www.higherground4x4.com/index.php

quick look at the new design for the front page

updating it so it is more dynamic and easier for our members to change

were hoping to get more people involved in writing articles, stories and info about land use

new site will be up until 5pm for you to look at, after that its back to the old until we finish up the little stuff

offroadaz wrote:www.higherground4x4.com/index.php

quick look at the new design for the front page

updating it so it is more dynamic and easier for our members to change

were hoping to get more people involved in writing articles, stories and info about land use

new site will be up until 5pm for you to look at, after that its back to the old until we finish up the little stuff

it may be a sneak peak, but that's what you get when you hit the site right now... you're running it live?

I dont like it.

fatbob309 wrote:I dont like it.

agreed. I thought I was on CCN's site or something... scary.

fatbob309 wrote:I dont like it.

what dont you like

alanzona wrote:it may be a sneak peak, but that's what you get when you hit the site right now... you're running it live?

yah, in 3 hours I think maybe 10 people will see it

trying to move the front page to more of a magazine layout with featured articles, installs and reports on the front

allot of our content is never seen the way it is right now, with the new layout we can bring it to the users attention easier

for example, since the beginning of march weve had 7,500 hit on www.higherground4x4.com/forums
and only 750 hits on www.higherground4x4.com
even worse we've had less then 200 hits on the tech and review section and under 150 on our trip reports page

Its obvious that the majority of our site is never even seen by the average user

Oh, I agree witht he concept and the easier access thing, just that particular stock home page template was bit odd for the vibe of the rest of the site.

offroadaz wrote:what dont you like

It looks to much like a Facebook page and not a club page...

alanzona wrote:Oh, I agree witht he concept and the easier access thing, just that particular stock home page template was bit odd for the vibe of the rest of the site.

what would you like to see on the front page? Different categories or news? More or less pics?

keep in mind the goal is to have new front page content at least once a month, the layout would need to stay generlly the same since it is template driven

were using this theme http://www.revolutiontheme.com

Any way to reduce the size of the add's?

No matter how interesting the front page is the forum is always going to have more hits because of us regulars. I hit the forum page 3-5 times a day at least. I only goto the front page on accident.

Keep generating discussion.
Try to keep it a pro vs con, what you'd like to see, etc.

I have a lot of trouble moving from a graphics based layout to a text theme constrained to boxes. That's my biggest issue. (Ask me how much I hate Myspace and blogs)

Although a pro would be if we had more hits and updating. I've always made the site appealing to what I like to see and maybe we should go with what others want instead?

And yes I hate that it's live right now (feels all naked and exposed ) although it is hard to work on for Chris if it is not.

There isn't another folder on the ftp site that he could place it in then access the index.html in that folder when he wants to view changes?

Thanks for the hard work, by the way...

alanzona wrote:There isn't another folder on the ftp site that he could place it in then access the index.html in that folder when he wants to view changes?

Thanks for the hard work, by the way...

not really, its not just html files. Its a PHP program running on a SQL database, when the site is created I have to use the root directory, otherwise Id have to make a whole new site once it was done

old site is back up now

you can still preview the new one by changing links from .htm to .php

you will all probably laugh but I didn't know there was a web page other then the forums.....8|

I like the lay out. pretty informative.

It is pretty bright. I like the red/black/gray tribal logos and mountain outline pictures I have seen before a little better.

Also, why when you click on forums do you have to click again on the Higherground logo to get to them? It's not very clear and seems unnecessary.

Just my 2 cents

Me neither. I like our home page because it's simple... easy to get where you wanna go. Don't like so many words.... scares me :red|

okay guess Im the only who sees any problems with the current site design. Heres the reasons why I think an upgrade is must do

1. Michael writes the entire content. The new site will allow ANY of us to update it and keep it fresh. This relieves the burden for writing trip reports, tech articles and anything else.

2. HTML is outdated. Think of it this way the site is using Windows 95 code while everyone else is on XP

3. The front page hardly gets any visits, most of our content is not seen. We have tons of quality content that no one ever uses. The new design will allow the average user to find it easier

4. The new design is dynamic. We can have updates posted automatically, feature videos of our runs, installs and trips. The new design allows people to comment on articles and reports.

5. The new design allows advertisements. I posted a link earlier stating that we spend around $500 per year for the club. The new design allows for easier monetization. The more revenue we generate from advertisements, the less we have to spend out of our own pockets for things.

6. New design, more vendors. I really think the new design will attract more vendors to the site. More vendors, more contacts in the community. who knows, maybe next year you will see a Higher Ground 4x4 sponsored rig in a Jeep Speed competition or WEROCK event.

7. PHP and ASP is more professional. How many sites do you goto where you see a .htm extension? Hardly any. Almost every company has moved to the new web 2.0 form of coding. Look at pirate, rockcrawler.com, JU and others. All of them are using either PHP or ASP. Even the VJC is moving to a PHP content management system.

8. Member involvement. The new site will allow anyone to update it

9. Building for the future, the new design is expandable and based on a solid CMS platform using wordpress. If we want to make changes to content, pictures or anything else it is easy to do.

These are all good reason's. I told Chris I wouldn't discount a change just because I hate change.

He's right on pretty much each account. We've already worked up a banner for the forum page to enable better visability and linkage to the main site. We just don't have it up yet.

The new site format limits us in ways that frustrate me, but the old one limits us as well.

And yes the old way of it being just me working up the site does kinda suck. For you guys b/c it's not updated much, and for me b/c each page takes a few days to put together. (especially because the perfectionist in me forces me to up the ante on each design)

That being said, I am obviously a visual person and even posts as long as this without pics or graphics make me lose interest in whatever content is there.

I don't know how to acheive middle ground (ooo new site name?) on this

skatchkins wrote:
I don't know how to acheive middle ground (ooo new site name?) on this

Is this the new site for mini-trucks and Scions?

offroadaz wrote:what would you like to see on the front page? Different categories or news? More or less pics?

keep in mind the goal is to have new front page content at least once a month, the layout would need to stay generlly the same since it is template driven

were using this theme http://www.revolutiontheme.com

I could probably live with something like the Revolution Pro template... maybe it was just all the white and "news website" feel that was throwing me.

I agree with the need to keep updating, but I just like what you have built here so darn much from a look and feel and vibe perspective that it's hard to think of anything templated that feels like everything else out there...

That's all. When you say anyone can update, do you mean it's an open forum/blog style, or do you mean anyone beside Mike can make edits or upload content, etc... if they have rights? Part of what I like about the current site (to be considered for the update process) is the consistent quality of the material, the trip rides, the tech pages, etc.... makes it feel like a planned "web site" instead of a blog/open forum/entertainment website... Believe it or not, I actually don't believe that full acccess to public creation is a good thing all the time. I'll watch produced network shows before YouTube anytime.

My 2 cents.

alanzona wrote:l. When you say anyone can update, do you mean it's an open forum/blog style, or do you mean anyone beside Mike can make edits or upload content, etc... if they have rights?

Yep, if they have an account they can create content. Of course they would need to be approved by us first. For example your AJ's Offroad install, with the new site you could create the post and publish it yourself

Or if there is an important clean up coming up that you heard about, you could create the post and publish it. This would save a ton of time and give some people personal ownership of the site