My new website – Gethical.com, please look

[TonsOfFun]

Ok, this is not SPAM in my opinion because I've been here since the 90's (just) and have put plenty of time into this bbs so y'know it's not SPAM.

www.gethical.com

I own my business. I've been working on this since about May, had a few set backs and it's about 3 months late on the target date and it's cost a few hundred£'s more than hope but shit happens.

Still some issues with with IE users (cus its a piece of rubbish) but firefox users will be able to appreciate the work. I think it looks sweet. Has only been uploaded live in the last few minutes, but I've hammered the testing of it last night.

Anyway, it's all about promoting a more ethical style of living and not buying stuff that harms the environment. Promoting Fairtrade and giving some of the profits to charity (only 15% but it all helps). There is only about half the products up yet (about 130 items) so I've still plenty to write out.

I want to know what you think, if there is anything that is just hideous. There is some sweet touches like the logo changes on each refresh, randomised. And the feature products do the same.

And if I could be cheeky, and ask people to help me with something. The cost of hosting has been more than budgeted. The google ads at the bottom are to help with that. If you could click on some or all, that'd be cool. And if the revenue exceeds the cost of hosting, then the rest will go to charity (Amnesty International)! So you cannot go wrong, with helping me with that. :D

I'm seriously proud of this site. And please view it in Firefox. I know about the IE issues.

K, enough of me, I have to go to a funeral now so I'll catch up on you all later.

This is not SPAM, like I said but if the mods have to delete it, fine. Uncool but fine and I'll understand.

[TonsOfFun]

If you are wondering what I mean for IE users - http://www.gethical.com/Screenshot.png

The one on the right hand side is how it should be.

The writing is too big in IE, it's shifted the FAQ's to the left, green back ground on the tabs and that little black line.

[tracky]

Just because IE sucks and you don't use it doesn't mean that 50-75% of your traffic thinks that...

Top 3 for one site i manage

Internet Explorer 43.84%
Mozilla Compatible Agent 25.82%
Firefox 4.80%

just sayin' ;)

ps i will have a look at see if i can find a fix. But a good site is webmasterworld.com - they'll sort you out, but they don't do site reviews as such, you'll need to present the problem in a section of relevant code.

[ms.peachy]

It looks pretty good! I might take you up on that 4 for 3 Ecover tablet deal.

If I had to make any product suggestions, I would say maybe look into things like reusable nappies and other baby things (an awful lot of people only get into the whole 'organics' thing once they are expecting, you know?) but as for now you are just trying to get off the ground, maybe that's something to think about in the future.

[tracky]

I've had a look around the site now (that was just my initial reaction at your snubbing of IE :p) and it looks good (y) I couldn't really see anything I'd change, except maybe keeping the top logo static, only cause it's gotta load each time and there are still people on slow internet connections. But that was really the only thing I would change. Sometimes things seems really cool and neat but they don't actually turn out to be very practical. I toyed with the idea and chose not to. you could look at ranking the featured products by click through popularity to get the most popular products on the front page more often. The site looks good tho, good luck with it all (y) I'll be interested to hear how things are going in 6 months time or whatever. One of these days I think I'm gonna start my own internet business, even if it's only a side business to my regular job.

[TonsOfFun]

Nappies I do and are coming onto the site soon ;). They are biodegradable by OKO. I've tried to get a reliable source for reusable nappies, but no luck so far, but I am trying. :D And there will be a babycare section soon to with other stuff available.

Sorry, I've been annoyed at IE for not working too great and wasn't going to launch until it was sorted. But it'll be sorted in the next few days. I don't have to out source anything like that to fix but thanks. I know ie has the market share and it wasn't a snub (but the thought did cross my mind to give firefox users a discount, but that would of done more harm than good). Like I said, spending 4 hours on sorting little details on IE gets to you. It was truely horrible in IE a few days back. I nearly cried.

