Need some help with advertising creativity...
 

I'm getting ready to purchase a banner ad on Club Cobra for our business. I'm trying to lay out a banner and I'm just no good at this kind of thing. I know it needs our logo, but other than that, I have no clue.

Can anyone give some creative advice? It has to be 423x148 pixels, so I do have some room issues. If anyone would like to lend a hand, maybe we can work something out...maybe sell something that you need at my cost.

Pretty crude, and it needs a frame around it... An alternative is to shrink the picture and use white space for the text to make it more readable.

http://wwslalom.net/temp/B2.jpg

Your web page also needs some work. Creating HTML in Publisher is not recommended. Your entry page is screwed up in both IE6 and Firefox. %/

Seriously? Every PC I get on it shows up correctly. I wonder what the difference is? Does it have something to do with resolution?

Brent
I'd spend my money on the web site first. I just spent a few minutes on your web site. What do you offer any customer as compared to purchasing those few components listed on another site or direct from the manufacturer?

Do you offer any services? Is your expertise in building engines? Do you build engines on the side?

You need a hook to get the customer to purchase from you.

I would also narrow the pictures down. The picks on the right hand side were mostly off the page on my monitor, so I had to drag the slide bar at the bottom. I hate that.

If you are interested, my nephew designs web sites. Let me know if you would like to talk with him. Here is a site he designed and he is still working on it (its a big site).

http://www.woodys-auto-supply.com/

Warren,

You asked some very good questions. I don't know if I have answers for all of them...LOL

One of the things that you mentioned was that we have "....few components...". I'm trying to add to the site everyday. We are picking up so many manufacturers that it's hard for me to list everything all at once. The stuff that sells the most gets added to the site first. I am trying to be very competitive on prices, so hopefully that will catch some attention.

I thought monitor resolution could be a problem. I may ditch the pictures altogether as they're probably not really doing any good.

I've been debating on whether to start building engines, but I'm leaning towards the "not" side of that. I've built a few and have a few scattered (the engines didn't scatter, but the customers are scattered around....LOL) in different states. However, seeing how much junk some of the other engine builders have been getting lately, I don't want any part of it at this point. There would be no way I could compete with Keith, Barry, George, etc. on pricing or reputation....so there's probably no use in starting.

I have a full time job during the day being a Mechanical Engineer and my business partner owns his own HVAC business. We really don't need this, but it's fun and we've been selling some stuff, so we figured we'd see where it goes.

I would like to talk to your nephew.....just an intro email would work for now. I'm good with computers, but I dont have website building experience.

Thank you very much for your comments....constructive criticism is very beneficial.

Oh, strictly, your comments were very welcomed as well.

Possibly have an Introductory Paragraph about what your company does, with pricing policies, delivery methods, methods of payment, etc.

You could use a series of TABS across the top of the page, right below your company name, such as "HOME", "engines", "cams", "pistons", "pics", etc etc etc.

Show some well-lit pics of cars using parts from your business, like your Cobra, Brian's Nova, and so on.

The pics on the page are kind of dark, and dont tell the "story".

Brent,

I spent some time looking at your sight and the above suggestions are all good. I am not sure what pictures Warren had to scroll to the right to see as I didn't have to. Warren, maybe it is time for you to go to a BIG 12" monitor.
The pictures could be lightened up some and I think they would show better.
I use IE 6 and never had any problems with the entry paged nor when I went to any of the links to look at what you had listed. You have a good basic start, now you need someone like Warren's nephew to help you with ideas and layout.

Ron :)

I think I'm going to take the advice of strictlypersonl and redo the website in Frontpage for right now. I'd like to have the page professionally done, but it's not in the budget right now. I may kill some of the graphics as well as it's not really conducive to the direction we're going in.

Thanks again for everyone's input.