Rate my Website

[mno60]

Hi

I would like to hear what you think about my Website.

Please visit my site at www.ebiz-tips.com and tell me how i could improve. I have in average about 300-400 hits per day. Please check it out.

Thanks

[eSolutionsWork]

Some quickie ideas:

Don't use a microsoft website template: they all have a 'look' about them.

It's less a website and more a webpage. Add content.

Google likes a site to have 'authority' and it uses links to relevant sites to judge that. Add links.

Your title is : Internet Marketing Tips
This doe not identify your site and product sufficiently. The title tag is the ONLY tag read by Google. Use it well (in 10 words).

Good luck!

[reveal]

Your website looks too generic. You need to distinguish yourself from other sites. Personally i don't like your background colour with those little dots. It looks dull. Try checking out other sites similar to yours and try to jazz it up alittle. Check out my website www.buysellcommunity.com as an example and check out craiglist. Notice how we're different from each other.

[jkirkpatrick]

Hello,

What's most important is what your visitors think about your site. Of the 300-400 how many buy each day? If you're achieving a 2% or higher conversion rate then I wouldn't make any major changes. Instead try smaller modifications like your headline, copy, price, etc.

If your conversion is less than 2% then more serious changes may be required. Such as changing the look of the site or rewriting the sales letter.


All the Best,
Jennifer

[shahid]

Hiya jkirkpatrick, I've been reading the great advice you've been giving to sites like bigdoor, etc. I think you've got it spot on.
I've your points onboard.
I've started trading online since 5th jan 05, selling costume jewellery and am advertising on google and yahoo adwords. I am getting some sales in my few weeks of trading, but sales are patchy. Initially I took Paypal only, but lost a few customers as they are not really known outside of ebay world. Since using worldpay, I have been able to convert more visits into sales, but still very hit a miss.

I would appreciate it if you or anyone could give me some comments about my site. My site is www.nagina.co.uk



thanks in advance.
nagina UK
www.nagina.co.uk

[jkirkpatrick]

Hello,

I'm glad you found some of my past posts helpful.

I took a look at your site and have a few suggestions:

1. The design could use to be a little more polished. Consider creating a more stylized logo (try using an interesting font), making your "view" and "checkout" buttons something other than standard grey, don't include the date at the top and change the blue font to black.

2. When selling something like jewelery, customers need to see really great photos. Your large images are clear but when resizing them they seemed to have become very grainy. If it were my site I would also crop some of the photos better so there is less white space. Getting those pictures as clear and enticing as possible should be a priority.

3. Write descriptions for each of your products. Being able to describe the benefits of your product to every customer is a retailers dream come true. When I owned a furniture store we always sold more to customers we engaged in a conversation. Use good descriptions in your online store to get people excited about your products and help them envision owning them!

4. Your prices are very low. If I were a potential customer I would be worried about the quality of your pieces. (Is that gold necklace going to turn my neck green?) Either raise your prices to be more in line with what people expect or explain (in several places on your site) why your prices are so low.


Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Let me know if you have any questions about my comments.

All the Best,
Jennifer

[shahid]

thanks for your comments. I've been experimenting with image quality/size issues all weekend and think I may have solved the grainy issue. I've also found a great we free tool to help with the logistical nightmare of having to mass crop images. Its called jpegcrops and can be found at http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/download.html should anyone else have the need.

As for the polished look(or lack of it), I may buy in a template as I'm no artist.

I thought maybe I could break into the market by having very very low prices. However you've hit on the down side of the philosophy. Its not everyday you're told to up your prices.

I'm getting about 40 visitors/day from googleadwords but converting very few of them into sales. Maybe now things will change.

I'll be updating the site with all your comments asap. Once again, thanks v much.

[jkirkpatrick]

Thanks for sharing the link to jpegcrops. That will definitely come in handy!

Your idea of using a premade website template is a good one. They are a cheap way to make your site look professional. There are even lots of free ones available if you spend some time looking around. Some sites worth checking out are:

http://www.hypergurl.com/webtemplatejew.html - jewelery specific templates
http://www.deonixdesign.com - over 800 templates
http://www.templatesbox.com/templates.htm - nice selection of free templates


I hope that when your site is done you'll repost so everyone can take a look. I'm excited to see the changes

All the Best,
Jennifer

[wolfjay]

Hello Jennifer

I run a website selling a site selling an ebook for soccer-bettors?

