January 2009

It's been awhile since we've had a site to review but thanks to Gary we have 1 this month.

Please take a look at http://hotenterprises.net/ and then either post constructive comments or send them to me to have them added as part of the blog article.

To Your Success,
Susan

Tags: Site Reviews

October 2008

This month Michael has asked that we take a look at his site because according to him: "I know it could use some help and I am looking forward to all constructive opinions."

Now I've taken a look and I think you'll find that making some constructive comments a challenge.

So when you're ready to put your web master skills to the test go to
http://www.stressfreetaxhelp.com/

Then either post constructive comments or send them to me to have them added as part of the blog article.

To Your Success,
Susan

Tags: site review

September 2008

Image via Wikipedia

This month we get to help Simon with his site at:

http://www.simonp.org/

Please take a look because I'm sure you can help. Then either post constructive comments or send them to me to have them added as part of the blog article.

To Your Success,
Susan

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Comments:

I only had a three things bothered me on the site (not necessarily in the following order).

1st, the yellow font on white background was hard to read.

2nd, the falling leaves seemed to distract me from what I was trying to focus on.

3rd, I would rather have a pop up after viewing the initial page, or maybe just a link to a squeeze page.

Beyond that, the site appeared to be real clean which may change as more info is added. I really didn't click on all the links and follow them.

Darell
http://www.ebooklisting.net/

*****

There's a very good bit of advice that we are all given when it comes tomaking a web site, and that is to sit with pen and paper and PLAN thesite. In other words, decide on the design, from colour schemes towhere we want to put X or Y or Z, and of course the important aspectof the priority of the site, the message we want visitors to get, preferablyas soon as they land on the site, but definitely before they leave.

This site needs serious overhaul in all those areas, starting with the relative size of the images, whether banners or photographs, and alsothe use or over-use of white space. The drop in box offering the freesoftware is far too big for the rest of the images on screen, so it detracts instead of adding to the appeal.

Similarly, the link referring to THE FOREST opens the affiliate pagefor AUTOMATIC BUILDER.COM, and throws up another instantcomparison with the main page, so Simon, have a close look at thatpage (quite likely to have been designed by a professional!), andcheck how symmetrical everything is, how well the spaces are used,how much the site looks as if everything is part of ONE big picture.

Some of your links come up in a YELLOW colour which is impossibleto read in both Firefox and Internet Explorer 7, and the latter puts upan error message saying DONE BUT ERRORS ON PAGE, whichusually means error or errors in the HTML coding. Finally, the linebeginning WELCOME should be the last line on the page with youremail link just above it, to keep all the information/contact linksgrouped together. Above everything else, you should be able tolook at the site and immediately answer the question....What isthis guy saying or selling to me? Look for example at this site:http://www.friendswhocare.us/newsletter/

Best of luck, and congrats on your efforts so far.
*********************************
Syd,
http://www.leisureaudiobooks.com/?aid=133097

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My Comments:

I'd like to thank everyone who left and sent in comments about Syd's site. You did such a great job there's nothing left for me to say.

So thank you all for helping Syd with his site and making my job easier.

Susan

Tags: site review

August 2008

This month we have Harold's site to review.

http://www.EntrepreneursWebcast.com/

Now whether you send in comments or not I highly recommend you take a peek because he offers LIVE business support. I don't know the hours for the live support however when I checked at 8:50 am this morning the site was very active.

Since Harold offers a free service to help others I'm sure he would appreciate your helpful comments about his site.

To Your Success,
Susan

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Review Comments

My Comments -

OK, I have to admit that I'd never heard of World Profit and didn't recognize the site as an affiliate site when I took a quick look to check it out. After Syd's comments I went back and found all the menu links are pointing to affiliate pages for this program.

Also, the first few times I checked the site there wasn't much activity and I thought they were giving general online business help. This week I checked during 1 of their scheduled meeting times and saw that the site is set up to offer World Profit members some assistance and to do sales pitches for the program to the guests.

As for the site design, no problems.

However, when I did a little research on World Profit I found some "not so good" reviews of the program all listed on the 1st page of a Google search.

http://www.programcritique.com/subcategories/BusinessOpportunities/WorldProfit.html#cust_review

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/150/RipOff0150797.htm

http://www.xomreviews.com/worldprofit.com

And a forum discussion about this program at:

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=15888

Although this is an affiliate site I am leaving it on the blog along with the links pointing to the reviews I found.

My recommendation is not about the site design.

My recommendation is -
Before you join any business opportunity, especially 1 where you have to pay for it, research the business and the founders.Susan

Susan

Tags: site review

July 2008

This month we were suppose to review Tim's site. Unfortunately his site can't be found so we'll move on to Gail's site and save Tim's until next month.

