I got my website finished!

[Lee2014]

I would like to see your website too, please. You can PM me the link. Thank you!.

I would like to see your website too, please. You can PM me the link. Thank you!

Check her profile, it's in there!
.

The link doesn't work but I did it by typing in the name. It was at the bottom of the first page.... still it is the first page! Yes, loading time takes forever.

 

[Morticia]

Like the slideshow on the homepage. It might be a little long. It did take forever to load.
Red font on brown background - can't read it.
I didn't do the inn depth research others did. Viewed it on my tablet. Will look at it on laptop tomorrow.

 

[Aspiring Martha]

This color thing is eating my lunch. I've put all the individual pages back to default and am changing the colors universally -- but each page I go to has a different color - and I don't know why! Arghhhh!
I'm going to go to bed. Maybe it won't be so overwhelming after a good nights sleep.
Thank you all for your input. Still lots of work to do on it, I see.
And I thought I was going to get to start working on my window treatments tomorrow....

 

[Morticia]

This color thing is eating my lunch. I've put all the individual pages back to default and am changing the colors universally -- but each page I go to has a different color - and I don't know why! Arghhhh!
I'm going to go to bed. Maybe it won't be so overwhelming after a good nights sleep.
Thank you all for your input. Still lots of work to do on it, I see.
And I thought I was going to get to start working on my window treatments tomorrow.....

If this is your first website expect it to take a month or so to get it the way you want. Unless you laid it all out 'on paper' first you'll always see something to change.
I've been doing my website for 10 years with EN in the background helping. When I redid my site in WP three years ago it took me from Feb to may to launch it.
I'm still finding things I want to change.

 

[Aspiring Martha]

This color thing is eating my lunch. I've put all the individual pages back to default and am changing the colors universally -- but each page I go to has a different color - and I don't know why! Arghhhh!
I'm going to go to bed. Maybe it won't be so overwhelming after a good nights sleep.
Thank you all for your input. Still lots of work to do on it, I see.
And I thought I was going to get to start working on my window treatments tomorrow.....

If this is your first website expect it to take a month or so to get it the way you want. Unless you laid it all out 'on paper' first you'll always see something to change.
I've been doing my website for 10 years with EN in the background helping. When I redid my site in WP three years ago it took me from Feb to may to launch it.
I'm still finding things I want to change.
.

I hear you. Though I can see why you might think so -- this is not my first website. I've made several in the past (One was a big medical clinic site with ton's of education stuff on it - at least 100 pages) But it IS my first time using WordPress. Wordpress is HARDER btw. I don't think it is intuitive at all. (For instance, changing the order of slides by changing publish dates -- IN REVERSE?? What the heck? Who thunk that one up?) Everything is so scattered in it. Most of my other websites were done with the Godaddy software - and one was done with the Homestead software. They were more of a WYSIWYG platform. But I knew I needed to go WordPress since it has become the industry standard. So I bit the bullet and hear I am.
I'm ashamed to say how many hours I've spent on this site, It's a good thing I don't do THIS for a living. I'd starve to death. My hourly pay would be in the pennies. I have to hand it to EN. She's a little website making genius over there.

 

[EmptyNest]

This color thing is eating my lunch. I've put all the individual pages back to default and am changing the colors universally -- but each page I go to has a different color - and I don't know why! Arghhhh!
I'm going to go to bed. Maybe it won't be so overwhelming after a good nights sleep.
Thank you all for your input. Still lots of work to do on it, I see.
And I thought I was going to get to start working on my window treatments tomorrow.....

If this is your first website expect it to take a month or so to get it the way you want. Unless you laid it all out 'on paper' first you'll always see something to change.
I've been doing my website for 10 years with EN in the background helping. When I redid my site in WP three years ago it took me from Feb to may to launch it.
I'm still finding things I want to change.
.

