, but I do thumbs by hand in Photoshop, it's easy & I can optimize them better that way.

Oh, don't worry. Wait till all the big guys have it listed, then I'll swap out their recips for yours and mine. :D
It really depends on the images I'm working with. If I can find a set where they all have the same orientation (all vertical or all horizontal) and the focus of the photo is centered properly in each, I'll use Arles by Digital Dutch. Otherwise I'll use Adobe. Even with photoshop, I usually won't spend much time fussing with them. I just set the crop dimenstions and grab the area of the pic that I want. Some people take the extra time to make really nice thumbs. I don't. ;) For full size photos, I pretty much always use Arles. I set it at 800x800, which will typically shrink an image to 800x600 and I try to keep the weight around 60-80k each.

Thanks Everyone!
I'll make some minor changes, like larger images, making the text stand out more, etc. I'll likely submit it today or tomorrow

If you guys start making freesites again I guess I'll have no excuses for not building more myself... Batages! |loony|

Sheepguy, looks like you got so much good feedback you probably don't need any hippie wisdom. Only thing I can suggest is differentiating the links from the body text a bit more. If you set the links off a bit you can catch the lazy reader's attention. ;)