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SimplyBRG
04-27-2009, 05:07 PM
I started a new online business about three months ago. I am looking for constructive criticism on the website, the business model, the service we provide, etc, etc. I obviously want this business to succeed so don't hold back if you think you know a better way to make it successful. The website is SimplyBRG - Home - Simply Business Referral Groups (http://www.simplybrg.com).

Any advice will be much appreciated. Thank you!

vangogh
04-28-2009, 01:01 AM
I realize you're asking for more than a review of your website, but I moved this thread to the site review forum since it seemed a more appropriate location.

Your site design is ok. It's nice and it's professional looking, but I can't say it's anything special. The business idea is clear. You're connecting businesses through networking or referral groups though online instead of offline.

I don't think the image on the home page does justice to the idea. I have a suggestion. Make it three images aligned horizontally. The first might say find a group and then link to your referral groups page so people can find groups in their area. The next image would say Join or Join a Group and link to your sign up page. The last image might still be grow your business and link to your awards program page or maybe testimonials from happy members. You might not even need this third image since the goal would be to get people to sign up. I'd also include arrows from one image to the next.

The one question I have is if people will pay a monthly fee to network online. There are plenty of ways to network online for free already. I think people would be willing to pay if it resulted in business, but for that to happen you'll need members and you'll need to show proof that the system is working. You might want to offer everyone a free month of membership to see if it works for them and to fill up the groups. You could even offer a free 3 month membership for a limited time.

Since this is online do the networking groups need to be divided by location. That would make sense for businesses that are local only or if the idea behind the groups is to actually have people meet. But many businesses can sell products and services beyond their location and if so there's no reason to limit the networking to a specific location.

Maybe there are other ways to organize the groups or maybe you do want to allow people to have a monthly meetup.

Another thought would be to offer tips on how best to network. A blog would probably serve your site well. Your blog's theme could be all about networking and how to grow a business through networking. That should help bring people to your site and in time get them to sign up as you tell them about the benefits of networking and word of mouth.

SimplyBRG
04-28-2009, 11:23 AM
Thanks for moving the post. I am still getting familiar with the forum. :)

You have some good ideas about the graphic on the first page. I will draw up some ideas and see how they look.

We do allow our members to join for free. We only require people to become premium (paying) members after they recieve their first referral. People can also get a rebate on their membership fee by referring other people to join. Members get $1 back every month for every premium member they refer. So if they refer 10 people, they get their monthly fee back. If they refer 100 people, they will get $1,200 a year back. Not bad for sending a link or email.

The idea is to have groups based on specific localities so that they can meet in person if they choose. Also we like the idea of having somewhat small groups (20-40) members who are familiar with everyone in thier group and can be confident when sending referrals.

Thanks for the review!

KristineS
04-28-2009, 01:02 PM
The idea is a good one. More and more people are networking online, so it does make sense to take this type of networking online as well. I think your challenge will be building local networking groups. You may need to focus on certain more metropolitan areas first and try to recruit people to join from there first and then hope it starts to spread.

As for the web site, it's kind of bland. I'd love to see some actual photos and some more color. Blue is traditionally considered to be a more soothing color and, at least in my opinion, this site needs some more energizing colors to rev it up. You want to get people excited. Using some brighter colors and some pictures of people interacting could help.

As for the text, right now your home page is kind of weak. A lot of your justification for the service is on the About BRG page, but people have to get past the home page to see that. You should always remember that you may only get one chance (or one page) to convince someone you have what they want. I'd beef up your home page and add a much stronger call to action.

I also have to ask why, at this point, the forum is there. Right now there are no posts on it. I think I'd take that down until you actually have groups who would use it. At present it just looks as though no one is using your service.

Another question for you would be why some of your best content isn't mentioned until your Contact Us Page. I understand the thinking, before you contact us, see if any of these pages answer your questions, but that content should be linked from the main menu. At least the FAQs and the How BRG Works pages should be linked. Those are great tools for convincing people to join your program and right now they're buried on a page that many people won't ever see.

I think you've got a good idea, but there are some things you could do with your web site that could help get that idea across a bit better. Remember, you may only get one chance to convince someone to join your program, so make sure you're using all the weapons at your disposal.

Dan Furman
04-28-2009, 01:22 PM
What she said about the content and pages - the best stuff is buried.

The problem you are going to run into is the same problem that kills so many ideas like this: I don't want to be first. I don't want to join a networking group that doesn't already have solid membership numbers, even for free.

I can't count the number of times I've talked to (and even written for) someone with an idea who wants to offer another Linked-In, another Chamber-type thing, another local networking group, another you-tube, etc. ("It's just like Twitter, only better")

None of them make it because they can't get that "push" to get, say, 1000 members right away. Nobody wants to be the ninth member (etc). They want to be the 900th.

I do not say this to shoot down your idea, but the biggest hurdle you will have is establishing enough credibility, in terms of members already there, so people will join in the first place.

vangogh
04-28-2009, 01:57 PM
Everything Dan said is why I suggested starting off with things being free. It's a catch 22 where you'll have a hard time signing up new members until you already have a lot of members. You're first goal should be filling the place up even if it means doing so for free.

You may find along the way that there's a better business model than the monthly charge.

SimplyBRG
04-28-2009, 02:01 PM
As for the web site, it's kind of bland. I'd love to see some actual photos and some more color. Blue is traditionally considered to be a more soothing color and, at least in my opinion, this site needs some more energizing colors to rev it up. You want to get people excited. Using some brighter colors and some pictures of people interacting could help.

Okay. Thanks.


