Comments on Website Please...

http://www.downside-up.net/downsideup/testing/fz-ie076/dsu_index.html

This is a link to my bands new website. We haven't actually posted this to our actual site yet cause we are still finalizing some details. Pics aren't up yet, the news is old, and a few other things are gonna change. We are gonna have a flash animated intro also. Just wanted to see what other people think of it so far. How's it load for you (especially the 56k people)? Are the sounds okay? Color scheme? Does the audio player work okay? Etc, etc. Any input at all would be great. We want to make this the best site we possibly can. Thanks.

Everything works fine. I just find it a little boring, it looks professional but it's exactly what everybody else does and

only contains the minimum info. You should add more content

like Forums/Guestbooks, Photos, etc. to make it more interesting.

I would probably agree with that assessment. When I go to a band's website, I want to know what they are about right away. I should be able to open your site and know what style of music you play and what you're all about just by the look and feel of the site. That's just good marketing.

And please don't overdo the flash stuff. I think most people hate flash anyway, especially when they're actually looking for stuff. If your menu is flash, make sure you put a plain html menu somewhere on the page, so that if I want to get to a certain part of the page and there's a problem with flash (or I just don't want to wait for it), I can still get there.

It's really professional looking, but almost too professional. It looks so cold and sterile. I mean technilogically you get an A+++, but I can't see your guys' personality in it. And you should have a html site for people who don't want to wait for flash, it takes soo long, I'm on dial-up. If you wanna check out an awesome flash site that doesn't take an eternity to load, and is the best use of Flash I've seen, go to www.theaquabats.com I was going to make a flash intensive site for my band, but decided to stick with html. It's accessible to people on any connection, and it may look simple, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Your site is very well done, I just think it needs tweaking.

Everything that was said is exactly how I feel about it. But, as far as the content goes, this is just a test site. We will be adding lots more content to the actual site. What was said about it looking sterile and cold, that's what I'm trying to convey to the other guys in the band. But unfortunatley, they are just stuck on the "Wow" factor of the flash stuff. Which, like was pointed out, really takes some time to load for a lot people. Our bass player is actually the one who is creating the site (he's a network admin in his day job) and I'm just trying not to step on anyone's toes, if you know what I mean. I'll let you guys know if and when we make some changes to it. Thanks again.

How'd you get started in Flash? I've been writing HTML for about 6 years now, but I always wanted to learn Flash. Got any tips to get started? Software?

get flash MX and do the tutorials, they tell you what to do and how to get the job done.

Thanks man!