My conversion rate is about 1% although I get a lot of traffic from adwords.

I've been tryin various ways to get the conversions up but with erratic results at best.

Will you rate my site too? Also, do you think I'll get better results with another format as opposed to a long sales-letter one which I have now?

It's at www.bookiebooks.co.uk

Thank you.

[jkirkpatrick]

Hello,

I took a look at your site and I like the way it looks and feels. But I can see how the copy and layout need a little playing with to get them right.

Here are my suggestions:

1. As I'm sure you know, people tend to me be skeptical of these sorts of information products. Building credibility upfront will be extremely important. I would recommend rewriting your headline to be something like "Discover The Secrets Of A Professional Sports Better And Learn The Only Way To Make Serious Money Betting Football".

Some other headline tips are to put it in quotes and make the first letter of every word a capital. Repeated tests have shown an improvement in conversion when these small changes were made.


2. Another way to build credibility is to show a book cover so the product looks more tangible. At first I didn't see yours because it's hidden so far down on the page. Put that "above the fold" on your page so people see it as soon as they arrive.


3. The aqua color used for important points and testimonials is very difficult to read on the background color you've chosen. I would make it white text and leave the dark blue background.


4. The issue of using a long sales letter versus multiple pages is one that comes down to what your customers expect. Take a look at successful competitors and see what they're doing. Survey customers (either real ones or potential ones in a forum). If it were my site I would only divide it up in to multiple pages if I was going to be adding more content. For example you could keep people on the site and build your credibility by publishing a series of articles or "quick tips".


5. Make your sales letter more readable by including better subheadings that give people the main points of your sales letter. Most people scan long sales letters. Make your headlines large, bold and informative. Also use bulleted lists with one line points that convey the most important information.


6. What percentage of visitors request the free report? What percentage of them eventually purchase from you? What is your followup sequence with people who request the free report? Some people find AdWords works best as a lead generator. They put up only a page that captures contact info in exchange for something free. Their followup sequence then converts those people in to paying customers through a series of well crafted messages. To know whether this would work for you I would need the answers to the above questions...


7. Do you think your customers may find it strange that you charge in US dollars? The sales letter is very focused on UK customers, then the price is in US dollars. I can see how this would confuse people. The last thing you want is to confuse people right when they're making the decision to buy.


8. I wouldn't hide the links to Contact Us, FAQ, etc. at the bottom of the page. Include them at the top of the page as well. People expect to see these.


One other thing I wonder about is whether your report is only applicable to people in the UK. Would North Americans benefit from it? Maybe they don't bet on football as much. Anyway, this may be a good potential market to research.

My suggestion would be that you run a Split Run Test(also known as an A/B Test) using your current page and one using the suggestions above. See which ones converts better and then go from there.

Let me know how it goes.

All the Best,
Jennifer

[wolfjay]

Hello Jennifer

Thank you for taking so much time to ponder upon my site.

Will certainly put your invaluable suggestions into action and start split testing right away!

I will also keep you and this forum posted.

Thanks again!

[Swanhorst]

Your Website has lots of apparently good information which I didn't go into. I just took a quick look. May need a little jazzing up-possibly more pictures or skewing of information rather than being in organized columns.

[tomgilmore]

Could one of you good people review www.HelpDesk-Now.com

HelpDesk-Now offers cost-effective Live Engineer Tech Suppport for small business & home users that need technical support at anytime day or night. Support starts at just $14.95 to solve one problem.

-Tom

[marias]

Please give feedback for this website:

www.kimscollegeofmartialarts.com

thanks

[The Old Sarge]

Marias,

The only constructive critisism I can offer is:

1. Your pictures are a bit fuzzy. Not bad but not the razor sharp images that really impress. Maybe you could redo with hires images?

2. The text in the bottom have of the main page should be broken into a couple of columns. As is, it's too wide for an easy read and snappy look.

Otherwise, I like it!