New decals website - selling skins for game systems.

GrfxDan · Post by **GrfxDan** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:22 pm

I just went live last night with my new site: http://www.dansdecals.com and would love to get some feedback on it.

We have two primary product lines: 1) Skins (vinyl decals) for game systems and 2) Automotive graphics & decals.

I actually designed the site myself (I have a BFA in Commercial Art/Computer Graphic Design) but had MarketCenter Technologies turn my design into an functioning AbleCommerce store. They did an excellent job of getting it setup to look identical to the Photoshop files that I sent them (1 psd for each page layout). I would HIGHLY recommend MarketCenter to anyone looking for someone to create a professional AbleCommerce site. Dan and his crew really know what they're doing and they are good at it.

Anyway, back to the site. Please post your comments, good or bad, I really want to know what people think of the site. Thanks in advance!

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:41 pm

Hello Dan,

I liked the site the first time I saw it! One suggestion however the thumbnails on pages like:

http://www.dansdecals.com/Xbox-360-Skins-C9.aspx

Need to be reduced in size!

The report (link below) says your total page size is 680636 bytes! About 7x what it should be.

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/serv ... ze/wso.php

I would agree, Marketcenter has been putting out some nice looking sites.

gjaros · Post by **gjaros** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 4:02 pm

Very nice looking site, but I agree with Mike... The thumbnail images could really use to be optimized. 30k for a thumbnail is huge. They should be around 3k each. Your full size images need to be made smaller, too (file size wise - dimensionally they're fine).

For example, this image is only 7k:
http://www.dansdecals.com/Xbox-360-Elit ... 132C9.aspx

But this one is over 40k:
http://www.dansdecals.com/Xbox-360-Oran ... P50C9.aspx

Great site design though!

GrfxDan · Post by **GrfxDan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:44 am

Thanks guys. I'll re-examine my file sizes and see what can be done about getting them smaller. Guess I hadn't paid much attention to that. Thanks for letting me know.

Dan
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GrfxDan · Post by **GrfxDan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:37 pm

Okay, I've optimized my images (thumbnails & full-size), resulting in dramatically smaller files (around 2KB for thumbnails and 6KB for full size images). The pages should now load much faster. Please, anyone, let me know if you find other items like this that need addressed. Thanks!

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:43 pm

Hello,

The page lost a 1/2 mb in size and still looks good! Your shoppers will appreciate your efforts and you will too

$$

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:50 pm

Dan -- where are you hosting your site. It loads really quickly for me. Super responsive.

GrfxDan · Post by **GrfxDan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:54 pm

Will wrote:Dan -- where are you hosting your site. It loads really quickly for me. Super responsive.

MarketCenter Technologies (http://www.marketcenter.net) is hosting the site. Since I've optimized all of my image files I have noticed that the site is loading much faster.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 1:55 pm

Hello All,

Tracert says:

http://www.colo4dallas.com/

GrfxDan · Post by **GrfxDan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:00 pm

Shopping Cart Admin wrote:Hello Dan,

I liked the site the first time I saw it! One suggestion however the thumbnails on pages like:

http://www.dansdecals.com/Xbox-360-Skins-C9.aspx

Need to be reduced in size!

The report (link below) says your total page size is 680636 bytes! About 7x what it should be.

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/serv ... ze/wso.php

I would agree, Marketcenter has been putting out some nice looking sites.

I've been able to get that page down to 126,753 bytes, eliminating over 550,000 bytes in image optimization alone. I know the page should be smaller still but unless I lower the number of items displayed on a page I don't see how that's going to be possible.

Individual product pages are down to around 68,000 bytes (from around 150,000 before image optimization).

GrfxDan · Post by **GrfxDan** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 2:05 pm

Shopping Cart Admin wrote:Hello All,

Tracert says:

http://www.colo4dallas.com/

...then I would assume that's where MarketCenter's servers are located.

My primary & secondary dns entries point to ns3.marketcenter.net & ns4.marketcenter.net respectively.

Redcell · Post by **Redcell** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 4:54 pm

What made you choose Market Center?