justmoney.com.au ... your thoughts?

[just K]

Hi everyone,

I've just discovered flying solo and am having a great time reading the forums and learning about other people's ideas, thoughts and businesses.

I'd really appreciate anyone who has the inkling to check out my website ...

www.justmoney.com.au

In particular I'd really like to know if you get my 'justcause' concept or think that it needs a little more to clearly express what I'm trying to do.

Thanks for your time ... I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers

Karl

[FilthyCro]

Its an ok site for a basic site.

Honestly you need some colour and a decent templte. Lookup a decent template site and you can add a lot of class and style to your site quickly.

Checkout workpress templates, very easy to install.

[LMK]

i agree - needs a redesign.... it does look a little dodgey... i dont know how "they" make sites look good but getting a good web designer would help i suppose.

[kathiemt]

It does need some images. I think the layout and text is ok but people need images too. When you look at a newspaper you never see only text. I suspect the stories that get read the most are the ones that have photos with them.

Re the comment about Wordpress - I love that program and can highly recommend it. It does have thousands of templates available out there. Have a look at some of these for example:

http://templates.entheosweb.com/Mortgage.asp

http://themesjunction.com/templates/mortgage_theme.html

I work with Wordpress a lot so if you need some advice or guidance, just ask.

[BB]

Just Thoughts

I think it's 'just fine'.

To me, the concept is simple and I wouldn't expect fancy pictures and images.

It's clean, and crisp.

It made me read the blurb, instead of being side-tracked by 'pretty things'.

It got your message across - it's "just money" - simple!

I am not a website designer, developer or whatever. I have simple tastes, and I know what I like.

cheers,

B.B.

[Renee Barber]

Hi Karl

This will probably sound weird since I'm a web designer (but a copywriter too), but I agree with B.B.

While it is a very 'plain Jane' site, I think it works well with your message. It's simple, direct and honest so even if you decide you want to go a bit fancier down the track, don't lose that.

I just read and reviewed a great book recently entitled SheMarketing: the science of marketing to women by Amanda Stevens. She indicated that if you're marketing to women (and why wouldn't you since they're said to at least influence over 80% of purchasing decisions), you should incorporate strong visuals, preferably with people in them.

OK, I'll close for now, but I hope this helps.

All the best with your business!

[karl]

I'm with you BB, I like it (mostly)
(I was gonna say "I'm with you Bitch" but I couldn't bring myself to. I've said it now haven't I!)

Anyway, I digress. I'll give you the positives first.

• It's clean and simple. Less is more right?
• It's easy to navigate.
• It loads fast. Not surprisingly considering there's stuff-all to load :-)
• It really suits the business. This is important. When I'm browsing the site I feel as though I'm at somewhere called justmoney. The colour green is associated with money and that's all there is: No fancy stuff, just the colour green and some text. (Actually there are some other colours but I'll mention that in negatives, below)

Now, the negatives.

• Design 101 (part A): It's safer to not mix your justifications. Unless you are a designer, the most reliably good-looking option is to justify everything to the left. That means all the centered stuff including the logo, the 'we support everything you do' text, buttons and copyright stuff. The 'mortgage and finance brokers tag-line is nicely placed though). Oh and the left-hand column navigation and referral code section. Sounds like nit-picking but left justify 'em all and I promise you will notice the improvement.
• Design 101 (part B): Align your elements. In the right column, the justcause and justcommunity sections look great but please lose the white space to the left of the social networking icons so they line up with the elements above.
• Colours. You (or your designer) either know something about colour theory or are just lucky because the colours you have chosen work pretty well together, apart from the dark blue in the navigation. Also, does the navigation need to be multi-coloured?

I haven't looked at the code or validated the site or anything but purely from a design perspective, I like it. And I'll like it even more if you follow my long-winded advice.

Cheers,

[karl]

Oh, Renee, you beat me to it :-)

Your reply wasn't there when I started typing, more than an hour ago. I should do some real work LOL

[Renee Barber]

Hi Karl

I hope you're finding these suggestions useful and I cannot wait to see your refurbished site if you take them on board.

Karl [2]: First of all, 'real work'? Ick. ;-)

Yep, I did sneak in there and post something that was similar to your newly added post, but you also gave some great design-specific feedback.

I don't think I agree with you about not centring the logo though ... I think it and the tagline should stay how they are. I could be convinced otherwise, but I'd have to see how the change in justification of the other elements affects the balance.

[karl]

Certainly the logo and tagline should stay where they are in relation to each other and yeah I would probably be fine with leaving the logo centred too. But that's all, ok? :-)

Actually, the left hand side column could be either wider or the text reduced in size too. I really sound preachy now :-)