Mogulskiing.net Overhaul Complete

[BushMogulMaster]

Check it out: www.mogulskiing.net

Thoughts? Suggestions? Like it? No?

 

[Mikec13]

good stuff...just signed up...would love to be able to improve my mogul technique but realistically I have had a hard time translating watt I read to on mountain technique...I think I am a much more visual learner...but i might as well try...I ski at sugarbush so maybe I will see you in action...good luck

 

[BushMogulMaster]

good stuff...just signed up...would love to be able to improve my mogul technique but realistically I have had a hard time translating watt I read to on mountain technique...I think I am a much more visual learner...but i might as well try...I ski at sugarbush so maybe I will see you in action...good luck

If you ever want a few tips in-person, just let me know. I'll be skiing Mt. Ellen 12/19-3/30. Shoot me a PM.

 

[Greg]

Feedback

Okay, here goes:

• The left navigation is better. Lose the "Mogulskiing.net Forums" and just put "Forums". It should go between Home and News as that's one of the strongest sections of your site. Make it easy to find.
• The tag line, "The Web's #1 Source for All Things Mogul Skiing" is lost with the white font. The logo too seems kinda hidden in front of that rad bump banner image you are using ( ).
• Standardize on a font/style. I see at least a few different fonts and some random uses of italics and bold. It looks like the primary text font is Arial. Step it down a size or two.
• Your news list looks a little blah. How about an abstract for each article and a publish date/time?
• How about an RSS news feed?
• From a revenue standpoint, try to integrate the Google Ads better. Make them blend into your content. Try to land some direct sponsorships. Hart skis, Sugarbush, etc...
• Integrate the forum style with the rest of your site.
• The "Video Player Below" on the video gallery is hokey.
• Move AZ to the top of the link list.

Hope this helps.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Okay, here goes:

• The left navigation is better. Lose the "Mogulskiing.net Forums" and just put "Forums". It should go between Home and News as that's one of the strongest sections of your site. Make it easy to find.
• The tag line, "The Web's #1 Source for All Things Mogul Skiing" is lost with the white font. The logo too seems kinda hidden in front of that rad bump banner image you are using ( ).
• Standardize on a font/style. I see at least a few different fonts and some random uses of italics and bold. It looks like the primary text font is Arial. Step it down a size or two.
• Your news list looks a little blah. How about an abstract for each article and a publish date/time?
• How about an RSS news feed?
• From a revenue standpoint, try to integrate the Google Ads better. Make them blend into your content. Try to land some direct sponsorships. Hart skis, Sugarbush, etc...
• Integrate the forum style with the rest of your site.
• The "Video Player Below" on the video gallery is hokey.
• Move AZ to the top of the link list.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, Greg. You've been very helpful since day 1! I'll take a look at those in detail tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[mondeo]

Viewing the home page through Firefox on Linux on a laptop, the formatting gets screwed up, with text outside the area it's supposed to be in. I'll check it again later from a different browser/OS/computer.

 

[jaywbigred]

Definately looks better, I echo Greg's comments.

Have you decided to make a push to cover Open mogul trails in a trip report section? I know you currently have it under "Ski Area Info", but to me, that always seemed like a strange label for what really amounts to a "Mogul Trail Report". "Ski Area Info" sounds like a more stagnant area of a webpage, like it would contain phone numbers, directions, mountain statistics, lodging, transportation and such, rather than "This week, Okemo has Ledges, Sel's Choice and Punchline".

Lastly, I think which resorts you include is a little arbitrary. Obviously, you can only report on those resorts that supply you with information, but, e.g., incl. Stratton is a curious to me, as I have skied there quite often the last 3 seasons (always for free...no other reason to go) and can count on 1 hand the number of times they have had any type of bumps during those visits.

 

[bigbog]

...soon tobe member...

Just registered BushMogulMaster, website will be great...will get over sometime in Dec(hopefully)....

SteveD

 

[thinnmann]

ok, my 2cents

Way too much text on home page. The first paragraph is enough. Then make a link to each succeeding paragraph's main idea. For example:

• Intimidated by Bumps?
• WC technique
• Other Bump Methods
• We will help you bump better!

Now use those paragraphs to lead into their own sub sections.

Don't think of your web site as a way to present ideas as text, like a book. People don't read the web like that, and you may lose visitors in 12.6 seconds. Make it more of a web of the concepts presented in your current home page text. Don't tell me so much, show it to me in smaller, self-navigable chunks.


And, yea, google ads on the bottom will get little, if any, attention.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions. I will take all of them under consideration, and will work on having a refined site complete by the time A-Basin opens! :wink:

I'm kind of at a stand still right now, as I am troubleshooting a major driver issue in Vista that is resulting in consistent STOP errors on reboot, and it locks up before completing a memory dump. I'm terminally stuck in Safe Mode right now! As soon as I get this resolved, I'll get back to work on mogulskiing.net!

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice website!!!! You are starting to develop a name for yourself in the ski industry like Scott Powderfreak...awesome

 

[bvibert]

Good work BMM, thanks for all the hard work.

 

[kcyanks1]

Viewing the home page through Firefox on Linux on a laptop, the formatting gets screwed up, with text outside the area it's supposed to be in. I'll check it again later from a different browser/OS/computer.

Just went to it with Firefox 3.0.3 on Linux and had the same issue. The problem is with the main body text, not the navigation menu to the left. Sometimes lines get pushed together and it goes outside the bottom by about 1 line.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Hmm, interesting. I tested it at several resolutions in both IE and Firefox with no trouble. I'll play with it more, and try to resolve that. Weird.

Until I had my mobo replaced (and they had to reformat the hdd) I was dual-booting with Linux. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to reinstalling it, so I can't really check in Linux.

What resolution do you have your machine set to?

 

[kcyanks1]

Hmm, interesting. I tested it at several resolutions in both IE and Firefox with no trouble. I'll play with it more, and try to resolve that. Weird.

Until I had my mobo replaced (and they had to reformat the hdd) I was dual-booting with Linux. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to reinstalling it, so I can't really check in Linux.

What resolution do you have your machine set to?

1440 x 900

Here is a partial screen shot showing the issue:

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Weird. Okay, I'll look into it. Thanks!

 

[kcyanks1]

Weird. Okay, I'll look into it. Thanks!

No problem, thanks for looking into it and putting all the time into your site!