You can see Gail has put in quite a bit of effort to build his site and is asking for our help because as he says, "I'm really not too happy with it but can't see the trees for the forest." So lets help Gail find some of those trees at: http://www.todaystopmoneymakers.com/

Susan

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Review Comments

My Comments -

When Gail submitted his site I sent him an email and stated"It looks like you've set up a directory of online business resources and products" along withthe following comments:

1. While the size of your menu is very impressive it's also overwhelming. You might want to only list your top choices on your home page and create a resource directory page for your menu.
2. For those pages that lead away from your site have them open in a new browser window. Then when your site visitor closes the page your page will still be available to them. (Some of his links still take visitors away from his site but he mentions that on his home page.)
3. Put a link to your home page and your resource directory page on every page of your site to make it easy for your site visitors to navigate. (Looks like he's done that for his home page.)
4. Check your pages for font consistency. I saw a different site font on your ezine page. (This is still a problem and there are now 2 different size fonts on the main page.)
5. While you don't want to use a lot of hype or make false statements, you do need to be bold in your statements.
6. You need to move the Amazon box up since it's not visible when you read your statement about it and most people won't go looking for it. (Looks like he's done that.)

It wasn't until Antony's comment that I learned this was a ProfitMart site. (If you don't know about ProfitMart you can use Gail's link to find out.)

Now since we've had several sites primarily focused around introducing online money making programs, tools and resources and they've had several banner ads on all the site's pages I'd like to share a little general information about sites that consist primarily of banner ads that may or may not have some content sprinkled throughout.

• When most people arrive at a web page that contains no informational content and displays only ads they seldom click on any of the ads and move away from the site quickly. (If anyone disagrees with me please leave a comment and if you know of a site like this that works please share it with us.)
• If you do have informational content on some of your pages like Gail does then put a heading over your menu like "Articles" or "Get Information About" and list those pages with content under the heading. Putting a heading that tells your visitors that you do have information on other pages may entice some of them to check them out.
• It's extremely difficult to get targeted traffic to a site that consists of banner ads for many products and services. Since your site covers many areas of online money making opportunities, tools, resources, etc. and does not contain any information specific to anything it's extremely doubtful that your main page will ever be indexed high enough in the search engines to get any traffic. This is also true for the other pages on your site even though you may have provided content.
  
  Now Gail has overcome this particular problem because when I did a Google search for "top money makers" (without the quotes) I found Gail's site listed #2 on Google which is very good. I also used Google's keyword tool and found that the average search volume for that term was 1,600 a month which isn't bad. So Gail has done a very good job of getting indexed well in Google and should be getting a good amount of free traffic.
  
  
• Although banner advertising is not dead and it does work it must be used sparingly. A few banner ads sprinkled around on your site may get some clicks however the banner ads on a page where banner ads are the primary content usually won't. The best way to use banner ads is on a page that gives useful information about the problem the product or service will solve, offers a solution and makes a recommendation. If the content is written for search engine optimization then these pages will also get indexed better by the search engines.
• From my experience it is possible to make a few sales with those Amazon, ClickBank and Ebay provided ads however you won't make many. Most people don't even look at those ads and for those that do you have to hope that a product they're interested in shows up while they're on your page. People that shop Amazon and ebay regularly go straight to those sites and only go through an affiliate's page if they've been enticed to it by some other form of advertising.
• As Anthony pointed out, when you make many offers all at once you confuse your site visitor so they usually don't take you up on any of them. The only time multiple offers of similar things work is on a directory site. When someone goes to a directory they expect to see many related things. Now directory type sites have been around for a very long time and some of them have done very well. The trick is to pick a type of directory site where you still have a chance to be found since there's already millions of sites offering directory services for just about everything. This is especially true for anything related to making money online.
  
  Since we know Gail's site has been found and should be getting some traffic his site does have the potential for making money. If the site isn't making money then I would suggest you look at what some of your competition has done with their sites and pick up some ideas on how you could redesign your pages with some content and fewer banner ads.
  
  Currently most of your stiffest competition comes from forums and blogs and both of these types of sites provide information and make recommendations. You could also make comments on the blogs to possibly pick up some of their traffic however you won't get a back link to your site since all the ones I checked use the nofollow tag to prevent search engines from seeing it as a link to your site.
  
  
• One of the hardest things to learn about having a web site is that while you're designing the site to make money, your visitors are coming to your site for useful information and don't usually want to buy anything. In Gail's case, his site visitors are looking for "top money makers" and to most that means making a lot of money quickly and hopefully without much work. If multiple opportunities are going to be presented on a single page I suggest that they be limited to money making opportunities on your home page with the appropriate opportunities on the other pages, they be listed in order of recommended and that you write some information about each of them preferably in your own words and not a pre-written ad. Remember, the sales page for each of the opportunities is selling 1 thing and you're writing a pre-sell description telling why it's so good and some of the benefits to get your visitor to check it out. You can have your link to the opportunity or service within the content and possibly show a big banner ad for the top recommendation at the top or bottom of the content. If you want to use other banner ads for some of the other things on that page then use smaller ads and put them in 1 of the margins possibly with a header like "My Recommendations", "Top 5 Money Makes" or "Other Money Making Opportunities."
  
