Ok, really quick, I have been playing around with idea for a long time and finally started to try and do something about it. There are a handful of people in the group that I would like to hear the thoughts and opinions from, so instead of trying to email you all, I figured I would post it here.
If you wouldn't mind, Tom L., Roy, Wabbit, Nate, or who ever else, look at this and let me hear it. Please just keep in mind that it is a work in progress. Mac, Budd, you are exempt! Thanks all
larry, several years ago i worked for a friend building and repairing pc's. he just could not compete with the compusa's, costco's, etc. for a while we lived off of repairs, but some took so long to fix that we couldn't charge for our time.
my son has his own business working on pc's now. he only does it during the summer when he is home from school, but he services everything but macs. he does all of the os, including linux (sp?) and is pretty good at it. he just gets jobs by word of mouth but he could easily stay busy all of the time. the price of computers has come so low though that people don't want to pay much for repairs. he doesn't get rich but he does make some spending money. a lot of people expect him to come to their house, work a couple hours getting their system back together and want to give him $15 for it. hope it works out for you though. he had a web site set up too, but found that everyone that needed computer help were much likely to just call him than to go to the website.
Though I know I will not get rich soully from this, I hope I can!! I have thought about this for a long time and I know it will not likely allow me to never work for some one else, but the additional income will be welcome. One thing I have working to my advantage (I hope) is that the closest big box store like you mentioned is over an hour (driving) away AND that we only have about 5 other "ma and pa" stores in town. So, I am only really competing with them (for the most part).
Thanks for your wishes and all. If you (or your son) have suggestions, please fell free to shoot them this way!
It looks like a good start! If I may, I'd suggest you rename the main page to index.htm(l) or default.htm(l). This is because all web browsers will look for one of those names if you just give "
formatting link
" as the URL. Also, not all webbrowsers are happy with spaces in filenames: "KS Main.htm" won't work withsome older browsers. Another technique is to use framesets, which will allow you to have a menu. It will make it so you don't have to update *every* previous page when you make an addition... just add the new page and update the menu. That will be very handy if you have LOTS of content.
I don't see why it won't work. Somebody crash's, they call you. I didn't see anything about router's in your menu, wireless is big around here, and most don't know how to set it up securely. You are the only game in town and will do house calls go for it!! Good luck!!
Right now, I am only hosting it on my cox.net account so I can get it up and running. Once I get off the deck, I hope to move it to a normal server and it will loose the members.cox.net part of the url. Thanks for the info.
Roy, if you keep the link, there will be updates to it inthe next few days, including the info you mentioned. I would like to hear your thoughts then, too.
Not too many places here in town, maybe half a dozen and some of them really SUCK! I can only think of one that does house calls, so, that might be my edge. We'll see.
Maybe if you wore a pink bunny suit while making the housecall????? The only thing I can add is that I didn't see your phone number on the site but maybe I just missed it. "contact us" just went straight to an e-mail. Maybe an map to your store might be nice.
Suddenly, without warning, azwiley1 exclaimed (11-Oct-06 11:12 AM):
Some comments from a webmaster
formatting link
and a fellow technician: Your code doesn't validate (23 errors). Check out
formatting link
to do a validation check and see what the errors are. Good news is, your css does validate!@ In Firefox, "At Larry's..." follows directly after the blue bar, rather than on the next line. Need a in there or something...
I'd suggest getting rid of the blue bars, or finding some narrower ones. Ditch the animation on your header and the bar. Always use animation sparingly, if at all - it's often distracting and annoying. At a glance, I'd guess you're a coder rather than a designer? I don't see anything in your source that says if you're using a tool to develop the pages.
I see a clock in your source, but I don't see it on your pages. Have you just not called it yet?
Use javascript sparingly. Javascript menus usually are not accessible to the disabled, cutting out a possibly large number of possible visitors/clients.
I'd suggest using all css for your menus, rather than javascript. Buttons, too, can be done nicely using css. See my site.
Make your menus consistent throughout the site. Which means, make sure they're exactly the same on every page. I'm seeing menus that are moving around a bit, different on each page.
I'd suggest using a more usual font (you're using Trebuchet MS, which many of us may not have). I'd suggest Arial, or Verdana.
Now, I realize it's under construction, but since I don't know if you know what's broke and what's not: tools.htm, "contact us" is using the graphic, and repeated as a simple button. Neither works. And "home" is broken on some (all?) pages. "payments" takes me to raw .asp code.
Good luck with your business. I've considered doing it a couple of times,and actually *have* done housecalls, but decided it was too much of a hassle. These days, I'd be worried that I'd get sued if the customer thought I'd screwed the computer up. I'd add something to legal that says that data loss isn't covered by your warranty - the customer should be responsible for backing up their data before you work on the computer, unless they're paying you the full price to do it for them. Make them sign something that says "I backed up my data, and/or I won't hold Larry responsible if I'm lying and I lose everything 'cause I can't be arsed to back it up or run a virus scanner". Or something like that.
I'm not really as jaded as all that, but I think I'll stick to fixing computers at work :)
You might go visit alt.www.webmaster - lots of good talent there, and great information.
Thanks, I'll look in to the problems you mention that I did not catch already, like the validation. BTW, I used FP2K3 as well as wrote code when I did this.
Suddenly, without warning, azwiley1 exclaimed (13-Oct-06 1:07 AM):
Ah, Ok. If you do happen to go visit a.w.webmasters, be prepared for lots of scorn if you mention FrontPage.
I use FP2003 myself at work, it's not as bad as the previous versions, but I still have to spend a lot of time in the code making sure the site's the way I want it.
Oh,and if you use Firefox, there's a great extension called the Web Developer Toolbar, it's awesome. It's what I used to check validation, and some other stuff.
I use FP and love it.... It's not the best writer/editer out there and it has some weird quirks, (like anything from Micro$oft), but the management and reports really help me keep large sites organized... I especially like the ability to delete a file from my computer and know that it will be deleted from the web, as opposed to spending time on the web looking for old pictures and junk.. Mac
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.