I hear you. Though I can see why you might think so -- this is not my first website. I've made several in the past (One was a big medical clinic site with ton's of education stuff on it - at least 100 pages) But it IS my first time using WordPress. Wordpress is HARDER btw. I don't think it is intuitive at all. (For instance, changing the order of slides by changing publish dates -- IN REVERSE?? What the heck? Who thunk that one up?) Everything is so scattered in it. Most of my other websites were done with the Godaddy software - and one was done with the Homestead software. They were more of a WYSIWYG platform. But I knew I needed to go WordPress since it has become the industry standard. So I bit the bullet and hear I am.
I'm ashamed to say how many hours I've spent on this site, It's a good thing I don't do THIS for a living. I'd starve to death. My hourly pay would be in the pennies. I have to hand it to EN. She's a little website making genius over there.
.

Thanks, but once you get used to WP, it is much easier. Those other sites just use templates and you fill in the blanks.We have moved way past that! Besides just learning WP, it is different with every theme you use and then you have to worry about the plugins..for SEO, image Optimization, Speed of loading, Minifying codes.....URGH!!!
Believe me when I say a day doesn't go by that I don't learn something new..it is a continual process. Sometimes, I think my little "grey cells" will explode. I am not even sure how much longer I can keep it up.

 

[Aspiring Martha]

This color thing is eating my lunch. I've put all the individual pages back to default and am changing the colors universally -- but each page I go to has a different color - and I don't know why! Arghhhh!
I'm going to go to bed. Maybe it won't be so overwhelming after a good nights sleep.
Thank you all for your input. Still lots of work to do on it, I see.
And I thought I was going to get to start working on my window treatments tomorrow.....

If this is your first website expect it to take a month or so to get it the way you want. Unless you laid it all out 'on paper' first you'll always see something to change.
I've been doing my website for 10 years with EN in the background helping. When I redid my site in WP three years ago it took me from Feb to may to launch it.
I'm still finding things I want to change.
.

I hear you. Though I can see why you might think so -- this is not my first website. I've made several in the past (One was a big medical clinic site with ton's of education stuff on it - at least 100 pages) But it IS my first time using WordPress. Wordpress is HARDER btw. I don't think it is intuitive at all. (For instance, changing the order of slides by changing publish dates -- IN REVERSE?? What the heck? Who thunk that one up?) Everything is so scattered in it. Most of my other websites were done with the Godaddy software - and one was done with the Homestead software. They were more of a WYSIWYG platform. But I knew I needed to go WordPress since it has become the industry standard. So I bit the bullet and hear I am.
I'm ashamed to say how many hours I've spent on this site, It's a good thing I don't do THIS for a living. I'd starve to death. My hourly pay would be in the pennies. I have to hand it to EN. She's a little website making genius over there.
.

Thanks, but once you get used to WP, it is much easier. Those other sites just use templates and you fill in the blanks.We have moved way past that! Besides just learning WP, it is different with every theme you use and then you have to worry about the plugins..for SEO, image Optimization, Speed of loading, Minifying codes.....URGH!!!
Believe me when I say a day doesn't go by that I don't learn something new..it is a continual process. Sometimes, I think my little "grey cells" will explode. I am not even sure how much longer I can keep it up.
.

I am using the Avada premium theme. I started with the hotel theme. Seems like this theme out of the box has some bugs that have driven me nuts. Thank goodness for google. I've plowed through hours of searching for fixes,
I was chuckling to myself on one particular LATE night pounding on this thing - thinking that it is a good thing I don't have your phone number or I might just wake you up.

 

[dumitru]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links

 

[Morticia]

This color thing is eating my lunch. I've put all the individual pages back to default and am changing the colors universally -- but each page I go to has a different color - and I don't know why! Arghhhh!
I'm going to go to bed. Maybe it won't be so overwhelming after a good nights sleep.
Thank you all for your input. Still lots of work to do on it, I see.
And I thought I was going to get to start working on my window treatments tomorrow.....

If this is your first website expect it to take a month or so to get it the way you want. Unless you laid it all out 'on paper' first you'll always see something to change.
I've been doing my website for 10 years with EN in the background helping. When I redid my site in WP three years ago it took me from Feb to may to launch it.
I'm still finding things I want to change.
.