Although launched today there is no google ads active for it yet so it shouldn't cause too much of a problem. The other site I had up was shocking to say the least - Frontpage created simular software.

The logo shouldn't be a problem. It's on a crazy fast server and has been tested on dial up and it loads pretty quickly even after several refresh. And the logo's aren't very big files so that shouldn't be a problem. I don't want a static one because of the refresh and all 7 logo's fit in. So even by the time some one has clicked a few links (hopefully) most will of already been loaded and wouldn't cause a further problem.

But if anyone is on dialup and thinks it's slow, let me know. Or if anything loads slow.

I am seriously proud of this site, best thing I've ever been involved so I'd like people to be brutally honest.

And thanks to the one person who clicked one of the ads, you'll eventually be helping charity :D

[TonsOfFun]

I'll be interested to hear how things are going in 6 months time or whatever. One of these days I think I'm gonna start my own internet business, even if it's only a side business to my regular job.

That is how I started but via ebay. Then I freaked out on my job and had to quit. I would say do it. I hated working for someone though. If you can cope with that then you are a better man than I am. But even though I'm on far less money I'm a million times happier and I'm doing what I believe in and want to do. I would recommend it.

A top ten list would be pretty simple to do. I didn't want them on the front page. I looked at other sites and a lot was too crowded from a critical point of view. It's like the Brands on my site was going to have the logo of the brand name but it messed up the look of the site. I hate when ever inch of space is filled with something. It's like sites which have 10 pages of terms. Who reads them?, think some sites get above themselves and sometimes spoil it. Like I said, this is from a critical point of view. I'd be lying to say the layout and everything hasn't been partly stolen from other places I've seen or been told about. But it all comes together to be my own little baby :D

Also, how do you mean, not practical items?

[Dr Deaf]

fuckin eh. good for you man. (y)

[TonsOfFun]

thanks dude.

I also forgot to say. If anyone wants their site linking in exchange for a my link on their page - cus this'll improve both our goggle ratings so we appear higher up the search findings, then just let me know - adam@gethical.com or PM me. And I'll link it straight away...

[ms.peachy]

Just noticed, on your 'about' page you've twice used "it's" when it should really just be "its", with no apostrophe.

Nitpicky I know, but you said be brutal, and that's the sort of thing that can take the professional polish off your product, you know?

Also, bigger images might be better?

[TonsOfFun]

thanks, the about page has been corrected now :D Which is why I love you guys cus many of you are brutally honest (y)

Bigger images didn't look right. Played about with them and in the end 200x200 (scaled) seemed right cus I wanted them all the same size and 100x100 (scaled) for the thumbs. But I'll look into it again. Cus I tried 300x300 (scaled) and they looked too big...

[mickill]

It says "in you own cooking" here (http://www.gethical.com/index.php?display=product&id=120).

And here (http://www.gethical.com/index.php?display=product&id=113) it says "allows the farmers to impre their social and econmic welfare".

I just noticed these and thought I'd mention them.

Other than that, it's all quite impressive. Good stuff.

[TonsOfFun]

cheers dude, much appreciated.

edit: and fixed

[mickill]

And here (http://www.gethical.com/index.php?display=product&id=1). It says "sounthern Belize".

Okay, I'm done.

[cosmo105]

awesome site, man. :)

[abcdefz]

Looks pretty good.

I'm not completely sure about the dashes around each of the product icons. Dashes have connotations of "tear off" or "cut out," which would imply a drop and drag object... maybe click and drag into a shopping cart or something. But when you click it, my first impression is that it just gives a larger icon; that impression is wrong (it goes to the product's feature page which has a larger icon), but the impression is just kind of anti-climactic.

Maybe the products' feature pages could be a slightly different background color or something... just so that the visually oriented people could realize that the click they just did actually took them somewhere.

I dunno. It's a thought, and 88% subjective.

