Hi everyone, site review please

[SSTH]

I am a rookie with frontpage and all the kinks are not worked out yet but it is pretty much done. I would love a review since this site is unlike anything i have ever made. Thanks in advance!

http://smallstakestexasholdem.com

[Doolally]

I think you've got the basis of a very good site. The main thing I would change is the text on the red on the front page, where it says "Poker Articles", "Featured Site," etc. It's quite difficult to read and probably even bolding this would sort out the problem.

Good content though so you've made a great start.

[Ziggy]

The main thing I would change is the text on the red on the front page, where it says "Poker Articles", "Featured Site," etc. It's quite difficult to read and probably even bolding this would sort out the problem.

I agree with Doolallys comment above - and yes, the bold would probably do it.

Also agree that you have a very good amount of content which is key. Also, I learned html by hand coding but now use Frontpage for site-wide changes to save time, so while many have their opinions, it helped me speed up things. So, if a tool works, use it. (They all have their good and bad points).

Also, keep in mind that the studies I have read state that the largest portion of the population that are red-green colorblind are men (why this doesn't afflict women equally seems unfair -LOL). In any case, I can see the red on your site easily (it is red, isnt it?). But, if your start adding green around, be careful - red-green colorblind men will have trouble seeing what you think they are seeing. Just a little factoid many webmasters/webmistresses may not be aware of - and there have been websites I literally could not read because of my genetic inheritance!

Also, it just something I read somewhere along my learning and I do it whether or not its true: place your "Title" tag first after the "Head" tag - so the search engines find it easily.

Good luck. You are off to a great start!

P.S. - Welcome to GPWA!

[mojo]

Welcome! I agree, you are off to a great start. It loads instantly on my dial up also. It's a good concept and I think it will do well. Maybe feature a couple more of your favorite poker sites.
I use front page and find no problems. Interesting point on the color blindness ziggy! Definately something I hadn't thought of but deserves attention.

Mojo

[big fish]

welcome ssth...

you are off to an excellent start. i like you site because you have good content and not too many banners at all, which is nice. my only suggesion outside of what you have already read is that you adjust the font. it looks like a standard times new roman font. some of the most common and easily readable fonts are arial, verdana and tahoma.

i wish you great success in 2007! welcome to the biz

[SSTH]

Thanks for the great advice everyone, I will start making the changes today!

[SSTH]

Hey guys, I've spent all day making those changes...except for more poker sites...I will pick out a couple sites from the affiliate programs on this site...hopefully making the owner some decent money from me. If anyone wants to check out the changes and comment that would be great. Thanks for the help

[CityGuard]

A few thoughts on the niche of "small stakes."

I think this is actually a really great niche to be in, because I imagine it would attract the kind of beginner player who hasn't yet signed up for a place to play online. The choice of poker.com as one of the sites you advertized works with the niche. It was actually the first site I signed up for because it had some of the lowest stakes games I was able to find -- most rooms bottomed out at $0.05/$0.10 for fixed limit games, but poker.com had tables as low as $0.02/$0.04 fixed limit. This really eased the transition from fake-money play into real-money play.

I recommend making the information about these micro-limit games more prominent in your review of poker.com since you're going after the niche that would appreciate them -- it may help conversions.

I also recommend looking at the micro-stakes offerings when choosing who you advertise and deciding which rooms to feature most prominently.

There is an issue that you're likely to get players who bring in less rake at first if you're going after the beginners, since the real small micro-limit games have either no rake or very limited rake. I imagine this would be offset in the long-run because you'd be showing people their first room and that's likely to build loyalty/recurring play in a meaningful way. (I know for myself I've played in more than a handful of rooms...but there are only two rooms I've gone back to on any regular basis and poker.com gets almost all of my play. Its became a bit of my poker home since it was the one I "grew up on.")

I did notice that the advice under your "Blind Levels" page bottoms out a bit above the available lowest stakes. You may want to get some content for the lower levels or if the content is appriate simply rename the $0.25/$0.50 section as "Up to $0.25/$50" to "$0.25/$0.50 and below."

If you're going after beginners as I imagine would work best for your niche, I recommend also featuring some content covering the basics of signing up. Such as... "It won't let me deposit with my credit card. How can I play?"

[SSTH]

Thank you...that is very good advise...although the thought of getting back on frontpage and working makes me want to shoot myself lol. I will do that tomorro since i havent submited my site to any engines yet and only started on my link exchanges today so they shouldnt crawl me soon. I agree on the blind levels, I had alot of trouble making those pages since i couldnt find any site that has something similar, I will work on that and maybe add a FAQ page for beginners. Thanks for the great advice!

[betbetnow]

It looks pretty solid to me , good job there ssth
Though, design could be turn into more professional look!

[SSTH]

It looks pretty solid to me , good job there ssth
Though, design could be turn into more professional look!

Yeah, I wasnt sure about all the red..i used like 100,000,000,000 layers to make all the red areas lol...so changing the design would be a pain since I have like 30 pages but I could change the color in about 2 hours lol...any suggestions?

[Ziggy]

Nice update, SSTH. Looks a whole lot better. Keep at it - actually it does get easier! Good luck!

[Doolally]

Looks much better now. One other thing though. I would change the font of the Popular Articles list to the same as the rest of the page.