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View Full Version : Give me your best shot!



Cloudy
09-23-2013, 09:51 PM
Hey guys, my current website appears okay to me, but that doesn't really help me much, I want to know how the website looks to everyone else. So please feel free to give me as much input as you are willing, whether harsh or kind. I'd also like some opinions on how it can improve, what's working, and what's not working if that's not asking too much. Thank you for taking your time in reading my post.

Patrysha
09-24-2013, 12:46 AM
um I have no idea from looking at your home page exactly what you do or what you are or how you'll help my business. It says connect with business owners...as a small business owner I already have networks for that...what makes yours different. And I see you have a promotional code to make it free...but what does it cost when it's not free?

Cloudy
09-24-2013, 11:25 AM
Those are some very good points, this is why I can't rely on my judgement alone. Thank you for your input, really. I appreciate it and will take into consideration the points you've offered here when designing the site further.

Patrysha
09-24-2013, 11:37 AM
We can never rely on our own judgement completely...we have to take the time to truly see it from the angle of a potential customer. Kudos to you for realizing this early on in the game...it's so much harder when we've become attached to our own images and ideas...

Cloudy
09-24-2013, 12:11 PM
Would it be too much for me to ask your input on my current FAQ page?

KristineS
09-24-2013, 12:25 PM
A few things struck me as I looked at your site. First, there are other sites doing essentially what you're doing - LinkedIn being the one that first springs to mind. So what makes your site different, more useful and worth my time? Also, being a members only community means that there's a smaller pool of potential leads available, but also means you can hopefully avoid a lot of spam and time wasting leads. Right now, members only sounds kind of limiting when compared to other sites that do the same sort of thing. Show me the benefits of this model, why is a site that is members only going to benefit me and my business? Is there vetting of new members? Do you have processes in place to keep out snake oil salesmen and spam?

Another problem is that there's no indication of how big your membership already is. Dropping a promo code into my lap the moment I hit the site leads me to believe it's not yet that big. The idea is to sell the site and it's benefits and hook people that way. If you're throwing a promo code at me as soon as I get in the door, when your membership fee is really negligible at best, the sense I get is that your desperate for members. Sell the concept, hook me with the benefits you offer and make me think $2.99 is a drop in the bucket for all the wonderfulness I'll experience when I sign up. Then, once I've decided to make the leap, offer me a promo code as a "by the way, to thank you for being an early member, we're offering a free month" or "we're so sure you'll find our site useful that we're putting our money where our mouth is and offering you a free month".

Also, a site functionality thing - why are the pictures on the bottom menu links, but none of the titles are? I tried to access the About Us page by clicking on the words "About Us" but they're not a link. Didn't take me long to figure out I needed to click the picture, but I work with websites. Make your navigation as simple and standard as possible. Make the words a link too.

Wozcreative
09-24-2013, 01:56 PM
Here are my input:

PROS:
• Clean design
• Nice color
• Nice fonts

CONS:
• No typographic hierarchy
• Header photo looks outdated. Do those laptops exist anymore? Or are they landfill junk by now?
• 3 photos at the bottom don't have unified borders
• The 3 photos don't make sense.. or match each other at all
• FAQ page - you just copied and pasted it.. no sense of style, no grid, no hierarchy
• Footer.. you need a space in the copyright info.
• Home Page - About us text says nothing about you.
• Home page - FAQ --- everyone knows what it stands for. Why are you re-iterating what FAQ is?
• Call to action is very poorly emphasized. You want them to register.. but all this small text is not telling me why? What's the benefit?
• No contact info!
• You have no real "brand" going on. Look at skype.. they have all these clean cut design elements that match everything. At the moment you are using.... a photo of.. clouds? for your about page?
• You're using some quotes in the about page.. but there is no emphesis on them. Why not use pull quotes?
• Are you really going to make me read from left to right those small letters across my big 27" screen? Why do you make your readers work for the information so much? Bullet points, icons, grids... you need that! Don't just copy and paste text. Blah!
• No service page, no details about what you get etc.
• I also saw you write "opportunities" 4 times on the about page! Wow!
• Lastly.. I couldn't figure out what your company did. I thought it was a cloud storage firm.