I know HN is hugging this site to death right now and the present load is atypical, so I won't comment on the performance because this isn't a real world issue. (Curious, why did you choose Apache/PHP when you appear to be a Ruby/Rails developer? It's been a while but Nginx/PHP-FPM was always a better bet for high loads.)
Your strongest call to action is the freebies thing, but that's incongruent with the purpose of the site: to get people into your sales funnel. Make your "hire me" your most prominent thing and drop the "open source freebies" thing completely. By all means list your open source projects, but they should feature as part of your portfolio. Nobody's going to your site to get something for free, and for reasons I can't articulate, it cheapens your proposition.
Make your contact information easier to find by putting it on every damn page in the header and footer, and if appropriate in the middle of your page too. Make it stand out too because if I want to contact you I don't want to be playing hide and go seek with your phone number.
If you're able to link to live versions of the apps you've created, do so and make those links so obvious your mother would find them. The (+) icon makes me feel like I'm going to add something to something, not open up a drop down menu. Just put them as a row of links under the description rather than hiding away these important links. Follow the mantra that your visitors are stupid and tired when designing, even if they're actually bright and caffeinated. Also make sure you don't open any external links in same window/tab.
Having said all of the above, it's a nicely designed site.
Going off topic, the screenshot on http://www.mycelial.com/ is blurry as hell. I don't know if this is intentional, but it bothers me quite a lot.
A great option is to put it on S3 and distribute it with CloudFront.
Your site is currently a three page site and while I appreciate unrolling would cause a little bit of code duplication, I wouldn't say it's enough to lose sleep over. In fact, you could just make it into a one page site, which might be a perfect fit for what you're trying to achieve.
This website is written for another software developer to read. Your primary customer will be a larger (than you) Ruby/Python shop that has more work than it can handle. You will be working closely with other, more trusted-by-management software developers who are sort of vetting you, and may be trying to angle for a hire. These companies are just large enough that they have better lawyers and better paperwork, so disputes can get hairy. Also, they will be protective of the relationship with the ultimate customer/client, so the success of the project really hinges on how well the people above you have captured the requirements. That said, the sales process will be easy and familiar, because you have a career of experience already selling yourself to other software developers.
Is that the customer you were shooting for? If so, good job!
On the "hire me" page I suggest including a few pieces of info about the way you work: Do you only work remotely, or are you willing to visit clients on site? If so, where are you prepared to travel to? It also sounds like you are outside the office a lot (good for you!), so how can you be reached? Do you work full time or part time? What size project are you after? What happens after those two months are over, will you be around to support your work if necessary after that time period?
"Local restaurants and bars" should not be capitalized beyond the first letter. Use "and" not "&".
Your descriptions intermingle functionality with technology. Might be clearer to break up each one into two paragraphs - what you did, and then how you did it.
Then at some point, read this: https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...
I'm just a programmer though, so this thought experiment is probably not worth all that much.
- Parts of your website are unreadable when I tile my browser (Firefox) so it takes up 1/3 of the horizontal screen space and 100% of the vertical screen space. The "Open Source Freebies" button is truncated and I can't scroll (not even autoscroll) to see the rest of it.
- You should make sure your text has proper grammar. For comments on the internet, nobody really gives a shit, but you're selling a product. You want people viewing your site to see you as a professional, and little things like typos or grammar errors chip away at that.
- The dedication to _why's guide, while nice, doesn't belong in the "Hire Me" section. Consider making a new section for it or something.
Will update this list with more things when I think of them.
New clients will come to you as referrals from other clients in the same sector, or because they hired you before, not because they stumbled upon your website or did a google search. They'll use your work for other clients to gauge your competence rather than your website, though they might have a quick look at that too. So the most important step you can take in starting a consulting business is to cultivate contacts with clients and keep them happy - if you have none, focus on getting the first few clients first.
I got 15 errors while validating the home page. You may want to make sure it is all valid HTML5.
Nice site, overall. Some pretty neat themes as well. If the themes constitute your whole portfolio, it may make sense to rebrand "Open Source Freebies" as "Portfolio", depending on your situation (type of clients, past experience, etc).
Good luck!
Your footer doesn't stick to the bottom on pages that aren't as long eg I'm using a 1920 x 1080 monitor and the about page (http://www.appraptor.com/about/) isn't long enough. Google "sticky footer" and there should be plenty of articles about fixing that issue.
Other than those issues and the ones that other people have brought up, I think it looks great!
I second the comment on grammar -- says the hypocrite.
Great job!
* I hate the bird
* copy editing:
"it's got" -> "it has" everywhere;
"in a beautiful way" -> "beautifully" (but really, "... It's got a pinterest layout to show the pages in a beautiful way" doesn't seem to add anything except the word 'pinterest' for SEO).
"Sign up and see what perks merchants are offering to members. Simple as that." makes no sense; so... I sign up, and then you'll tell me what I get for signing up?
edit: agree with other comments that you should not use a gmail account; use the domain.
Contact : Add them all in footer. Make it easier for people to find them. Why cant i send you a direct email from your site. Make that happen. Add a phone too if you are serious about this.
Design wise, I like the site :)
Cheers!
- I'd add a redirect from www.appraptor.com to appraptor.com
- The down arrow next to each section looks a bit odd. I would move it before the label.
Should be no "s" on "bookmarks"?