[TonsOfFun]

Yeah, the dashes are because the format was fucking up more in ie. Tried to get html to put the border there but that wasn't happening.

The site is no way finished, but I thought good enough to launch. It's always going to be improving. Some other major things to be sorted yet.

In the list of priorities is:
Sort out IE problems
Get all the products on the site - kinda a tie with number 1
Launch a EU site
Launch a USA and the rest of the world site
Play about with formatting issues/ideas such as dashes


I'm glad I'm getting decent feedback from it.

My final plan is to get my own store but keep on with the internet business. A store that can show what can be really done environmentally. From simple things like using rain water to flush toilets and water plants in an automated system. To creating, renewing and using energy that is cost effective without fossil fuels. Totally green, recycleable, fairtrade, organic. I know I'd never bring down companies like walmart but just show what can be done and how it's done. I've got some cool ideas that I'm working on to. But I don't want to get into any debt with the e-business side of things, so things are slower. But I think if I can manage all this myself and know how every aspect of the business works and not much if anything is out sourced, the cost will keep down and the whole machine will run better. Cus I'm not an idiot.

[tracky]

In all seriousness, take yourself over to webmasterworld.com. It's a forum for people just like yourself. You'll find A LOT of information there, especially very fresh information, so you can stay in front when you get there ;)

I know exactly how you feel about the whole IE thing. One thing you might want to do is include a <!doctype.. at the very top of your page. You can tell IE to be strict or crap, basically. And it's not just for IE, it's actually required to validate a page. Yeah, another thing, w3c validation (http://validator.w3.org/) is the way to go

<!doctype HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

[TonsOfFun]

In all seriousness, take yourself over to webmasterworld.com. It's a forum for people just like yourself...

Cool, thanks. I've just registered and it does look pretty sweet... (y) IE been fixed now, just needs uploading.

And thanks to the 15 of you who clicked the google ads. Much appreciated :D

[ms.peachy]

And thanks to the 15 of you who clicked the google ads. Much appreciated :D
No problem; one of them linked me to some really nice organic cotton baby clothes.

[mp-seventythree]

Great looking site Adam, very impressive. And your prices are pretty good too, especially considering you do free postage to the UK. I'm gonna see if Jenn wants any seeds for the chickens (we feed them all organic products, and their eggs are all the better for it), and I need some dried fruit, oso expect an order very soon.

Keep up the good work (y)

[TonsOfFun]

Sweet dude. Yeah the postage has been added to the prices except the Gethical Branded stuff which I'm trying to cover myself.

And you have chickens! Cool I want Chickens. Or wanted Chickens. for eggs and as pets. I don't want to eat them. But I'm scared that someone will eat my pets if I did have pet chickens :( :D

And thank Ms. Peachy. I have a babycare section up now. Nothing in it yet though and I think I've sourced some reusable nappies. They are not organic though. I'm after new products all the time so I kinda got on the case when you suggested it :D

[paul jones]

I just had a quick look,nice and green,hmmm

yeah,I'll get you a cd in the post tomorrow (y)

[mp-seventythree]

Sweet dude. Yeah the postage has been added to the prices except the Gethical Branded stuff which I'm trying to cover myself.

And you have chickens! Cool I want Chickens. Or wanted Chickens. for eggs and as pets. I don't want to eat them. But I'm scared that someone will eat my pets if I did have pet chickens :( :D

And thank Ms. Peachy. I have a babycare section up now. Nothing in it yet though and I think I've sourced some reusable nappies. They are not organic though. I'm after new products all the time so I kinda got on the case when you suggested it :D


We decided to get chickens when the Eglu was released. Now people can keep chickens pretty much anywhere (except maybe a block of flats)...although ours are happily pecking in about 1/2 an acre (spoiled buggers) all to themselves.
Omlet (www.omlet.co.uk)

[ms.peachy]

the Eglu [/URL]

I so totally want one of those! But we are in a block and have no outdoor space :( But they're so cool!