I hear you. Though I can see why you might think so -- this is not my first website. I've made several in the past (One was a big medical clinic site with ton's of education stuff on it - at least 100 pages) But it IS my first time using WordPress. Wordpress is HARDER btw. I don't think it is intuitive at all. (For instance, changing the order of slides by changing publish dates -- IN REVERSE?? What the heck? Who thunk that one up?) Everything is so scattered in it. Most of my other websites were done with the Godaddy software - and one was done with the Homestead software. They were more of a WYSIWYG platform. But I knew I needed to go WordPress since it has become the industry standard. So I bit the bullet and hear I am.
I'm ashamed to say how many hours I've spent on this site, It's a good thing I don't do THIS for a living. I'd starve to death. My hourly pay would be in the pennies. I have to hand it to EN. She's a little website making genius over there.
.

I wasn't saying it looked like you'd never done this before, just that you're expecting it to be perfect right out of the gate.
As you've done a major site before, of course you're frustrated this one isn't easier!

 

[EmptyNest]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

I believe some of her problem has to do with trying to reset some things. She is still working on it. I do agree that it takes a long time to get it right. Some of the sites you list I really like. But again..this is someone trying to be their own web designer without many of the skills themes and WP require. Just like you..I learn something new every day!

 

[EmptyNest]

This color thing is eating my lunch. I've put all the individual pages back to default and am changing the colors universally -- but each page I go to has a different color - and I don't know why! Arghhhh!
I'm going to go to bed. Maybe it won't be so overwhelming after a good nights sleep.
Thank you all for your input. Still lots of work to do on it, I see.
And I thought I was going to get to start working on my window treatments tomorrow.....

If this is your first website expect it to take a month or so to get it the way you want. Unless you laid it all out 'on paper' first you'll always see something to change.
I've been doing my website for 10 years with EN in the background helping. When I redid my site in WP three years ago it took me from Feb to may to launch it.
I'm still finding things I want to change.
.

I hear you. Though I can see why you might think so -- this is not my first website. I've made several in the past (One was a big medical clinic site with ton's of education stuff on it - at least 100 pages) But it IS my first time using WordPress. Wordpress is HARDER btw. I don't think it is intuitive at all. (For instance, changing the order of slides by changing publish dates -- IN REVERSE?? What the heck? Who thunk that one up?) Everything is so scattered in it. Most of my other websites were done with the Godaddy software - and one was done with the Homestead software. They were more of a WYSIWYG platform. But I knew I needed to go WordPress since it has become the industry standard. So I bit the bullet and hear I am.
I'm ashamed to say how many hours I've spent on this site, It's a good thing I don't do THIS for a living. I'd starve to death. My hourly pay would be in the pennies. I have to hand it to EN. She's a little website making genius over there.
.

Thanks, but once you get used to WP, it is much easier. Those other sites just use templates and you fill in the blanks.We have moved way past that! Besides just learning WP, it is different with every theme you use and then you have to worry about the plugins..for SEO, image Optimization, Speed of loading, Minifying codes.....URGH!!!
Believe me when I say a day doesn't go by that I don't learn something new..it is a continual process. Sometimes, I think my little "grey cells" will explode. I am not even sure how much longer I can keep it up.
.

I am using the Avada premium theme. I started with the hotel theme. Seems like this theme out of the box has some bugs that have driven me nuts. Thank goodness for google. I've plowed through hours of searching for fixes,
I was chuckling to myself on one particular LATE night pounding on this thing - thinking that it is a good thing I don't have your phone number or I might just wake you up.

.

That is what tech support is for! You pay for the theme and you get support. I use them all the time and they are great. That's how I learn things...from my mistakes and from SUpport answers

 

[Momma Smurf]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

Wow, Dimitru! I sure hope no one deletes these links...what an array of absolutely stunning sites! Bravo!

