Please Review My Site

[JulieO]

I have several sites that rarely make a sale. I'm trying to figure out what it is that I do wrong. I think the problem is with my websites and understanding how people interact with them.

I have had this site up and running for many months and have only made two sales. Any input is welcome.

http://www.easychickenhouseplans.com

Thanks,
Julie O.

[7 Days Ron]

Julie,

Your site looks pretty decent to me. Could the problem be instead that there just is not that much call for chicken house designs or the search there of? Seems like that is a very narrow niche market to me.

[Linda Buquet]

I'm with Ron. I peeked at your site earlier and had the exact same thoughts.

[minstrel]

Ron and Linda are probably right. However, I'll add one suggestion: Your front page is too long.

Go into your Wordpress Dashboard (Admin Control Panel) and limit the number of posts per page - ideally to one. That will improve the keyword impact of the main page for your latest article, instead of mixing it up with previous articles.

(Alternatively, set it up so that the front page contains only excerpts of articles with a link to the full article.)

[ArizonaJay]

I had another thought-how many people think of these as "chicken houses" vs "chicken coops.". Your main KW seems to be houses. If the traffic is looking for coops, you are losing traffic. If the buyer is used to seeing coops, using the term house could imply that you do not have any real chicken expertise.

But I'm a city girl. What do I know about chickens beyond where the nearest KFC is located?

[Joseph Ratliff]

I'm going to mention "engagement"...what are you doing to engage your visitor?

Nothing on your site really catches my attention as to "what to do first".

Then, there's really no solid "calls to action" except the button...and it might be "too soon" in the presell process to just come right out and ask the visitor to "get chicken house plans" right away. People search the web first for information, so it might be wise to first give them that information, then use that button and ask them to "get chicken house plans".

When I click on your "categories", the posts listed under a specific category come up one at a time, how about making a few posts come up in a list, a visitor might think there's only one post in the category (you'd be surprised how many people don't click the "older entries" links).

Bottom line, there's quite a bit of improvement opportunity I see here, but think "engaging and interesting content", or adding value first, selling your affiliate link second.

[JulieO]

Thanks to everyone for all the tips. I tried shortening up the main page, however, doing that in WordPress shortens up the post pages as well... If that makes any sense. I have a love-hate relationship with WordPress. Ha ha

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by JulieO

Thanks to everyone for all the tips. I tried shortening up the main page, however, doing that in WordPress shortens up the post pages as well... If that makes any sense. I have a love-hate relationship with WordPress. Ha ha

Just set it to display one post per page. Problem solved. Actually, multiple problems solved.

[JulieO]

I tried that, but when I set it up that way I get the following problem that Joesph mentions.

When I click on your "categories", the posts listed under a specific category come up one at a time, how about making a few posts come up in a list, a visitor might think there's only one post in the category (you'd be surprised how many people don't click the "older entries" links).

I am unable to find any option that will let me only have one post on the main page and allow all my posts to show up under each category page.

[minstrel]

I wouldn't personally worry about that. While I generally respect and agree with Joseph, in this case I disagree - that's just a pagination issue. Use one of the "related posts" plugins as well as "Recent Posts" in the sidebar and it will be abundantly clear that there's more than one post.