  If you can't use your ClickBank and ebay ads in the margin then I suggest you create a separate page for them and ad the appropriate link on each of your pages for other money makers, more graphic, ezines , ect. opportunities. In other words give your page viewer 1 choice or just a few choices and then the chance to look at others if they don't like the ones you've recommended.

Susan

Tags: site review

June 2008

Ann says she's new to building a web site and would appreciate getting some tips on how to improve it. Let's take a look at what's she got so far at http://www.500adaypossible.com/ and give her a hand.

FriendsWhoCare subscribers can have their constructive comments along with a link to their site added to this blog entry by submitting your comments here. (You must log in). If your not a FriendsWhoCare subscriber you may add your comments by using the comment link below.

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Review Comments

Hi Susan

Your review site this week has quite a few things that should or could be changed tomake it more user friendly, both in aesthetic terms regarding the way it looks, andin general SALES terms as well.

First thing that jars is the MENU on the top left of the home site, because the arrowsare too big and the text font too small. These should be relatively easy to correct, asthe site is written in CSS mode.

Second thing is the overall presentation which will take the visitor AWAY just aboutevery time they click on a link. That could well put people off, as it then becomes adirectory rather than a web site which will do what it says on the tin, SHOW US HOWTO MAKE $500 A DAY.

Still on that tack, the SUBMIT MY SITE banner needs some attention, because thetext below it should be central, and in fact the banner sometimes comes up on thefar left of the page. (That's on IE7)

Final thought.....have you ever bought something from Amazon.com by clickinga link on somebody's web site instead of logging in to your own account? Didn'tthink so. Best of luck to her, especially as she took the trouble to ask for ourcomments to help her make it an even better site.

Peace and love
Syd Burke
http://adfactory.gti7.com/?4709

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My Comments -

With the url of 500adaypossible and a page title of $500 A Day Possible most visitors will expect to see some information about how to make $500 a day and will be confused by what they see on your main page. Since I think you're promoting the easymoneyathome site as the way to make $500 a day you should provide some useful information about the program or programs you are promoting. I did a search to see if there were others promoting this program to find you some examples. Unfortunately I found a lot of "junk" pages and "404 Error" pages. 1 affiliate has a video listed on many of the video sites and quite a few "junk" blogs however they did have 1 blog that does show you how to provide content for at least 1 of the money making offers at easymoneyathome - http://internetmoneymakingtools.blogspot.com/2007_05_28_archive.html

In the event you are trying to make a directory site of ways to make money and things internet marketers use in their business, you need to state that and give some content also. I doubt that those who find your site on their own will click your menu since most aren't looking for those things. You need to give your site visitors a reason to want to find out about those items.

You have also mixed font sizes and types on your main page. While mixing these things can be good for visual effect, yours are mixed for your banners. While most won't stick around for a page full of banner ads, the spacing, font size and type should be consistent so they'll look good. Also, while your header is the same on all your pages, the size of your header changes on some of them and the font size of your site title on the header could be larger.

As a beginner to site design and building I think you've gotten some of the basics. So rather that start over I'd suggest you provide some content about your main program on your main page and use text ads rather than banner ads for some of the other programs. I'd also suggest you remove your search since it always takes people to a Google search unless you're getting ppc money for clicks on their ads. If you are getting paid for the ads on those Google searches then I suggest you move the search to 1 of your columns and ad a lead in question or statement like "Learn more about."

Having your signup form on your main page is good but again you must give the visitor a reason to sign up. If you're sending additional information about your main affiliate program you could add statements in your content about how they can get additional information about how to make $500 a day by signing up. If you're sending information about internet marketing topics as your newsletter page states then you should state that as the lead in on your main page also. It doesn't have to be in the same format as on the newsletter page but as content on how to learn about some of the things online marketers must know.

The main thing to remember, Ann, is that web users are looking for useful information in the form of words. So if you're selling something, an idea, an affiliate program, a product, etc. you must write useful content that gives them a reason to want to join, buy or learn more.

Tags: site review

April 2008

This month we have Kathryn's site at http://www.heresthemoney.com/. Kathryn is 1 of our newest friends and she said she would appreciate any and all constructive comments. So let's welcome Kathryn into our Circle of Friends by giving her a helping hand with her site.

