What is Wrong with My Website?

[Maggy Calka]

Hi Everyone,
I'm fairly new to Online Marketing, I went to a seminar earlier this year and it got me really motivated and i was very interested, so I thought I would give it a go.
I now have a website which I thought was pretty good for a newbie, I've had almost 350 people visit my site as of today but no sales and also only one person has opted in for the free ebook... that's it.

So I am asking a favour, can you please go to my site, which is below, I don't want you to buy anything, I would just like you to come back here and give me your brutally honest opinion and advice about my site.

what can i do to improve it etc.

Thank you,

Happy Marketing.

http://www.onlinemarketing.worldinternetbuilder.com/

[citrus]

Hi Maggy,

You asked for brutally honest, right? :P This thread has nothing to do with JVs, but I'll answer it anyway.

First off, even if I wanted to buy something, I wouldn't know where to go. There are a lot of links, but I don't know where any of them lead (nor would I want to find out).

Next, your site is butt ugly...it looks awful. There is nothing to grab my attention...no spot to focus on. I have no idea what you want "me", the visitor, to do. Do you know what you want "me" to do?

Next, you're fairly new to IM as you said yourself. What qualifies you to share information on how to make money online?

And what about your opt-in form? Why isn't it featured prominently on your main page instead of hidden away behind a link that doesn't want to be clicked?

I noticed that your site is on a subdomain. Why don't you get your own domain? It's more professional. I wouldn't want to get advice on how to make money from someone who doesn't want to spend ten bucks on a domain and a few more bucks for hosting.

That's just what I noticed within 30 seconds of landing on your site.

Did I help?

Curtis

[chrisg]

you must have scared his site away ;D

[Maggy Calka]

I guess I should've asked for constructive criticism.

I will work on my home page though, and i have now fixed my issues with linking the domain name I bought so that should be in affect.

Thanks

[C.F. Jackson]

Hi Maggy,

I have to agree with a lot Curtis's feedback
on your site.

You're losing a lot leads due to the fact that
you opt-in isn't placed in the most optimal
place.

But mainly for me is that you're wanting to
make a purchase from you w/out a contact
page and an about us page. Why make a
purchase from a site and not sure who they
are and how to reach them?

Look at any successful online site: Walmart
or World Internet Summit... They offer some
form of support.

You may want to check out the pivotal elements
required for a successful website.

Wishing you much success!

Thanks,
CF-

[Laurie Rogers]

Maggy,

A few other things, if you're not great at web design- try using wordpress and just make some adjustments to turn a theme into your own theme.

Basic categories you should have on your site, Home, About, Privacy Policy etc. and then if you're pushing products, you can call that whatever you want. .. I call mine "I Recommend" and then I've got a list of products/services that I've personally used and tell people why I LOVE them and why THEY NEED TO HAVE THEM. It's not a hard sell, because I have other stuff I am selling, but a few short paragraphs with a hidden sales pitch inside.

Also because I am of the curious nature, your articles section, is a no go and looking at it right now, as a professional article writer, I would be mortified to have my articles on your site. I've got no idea who wrote that article, the formatting sucks, making me not want to read it and realize you are not as professional as you claim to be. And most importantly you're giving away your traffic to article base by linking that article to their site.

There are two rules about article marketing on your own site:

1.) you either write the article yourself and have your own signature file on the bottom of it (with the disclaimer saying people can reuse it - thus them sending traffic to your site)

2.) you use someone elses article that gives you the ability to put your affiliate link in it (thus giving you the opportunity to get a sale from it)

That's my two cents.

[Laurie Rogers]

Also refrain from calling yourself "an online marketing expert", you're not and that's a title that is earned, not assumed or given. And in all honesty that is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, seeing people refer to themselves as being an online marketing expert, when everything on their site screams that they're not.

[Garret Acott]

I agree with the above comments.

Not really sure what you are selling here, didn't stay long enough to figure it out either. :-(

I am a HUGE believer in one function one page (in IM anyway)

So that page should either be a sales page, opt-in page, or informational page.

If I can't tell exactly what I am supposed to be doing on a page, I leave.

Garret

[Chris Douthit]

I also see you have a google search box and an amazon affiliate banner at the bottom of your page. Puting this size banner at the bottom is going to do almost nothing for you. This style of banner performs best at the top of the page.

Also the Google search box at the bottom will result in almost no extra income. If anyone takes the time to scroll down your web page they are not then going to do a search.

[Kunj K]

There are many reasons why you aren't getting opt-ins...

1) There is too much 'going on'
2) There is no obvious call to action
3) Design is very early 2000's.

I suggest you study squeeze pages and list building.

You'll learn a lot by going to the Clickbank Marketplace and browsing products.

[Jeffrey Dean]

also curious why you are choosing .net

if you ever fix the site and start marketing this site, by choosing .net you are essentially giving some of your traffic to whoever has the .com

[John Oszajca]

No offense intended but to me the design is not so great. But more than that, as a visitor you are not offering me value right out of the gate. The very first thing I read is that the first thing I should do is to buy something.

You need to engage them and built rapport and trust before trying to sell.

[Barry Hurst]

First of all I would scrap that website and create a blog website with some plugins because your blog site will get you ranked on google. Make sure you have your optin box prominently placed as everyone has suggested to build subscribers.

Then you should review the products that are for sale with a pre-sell page with links to the sales page. Or have conextual links within articles about the products that take you to the sales pages. This will give you conversions.

When I started as soon as I made review websites I made sales.

Regards
Barry

Change

[dougp]

Hey Maggy, what i would recommend is for you to worry about just collecting leads. I would recommend just having a simple sales page template with copy that entices individual to opt into your newsletter, or in other words, a landing page. You said you have been to a seminar, have you never saw a simple squeeze page? Try picking up some books on copy writing, and work on developing a a better squeeze page, as once you have individuals that opt into your newsletter, you can sell to them over and over again.