Lots of traffic, No Orders, Why????

[KKenny]

We started our web-site several months ago and have yet to get an order from anyone other than someone we know. We seem to be getting lots of traffice (April 500 new visitors) but no orders and no "contact us" forms. Is there something missing?

If you could check out the site and give us feedback I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for you help,

[JPnyc]

OK, first cardinal sin, you have an all flash page with no alternatives. When I loaded it, I saw a blank page.

Second cardinal sin, you have music on your site. That will make a lot of people leave immediately, including myself.

Thirdly, don't try people's patience with splash pages. Load your site and show them what you have right away. At the very least, includes a "skip this video" link. I never got to see the actual site, because I assume it requires sitting through the video and the music.

[KKenny]

JPnyc,
I appreciate your feedback. Do you think it would be better if we removed the open page and go directly to the home page.

Thank you,

[JPnyc]

I would say so, although I never got to see the actual homepage. I had my speakers up fairly high because I was listening to music, and when I loaded that page the sound on it came blaring out at me, so I closed it. Do you have a link directly to the landing homepage? Thanks

[KKenny]

Yes, I've just changed the sig. link to the home page, per your sugguestion.

Thanks

[JPnyc]

I think your landing page there needs to be more attractive. It is basically only three colors, black, blue and white, which really isn't a color scheme so much as it is just three colors thrown together. I will say this, the coding is very good.

I think in general white on a black background is no longer in vogue, and it's tough to read. Not because of lack of contrast, but because of too much, which makes it hard on the eyes. I think if the site were more attractive it would instill more confidence in the users and the increase purchases. Can you hire a designer?

[KKenny]

That you for your input. Your opinion is really appreciated. I'll let our webmaster know your concerns and go from there.
Thanks again,

[skytopdesigns]

Hi Kenny,

I think i know why they are leaving,, the site is very old school, it dosnt have that professional flair. The blue is very schocking, and the rotating cubes is not impressive, the 2 main pictures are grainy, and for a photographers site, that dosnt look good.

take a look at some other photographers sites. black is fine for the site, then just have some nice high quality pictures and nice font for the link, for photographers, they usually go after a sophisticated classy look. when someone comes to the site , you want them to be stunned by the quality of the site , then they will know the pictures will b equality too,

Hope this helps

[KKenny]

Skytopdesigns, Thank you to for your input. I did want you to know however, that I am not a photographer, I'm a film editor which is why I've put my demo reel on the site. The site is for the general consumer who would like the photos and video clips they've taken to be turned into a video.
Thanks again for input.

[roban]

I agree with all the suggestions posted above. I find the blue text on a black background disturbing, almost psychedelic and I am not going to stay. If your site is basically an e commerce site, geared to sell a product, you'll have to make it more familiar to online shoppers. You can achieve a unique result while designing to sell your product. If you don't do this you will continue to have visitors but no sales.

[skytopdesigns]

sorry, kenny, i did realize it was film, i think because of the photos onthe front, i had photography stuck in my head, and the rotating blocks were a turn off,

take a look at some other vidio editing sites, see what they do and how they have the site set up

http://www.photoimagingnorthwest.com/

here is one that is a cart set up, you dont have to do that but its just an idea.

i saw some others but to be honest, i wasnt to thrilled with them, i just did a quick search though, which is good for you, if you can make yours sleek and professional then a higher percentage of you visitors will become clients.

[marc77]

I opened your site via http://www.jkphotostovideos.com/content/home.shtml and must say that it looks good so far - well, black is not my favorite color and the blue border around is not really a good choice, but beside this, the site has a clear design.

You may however remove the credit card logos from the first page, this looks like "buy me immediately".

Furthermore you should SSL encrypt your checkout and also note about that submitted personal data is secure. Even you process payments outside by a third party, it is advised to enable encryption right from the beginning.

Also I miss your postal address and telephone number on your website, it isn't even on your contact form. Each and every website should have (in my mind) an impress or contact page showing their full postal street address (no postbox), e-mail address and telephone number. Depending upon the country you live in, even additional requirements must be met (e.g. in Germany we need to add our business tax and sales tax IDs as well as other info).

Consider that people trust you their personal photos - they surely want to know who is the person to deal with ? And if you are working solely, why not adding a photo of yourself to the site ? Your business is quite a personal thing and I guess that this would help people to place an order.

Now I visited your website's Flash animation... I think, I'm deaf for the next couple of hours. The volume is too high, much too high. And there is no fallback, but this was mentioned by JPnyc before - and yes, I agree to him, it is a sin to have no fallback :-)

Finally I don't like your sample page - even with a broadband Internet connection, it takes a while to load and then is too much on one page. You may either implement it as a clickable gallery (first people select the category and then have the choice to click on some animations).

Maybe the loading time can be improved by squeezing the demo animations - but too much compression leads just to a loss of quality and this also cannot be the intention.

So I think this is the main issue you need to work on your site.

Beside this and spoken generally, I find your business idea great (it is something not offered often, but a useful service) and wish you all the best :-)

[Klaire2008]

You demo video is very good, but it is not of the product you are selling. (By the way, is the final product on DVD or on a CD?) Parents are looking for warm and fuzzy, which is not a new personal jet.

Make a new demo (of a cute baby or family) and put it on youtube.

[KKenny]

The demo video is to show examples film editing work that I've done for those interested, not the product that we are selling. There are a number of demos and full lengh videos that show the product including one of cute twins through out the samples. The final product is for the customer to decide. They can burn as many DVD's (which are for videos) as they want or post the link on there website or email it to friends.

[marc77]

The demo video is to show examples film editing work that I've done for those interested, not the product that we are selling.

You may like to point it out this way and add some explanations to each video.

It could also be a good idea to create shorter videos showing one effect at a time (not everybody has a broadband Internet connection, especially in the USA).