Request Site ReviewAsk for a site review by 5 Star members. Webmaster and affiliate reviews only. No merchants, networks, service providers or forums etc.
I'm a new member, and have been very impressed with the advice I've been given here. Would any of you mind giving my new site a quick review?
In particular, I'm interested in hearing your comments about:
1) Structure of the site
2) Placement of ads
3) Choice of affiliates I've selected
4) Comments on the content
5) If you notice any browser problems (I've checked it extensively with IE6, IE7, and FireFox 2.0.0.3)
I'd also appreciate any input you have on how to drive traffic to my site. So far, I've successfully added it to the Yahoo!Directory, and Starting Point. I've submitted it to DMOZ.ORG (but heard nothing since). I've also submitted it to other sites for links such as Classifieds1000.com, ExactSeek, Gigablast, Mavicanet, SelfGrowth.com, somuch.com, spheri.com, and wowdirectory.
The site is successfully being crawled by the googlebot, although I do not necessarily show up on searches using keywords that I would completely expect. I do use fairly carefully considered meta keyword tags, and also meta descriptions in my HTML - not sure if they are helping me, hurting me, or ???
In terms of advertising and affiliate programs - I use both Google Adsense and Google Search on the site. After hearing from several of the very knowledgable senior members here, I joined the affiliate programs of Joebucks.com and also Dentalplans.com - but it has been too soon to draw any conclusions. The other non-5-star affiliate program that I added at the same time as Joebucks seems to have produced a bunch of clicks - but no sales thus far. In fairness, it has only been a few days though.
Sorry for the long post - I'm trying to be thorough. Anything anyone can tell me would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. Thanks - below is the URL for review.
I only had time to do a quick scan of the homepage. But I really like the mix of info you have. Seems like it should really appeal to your market.
(Course what do I know about how men think!)
Have to admit (discover new product niches type o gal that I am) the 1st thing I did was check out the Hairmax Lasercomb article then rush off to the site to see if they had an affiliate program, once I saw the oder size was $500+. Stooopid merchant! No affiliate program???
Anyway from what I saw you did a great job. Hope you are planning to do some social marketing - think you'll do well!
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Your Partner in Success,
Linda Buquet :: Affiliate Program Advertising, Promotion & PR (Publisher Relations)
The free forum support we provide is made possible by all the 5 Star programs at the top of the right sidebar & in the directory below. Please visit & support our merchants.
Oh I didn't have time to check which affiliate program you are promoting
but JoeBucks, a 5 Star Program has some REALLY good and HIGH PAYING
products in the men's health niche! There are some virility products and also Provillus Hair Loss Treatment - they pay up to $120 per sale!!!
Here are some of the products and individual sites: Joe Bucks Sites
Hope you are planning to do some social marketing - think you'll do well!
Hi Linda - thank you for the kind comments and words of wisdom. I do have one newby question for you. When you suggest "social marketing" - what exactly are you referring to?
Social marketing is all the Web2.0 stuff that has an element of word of mouth marketing to it and can be a great viral way to get free traffic.
Join social networks that cater to single men. Use StumbleUpon, Myspace and others and make friends in your niche to drive traffic to your site. Start a blog and add it to mybloglog and blogcatalog, then join related communities that may have an interest in your niche.
Start a Squidoo lens and or a Hubpage to get your site started as your articles should get higher search engine rankings on those sites. Build some content there that links to your new sites or even just do a keyword rich overview of some of your articles and link to your site to read the rest.
Search the forum for any of the words I've mentioned if you aren't sure what they are or how to use them. We have a newWeb 2.0 Marketing - Social Networking Forum that covers some of this.
__________________
Your Partner in Success,
Linda Buquet :: Affiliate Program Advertising, Promotion & PR (Publisher Relations)
The free forum support we provide is made possible by all the 5 Star programs at the top of the right sidebar & in the directory below. Please visit & support our merchants.
Nice looking site Greg seems to be on topic and well laid out. Looks like you've found a decent niche to promote there to me.
Question I have is do you answer those questions yourself? Whether you do or not you may want to put up some sort of disclaimer about responsibility and such. People are really sue crazy these days and its best to CYA from the very beginning on a website with any kind of advice on it.
Hi Redhat - Thanks for the input plus Question for You
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedHat39
Question I have is do you answer those questions yourself? Whether you do or not you may want to put up some sort of disclaimer about responsibility and such. People are really sue crazy these days and its best to CYA from the very beginning on a website with any kind of advice on it.
Hi Redhat - thanks for the input. In terms of CMA (covering my _ss), do you think that the Terms of Service on my site are missing something in particular? You can find my TOS at:
If you have some example legal-ese that I could borrow to add to my TOS, that would be much appreciated.
In terms of answering my original questions myself - this is my first site, and my first attempt at marketing anything online. I do have years of technology industry experience (BSCS, plus 20 years on the sales side selling mostly real time control systems, measurement hardware and software, etc.) In other words, all of my background is in programming or sales (not in web-related marketing). So any other advice you have for me will definitely be taken to heart.
Seems like a nicely built site, with lots of interesting content. Only one comment, the homepage looks a little crowded...Too many links and too many interest point on the upper side.
Strategy Explanation & Request for More Resolution
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdorob
Only one comment, the homepage looks a little crowded...Too many links and too many interest point on the upper side.
Hi cdorob,
Thanks for the input. I can appreciate that the home page is a bit busy. Can I ask you the favor of telling me what you would recommend eliminating or moving or changing?
Before you elaborate, let me first explain the overall strategy of the existing upper part of the homepage:
1) The hover buttons across the top are uniform throughout the site. I could probably eliminate the "Submit your ideas" button - maybe replace it with something else like "What's New" or ??? But the strategy behind the buttons is to give the user uniform access to the entire site - no matter where in the site he currently is.
2) The next items down (from left to right) are
2.1) Woman of the Month
2.2) A banner ad
2.3) A google search box
Those three items are also common across the entire site - although in many of the site sections, I move the remaining page content down a bit so that it doesn't look so busy. If I added some space between this second section and the rest of the home page content - would that address what you are saying sufficiently? Or do you feel that some or all of those three items don't belong? I personally like the "Woman of the Month" thing because, well, it is a midlife bachelor site, and guys need some kind of potential treat. I like the banner ad at that location because it gives the ad good exposure. And I like the google search box up there because it is handy.
Okay - so that is the strategy behind the upper part of the current home page (and also the rest of the pages on the site). Any additional resolution you can give me on what you would personally recommend I change would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for everything - and have a great day!
First, by upper side, I didn't actually refer only to the upper menu, you will see below why.
There are several minor things that could make an overall improvement on the site usability.
First of all, the homepage is the place where I have to quickly see what the site is about and what are the main interest areas. You somehow tried to show the main areas of interest with the categories you made: MIDLIFE BACHELOR HEALTH, MIDLIFE BACHELOR NEWS ... etc.
The thing is that they all look the same and are crowded in the left corner. I would make some kind of separator between them, or change a little the position or their styling.
Then, the links from these categories look the same as the links in the text (content), which puts them on the same level of importance.
I actually think that the upper menu, banner, google search look good, you have to work a little on the things below. Just by looking from the distance at the site, I can say it's very...blue because of the links. Links are good, but I would style differently the topic links with the content links
To summarize it, when I open your homepage there are so many links that I don't know what to click on. As opposite, the secondary pages look much more user friendly.
PS: these are just my personal thoughts, I'm not and don't pretend to be an usability expert
Site Review & Strategy Input Please ;o)
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