My hosting site design (under development) has a horizontial main navigation bar with 6 buttons.

Home | About | Products | BLANK | Directory | Contact Us

The question is im not really sure what to make the BLANK button into... and no i dont want to simply remove it.

Should it be:

a) Tools - use some free scripts such as a domain name checker, backlink checker... that sort of thing...
b) Support - with the support contact form so its easily accessable from the main page (although initially i was going to stick the contact page on a unique subdomain.
c) News - a regularly updated news page about new member sites, industry news and site updates?
d) something else that i havent even thought of?

Your suggestions please?

Feedback?..

Feedback as in testimonials? hmmm if thats what you mean then nah.... dont need a whole page of those i dont think. Have a rotation script on the index page that will show a different testimonial each time the page is loaded... plus without any clients at the moment i dont have any testimonials and im not going to make them up!!!

SiteMap

SITEMAP

I'd suggest either an order page, sitemap, or a support link pointing to your subdomain, and use the contact link for a contact form. Customers love seeing the word "support" on a site.

and no i dont want to simply remove it.

Your suggestions please?Regardless of what you want to do, remove it. Why on earth would you compromise your content to try to fit into a visual element? Your visuals should be flexible enough to fit your content needs!

It's bordering on absurd to try to come up with another section just to fill a little space on a page!

I'd suggest either an order page, sitemap, or a support link pointing to your subdomain, and use the contact link for a contact form. Customers love seeing the word "support" on a site.

I have to agree.

may be
Home | About | Products | Downloads | Directory | Support

?

Sitemap... nope, got that as a mini link at the very top left hand side of the screen (good thought though)... order page is via the products page.

As for Why on earth would you compromise your content im not really, i know i want another section to the site, im just not sure what section to have? i was originally thinking about having it as a news page and programming some php as an RSS feed, hence the page would always be updated with say web design news that would interest both visitors and clients of the site.

As for the downloads idea? theres nothing to download so that ideas straight out the window

Instead of what "you" want think about what might be useful to potential customers. Visit some hosting sites for inspiration, and ask yourself "what is that link wasn't there"

im not really, i know i want another section to the site, im just not sure what section to have?What will you do if you identify two major components that both deserve to be a part of the primary navigation?

What will you do if you identify two major components that both deserve to be a part of the primary navigation?

well im having difficulty 'deciding' on one... so who knows how im going to be able to choose two!

I think (going back to my originally idea before i started to brain storm off the path) ill have it as a news section, write a php RSS feed reader into the page and that way there will be constantly updated information regarding web design, tutorials and the like. Something that will not only benefit clients and none clients and bring people back to the site but also provide constantly updated content for the search engines to latch onto!

well im having difficulty 'deciding' on one... so who knows how im going to be able to choose two!But because of the inherent inflexibility of the design, you are compelled to choose one, whether you have one that fits or not, and you're equally compelled to choose no more than one, because of that same inflexibility.

It's like writing a novel, but being told before you start that it must be precisely 200 pages, no more, no less. But what if you need more? Tough - the story will just have to suffer. But what if you require less? Then you have a bunch of blank pages, or you create stuff that didn't really need to be there to fill in the gaps.

You've put the cart before the horse.

Start by defining your site, every aspect of it, prioritizing your navigation, etc. Then, create the layout to fit your business, not the other way around, and build that layout so it is inherently flexible and can adjust to your changing needs as your site progresses. Doing this in reverse order just doesn't make any sense! You don't need to fill in a blank. You need to stuff the layout away and make sure you know just how many of those blanks you need before you ever get to the drawing board ;)