My website - Opinions invited please

[Ian Jackson]

I don't want my website product review page (in sig) to be too flashy or to do any more than it says on the tin, but even with that simplicity in mind, it still just looks a bit sort of "basic" to me.

Any suggestions that would help to give it a more appealing, enticing appearance would be most welcome. I use Dreamweaver 8 software.

Thanks

[DrewG]

Hey Ian,

Not too sure on how flashy you want it to look, but most review pages are designed to be enticing and flashy to attract the visitor and bring them in. This way, the visitor will read through the sales copy/review and hopefully make a decision on whether they want to purchase or not.

You have a great start-

A few things I personally would change up a bit-

+ New header graphic
+ Make "A Review of: Short Swing Trading" font bigger
+ Have the review copy have bolding/different font colors for important points
+ Make the quote/testimonial have it's own box and b-ground color, and stand out
+ Maybe put some type of guarantee that David Graeme makes, or some other type of visitor trust symbols, or even a Privacy Policy/About/Contact links in footer.
+ Have a much stronger call-to-action - maybe a medium sized button that says "Buy Now" or "Get it Now"

Good luck,

~D.C.

[peter gibson]

Definitely needs a new header graphic.

[Hackbridge]

New banner header anyone?

stockmarketsitebanner

I could do another if you want, but you'd have to give me a couple of days.

Kind regards

Brian

[chrisclements521]

White space is good, but I think you have way too much, also you need to get the border of the table down to "0" so yu cant see it.
Chris

[Kevin AKA Hubcap]

I agree, you need a new banner and some other graphics in the body.

Also, to me, that screaming blue background is a wee bit too loud.

Kevin

[jugman1]

Hi Ian,
Larger Text in header,bold print and change the color to red.

To your success,
Craig

[Kelvin Nikkel]

Originally Posted by Hackbridge

New banner header anyone?

stockmarketsitebanner

I could do another if you want, but you'd have to give me a couple of days.

Kind regards

Brian

Yes Ian. I think you need to add a bit of color to your site. A nice header like Brian here suggests would be good.

Also, I wouldn't rely on people hitting the back button. Why don't you make your link open a new page? It is simple if you use the following code.

<a href="the site you want your visitor to see.com">the name of the site you want your visitor to see</a>

Make sure to keep the <a href=" , the "> and the </a>. Replace the rest with the required information.

After that Drive TONS of traffic to your site. Check out my sig.

Wishing you tons of success Ian.

[Hesaidblissfully]

1. Add another vote for "new header banner". Either get it done professionally or drop it altogether. No banner at all is better than one that looks like a 3 year old drew it. (Not intending to sound harsh. That was the phrase that popped in my head when I saw the banner).

2. You need to grab the reader's attention right away, or else you lose them. It sounds like you're maybe afraid of your page coming across as hypey. That's understandable, BUT...simple and laid back doesn't mean you get to ignore principles of writing copy.

Take a look at Chris Rempel's page for his main product:

Confessions of a Lazy Super-Affiliate

It's not a hypey page, as far as internet marketing products go, but he still incorporates important elements like a headline that grabs your attention, Mini-headlines that highlight the important points (and make it easier for the reader to scan through the page, versus looking like a big block of text), bolded, italic, underlined text, etc. Bottom line is you can still be non-hypey and still structure your page to sell.

The best advice I could give you is to Go to someplace like Clickbank and find product in that niche that are selling well. Then use Google to find reviews for the product. If there are review sites showing up on the first page, then they're probably already getting traffic and making sales, so just model what their page looks like (don't steal, but model), because what they're doing is likely working.

[uconcept]

Darker page backgrounds are always better. That shocking blue is really straining my eyes. It's not elegant. Too much room between the title and the first paragraph. A numbered list indentation or bullets would be more appealing and easier to read. The copyright at the bottom could be bigger and med/dark gray. The box around the table is competing with your banner, which is not helping telling what the site is about.

[Ian Jackson]

Hey, all many thanks for all your FANTASTIC advice - cheers!!

Nit of a project you've set me for the day

[artwebster]

Hi, Ian,

You are addressing your product review page to a real, live, grown up audience and they are the very people who will look at your header graphic and undertand it.

Review pages addressed to internet marketers need to be flashy and full of crap because that is what they expect but I feel your target audience will like what you have put together.

The only suggestions I can make to improve it is to make the web site name much larger and less apologetic for taking up space and reduce the number of words you are using to promote an important product. What you have written is suitable for an ebook about anything internet marketing related but the people you are aiming at don't appreciate dithering and rambling - they are, by nature, investigative and you only need to give them a reason to investigate.

One major plus for your review page is that it looks as if it belongs to the sales page and the limited repeat of your header graphic half way down the page is more likely to reassure the reader that they are where they should be.

Great review page but could be less verbose.

[onpointinfo]

I do not know anything about stocks but do know some things relative to internet marketing, I will share some of my suggestions as others have done.

Here are some things that can be done without understanding what your site goals are and other variables that I am not clear on.

Your site although is not flashy, I believe it is ok because it is not distracting with lots of bells whisltes.

What is important to me that I see immediately:

1) there is no strong headline that addresses a problem your target audience may be having and how this review will help them, in other words some headline that stops them in their tracks, do not speak to everyone but speak to one person using the word you.

2) no sub headline to get me further into your copy

3) What are your primary keywords that speak to your audience, I noticed you have not done a basic seo move to your page



Questions:

What is the objective of your site, it is a review site so do not wish to assume anything, what is the bottom line you are trying to do.

Who is your target market investors who experienced or beginners, etccc

What does your product solve for your target market

[Ian Jackson]

Originally Posted by Hackbridge

New banner header anyone?

stockmarketsitebanner

I could do another if you want, but you'd have to give me a couple of days.

