Looking for Critique of New WordPress "Launch and Learn" Micro Site

Allow me...

Launch and Learn Web Sites | Launch your Web Site and Learn WordPress Along the Way

Hi Doron,

I'm not an interweb person so my view may not be what you're looking for.

Then again maybe your target clients are people who are technically dense like me.

Your site looks good - which is just as well (lol).

Although the "grey" section on the homepage is a little difficult to read.

The copy is friendly, it flows reasonably well (take out the "surplus" formal words and phrases and use a few more power verbs).

The great thing is, amazingly you explain (most) of the tech stuff in an understandable way - without being pretentious or condescending. Or assuming that people somehow know this stuff.

But double check that everything is crystal clear. So there's no chance of a non tech person not grasping the details and leaving in a state of bewildered confusion.

The time it takes to build the super duper site is 3 hours over 4 weeks?

That seems a bit stretched. When people want something they want it now (Ok, not as you say, the 3 hours in one hit, but a month is quite a duration).

If you can, shorten the time or give a strong reason and any possible benefits why it'll take 4 weeks.

The big unanswered question is the cost - people want to know.

I know they can email you and find out - but why not get them signed up and paid on the site while they're enthusiastic and in a "Yes I want this" state of mind?

Don't lose the chance and let them wander off somewhere else.

Also, as always you need a strong guarantee - it significantly increases sales (and you'll lose a stack of business without one).

You could use something like "If after your first session you're not absolutely delighted - just tell me and I'll immediately refund all your money - and give you an extra $25.00 for using up your valuable time"


Hope this helps,


Steve

Oh my God! I totally spaced on the price! It's $350. I had it on my original sales page and it got accidentally left off. Just added the price to the details page. Can't believe I forgot that!

Otherwise, great comments, I can see how the 4 week span thing can be confusing. I'll see what I can do to clarify that.

Thanks guys!

...just a quick thought on the $350 price point.

Could you adjust it to $347.00 - it makes the price look a lot less and you should gain more sales.

And if you find there's a touch of "price resistance" you could offer 2 or 3 payments.

Chances are once they start building their site with you - they'll want to finish it and be Ok about paying the balances.


Steve

Well, i'm not going to do a browser compatibility check but let's see here.

1) I would personally have a real logo designed because right now you just have basic text up for your logo. Not a big deal though if that's what you plan on using.

I'm not a fan of the size 72px font right below it because it says the exact same thing as the logo. Removing that and allowing the content to move up might look a little better, you can always cross check that.

Plus with the white font right below your 72px sized font, it's essentially saying the same thing three times (the logo, the large font, the sub-heading font)

2) I would look into tabbed content or a jquery plugin that allows people to click and scroll down to the next section (or up to go back up). It's not really a big deal to scroll through a site, I just imagine the less technical users might have a problem with it. After all, it is essentially targeting the less technical users.

Some of the websites you've done are pretty cool and the design work isn't bad.

Let me just give you a little advice on pricing though:

My friend and I worked on websites and we worked with companies around the local area before we decided to branch out and get away from the low paying clients. Being brand new to the business, we though charging clients $1,500 to $3,000 was a good price range but oh boy were we wrong.

$350?!?! Holy hell... I would highly advise you to raise your prices. Sure, you'll pick up more clientele with that price but that's more people you're going to have to deal with.

Here's what we got when we dealt with cheap clients

1) A job is never truly done. Everyone always wanted to implement some new cool idea they had or wanted to constantly keep changing things.

2) They want free updates for life. After the site's done, we would still get contacted for "updates", "changes" and what not.

Here's what I learned with pricing:

My friend now works with one of the largest web design firms around and their pricing dropped my jaw. Here's how large corporations and companies find web design firms to complete their project. They'll go around quoting web design firms asking them how much it would take to complete a job, and whoever gives them the highest quote wins the job.

No really...

I'm talking $50,000 - $200,000 for a website. I mean obviously there's a lot more effort and responsibility that goes into a page for that price but working with those clients is one of the most laid back experiences I've ever seen.

Even some of the smaller web design firms charge $10,000 for a website (usually). Your websites really aren't bad and are worth well more than $350. For the sake of your sanity and not dealing with 100 clients who want you to be their personal slave, I would advise you to raise your pricing.

The copy on the page isn't bad though, those were just some quick observations.

Wow a lot of good stuff to think about!

Thing is, I actually have a contract that I would have them sign saying that this a 3-hour package, so no updates or tweaks or rescue jobs if they bring the site down. I am basically showing them how to install WordPress and configure their theme, so I wouldn't really be doing any coding aside from possibly some CSS font and color tweaks.

As for the "sites I've built" page - I'm wondering if you thought those were "launch and learn" sites, which they aren't, and I certainly charged more than $350 for those.

I agree, a good site, top to bottom, should cost thousands of dollars, and if it's an agency with full time account people, project managers, dedicated developers and creative directors, it should cost tens of thousands.

You're right, cheap clients are the worst. My goal is is simply to *get someone started* on a great WordPress site and make over $100 per hour in the meantime.

As for the design tweaks, I agree with a lot of what you're saying. The double logo thing I have on the homepage is pretty silly. I will think about a better way to deal with that. The tabbing idea is cool as well, but would be a pretty big design change (would be curious to see a site that uses the navigation you're suggesting, just so I have a better idea of what you're describing), so I'll have to think about how something like that might work. I like the "back to top" link idea though.

Thanks so much!