Finally done with my (hopefully) awesome site ... check it out

[Hadi Hosn]

Hello everyone, finally the time has come for me to share my work on Ning. I have spent many sleepless nights working on this - I have even given up at times but convinced myself to come back to the site and continue. This obviously is not a one man project, I have worked with very smart developers and designers from this site and outside Creators for the more grueling coding and development. Check us out here - www.consultoclock.com

Consult O'clock is a social network for business professionals with the added functionality of 'Jobs' (check out the tab on my network). 

Consult O'clock Jobs (http://consultoclock.com/jobs) is a global online employment platform. Clients can hire independent consultants and use our communities and resources to share, learn and collaborate. Consultants use the social network features to create online profiles and portfolios, submit proposals for jobs, and collaborate and receive payment through the Consult O'clock website for projects they have worked on.

I would appreciate any and all feedback. Also, if you would like to register and play around - even try out the 'bidding' functionality of our Jobs page, go ahead and register, I will approve with no hesitation.

[Hadi Hosn]

Hi jeffro, it was pretty much what I had in mind and I made some minor changes as the design was being carried out so my ideas changed slightly but I ended up with a site I like which is the important bit.

It took about 2 weeks for the design from almost scratch which says a lot about the designer who helped me with this, he was efficient and a good communicator. 

Thanks for the tip about the slider - I agree with you, I will update that to about 5 seconds on each pic.

[mark]

Hadi

Nice work. Very uncluttered and subtle customization.

My only feedback is to separate your "online ad" or service demo videos. Great videos but they speak to different users. Separate and highlight them on their own may be more impactful.

[Hadi Hosn]

Hi Mark, thanks for the feedback - greatly appreciated!

You know the point you made is very valid, and I have actually created 3 copies of the video (one overall, one for consultants and one for clients). I'll actually give your idea a try - maybe have 2 separate text boxes under each other on the right hand side with the 2 videos. The box title could be 'Are you a consultant? Check out this video. The next box could be "Are you looking for a consultant? Check out this video". I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks.

[Luke]

Looks fantastic! Im really interested to know how you managed to get the modules in the middle column of your home page to not have borders around them whilst keeping the borders of your side column modules?

[Hadi Hosn]

Thanks Luke. I can't take credit for taking out the borders from the middle column, I used a specialist NING designer for that. I can drop you his details via PM if you are interested.

[Sandra]

Good job! I like your network it looks great. Good luck! :)

[Hadi Hosn]

Thanks Sandra! I'm glad you like it :)

[Karla Moore-NineGPS]

Very nice, elegant site! I am a visual person and the problem with Ning is that many sites look so clunky (even mine). I appreciate you taking the time to give us all insights on how to make our sites look more appealing! 2Questions: 1. How did you get the footer to expand with the thick black area to add content. I like your "about" notes at the bottom. The slider is great too. Nice affect! 

2. http://consultoclock.com/jobs Is that a custom box (find the right expert) ? What resource (independent of a designer) did you use to create that feature?

Thanks in advance! 

Karla

www.NineGPS.com

[Hadi Hosn]

HI Karla, thanks for your comments. For the footer we enabled the Ad below footer box in the Features Layout and customised that with HTML by adding a table at the bottom - with the background of that table being all black. That gave us the background effect across the page. We then added content through HTML as well.

2. The Jobs application has been a custom built and designed application from the start. We have the application hosted on a website by itself and then used iframe to add the site to NING. There are also many other tweaks we did in the backend to link the Jobs application to our members on the network including working with the NING API. It was difficult technically but worked in the end :) Let me know what specific questions you have about the Jobs application and I will happily help to answer them. Feel free to message me if you'd prefer.

[Vanessa Moulédous]

Hi Hadi,

What a wonderful work you and your team have done for a Ning-based site. Super pro! I hope you'll attract many users.

May I ask you a question: how did you get so thin gutters between your modules/boxes on your homepage (see what I've outlined in green)? I'd like to make the same on my website to save space and avoid the visitor to scroll down to much but I can't see how to change what must be a Ning's default setting. Your help on that would be very very much appreciated :-) Thanks in advance!

[Hadi Hosn]

Hi Vanessa, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you like the site :)

I used the Chatterbox NING theme with the A1 layout and then had assistance from a specialist NING designer I found here on creators to help me with the separation of the modules. I'd be happy to share his details via PM if you are interested.

[Vanessa Moulédous]

Hi Hadi,

thanks for your reply. Finally, we managed to find the solution by ourselves! Thanks anyway for trying to help us. I wish you the best for Consultoclock!