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My first website

by FINALCUT
8 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
This is a hobby website my son and I are doing together. First time either of us has designed a website. I still need to do the sitemap and some other tweaks. One of the ads in the top right box will be replaced when I build a store. I figure maybe a featured product or something like that. I will also be adding a forum in the near future to socialize with others of the same interest. I have a Facebook page set up as well.

I am using adsense and Revenuehits for monetization at the moment but I have just been accepted at several affiliate sites dealing with the Paranormal. A Ghost hunting store with a ton of High dollar products and a tour company that offers Ghost hunting tours across the Country. My main concern is my site right now. Is the site user friendly ? Is tha navigation easy ? Does the theme have a good look to it as well as the basic layout and navigation. Any critique would be appreciated. This is a work of love. I enjoy the subject a lot so if I don't make a ton of money at this that is not my primary reason for doing this. I am doing this as a project of enjoyment for my Son and I to do together but I would like to make a little money in the process.

Honest opinions are welcome.

Here are the links to the Website as well as the Facebook page.

ParanormalVibe

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paran...99532386865217
#website
  • Profile picture of the author BestPayInUsa
    Ok.

    How much time have you put in too that? Plan on getting a background or just gonna keep things black and grey? Because that doesn't look too appealing. Also I would get rid of the "powered by wordpress" with that theme you should be able to just install a custom css plugin and use this code:

    #site-generator {
    display:none;
    }

    Add more pages as well. The posts on the side page I almost never clicked just because of how many ads you have all over the place. Neat niche too, do you plan on doing a newsletter too monetize or just ppc?

    Maybe disable the comments as well. There's a plugin for that. Hate to break it too ya but those comments left on page are pretty generic and most likely just spam. It's normal for blogs to get spam comments but soon they could start getting out of hand. I would at least set the comments for your approval.

    You're off to a decent start... have fun! Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author ynef
      Originally Posted by BestPayInUsa View Post

      #site-generator {
      display:none;
      }
      I don't know about you, but I can't sleep at night knowing I have hidden something in CSS and not removed it completely from the code.

      For the OP,

      Are you using Akismet? Sorry to say this, but the comments on your blog feel like spam to me. Might be worth checking out.

      The design looks okay for a blog, but you should get a cool header image with some thunder or electricity maybe... don't ask. A great header image will make your website a lot more appealing!

      Found an affiliate program for you, but can't vouch for them: Affiliate Program - The GhostHunter Store
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      Content writer, web developer, SEO consultant - Ynef's Portfolio

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  • Profile picture of the author johnkennyg
    Originally Posted by FINALCUT View Post

    This is a hobby website my son and I are doing together. First time either of us has designed a website. I still need to do the sitemap and some other tweaks. One of the ads in the top right box will be replaced when I build a store. I figure maybe a featured product or something like that. I will also be adding a forum in the near future to socialize with others of the same interest. I have a Facebook page set up as well.

    I am using adsense and Revenuehits for monetization at the moment but I have just been accepted at several affiliate sites dealing with the Paranormal. A Ghost hunting store with a ton of High dollar products and a tour company that offers Ghost hunting tours across the Country. My main concern is my site right now. Is the site user friendly ? Is tha navigation easy ? Does the theme have a good look to it as well as the basic layout and navigation. Any critique would be appreciated. This is a work of love. I enjoy the subject a lot so if I don't make a ton of money at this that is not my primary reason for doing this. I am doing this as a project of enjoyment for my Son and I to do together but I would like to make a little money in the process.

    Honest opinions are welcome.

    Here are the links to the Website as well as the Facebook page.

    ParanormalVibe

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paran...99532386865217

    Hi There,

    This is a simple website. I think you have used a free template for this. If you move up the category and recent posts to near the banner, it will be better to see all content. My suggestion is that you may check out some other free templates. there many beautiful free templates that suitable for your website.

    Keep hard working on that.



    ..
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    • Profile picture of the author imakeitwork
      1. The categories on the right are barely visible - at first I thought it's a one-page website with no information. Put the categories to the main menu too.

      2. Do you use a plugin for loading random popup ads when clicking on links? That's really annoying. One time I click on the category - it shows posts in category. Next time - random advertisement. You better write more content, optimize seo, and get more people to read the site and click on normal (like Google Ads) ads instead of that spammy links.

      3. Instead of Jetpacks and other SEO plugins check out WordPress SEO by Yoast. It will be better all-round SEO plugin, will let you optimize the content while you write the post, and will generate you a sitemap automatically.
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  • Profile picture of the author FINALCUT
    O.K. Thank you everybody for the tips and advice. I am going to do a complete restart taking into considerartion what you all suggested. This site took me about two hours to put up. Most of that was learning. Heck, It took me 20 minutes just to figure out how to point my nameserver in the right direction.lol. As I said I am a complete newb. I did some research and discovered that Black templates or very dark templates are not a good idea and they turn people off due to being hard on the eyes so my first step will be a new theme. I will post ParanormalVibe 2.0 in a couple days and see what you guys think.

    My wife says "Well Everything sucks on that site but at least the name is good" LOL. If nothing else, at least I amhaving fun with my 17 year old son building this thing. One question ? How many ad units is good and what type of adsense ads work best ? I don't want to drive people away so I know popups are a bad idea. I had infolinks installed and that seems to be what is causing the random popups so I will stick with adsense. Are the big towers a good idea or am I better off with a couple of smaller ads in the body of my posts ?

    Thanks again everybody.
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    • Profile picture of the author imakeitwork
      Dark websites may work fine, you just need a bit more clever theme. If you're willing to invest just a bit, I'd recommend to choose some dark professional theme from Themeforest blog section (here).

      You'll get a nice responsive layout (good for SEO). Most of these themes have places for banners already. You could have couple banners in content (from my own experience most clicks come from ads in content, 300x250px), couple responsive in sidebar, maybe one responsive in header, and it should work fine.

      About automatic banner placement in content you could read more here.
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  • Profile picture of the author goon70056
    Not bad for a first time site - I think the dark background gives the site an eerie feel, which to me seems appropriate for a paranormal site.

    One thing, I'm unable to see the second image on your home page - don't know if it's something wrong with the site or something on my end since I'm view from an outdated browser at the moment.
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  • Profile picture of the author FINALCUT
    O.K. Did some things with the site to make it better. Added a nice background. Lightened everything up. Moved the categories up to the top right. Removed the big ads on the top right and disabled comments. I am still getting popups and I have no idea why. I disabled the infolinks stuff and just went with mostly adsense with a couple small revenuehits ads in the body of the posts but the popups keep plaguing me and I cant figure out why.

    If anyone wants to check it out and see what else I can do to improve the site I appreciate it.

    ParanormalVibe
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