As for the text, right now your home page is kind of weak. A lot of your justification for the service is on the About BRG page, but people have to get past the home page to see that. You should always remember that you may only get one chance (or one page) to convince someone you have what they want. I'd beef up your home page and add a much stronger call to action.

We initially had a lot of content on the front page but we had several people say it was too much. We were told that it would be better to have a graphic that briefly describe the service so people could get an idea what the site was about in 20 seconds. Then if they are interested they could read more details on the other pages. Maybe we made it too simple on the front page.




I also have to ask why, at this point, the forum is there. Right now there are no posts on it. I think I'd take that down until you actually have groups who would use it. At present it just looks as though no one is using your service.

Well, we want people to use it. I know there is no activity there yet but we need it up to generate activity.


Another question for you would be why some of your best content isn't mentioned until your Contact Us Page. I understand the thinking, before you contact us, see if any of these pages answer your questions, but that content should be linked from the main menu. At least the FAQs and the How BRG Works pages should be linked. Those are great tools for convincing people to join your program and right now they're buried on a page that many people won't ever see.

Those pages were linked on the front page initially. The site has gone through several changes in the past couple of months and I did not even realize those links were removed from the front page until you pointed it out. I will get them back up. Thanks.

SimplyBRG
04-28-2009, 02:11 PM
None of them make it because they can't get that "push" to get, say, 1000 members right away. Nobody wants to be the ninth member (etc). They want to be the 900th.

I do not say this to shoot down your idea, but the biggest hurdle you will have is establishing enough credibility, in terms of members already there, so people will join in the first place.

I know what you mean and this problem is even more troubling for out site. Since our site is supposed to be comprised of 100s or small groups, it is hard to get people to join when there are no groups in their area or a group with one or 2 members. So we could have 500 members but not have any one group with more than 10 people in it.

I am trying to market to people who have been or currently are members of similar land based referral groups like BNI and Le Tip. Those people know the beneift of referral groups like this and they may want to try one online that is not so expensive and does not have the same strict rules.

vangogh
04-28-2009, 02:44 PM
Thinking about it more I'd say the local angle for the groups is a bad idea. It will end up taking you out of the equation. Let's say I join a local group and set up a meeting with the other members. Now that we've met in person why do we need you anymore? We don't. It makes more sense for us to meet up on our own in person and stop paying monthly fees.

Your advantage is that you can connect people who otherwise couldn't meet. I'd look for ways to connect people that aren't located in the same place. You can still keep the groups small, but organize them in some way other than where they live. You could do it by business type if you want.

Then provide tools for people to have a real networking meeting online through your site. The hard part is there are already tools to make that easy. You can easily set up group chats over most IM clients, which again takes you out of the equation.

The two problems you have to overcome are filling up the groups and keeping your site in the loop.

SimplyBRG
04-28-2009, 03:43 PM
Thinking about it more I'd say the local angle for the groups is a bad idea. It will end up taking you out of the equation. Let's say I join a local group and set up a meeting with the other members. Now that we've met in person why do we need you anymore? We don't. It makes more sense for us to meet up on our own in person and stop paying monthly fees.

The two problems you have to overcome are filling up the groups and keeping your site in the loop.

I have worried about this too. The problem is we are trying to cater to small business and professionals that work locally. For example, I am an attorney and I can work on cases in my home state but not really anywhere else. If I was a member of a group with a real estate agent in Florida and that agent has a client who needs an attorney, I can't help him. Likewise, I am not going to run into many people who need a real estate agent in Florida but I will run into several people who need one here in Washington. So I think we need to stay local.

We encourage the groups to meet on occassion and I understand that they may just by-pass our service eventually. There is not really much I can do about that. We do provide incentives for people to use our service to pass referrals. We give out prizes for the top referral senders every quarter and a grand prize for the year. The prize will become more expensive as the site grows.

Also, ideally people will want to stay in the group becuase we can continue to drive more members to their group.

FYI, this idea came to me when I was part of a land based group that folded. Initially we were part of TNI. After about a year we decided we did not need to be part of TNI and we cut them out of the loop. OUr independant group lasted about a year and then folded. The main problem for us was that our members were too busy to meet once a week. So we made it once a month and then every other month and then never. I thought I could make an online system that was cheaper for members and did not require them to meet on a regular basis. Thus SimplyBRG was born.

vangogh
04-28-2009, 10:53 PM
I can understand, though I think there might be ways around the problem of people offering local only services. I was thinking you could still have people list where they're located and the areas they serve without having to have the groups revolve around the location.

One thing I noticed when looking at the group in my area (Boulder, CO) is that there is already a web designer there. It wouldn't make much sense then for me to join the group as we'd just be competing with each other.

I'm still thinking the main advantage of doing this online is that it can reach beyond localities, but I've been wrong before and I'm sure I will be again. Still it's something to keep in mind.

SimplyBRG
04-29-2009, 02:02 PM
One thing I noticed when looking at the group in my area (Boulder, CO) is that there is already a web designer there. It wouldn't make much sense then for me to join the group as we'd just be competing with each other.

We actually limit one person per profession per group anwyay. So each group can only have one web designer. If you want to join the Boulder group you can. The web designer in that group is my brother who designed the site. He is a member of all the groups right now. Let me know if you want to join that group or you can start a new group in Boulder if you are interested.

vangogh
04-29-2009, 03:31 PM
Understandable about limiting to one profession per group. But that will be a limitation for getting new members to join. Just something to keep in mind. It's one reason I think not limiting things locally would make it easier. You'd fill up groups quicker allowing them to be national.