Looking for feedback! - RainDrop.com

[Ali]

This is my first content heavy site ever. I have spent countless weeks, sleepless nights and all my free-time making it happen. I just soft launched with a small marketing push.

I'm seeking honest feedback, reviews, and intelligent criticisms on site performance! Thanks!

The site: Raindrop
The viral post (out for 24 hours now): Traveling The World
The Facebook Page: Facebook/Raindrop

 

[80-20]

Appears to be an informative/authoritative site.

The usability issues I see:
1. Nav. links font is all in caps and hard to read.
2. "Trending" would do better having its links in a different font, just to underline the fact that it's all about the "latest."
3. Escaping footer is a nuisance... I know, Pinterest and likes have it, but try to read your Priv. Policy.

Overall, huge effort, clearly visible.

Best of luck with the monetization side, Ali!

 

[Ali]

Appears to be an informative/authoritative site.

The usability issues I see:
1. Nav. links font is all in caps and hard to read.
2. "Trending" would do better having its links in a different font, just to underline the fact that it's all about the "latest."
3. Escaping footer is a nuisance... I know, Pinterest and likes have it, but try to read your Priv. Policy.

Overall, huge effort, clearly visible.

Best of luck with the monetization side, Ali!

Fantastic points! Thank you for taking the time

Yes, the "dreaded" infinite scroll! I've been going back and forth over and over on that. The only page that infinite scrolls is the homepage. My main reason being time on site and on mobile, it keeps users scrolling and scrolling. It's definitely a battle in my mind, but it's good to hear another opinion on it!

Just removed the uppercasing on the fly-out navigation - thanks for that! Much easier to read now.

And you are right about trending! Working out the CSS on that as we speak!

Thank you for the feedback!

 

[Megist]

I visited site via Mobil. It is looking good. But i wanted to write a review for your domain. It is very romantic domain name I liked it !

Good luck.

 

[Ali]

I visited site via Mobil. It is looking good. But i wanted to write a review for your domain. It is very romantic domain name I liked it !

Good luck.

It is indeed! There is plans to utilize it in that regard in the future - more on that some day soon

 

[Konga]

This is my first content heavy site ever. I have spent countless weeks, sleepless nights and all my free-time making it happen. I just soft launched with a small marketing push.

I'm seeking honest feedback, reviews, and intelligent criticisms on site performance! Thanks!

The site: Raindrop
The viral post (out for 24 hours now): Traveling The World
The Facebook Page: Facebook/Raindrop

Loved it and bookmarked it as well

 

[Ali]

Loved it and bookmarked it as well

Thanks!

 

[TRY]

I try to visit on my phone and got the following message.

 

[Ali]

I try to visit on my phone and got the following message. Show attachment 20031

Ah yes, I was made aware of that the other day. Apparently the previous website (another owner) was deemed as some "malicious" entertainment site .

I've already reached out to McAfee to review the site Hopefully they see that it's clearly nothing of the sort now.

 

[towhidzaman]

Love the name. Unique and meaningful

 

[cudest]

Very good responsive web design. The over all design is very good just one thing i want to suggest you that is you can reduce the image size of thumbnails which are in explore raindrop parts.

 

[Ali]

Very good responsive web design. The over all design is very good just one thing i want to suggest you that is you can reduce the image size of thumbnails which are in explore raindrop parts.

Thanks for the feedback!

What is the reasoning behind reducing the thumbnail sizes? Just curious. Did it impede on your experience? If so, in what way? Thank you! All the detail helps to improve the site

 

[Edward Smeu]

Love the site, Ali, great job!

 

[Saeid Nejati]

I checked it out. It seems excellent but something I like more if you can do with them like your first page. If you can reduce the size of connect social networks thumbnails at the right of page it will be good. Their location at the top of page is even better. Majorly if you could reduce the size of thumbnails in 1st page (rest of it is good) it could be better. Totally it seems to be a great site.

 

[markossy]

Nice website, I see that you did not added any descriptions into your single posts, also analytics code missing in homepage.

 

[Ali]

Love the site, Ali, great job!

Thank you!