 

[JBloggs]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links

I am replying to this in hopes it will stay right here.
From a seasoned innkeeper:
If I had to do it over again I would hire Dumitru (or EN if she is available) but in those days neither of these were doing what they do here now. I would advise any aspiring or new innkeeper to consider this as a super revenue raising effect vs doing it yourself. It is your storefront to your business. Hands down this is an investment, just like rugs in the parlor, hire this out. Hire out the photography unless you are very professional, then you can make updates and blog/social media to your hearts content based on a strong footing.
We didn't have templates and wordpress going in, we had very costly webdesigners, way out of reach for most inns and then diy attempts to emulate those designers. Now it is everyone's game, so you can pay and have something professionally created for you that is not JUST eye candy but also technologically correct, today, not yesterdays standards...or you can stress and struggle and never get it right. My 2 cents. HIRE DUMITRU as long as he hands the site (ownership) and allows updates (in certain areas) over to the end user/innkeeper.

 

[Aspiring Martha]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

Ouchy! I had it completely torn apart - colors etc - i think when you looked at it. I'm still working on it. I was playing with colors to compare and see which ones I like. You did see an absolutely disaster, I'm sure. In fact, my title pages were gone, a lot of my text disappeared when i changed color, I was monkeying around with the header. No telling what it looked like when you looked.
Thank you for the feedback. I will go line by line through it and make fixes when I get this thing put back together. Then take another look

I love it that we can get pro advice out here. I need it for sure!!

 

[Morticia]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

Dumitru - those are lovely sites.

 

[dumitru]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

Ouchy! I had it completely torn apart - colors etc - i think when you looked at it. I'm still working on it. I was playing with colors to compare and see which ones I like. You did see an absolutely disaster, I'm sure. In fact, my title pages were gone, a lot of my text disappeared when i changed color, I was monkeying around with the header. No telling what it looked like when you looked.
Thank you for the feedback. I will go line by line through it and make fixes when I get this thing put back together. Then take another look

I love it that we can get pro advice out here. I need it for sure!!
.

Oh, OK, I'm glad to hear that what I saw was just for testing purposes and not the actual thing you wanted to keep
In this case some of my points are no longer valid

 

[dumitru]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

Wow, Dimitru! I sure hope no one deletes these links...what an array of absolutely stunning sites! Bravo!
.

Thank you, but I haven't done anything for those websites, that's how the themes are the moment you install them (minus the logos and the content). And if someone wants to change something - they do it little by little, without actually breaking stuff or building from scratch

 

[dumitru]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links

I am replying to this in hopes it will stay right here.
From a seasoned innkeeper:
If I had to do it over again I would hire Dumitru (or EN if she is available) but in those days neither of these were doing what they do here now. I would advise any aspiring or new innkeeper to consider this as a super revenue raising effect vs doing it yourself. It is your storefront to your business. Hands down this is an investment, just like rugs in the parlor, hire this out. Hire out the photography unless you are very professional, then you can make updates and blog/social media to your hearts content based on a strong footing.
We didn't have templates and wordpress going in, we had very costly webdesigners, way out of reach for most inns and then diy attempts to emulate those designers. Now it is everyone's game, so you can pay and have something professionally created for you that is not JUST eye candy but also technologically correct, today, not yesterdays standards...or you can stress and struggle and never get it right. My 2 cents. HIRE DUMITRU as long as he hands the site (ownership) and allows updates (in certain areas) over to the end user/innkeeper.

.

You can't imagine what a pleasure it is to read something like this
But yes, I remember back in the day (~2003-2009) how long, difficult and expensive it was to build a website. Even when I was doing something very simple for myself, it still took ~2-3 weeks to get something out. And now thanks to turnkey themes - it takes (realistically) 4-8 hours.

 

[Lee2014]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

Beautiful sites!!!! Heads up for aspiring innkeepers! Number 5 was for sale the last time I looked and you won't be disappointed in it!!!!

