IconSites – Give Your Business An Iconic Website, In Minutes

11 thoughts on “IconSites – Give Your Business An Iconic Website, In Minutes”

1. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes.
   It really did take just a couple of minutes–very easy.
    
   Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs?
   I went ahead and clicked the link to sign in. No issues there.
    
   I was pleased to see that the dashboard was quite self-explanatory and that you also have an instructional video available in case anyone needs extra help. Unfortunately, I found a few problems with the video. Although it’s easily understandable and has good visuals and pacing, the narration is really too loud, and I didn’t see an option to adjust the volume. I actually couldn’t bear to sit through it for too long! Also, I tried to jump ahead to the parts that were of interest to me, but that didn’t always work because it took the video so long to load. For instance, when I tried to jump ahead to “Make a WSYWIG Page” (and, by the way, the correct spelling is “WYSIWYG”), that was no problem. But when I tried to jump ahead to a much later lesson like “Upload/Add an Image,” I wasn’t able to because the video hadn’t loaded that far yet. It was quite a long wait, maybe five minutes or so, before the video fully loaded so that I could watch these later segments. To eliminate all this waiting around, I’d break up your long video into multiple short segments so that users can click on any segment that interests them and immediately watch it.
    
   I started by making some changes to the header. After that, I wanted to have a look at my site, but it took me a few minutes to locate the very small “View Site” link up in the dashboard header. Wish that was more prominent. I clicked it and had a look at my new homepage, which was attractive.
    
   My next step was to try to set up an actual page. I chose “Products.” I was impressed by your user-friendly interface and the text editor, which is much richer than what most DIY hosting services offer and very intuitive for beginners who have little computer experience outside MS Office. I also liked that you make it quite easy to integrate some basic SEO into the page. In addition, I love that you have help pop-ups and rollovers all along the page. My only confusion with this page arose when I wanted to add an image and didn’t see any option to upload one directly from my computer. Because I have my own web site elsewhere, common sense told me I’d probably have to upload it to the Files folder. Watching the video confirmed this, but if I was a total newbie to web design and hadn’t watched the video, I’m not sure I would’ve known this. Anyway, I went into Files and was very pleased to see that all the icons had rollover labels. I added a new folder and tried to upload an image, but it still hadn’t finished uploading after five minutes, so I gave up and canceled the upload. I tried a different picture, and that one worked, but it took three minutes. I think that’s an awfully long time for an upload. Anyway, after this, I went back to my Products page and added the image, which was easy enough, although it came out huge, so I see I will have to play around with the settings under the “Appearance” tab. The page looked very nice on preview.
    
   What do you like about it? What do you not like?
   I think I mostly covered this above. I like the simple dashboard (with the exception of the “View Site” link, which is too easy to miss). I like the instructional video but think it needs to be broken up into separate videos for each lesson to eliminate long load times. It also needs a volume control. I love the user interface of the page building app, which is extremely easy and intuitive. I don’t love the long (and unreliable) upload times. I’d also like to see more home page design selections, although I understand that you’re still working on this. One last thing: I don’t really like that when I sign out, there’s no way to get back to your site’s home page.
    
   Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for?
   Not $20 a month, no. Let me explain why. You can get very basic web hosting for like $8.00 or $9.00 a month. On the other hand, you can get a site with bells and whistles galore from a company like SiteBuildIt for $25 a month. Although SiteBuildIt isn’t quite as sophisticated as you are on the design front, they allow for just as much customization as you do plus they have extensive tutorials, very advanced SEO guidance, and an extremely simple, friendly interface. If you asked me to choose between your hosting service for $20 a month and SBI for five dollars more, SBI would win hands down. If you were to offer your service for about $15 a month, then you might win me over, especially if I didn’t need any SEO help.
    
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have.
   Now I just want to comment on your web site in general. Starting with the home page, your slideshow makes me a little dizzy. I don’t know if that’s because it moves too quickly or because of the particular way in which it dissolves. Whatever it is, it’s a little hard on the eyes. I also feel like your home page is a bit long once you get below the fold. I feel like each of your selling points could be condensed into just one or two lines on the home page, and I’m not loving the three-column design, which feels clunky to me. I’d eliminate the customer review column and instead let a few customer quotes rotate at the bottom of the page. You could also set up a separate page just for testimonials.
    