I checked it out. It seems excellent but something I like more if you can do with them like your first page. If you can reduce the size of connect social networks thumbnails at the right of page it will be good. Their location at the top of page is even better. Majorly if you could reduce the size of thumbnails in 1st page (rest of it is good) it could be better. Totally it seems to be a great site.

Thanks!

You are talking about the Connect Social buttons on the fly out menu? And the thumbnails of all the posts on the homepage or the posts under the featured above the fold section? Also, what kind of device are you on that they seem too big? Laptop? Phone?

Definitely appreciate the feedback!

Nice website, I see that you did not added any descriptions into your single posts, also analytics code missing in homepage.

Meta descriptions? I'm using Yoast SEO wordpress plugin, and the meta descriptions I haven't personally typed out get auto-filled. Unless I missed something? Could please send me a link or screenshot? Thank you!

And in regards to analytics, thats funny, I woke up this morning and noticed the same thing. It was behaving very strangely. I think it's fixed now.

Thanks again!

 

[Saeid Nejati]

Thank you!



Thanks!

You are talking about the Connect Social buttons on the fly out menu? And the thumbnails of all the posts on the homepage or the posts under the featured above the fold section? Also, what kind of device are you on that they seem too big? Laptop? Phone?

Definitely appreciate the feedback!



Meta descriptions? I'm using Yoast SEO wordpress plugin, and the meta descriptions I haven't personally typed out get auto-filled. Unless I missed something? Could please send me a link or screenshot? Thank you!

And in regards to analytics, thats funny, I woke up this morning and noticed the same thing. It was behaving very strangely. I think it's fixed now.

Thanks again!

Yes I am talking about Connect Social buttons on the fly out menu as you mentioned. And the thumbnails of all the posts on the homepage are big in my opinion but those one under the featured above the fold section are good enough. I am on Laptop.

 

[markossy]

Check on this one: http://www.raindrop.com/30-best-hotels-world

You forgot to add description.

 

[Ali]

Check on this one: http://www.raindrop.com/30-best-hotels-world

You forgot to add description.

What description? Meta? What are you referring to.

 

[Ali]

Made a ton of changes to the site Check it out, let me know what you think!

Was having some major issues with the last theme - this one is much smoother, especially since a majority of my traffic is coming from mobile.

 

[markossy]

What description? Meta? What are you referring to.

Yes, you have no meta description there

 

[Ali]

Yes, you have no meta description there

Ah, gotcha. That's odd. Just re-crawled, should all update in a week or so. Hopefully

 

[Ali]

Just did a complete 100% re-design. Was working towards a 100/100 PageSpeed score and damn near nailed it! Please refresh, and if you have time, check out the new design!

Also, expanding the site from Travel, to 3 other major categories in the coming months

 

[whateverforsale]

I know you're looking for negatives so you can fix em but I really don't have any. Just wanted to say the site loads much smoother than when I took a look a few days ago. You also got rid of the very annoying never ending scroll of the first page. Geez I hate that and I see it on a number of sites. Can actually click on the
Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, etc., now. And I think the images look great and the right size...though I'm on a desktop with 23" monitor.

FWIW

 

[ulterios]

The site looks good overall. The black and white makes it look a little basic/plain if not looking at the pictures, but everything else.

One key thing that I have seen over the years is that many people complain and don't like it when you have those type of giant social bars like you have at the bottom. If it was on the side and not blocking the bottom of the page then that would help a little. It takes up a big chunk of display/reading area where it's at. A big portion of people don't like intrusive social icons that make a big splash on the site's display area.

One thing that has me curious and that's why did you use the Raindrops domain? Just curious how that ties into the niche/field it's in. Don't get me wrong, I love the name but it just seems like an odd name for it's niche/field.

It's a real nice looking site, but IMO, I think it needs some color or design elements other than the pictures to liven it up and make it look more unique.

Overall, like I said above, it's a good looking site. The things that I pointed out are things that I had lots of people tell me as well as ones that I have seen being pointed out with other sites.


P.S. I heard you mention McAfee and that you had sent a review request. I've done several of those over the years and sometimes it can take a few to several weeks for them to get around to reviewing the site and clearing it. Not always has it taken this long but I just wanted to give you a heads up so you don't think they didn't do it. It seems like McAfee is never in a big hurry to process those. I have had one take only 2-3 days if I remember correctly but weeks is the usual.