FriendsWhoCare subscribers can have their constructive comments along with a link to their site added to this blog entry by submitting your comments here. (You must log in). If your not a FriendsWhoCare subscriber you may add your comments by using the comment link below.

Tags: site review

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Review Comments

Hi,

My thoughts about Kathryn's (heresthemoney.com) site:

I would like to have known more about her (even a picture) and probably some testimonials. Maybe if I had something leading me into the site. I know this is a squeeze page, but in the back of my mind even though it says it's free. I felt pressured, seemed to much like a sales page; maybe I've become skeptical over time from reading too many hyped up pages. I think the best squeeze pages offer some valuable information, and are in someway related to the product or service you are trying to promote. It shouldn't be trying to sell but instead capturing the name and email address. Kathryn's page does create some curiosity and it may very well do what she designed it to do; it just didn't grab me. I want to feel like I know someone and have some confidence I'm not giving my email address to just anyone.

Darell
DJ's Fast Start Marketing
http://www.ebooklisting.net/

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This sales page is probably a good example of the many sites offering to make us a lot of money for free, but the main heading reminded me immediately of a Chris Rock Live (for TV) gig in which he went on at length about the difficulty black people have, amassing WEALTH in the United States. The main point of his attack was the vast difference between getting rich, and being in a position to be regarded as wealthy.

The biggest problem of this sales page will be getting anybody to believe that there is an EASY system that pays a LOT, FAST and for FREE, so even if this is an affiliate site, it should be discarded immediately for a well written Splash Page which would find interested people who could then be sent the relevant information.

Secondary problem is that clicking on the JOIN HERE link takes you to the relevant page, which includes a link to read their Terms and Conditions, and that page includes a link to PROGRAMS! Unsurprisingly the first program listed Profit Track #1, says it's the only one you will need to PAY for.....till you see that the second one, ProfitTrak #2 also says the same thing! Kathryn, I think you would be better off joining and promoting Marketing Pond!

Syd
When was the last time you listenedto a good book?
http://29812.leisureaudiosales.com/

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While we've received only 4 review comments for Kathryn's site they have all been good ones. I agree that the size of the font is small and hard to read and would suggest also making the headline in a bigger font. Also, adding some information about who you are, your contact information and some testimonials from current members would add credibility. It was also pointed out that the Disclaimer link at the bottom opened in the same window and there was no easy way to get back to the Home page. This is true for all the links at the bottom of the Home page so I suggest you either provide a link to your home page on each of them or have those pages open in a new window.

In addition, I noticed that your site has a powered by ... link at the bottom. I clicked the link and went to a different site. Although the link was an affiliate link and you could make some commission from a purchase, I suggest you open that link in a new window also.

This page reminds me of many of the landing pages for MLMs and downline builders in that it doesn't give any specific information. Unlike those pages, yours has a join button rather than a "request more information" type button. Since some many may not join because they don't know what you're offering you may want to set up an autoresponder series giving a little information about your program and highlighting the benefits. You could offer that on your page as an alternative if someone doesn't what to join or in a exit pop-up when their leaving.

While I like the clean design of the site, the words didn't make me either believe you or curious enough to want to join. Again, like other MLM and downline landing pages you may want to add some audio or video to your site to peak the visitor's interest. If you don't want to use audio or video then some compelling sales copy that your visitors can relate to may be enough. The thing is, while your want to be short and to the point you still need to invoke some type of emotion in your site visitor (curiosity, greed, trust, etc.)

Hope the comments help.

To Your Success,
Susan

Rules To Have Your Site Reviewed

All FriendsWhoCare subscribers are invited to submit their site to be reviewed here however their are a few rules.

To have your site reviewed:

1. You must be a FriendsWhoCare Newsletter subscriber. All subscibers are allowed to submit as many of their sites - 1 at a time - to be reviewed here plus they get to submit a free classified ad every week for our classifieds and a free access to our Circle of Friends area where they find many free ebooks, videos and online resouces. If you aren't a FriendsWhoCare subscriber and would like to become one you can join us here.
   
   
2. No affiliate or network marketing links - you must own and be able to change the content of the site. Sites and blogs hosted on free hosting services and free social networking sites are allowed.
   
   
3. No adult content sites, no sites that download malicious software and no sites promoting hate or anything illegal are allowed. All sites are reviewed before they are posted.
   
   
4. If a site is reported that it is no longer available or it violates the above rule I will re-review the site and if necessary remove it.
   
   
5. Review sites are posted in the order received and no more than 1 will be posted each month. Because I can not control how many sites are submitted during a month that means sometimes a site may be posted the month after it was submitted while other times it may take longer. When you submit your site I will send a response that it has been received and give you an approximate date for when it will be posted.

To submit your site to be reviewed go here and login.

To Your Success,
Susan