 

[Breakfast Diva]

Looks like I'm late to the party, but I got something to say too (even though I might repeat what other people said before me):
1. Currently you have 11 slides in the homepage slideshow, which is way too much (speaking from experience). Some of these photos should not be there. If a photo is low-resolution (the trees & the flowers), grainy or blurry (the pool), get rid of them immediately. There is nothing more off-putting than low-quality photos.
2. You current homepage weighs 5.28MB and loaded for me in 2.2 seconds. There are just 32 HTTP requests on the homepage, which is very good. Personally I am happy about the technical performance of the homepage. Get rid of the bad photos, optimize the current photos and I will be even happier.
3. The menu design and colors is horrible. Bad padding, bad contrast, bad dropdown colors, bad :hover colors in the dropdowns, etc.
4. The text on the homepage has no headline, no introduction, nothing. Just 7 lines of text with a total width of 1170 pixels. No line breaks, nothing. Incredibly hard and unpleasant to read, and I think many will stop at the first line.
5. There's a lot of inline CSS code for each section of the homepage. A lot of code that starts with "fusion-", whatever that is. Not good in the long run.
6. In the inline CSS you call an image as background, the name of the file contains very-opaque-red-rose-petals, but that image does not exist, so search engines will see a 404 ERROR for it, again not good.
7. Your link color and text color is the same (#333333). This is bad for multiple reasons, both for usability and conversions.
8. The text color on the "Reasons to visit" page is #ffffff, and your background color is #ffffff. Bad for people, bad for search engines. A lot of photos, difficult to scan. Maybe try smaller photos (like on the Rooms & Rates page) and run them in 2 columns? This way people will easier find somethings that attracts them.
9. The Rooms & Rates page is better, as are the internal room pages. Some inconsistencies with the styling and colors, but overall these pages are fine.
------
I know EN will strongly disagree with me, but this is an example of why I don't like too much themes like Avada, precisely because they give users too much freedom. Just like I shouldn't be handling firearms or a welding torch, some people shouldn't be handling web design, at least not the important parts.
Yes you should be allowed to change colors and fonts, but not to the degree when it starts hurting your own business. I've been designing and developing websites for over 10 years and I'm still learning new things every day, about typography, readability, usability, good contrast and bad contrast, optimization, user interface design, etc. And then comes Avada and lets you build a red menu on a red background, just because it can, and people are happy about it.
And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links .

And now if you don't mind, I would like to show some websites that can be built in less than an hour, without any hair-pulling or hurting the brain: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If moderators decide to delete the links, please delete just them, and not all the text above the links

I am replying to this in hopes it will stay right here.
From a seasoned innkeeper:
If I had to do it over again I would hire Dumitru (or EN if she is available) but in those days neither of these were doing what they do here now. I would advise any aspiring or new innkeeper to consider this as a super revenue raising effect vs doing it yourself. It is your storefront to your business. Hands down this is an investment, just like rugs in the parlor, hire this out. Hire out the photography unless you are very professional, then you can make updates and blog/social media to your hearts content based on a strong footing.
We didn't have templates and wordpress going in, we had very costly webdesigners, way out of reach for most inns and then diy attempts to emulate those designers. Now it is everyone's game, so you can pay and have something professionally created for you that is not JUST eye candy but also technologically correct, today, not yesterdays standards...or you can stress and struggle and never get it right. My 2 cents. HIRE DUMITRU as long as he hands the site (ownership) and allows updates (in certain areas) over to the end user/innkeeper.

.

You can't imagine what a pleasure it is to read something like this
But yes, I remember back in the day (~2003-2009) how long, difficult and expensive it was to build a website. Even when I was doing something very simple for myself, it still took ~2-3 weeks to get something out. And now thanks to turnkey themes - it takes (realistically) 4-8 hours.
.

You can't imagine what a pleasure it is to read something like this
But yes, I remember back in the day (~2003-2009) how long, difficult and expensive it was to build a website. Even when I was doing something very simple for myself, it still took ~2-3 weeks to get something out. And now thanks to turnkey themes - it takes (realistically) 4-8 hours.

What is a price range for these?