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Do you build around the Header? or Site?
tyuqte
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Joined: 14 Jun 11
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27 Jul 11 9:04 am

Do you build around the Header? or Site?

Hello to all,

I am curious if the Header is the main focal point of your site where you spend a ridiculous amount of time making sure it is just right, and then build your site around it?
or
Build your site and just add some sort of logo and concentrate on the site more than the header?

Thanks
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essexboyracer
Posts: 105
Joined: 02 May 11
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27 Jul 11 5:28 pm

 When building custom templates I focus on getting the overall template done first (header, content with sidebar and footer), and usually start with the template that is used for all the sub-pages and leave the homepage till the end. The homepage normally sits on a different template.

Next fill in all the content into the sub pages and by the time you've done that you have stuff to link to from the homepage, giving you a clear direction of what's important on the site.

The header is only part of the picture, an important part (logo, nav, call to action), but one which should be developed alongside the rest of a site.
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thel.online.ph
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23 Sep 11 2:00 am

 Hi,

The selling point of your website is the words in you. Focus on your content, put a decent but not too fussy header on. But others said that some of their websites did better without a header graphic than with.

The header is part of the site. Just design around concepts because all that a site is a prettified concept. If you think about what HTML really is, no CSS, no font, no centering, just the tags and nothing but tags and text, no images, nothing, that is HTML, that is what the site truly is, if I go to your site and don't want to stay for even a moment, the site has failed.
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mark schaaf
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24 Sep 11 9:09 pm

 This can always cause a big debate but I believe you have to focus on both. I have seen many sites that catch my eye and start reading it and it turns out to be a bunch of crap, but I probably wouldn't have read it at all if the view on the screen wasn't appealing. So my thought is make it look nice so people will want to see what is on the site because most people that see a crappy looking site won't stay abound at all to read it.. But even if it looks great people still won't stay long if what you are telling them reads like a kid wrote it or if there isn't the kind of information they are looking for isn't there. So I think if you want to make the best site for your readers you have to do both. If you are going to do the work make it worth while.
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Mark
 
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jmpruitt
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25 Sep 11 2:52 pm

 Your content is what will make you money. I have seen sites with fancy headers, and I see people wasting a lot of time on them, the fact is people won't trust you because of how cool your header looks. in fact, most people won't even notice it.

The quality of your articles is where you will make your money, and its where most people fail. focus on creating engaging content and really striving to help people, and you can make money off of a site with a bad design. but, some of the coolest looking sites I have seen had terrible content, and they failed miserably.
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mark schaaf
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25 Sep 11 8:15 pm

 I agree with Jmpruitt about the content which I also mentioned in my other post but I don't agree with him about the headers. If I see a site where the landing page looks like a kid made it I and many others won't even bother to read anything on the site because I believe that if they didn't take the time to work on the looks of the site I wouldn't think they would bother to put good articles on it either. I do know there are good sites with great information on them that don't look very good and I do know a good article is where you convince people to buy something but from all the articles I have read where it is said you have like 3 to 5 seconds from the time someone sees your site to whether they stay on it or leaves that is all based on the looks of the site because what can you read in 3 to 5 seconds that would make you stay. So again I think it is important to do both.
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Mark
 
newstart
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26 Sep 11 9:27 am

 Before I begin a website I establish a general work plan. This work plan sets up the general purpose of the site. By doing this everything else easily falls into place.

Quite often I devote more time developing a "work plan" than any other specific part of the project. After a work plan has been established creation of a header, footer or other general visual aspect of the site will have already been determined by the website's work plan.

At that point we then open the process up for creative ideas to meet the proposed plan. Usually within a few hours we have several option designs available to choose from. The staff committee than chooses the one that best meets the established criteria.

Margene
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esolutions
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27 Sep 11 3:36 pm

 Yes and Yes.

You need a good header and a design that flows across the site. You also need a good "site" with good content, calls to action in the correct places, etc. There is always something that you can improve on any particular site, but if everything is good, you will definitely see better results than if you were to focus time and effort on only one aspect and neglect the rest.

It's not the answer that anyone wants to hear I know...
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cecille.l
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06 Oct 11 9:02 am

 I think it should be a good balance of interesting/good header and interesting, well-written articles. A badly-designed website will not get a lot of visitors and much less followers, regardless of how good the content is. This is because people would want something pleasing to look at (unless your site is a horror movie review site or something to that effect, then black and gore is alright) and easy to navigate.

I spend more time on the layout really at the beginning stages of building a site. I find that I can focus more on churning out good content once I am contented with how the site looks.
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Cecille

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jetpackbuilder
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18 Oct 11 12:48 pm

 I think Mark Schaaf got it right, both the header and content are important. The first thing somebody sees when the come to your site is the header. If it doesn't have a professional appearance they will be turned off. First impressions are lasting ones. You have to back up that good looking header with some really good content.

Steve
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jmpruitt
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28 Oct 11 1:11 pm

 I agree, you need a nice header, just don't go overboard on it. You can make a really nice header that is also very simple. I see people trying to do too much in their headers, and making them into a nightmare to handle. simple and nice is best, especially if you are fairly new and trying to do all the work yourself.
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jetpackbuilder
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28 Oct 11 1:25 pm

 There's an old adage in advertising...'White space sells.'
Simply said, don't overload it and make it too busy.

Here's one of my sites with an example of clean, simple header.
http://www.freebeagletraining.com/
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