Kind regards

Brian

Thanks Brian, that's great - and much appreciated. What do you think to the writing being in red, rather than blue; is that do-able? Also, sent you a PM

Cheers
Ian

[Sumit Menon]

I don't get the space in between the two tables. I think you should place your text in only one table.

A background of Prussian Blue would look more good on your template... Or you could try a gray background with Maroon Text.

And you may wanna make the name of the product a little bigger.

Just my two cents!

[graphicsgenie]

In my opinion, if you are reviewing a product like this, then people would want to assume you are using it. If you are therefore using it, you are making the money, so why wouldnt you have a professional looking page

My 2 cents, but believe it or not I think it would seriously help

Darren

[Ian Jackson]

Updates, to date, accordingly. All comments being noted, thanks.

[Chris Kent]

Hi Ian,

It's not bad by any means but it reads more like a sales page than a review and it is easy to navigate with "the eyes".

btw I disagree with others about a header, I do not think this is necessary at all. Let me show you a review page on a site of mine that I made for the water4gas craze. Obviously the craze is now over but the page is a good 'un and converted nicely:

Water4Gas Review - Water To Gas Fuel

Notice how I jammed a recommendation in the header.
Opportunities to click my link are clear to see at regular intervals.
Use of bullets, bold, indent, colours, highlights etc.

See how it looks nice to read and just encourages the reader to click to the site?

Hope this helps!

Chris

[TechBlog]

you have to change the design a bit and it has no page title so better add page title and meta tags etc ... also u can get some free web templates and edit it under dreamweaver that would be fast and easy and u can get many good designs too !! so just google it !!!

[artwebster]

Yup. The IM knees are jerking wonderfully.

The people this site is aimed at would probably not recognise an internet marketer if they ran over him while he was in the middle of the road being positive and manifesting wealth from a benificent universe.

What a great pity you have decided that you need to abort a good header graphic that addressed the subject of your site and introduce something that could not be more generic if it tried - with dollars, yet!

It didn't need fixing but you broke it anyway.

This is what happens when internet marketers believe that they actually live in the real world.

[Ian Jackson]

Originally Posted by artwebster

Yup. The IM knees are jerking wonderfully.

The people this site is aimed at would probably not recognise an internet marketer if they ran over him while he was in the middle of the road being positive and manifesting wealth from a benificent universe.

What a great pity you have decided that you need to abort a good header graphic that addressed the subject of your site and introduce something that could not be more generic if it tried - with dollars, yet!

It didn't need fixing but you broke it anyway.

This is what happens when internet marketers believe that they actually live in the real world.

Hi Artwebster.

Thanks for your thoughts, I'm far from ignoring any advice, and yes, I agree, it has morphed into what looks more like a sales, than review page. I'm justy going back to the editing - with your words in mind. Which graphic did you prefer - the one that a poster said a 3 year old had done, or the second one, as supplied by Brian? Are there any ideas from the other posters that you would run with?

Regards
Ian

[artwebster]

Hi, Ian,

The original header was far better than what I saw last time I looked.

The audience for your review is going to be people who will see the graphic and understand what it is (which no 3 year old in my experience would have the first idea about). I would imagine that most internet marketers have not seen such a 'break point' graph before. (I know, it's probably called something else but that is what I use them for when I am teaching).

It is also relevant, as I said before, that the sales page uses the same sort of graph - this can only reinforce the idea that whoever clicked from your review site is still looking at relevant information. I think, when dealing with analysts (which many stock traders are) a little continuity goes a long way.

OK. Just had another look and I see the header is back and a little more prominent(?).The copy seems much more focused and your review page definitely sits easily with the apprearance of David Graeme-Smith's sales page.

The only thing that I think will make a small improvement is to make 'The-Stock-Market-Site.com into a proper header title. I think I would lose the hyphens and the .com and use a font size of 22 - 24.

[Loren Woirhaye]

This doesn't come off like a review. It's a plug site. It makes
no attempt to honestly assess the strengths and weaknesses
of the product. You've written it like sales copy, not review copy.

Featuring the product picture makes it look salesy too. I would
nix the pic.

[Ian Jackson]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

This doesn't come off like a review. It's a plug site. It makes
no attempt to honestly assess the strengths and weaknesses
of the product. You've written it like sales copy, not review copy.

Featuring the product picture makes it look salesy too. I would
nix the pic.

Hmm. I thinking about this comment and struggle to disagree. Anyone else?

[Loren Woirhaye]

Answer this for example: Who is the product for?
a beginner, intermediate? Would somebody with a specific
background find the product more useful. Would it go over
a person's head who didn't have a certain background?

See? If the product has a weakness (like um... it's an ebook?)
then say so. Ie. "while being a digital product makes the author
able to adapt the publication to recent market changes..."(sideways
allusion to the benefit of being more up-to-date)..."I have to admit
that it's a bit shorter than you would expect in a published book
and you certainly can't carry it with you unless you print it up."

[artwebster]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye
This doesn't come off like a review. It's a plug site. It makes
no attempt to honestly assess the strengths and weaknesses
of the product. You've written it like sales copy, not review copy.

Featuring the product picture makes it look salesy too. I would
nix the pic.

If this was an internet marketing product, what you say is probably correct but what everybody is ignoring is that this is a real world product. It has nothing to do with smoke, mirrors, lies and re-writes of old information.
This review is aimed at people who can look at the header graphic and know that the site is germaine to their requirements.
The review is aimed at people looking for information and who will not read through a long list of pseudo review sites all claiming to be what they are not - nor will they bother with a review page that is obviously written to a template design full of superlatives and redundant verbiage.
The most important aspect of the people who will visit this review site is that they are probably ready to buy because they have identified their own problem and the quicker they get to the very persuasive sales page, the better.