New Hub Site

[Xstr8guy]

Can you guys and gals take a look (still under construction).
New UGAS Hub
I was inspired to refresh my hub by looking at Dzinerbear's hub site. His site is very easy to navigate and very welcoming... everything my old hub wasn't.

Yeah, I know the flying leather guy is corny, but I think it's funny

Do you think this will work better than what it used to look like?
Old UGAS Hub

I was getting virtually no SE traffic to the old site. Will this work better for the SE's?

Do I need more obvious navigation?

Any other ideas or suggestions?

I need to get ahold of Comicboy to commissiom some more niche cartoons for all of the pages. I love his stuff.

[Bec]

WOW big difference!! I like the new look!! Old hub looked more like a sample page for a design site with all those screenshots! I also like the "talk" you've got going on. Be sure to let us know how this new layout works out for you, but I think you'll see a difference in click thrus! Good luck!

[Xstr8guy]

Thanks for the encouragement Bec!

[Chilihost]

that is a huge improvement, it should help your s.e. rankings for sure with all that text.

Good job!

cheers,
Luke

[Gary-Alan]

I like the changes a lot, dude.

And ya know, the flying guy is cute LOL

I'm with Luke on the text, this should help you out with the SEs.

I like the navigation on the new site, sometimes a text link will do far better in click thru rates than image links.

Good luck with it!

My best,
Gary-Alan

[TonyKink]

Hey X,
Looks awesome and easily navagable. You push some great content BTW. Keep up the great work. I'm still gettin' my feet wet in this business. I will certainly take notes from you.
Take care..TonyK

[Harlan]

What a huge improvement! A like the new look new A LOT and all all of the keyword rich text is very SE friendly!

One thing to think about is the navigation. I like the fact that the links are only underlined in the "over" state but the fact there are so many destinations are black as in the text makes them lost. With the notorious short attention span of surfers these days, while all of that html will load very quickly, it could easily be mistaken as page of text with the only visible links being the images. At first glance, the only recognizeable link is the BOOKMARK THIS SITE NOW!

I would suggest finding a different color for the links & that doesn't need to be traditional blue or red, but something to set it apart so it stands out from and benefits from the text, rather then become lost in it.

It's well done, well laid out & very attractive but I think making all those great sites more obvious and easier top get to will help produce the results you are looking for!

Good luck

[Dzinerbear]

xstr8guy,

I think the new design is a keeper. I think it'll help you rankings enormously in search engines. Plus a new design can be good for conversions, too.

I think the biggest seller on the page is the hot copy. I know the Net is visual, but those cookie cutter sites with a few images and then hitting the surfer with the buy button aren't working for a lot of people. I've always found that writing hot copy married with graphics pulls 'em in better.

I like the rainbow javascript on the text links. It's something new.

Good luck
Dzinerbear

[basschick]

i, too, think the new design is a huge improvement. but i like the idea of links being visibly underlined when the cursor is not over them. newer surfers don't always realize that text might be linked without underlining.

good luck with your hub - looks nice!

[Xstr8guy]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and input! So no one hates the flying leather guy? The rainbow javascript isn't too fruity for my niches?

I don't want to clutter up the site with underlined links on the left side. I love the clean look. We'll see how it work for now

The site navigation on the bottom of the page doesn't seem to be working very well, though. Any suggestions for the navigation links? Maybe I should underline those. Should I put buttons at the top of the page, too.

The text is a little awkward, but I'm not as good with creative text like Dzinerbear. The text isn't too spammy, is it?

[Harlan]

Xstr8guy -

The flying leather guys, to be honest, I usually hate that sort of thing and while not my favorite, it does add a sort of whinsy to the page and makes it different and good for sticky eyeballs if just for curiosity

As for the links not working for you - I like the ones to the left not underlined though I think they would benefit from a color change so its apparent as links and not just a list. The links at the bottom would likewise benefit from at least a color change too.
You did a great job on this face lift