Help me Re-focus my website

by cmarkc
8 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
  • |
Based on everyone's input in the thread "Struggling for Traffic" it's clear i need to re-design / re-focus my website BallroomDancersWorld.com . The question for me is how?

I have two goals: Serve the ballroom dance community, and make some money doing it.

My original design was based on the idea of providing an all encompasing website rather than a narrow niche, thinking that it would attract more traffic, and make more sales. As you can see, my menu items are:
  • Home
  • Shopping
  • Dance News
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Learning
  • About
  • Sign-up

Undoubtably, this was a lot of work to create and maintain, and not suprisingly, it's not working.

So now the question is how to re-focus it? In my earlier thread, i received many valuable suggestions, from ebooks to drop the affiliate links for a while. The way i see it, here's the directions i can go:
  • Drop all the affiliate ads and focus only on content; build my traffic, and bring back my affiliate ads and ppc ads
  • Strip down the content to just a few items - like blog, resources, and learning; work the affiliate ads into the blog posts

What do you think? What are your suggestions for streamlining / re-focusing BallroomDancersWorld.com ?

Thanks for your help; this forum is great!

Merry Christmas!
Mark C.
Phoenix
#refocus #website
  • Profile picture of the author walsh259
    I think the first thing you need to work on is the quality of the images, most of them are blurry.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10450421].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author NetMan
    Please don't get offended I just want to help you, but that website looks very amateurish, plus it is very slow to load. Graphics and presentation are very poor. Your approach is very simplistic with no apparent specific goal in mind for visitors. No USP. No funnel or list building means. No wonder why it's not working. Has this design been created by a professional? Have you had any SERIOUS keyword research prior to put this up? Many design elements need to be rethought seriously, and properly crafted to take into consideration 2016 and beyond Internet users. One of your goal is to make money but have you thought about how you would? How do you want to serve the ballroom dance community? This niche would work very well building a community around it, so incorporating some elements to do so should be a must.

    Your thought?

    Regards,
    Andre Foisy
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10450505].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author cmarkc
      Originally Posted by NetMan View Post

      Please don't get offended I just want to help you, but that website looks very amateurish, plus it is very slow to load. Graphics and presentation are very poor. Your approach is very simplistic with no apparent specific goal in mind for visitors. No USP. No funnel or list building means. No wonder why it's not working. Has this design been created by a professional? Have you had any SERIOUS keyword research prior to put this up? Many design elements need to be rethought seriously, and properly crafted to take into consideration 2016 and beyond Internet users. One of your goal is to make money but have you thought about how you would? How do you want to serve the ballroom dance community? This niche would work very well building a community around it, so incorporating some elements to do so should be a must.

      Your thought?

      Regards,
      Andre Foisy
      No offense taken. Yes, i built the website myself, and was quite proud of it, having come over from Dreamweaver and training myself on Wordpress. That alone was a monster task, and I was new to how Wordpress layouts best worked.

      So now, I'm looking for the first re-do of the site, and looking for solid ideas on how to rebuild it. These marketing questions are all part of the design process for me, and trying to figure out what to drop and what to keep, and how to structure it. Certainly i'd like to have a Pro do it, but can't really afford it. I have time, but not money.

      I'm not yet used to the idea of "funnelling" my traffic, doing give-aways, publishing eBooks, etc. Individually, I'm good at all those things, but struggling to tie them together into a good layout / marketing effort.

      THanks for your comments, they are helpful. If you know of any example sites, let me know.

      Thanks, and Merry Christmas

      Mark C.
      phoenix
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10450906].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author NetMan
        Originally Posted by cmarkc View Post

        No offense taken. Yes, i built the website myself, and was quite proud of it, having come over from Dreamweaver and training myself on Wordpress. That alone was a monster task, and I was new to how Wordpress layouts best worked.
        Believe me, I know where you come from! We've all started somewhere

        Originally Posted by cmarkc View Post

        So now, I'm looking for the first re-do of the site, and looking for solid ideas on how to rebuild it. These marketing questions are all part of the design process for me, and trying to figure out what to drop and what to keep, and how to structure it. Certainly i'd like to have a Pro do it, but can't really afford it. I have time, but not money.
        Start your process with the following questions and make diligent exhaustive research, that will help you very much to discover exactly what to change.

        -How do you want to serve the ballroom dance community?
        - What will be your USP (unique selling point), in other words what do you want visitors to do once they reach your website/landing page?

        Originally Posted by cmarkc View Post

        I'm not yet used to the idea of "funnelling" my traffic, doing give-aways, publishing eBooks, etc. Individually, I'm good at all those things, but struggling to tie them together into a good layout / marketing effort.
        Question 2 above will engage you in a process that will very likely help to focus on funneling your traffic.

        Then a SERIOUS keywords research is a MUST!
        Check this out for a good starting point about this https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research

        Best regards,
        Andre Foisy
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10451529].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author AddToCartTips
    First redesign your website. so that visitors will visit website again and they will refer tofriends if they like your website.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10450526].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Yadav Poonam
    Just reviewed your website, and its looking nice and responsive in nature. Few thing you have to change e.i. the design, Images and the alignment of footer small menus. Rest all is OK.

    Good Luck.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10451187].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author James More
    You should add some more content on the landing page of a site and the navigation bar is not looking fine at all why don't you make all the listings in just one line rather than dividing them in to two?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10451263].message }}
  • Use websites like Pinterest and Instagram to promote your site. Create videos and share only half of it on youtube and in order to see full video, let the client check your website. This is one of the good options to improve your traffic. Join communities and groups on Google+ and facebook, follow related people on twitter. Be an active member on social media.

    Arrange contests through social media and gain user interest in your website. I hope this helps.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10451450].message }}

Trending Topics