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Review of site wanted

by matt5409
9 replies
Last night I launched a music review blog which I intend to update daily. The main purpose of this, admittedly, is to make some money from my writing, and I've chosen the Amazon affiliate programme.

Hope some of the guru's here can give their thoughts on how well/how badly I have implemented this. The site can be found here: Heart Music | For Music Lovers

There is a link to listen to the album on spotify or view on amazon. The cd artwork also links through to amazon. Is this any good? could it be better?

many thanks
#review #site #wanted
  • Profile picture of the author Will Perkins
    Originally Posted by matt5409 View Post

    Last night I launched a music review blog which I intend to update daily. The main purpose of this, admittedly, is to make some money from my writing, and I've chosen the Amazon affiliate programme.

    Hope some of the guru's here can give their thoughts on how well/how badly I have implemented this. The site can be found here: Heart Music | For Music Lovers

    There is a link to listen to the album on spotify or view on amazon. The cd artwork also links through to amazon. Is this any good? could it be better?

    many thanks

    Ok well, for starters.

    You're one of the few who actually edit the About Us page, GOOD JOB! :p

    Anyways.... You have a good site layout, not necessarily for any particular niche, but it works.

    I'd recommend posting more "call to action" links inside your posts, as I had no idea the pictures were links to Amazon until you told me. So if that's your only way of getting them to give you a commission, you're screwed. (Ya I'm blunt, but blunt is needed for reviews)

    I love the logo, it's simple, straight to the point, and it works great with the site.

    Oh and I did just notice the "view on amazon" links, but that's not necessarily what you want. Make it more friendly, put it inside the article. "Click here for more blah blah blah about this. Check out this Amazon sale today". Terrible CTA (Call to Action) line but it's just an example. You should also look at considering multiple Amazon affiliate programs, as you limit your traffic and commission sources severely by only using Amazon.co.uk. There's a plugin called Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer.

    Check it out, it's a great resource. Hope that helped
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  • Profile picture of the author matt5409
    thanks Will! some good advice there. I need to get this right at the early stage so I'm not backtracking through articles to change every one of them (pain!).

    I really wanted a different affiliate program than amazon but unfortunately it's the best one for this niche. do you know if you can combine UK and US amazon affiliate accounts?
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    • Profile picture of the author Will Perkins
      Originally Posted by matt5409 View Post

      thanks Will! some good advice there. I need to get this right at the early stage so I'm not backtracking through articles to change every one of them (pain!).

      I really wanted a different affiliate program than amazon but unfortunately it's the best one for this niche. do you know if you can combine UK and US amazon affiliate accounts?
      You cannot combine them, but you can sign-up for multiple ones. Just make accounts on .com/.ca/and .co.uk and then use that plugin to integrate them all. Works great, it's what I do
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
        Your site looks pretty good. your writing is well done and your links are not obnoxious at all.

        Something you might consider is putting a buy it from amazon link into the middle of each post and maybe limiting the amount of posts on the front page to 3. No science in that, just a couple of things I have tried with some success on some sites that are prettye asy to implement.
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      • Profile picture of the author Cris Cato
        Hi Matt,

        First off, good job on actually starting a website. Most people don't get that far. Also like Will said, you actually wrote something on the "About" page so that's great as well.

        As far as your site, I like it. Layout is good and simple. Very easy on the eyes.

        As far as your articles, I would put more call to action links in the body of the article. Don't just put on at the bottom of the article. As you already know, most people don't really read the articles, they skim it. So if I were you I would put at least one more or maybe two links depending on how long your articles are.

        As for the "share this" button, personally and this is just my opinion, I don't put any "share it" or social media buttons on niche sites I'm trying to make money on. Those are more for your personal blogs. Your main goal is to get your readers to click on your links so the less distractions they have, the better.

        Other than that, good job and keep doing what you're doing.
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        • Profile picture of the author matt5409
          Originally Posted by Cris Cato View Post

          Hi Matt,

          First off, good job on actually starting a website. Most people don't get that far. Also like Will said, you actually wrote something on the "About" page so that's great as well.

          As far as your site, I like it. Layout is good and simple. Very easy on the eyes.

          As far as your articles, I would put more call to action links in the body of the article. Don't just put on at the bottom of the article. As you already know, most people don't really read the articles, they skim it. So if I were you I would put at least one more or maybe two links depending on how long your articles are.

          As for the "share this" button, personally and this is just my opinion, I don't put any "share it" or social media buttons on niche sites I'm trying to make money on. Those are more for your personal blogs. Your main goal is to get your readers to click on your links so the less distractions they have, the better.

          Other than that, good job and keep doing what you're doing.
          Thanks very much for your feedback. I intend to add more call to actions because as has been stated they're just not clear enough.

          Can I just ask why you think sharing links are reserved for personal blogs? The main reason I put it on this site is so I can tweet the reviews, and include the artists in the tweet. if anybody else tweets my reviews then I consider that a bonus!

          thanks again!
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          • Profile picture of the author Cris Cato
            Originally Posted by matt5409 View Post

            Thanks very much for your feedback. I intend to add more call to actions because as has been stated they're just not clear enough.

            Can I just ask why you think sharing links are reserved for personal blogs? The main reason I put it on this site is so I can tweet the reviews, and include the artists in the tweet. if anybody else tweets my reviews then I consider that a bonus!

            thanks again!
            Hey Matt,

            No problem. Here's my explanation and like I said this is just my opinion. To me, people like to share what they have when they have their own personal blog, so having a share it button makes sens there but you're main goal when creating this mini niche sites is to get people to click on your link and land on your Amazon page so they could hopefully buy whatever it is you're selling.

            When you have all kinds of ads like for example, adsense ads, banner ads, other products you are promoting, and/or social media buttons, then that just adds more distractions to the page. Instead of your potential customer clicking on your amazon link, they might end up clicking somewhere else instead of your links. Sure they might click on another product you are promoting but what if they don't end up buying that product, then that's a customer you just lost to your amazon site.

            As far as tweeter goes, what you are doing is ok. If anything, you can always get that wp to twitter plug in so that whatever reviews you post on your site automatically gets posted on your twitter account. What you are doing is good. If it's working for you then keep doing it. All I was trying to say was the less distractions you're customer has, the better you're chances of getting them to click on your call to action links.

            Hope that clears it up somewhat. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    Nice work.

    I noticed you are using the twenty ten theme and you can use a clone called WP Weaver to tweek Twenety ten a little more.

    Wordpress Weaver | Building better WP Websites

    You only need to tweak a little like maybe separate the side bar from the main content etc.

    I think otherwise it looks great.

    Q
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  • Profile picture of the author matt5409
    Thanks Cris, that does make reasonable sense. I am going to leave it there for the time being however, just because I believe that content sharing options should be part of every website. At the moment there is no traffic or sales to speak of, so I really have nothing to compare against. When I am receiving 100+ visits daily I'll look at the stats and see what improvements I can make

    Thanks again
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