Home Page Design Ideas

Looks like you're off to a great start. The product selection is great for this niche. The biggest thing that struck me when I first viewed the homepage was the vast white space beside your logo. What a great location for your call to action. It's also a great place to put visualization of folks USING your products. How about a video of using some of the products. You need to help people need your products.

All the best

Theresa 8-)

You say you get decent traffic - from where? Do you write articles to get backlinks? Your site is very commercial and I wonder if you were to "soften" it a little with more info about the niche - ie. benefits of using a rain barrel.

Maybe extend from the methods you use to get traffic

I agree with Dialady about adding videos. There have been numerous posts about how using youtube videos will help to increase time on site.

I realize that your site is html and not a blog so I guess it is a matter of how comfortable you would be in adding or changing your site.

I haven't written any articles yet, I am actually myself still learning about the products. I have heard the benefits of video is pretty big and the site is pretty easy to edit, I recently added a video but design is not my area haha.

I think the main problem i have is i cant figure out how to correctly market ecommerce or just haven't had that ah ha moment on how to use the blog tactics with straight ecommerce. I had a similar problem with an affilate site I ran for a while but on that one i couldn't change anything on the site.

In addition to adding a call to action" - i.e. subscribe to newsletter maybe - you might try to find, or have written for you, some kind of report or ebook that explains why your barrels are better than others. Or, a guide to picking the right barrel for your applications, etc. Then GIVE it away.

Just thinking.

Hmm, I was actually just looking at the lady in the WSO advertising ebook writing that a pretty good idea, i was thinking of doing the free 7 page deal then buy the whole gook kinda thing but not sure yet.

You need a 'benefit laden' headline and a method to engage visitors....free report about the benefits of composting?

A video showing the benefits of your bins against others on the market?

First time visitors will be looking for information.....NOT to make a purchase. More information to engage them will keep thewm there longer and reduce the bounce rate and ultimately therefore the conversion/sales rate.

I just changed the header to a new concept design, what you guys think?

Didn't see the first header, but what you have up right now isn't bad. I'd like to see the logo a little larger, and the Design Engine graphic replaced by your Free Shipping graphic. 10-30% off what? Everything all the time? That message needs to be larger and more specific.

Move your newsletter opt in to the top right, just under the search field. You don't need the bin image that's there. And give people more of a reason to sign up. As was suggested, give away a free report, or some kind of cheap sample product.

Also mentioned previously - your traffic. If it's not targeted, it's virtually worthless. Would you rather have 10,000 visitors to your site in a month who got there because they searched for barrels (but were looking for wine barrels), or 100 who got there because they were reading an article about water conservation to help them deal with a drought where they live, and saw an ad for rain barrels?

Start collecting stories, testimonials and product/company reviews from your customers, and put them on your site.

I think the site looks nice.

One suggestion I could make would be to add a nice sized tag line in the header so people can see what your site if offering in an instant.

Something like :

#1 Rain Barrel store on the web

or

Save Up to 50% Rain Barrels (or whatever you want to promoted)

Right now it isn't exactly apparent what your site sells. You have to design sites that even child could use and easily identify.