   I’ve already commented on your designs, so on to the Features page…This page is really well constructed and very convincing. I really like your expandable images of each feature with concise, persuasive copy accompanying each one. The features themselves look really appealing. And then you have additional pages for add-ons and third-party tools, some with instructional videos…Good job! I feel overwhelmed in a good way. I’m impressed by how much I can do with your service!
    
   The Pricing page looks fine, as does your Company page.
    
   The blog looks geared toward helping small business web site owners, which is exactly what you want to do, I think. I notice you also have an Announcements section specifically for Iconosites news, as well, but I’m afraid I would’ve missed that if I hadn’t paid special attention to the header. And…uh-oh! How do I get back to the home page from here?
    
   I see you offer articles, but honestly, these look like SEO concessions more than truly informative, helpful tips.
    
   Your Contact Us page has absolutely no information, which worries me.
    
   And now I want to address what, to me, is the main difficulty with your site. On the home page, you heavily promote yourself as a web hosting service that specializes in design. You make that your most prominent selling point and really play up how sophisticated your designs are. But I’ll be honest with you…I’m not that impressed with your designs. They’re attractive, but I have a hard time believing each one cost $2,000. We’re talking about a main image above the fold and background wallpaper. That’s it. To me, it does indeed look template-y. When I think of truly sophisticated design, I think of animation, slideshows, videos, music…all the bells and whistles.
    
   On the other hand, what really makes your service stand out, in my mind, is not the design templates but the extremely user-friendly yet rich page builder interface and the many features and add-ons you offer. In my opinion, that is your main selling point, not the pre-designed templates. So that is what I would play up on your home page.
    
   Another issue I see with Iconosites is that some of your own pages lack flair. It’s very important that you use your own site as an example of what you can do for your customers. It’s your first and best advertising tool. Yet pages like Pricing and Company are totally plain, and even your home page is rather colorless beyond the slideshow.
    
   In conclusion, I think you have a really great web hosting service but that you may not be selling it the right away. Unfortunately, I think you’re not emphasizing your true strengths, choosing instead to play up elements that are nice but not true standouts. You could also stand to inject a little more style into your own site to show what you’re capable of. And, of course, you may need to iron out a few small glitches in your page builder app, as mentioned above.
    

2. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes.
   It really was quick and easy.

   Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs?
   I’m not sure if this is exactly a bug but the little question marks next to each task do not work. I love the video and can use it to answer my questions but I did expect the question marks to be live links so that I don’t have to keep referring back to the video. I’m not sure this is a bug either but the roll over pictures on the right are hard to see. They pop out on the right and get cut off. If you want people to see them as nicely as they see the others they should pop out on the left. Other than that everything has worked well so far.
   What do you like about it? What do you not like?
   I like the video a lot. I like being able to switch midstream to another section. It is very user friendly. I like the fact that I can use my own picture instead of yours. I like the resizing tool but I am wondering what the picture will look like if I upload a small pixel photo. I am also wondering if it is possible for me to have a page that the general public can contribute to and how I would do that. I find the unlimited space very appealing.  I am pretty sure that there is a way to have a link to my facebook page but I would love not to have to figure that out. An add on to a like your fb page option would be really nice. Also, third party apps sometimes make me nervous as they don’t always work well. Are the third party apps. here tested and approved by someone or can just anyone put on a third party app?  I would like see this info. on the third party app page so I know the answer before placing them on my page. Honestly, if they don’t say they are tested I probably would not use them.

   Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for?
   Probably, but I can’t say that for sure. I have really just started the process of looking into websites for my shop. There are features here that I like a lot but I don’t know if they are standard features for this price range and how it compares to similar websites. I do know that I can get a much cheaper site but the services they offer are nominal. I am sure that I don’t want one of those but I haven’t gotten to far into looking at the more expensive ones. I also think once you are out of the beta  stage it might be nice to have a free trial period. Under price it just says there will be a small fee of $20.00 per month is that the only plan you are going to have? If that is the case then I think it should say that.
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have.
   On the whole I see potential here and I will be a beta tester for your site but I see no guidelines for beta testers. I did this on another site for something totally different but they gave us a list of guidelines for the exact kind of feedback they wanted. I think I would like that here too. If you don’t want a link on your web page an email would be just as good.

3. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes. Done.  Very fast.  Very easy.  I am very impressed!
    
   Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs? I uploaded an image.  It was very quick.  It worked perfectly for me at this point.
    
   What do you like about it? What do you not like? I like the fact that everything is displayed with clear, concise directions on what and where to do it at.  I feel that the ease of putting together a website with this company would be great for anyone… even without the knowledge of HTML.  I feel that the easier and the quicker the better…  I accidently got out of the site though and was not able to find a login button to sign back in.
    
   Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for? I might.  I realize that there are free sites that I can use out there, like Yola.  However, with Yola, I am very limited as to the templates and designs I can use in putting my site together.  For a more professional look and feel, I might consider paying a monthly fee for such services though.
    
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have. I see that I can add my own domain name if I own one, but I do not see anything about an additional fee to do so.  I am curious if you are going to charge an extra feel for this service.  I would like to see that fee listed so that I know what type of cost I am looking at.  When moving around the website builder, I find the ease and structure very well formed.  I feel that I could easily put together a website within a matter of seconds.  I like the template choices that are made available to me.  The instructions are clearly visible.
    
   Overall, I feel it’s a great site.  Like I stated above, I have always used Yola simply because I like the ease of it.  I feel that this site will be every bit as comparable as Yola for ease and simplicity.  It seems to have very well written instructions for the lay person, that’s a definite plus for those of us that lack HTML knowledge.
    

4. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes.
   Sign up was very fast and straight forward.

   Obviously when the site is ‘live’ there will be a lot more involved including payment etc. Get feedback on the real signup screens because some of them are really a mess!

   Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs?
   I added an image to the Header. The image was larger than the recommended size so I used the Vignetto Resize Tool. The reults never seemed to work. I tried Smart Fit and manually adjusting the size but was never able to get the image resized.

   Features like this will have to be cleaned up since your target is users that may not have a lot of skills or patience for editing.

   A nice option would be the ability to ‘auto magically’ convert an icon into a tranparency for the user. That saves the user from having to go to another site or application and ‘fix’ their icon when they may not know that software. A ‘Convert to transparency’ checkbox would be great.

   What do you like about it? What do you not like?
   Making changes to the pages was very easy and intuitive.

   I did not see a way to add the Home page to the navigation bar.

   Is it possible to have a veritcal nav section?

   Help is extremely limited. I don’t like video instruction and didn’t use it. I want to be able to look up a topic when I need it.

   Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for?
   Twenty seems high.

   Does the $20 include a domain url or is that in addition? For your target audience, the ability to get a url and a site all in one place would be very important. If I have to go somewhere else to get my domain, why not just set up a site there?

   Will a shopping cart be provided? Again if I have to go somewhere else for a cart (to link to) why not just set my site up there?   

   Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have.
   Using GoDaddy as an comparison example (since they are the most visible in advertising). Their sites run <$5/mo, with PayPal, and thousands of stock images, and widget support, and flash support, etc. 
   
   You will need to compare yourself to them (and others) to make sure the value you are providing is enough to make the higher cost valid.

5. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes.
   Wow that was fast. Nice!
   Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs?
   I was  really surprised to see how easy your display was in changing your site. Every page  was crystal clear to see and to load information. For someone like me who is not familiar with making a website in the slightest I was a little slowing in using some of your features. I would have like to either have the video broken up into sections or have pop up notes for the user to read with a time section in the video to make a visual reference to. I found it quit easy to use once I got rolling.
   What do you like about it? What do you not like?
   I liked the video. It was very informative and easy to apply what I wanted to use. I would like to have been able to speed forward in the video but it was loading very slowly. Because your video is so detailed and easy to use I found really disappointing.
   Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for?
   I like that your site is so detailed and easy to use so I might be willing to pay a small fee.  I would be interested in seeing a section that is free and one that’s for 20 per month. If you are going to only have it for 20 then you should not put it under pricing making the user think that there are option to choose from.
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have.
   I like that you have 3rd party tool and add on apps. Personally I can’t see people not jumping on paying 20 per month becuse your site is so easy to use and you have so many features to manipulate. I would like to see a search bar inserted to make looking for template designs more easy to use if your company is going to add more designs. I like that you won’t charge any of beta user after you implement a price point, right now I would highly recommend you use that as a selling a point to drive people to your site.

6. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes.
   I was able to launch a website “in just a couple minutes”. This site is incredibly user friendly. This site has a huge likeability factor and usability was excellent.
   Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs?
   I created a site using the classy template and I did not find any bugs. Easy to use; I even changed the font color and I was able to preview it instantly after uploading. I liked the “Page Specific Scripts” note regarding the Javascript reminder – that was a nice feature to add to the page.
   What do you like about it? What do you not like?
   I really loved this website. Extremely user-friendly. The pictures were incredible – The hardest part was to select the appropriate site / theme / picture when I started to design the site. The directions to create your site were clear and understandable. I do not like:  “Iconosites” in my website name? Will I be able to change this to just be my company name if I pay more in monthly fees (and have “Powered by Iconosites” in the footer of my site)?
   Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for?
   I would definitely pay a small monthly fee for this service; I actually think the price point is low. Additional technical support can call for more fees.  Question: Can tech support provide metrics and / or how may hits the site receives on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have.
   I would use this site for any company I wish to create. The monthly fee seems too low; will fees increase for increased services like advanced tech support or additional features on the created site (eg. streaming video etc)?

7. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes.
   It is a lightening fast web page making site!
   
   Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs?
   What do you like about it? What do you not like?
   I like the clean interface of the site, and it is fully informative. Setting up a page on this sight takes like 1 minute and then you have easy control of every page. Very user friendly.
   
   Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for?
   Yes, if I were an entrepreneur.  It’s tremendously inexpensive compared to buying a domain and hiring someone to design your site for thousands of dollars.
   Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have.
   It would do well to add some more designs.
   

8. $5 awarded ti lhrdst1.

9. $5 awarded to greatfeedback4u.

10. $5 awarded to Jerryth31.

11. Sign up and launch a website in just a couple minutes.

    This was very fast and easy.  It was not as easy as some other sites that I have used.  It was good but had some serious room for improvement.

    Use the software, upload images. Did you find any bugs?

    I was able to upload software and images with no bugs or issues.  It was very impressive since many sites are full of bugs and issues.  I would recommend changing where it says files to upload files.

    What do you like about it? What do you not like?

    I like how quickly I can make the site.  I did not need to be a computer programmer or an expert.  I had complete control of my page and everything was fast and easy.  I did not like the menu on the left hand side of the admin page.  I think that it could be in common language and not say domain and header and foot and use that type of wording.  It could be even more straightforward by using common words such as top of the page, bottom of the page and site address.    Everyone is not going to know what a domain is for example.  We want this to be so easy that someone who is 90 years old can tough the computer and make the site.  This will save lots of frustration for some users.

    Is this something you would pay a small monthly fee, such as $20/month for?

    I would pay 20 dollars for month if I did not find a better deal.  I have found a package that was free for the first year.  I have also seen it for $9.99 a month.  On the other hand, I have seen it or hundreds or even a thousand dollars.  I would shop around and find the best deal.  There is a lot of competition out there.

    Please share any additional feedback/comments you might have.

    I think the site was easy to use.  I think it was fast and convenient.  I also think that it would be much easier to use.  Any type of programming or computer language should be changed to common wording.  This will help to broaden the base of users.  There are some sites that are even easier to use to make webpages.  We want to steal their clients or course.Maybe we could just have step one, step2 and step 3 with a preview button, save button and view site button in bold letters at the op of the page.

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