jdennewitzQ: I do not mean this offensively, but why does your web site look so mundane?
It looks outdated, I noticed when I clicked on certain sections in the footer, I had no easy navigation back to the main pages, and the links on the footer were not active. You have no sticky header, which is really just mandatory in 2021 (really in 2019). It seems if you are selling a way to build websites, your web site would be amazing, but it really looks like one of the worst sites I have ever visited. This gives me pause on this offer, if you have been around since 2004, it seems your web site would not have rookie navigation errors like not linking anywhere to footer links, not being able to navigate back to main page without using the back button. The first thing you guys need todo is hire web page builder for your site. I was sold on your offer, but your site has given me some pause. Everytime I try to step away from Word Press and Divi, it just seems like there are tons of problems. Most of your templates seem to not have sticky headers or parallax effect. The blog looks very 1990's. I know you are trying to be basic, but I would hope you are looking at WIX, DIVI, etc. to see where the your game needs to be. Right now, you guys appear to be on the bench. I see promise here, I want to jump ship to something simpler, but I am seeing flags. The inderwelming affiliate program is one of them. I also hope you answer the question as to do places like Media Vine even consider your web pages for their advertising placements? I don't mean this to be harsh, but I am curious if you have considered this and why you have negelcted this basic thing?
Adam_WebStarts
May 14, 2024A: I think anytime someone starts a conversation with "no offense" they're really just saying they're going to be offensive. None the less let me address your concerns.
Obviously what looks good, professional, and modern when it comes to web design is subjective. Everyone has their opinion. Our priorities are speed and simplicity, someone else may be trying to woo prospective users. Also the goal of marketing is to stick out, not blend in. If we just copied the look of other website builders we'd be less noticed. At same time, I see areas for improvement, so we probably agree on some things.
When you say "not linking anywhere to footer links". Are you saying you found a broken link in our footer? It's possible we've overlooked a broken link in some obscure place. If you know which one I'll have it fixed in 5 minutes. Let me know.
I can tell you in all seriousness I don't care if not another person purchases this offer. It's a loss-leader. And given the nature of your communication I can tell you I don't want you as a customer. You're better off sticking with the platforms you already use.
At one part, the footers have category words, but none of them are active links. I actually had your offer in my cart, people here ask tough questions and are weighing investing in an unknown company. I think most of us have not heard of you before, I know I have not. We try to get to know the company, the direction, and the leaders. Your response sounded very defensive. I think most successful companies come here to find all the dents in their armour, find ways to improve their product and company and, build ambassadors for their product who will bring in thousands of new customers with a strong affiliate program. You are making an offer for people to bet their finacial future on your company, you should be able to handle some probing questions and concerns and not take any of it personally.
https://www.webstarts.store/
https://www.webstarts.store/features.html
When you scroll to the bottom of this page and some others, the categories in the footer are not active links. I notice some of the pages do have a sticky header, but some do not. Parts of the site do look good, like the features part, I was speaking of some of the navigation, and some of the headers. I spent about 2 hours researching your offer and the product. I was looking for info on the email marketing, which was lsited at the bottom of this page, but it was not an active link. I am using Google Chrome browser. The Facebook link appears to be broken. Hope this helps.
Those links that weren't active were my fault. I built that page as a landing page in WebStarts a while back and forgot to link some things in the footer. We have a lot of moving parts to keep track of and some of them are rather inconsequential.
As for a constructive criticism goes I've read your posts and I they seem somewhat disingenuous. For example, you appear to be looking for things to critique without engaging with the core promise of the app which is to make it easy for people to create websites.
WebStarts is not a startup that was funded by wealth venture capitalists. We've bootstrapped it for 15 years. Along the way we've signed up millions of users. During the course of those 15 years the capability of the browser and user expectations have morphed many times over. It's a daunting task to keep old and new users happy. I couldn't possibly go into all of the things it takes to run an app of this magnitude. What I do know is that opinions are much easier to form and share than build a web app with millions of users that simplifies something as complex as web-publishing.
So here's the deal. I appreciate that you don't find the website to be aesthetically pleasing. I appreciate you find it to be lacking some features. I appreciate that you question whether we should be staging servers in every geographic region of the planet but statements like "it's the worst site I've ever seen" I do not and they make me question why I would bother spending time responding to someone who would write that. Most businesses and CEOs don't afford you the privilege.