Do you think this will work?

[Horsebreath]

This is the bare bones of a site I am developing. I'm just trying to get ideas from people about problems others might foresee. I do know the site won't show in older browsers because of the layers. I also plan on keeping the ads to about five per page.

http://www.mcn.org/g/bp/gualalainfo/

barbara

 

[boyfromoz]

Once you get all your links up, load time is going to be slow.

no-one uses v3 browsers anymroe unless they are living in a time cpasule, so layer away I say.

What is the incentive for people to use this site?

SOOOOOOOOOO much grey.

 

[Horsebreath]

The Gualala area is a tourist destination mainly with a stable population of about 2000 along about a 40 mile coast. The majority of people are internet users yet there is no central directory site.

The majority of people are on modems which is why I eliminated using images. I used grey because I really wanted the ads to be the primary focus. I also used grey because when I added color to different text it became very confusing. My idea is to speed people through the listings and let the ads really take center stage. You might be right and perhaps I need to go to blue text on grey?

As far as the FAQ,Sections, Contact pages. These could have images and be very colorful. I didn't spend any time on these as I was just trying to figure out if the concept would work.

I think my major decision would be about the size of the ads versus download time.
Thanks for taking the time to look it over.

 

[boyfromoz]

OK. For starters, don't let anyone tell you how to design. I don't, look at the pages yourself and makenup your own mind. Speak to end users about what they think, but not to too many other desingors or you will quickly get head $@#$ed. Back yourself.

Your page is going to be real slow once all the links load, if you put a-Z on one page. Are you going to load say a-g only, with links to the others areas? Perhaps a searchable database of links too?

When you build the page, ask yourself if your would use it, and beenfuit from it. IS it fast, easy to navigate and rpvoide a service not suppleid that is in demand?

Do you ever pay attention to advertising on a web page? I know I don't so be wary of funding it this way.

 

[Kjonnnn]

My only suggest is that you can't tell what the site is about.

 

[Horsebreath]

nippi,
Wasn't sure what the download time would be just to load the home page with about 200 links. Thought I would just create it and see what the kb numbers looked like. Can always divide that page up into additional pages.
As for each business secition. I thought I would keep each page to about five ads by dividing the sections into page 1,2,3 etc. This is a hard area to get ad information out to the public so I feel there is a need for this service.
The end pages will be my own design but I'm always willing to listen to others. This concept is brand new territory for me and who knows maybe others have been there before and know an easier path. I got the idea of using the autolayers behavior from Dreamweaver 4 Magic. I do appreciate your encouragement though.

Kjonn,
I know I need to flesh out the explanation of what the site is about. I really was just trying to see if the concept would work mainly for the download times. The area is so small that we have our own private telephone directory that's about 60 pages but it is printed about every three years. We really need a local online directory that shows what businesses are in the area and can be constantly updated. This is primarly a tourist destination and this would be excellant for out of town visitors to plan their holidays here. It would also be used by the many people who own second homes here and need resources.