New Member - New Site - Feedback Welcome

[Bernster]

So - hello all.

I was out and about today looking for affilate marketing opportunities in Australia to plug into my website that I have been building over the past month. Which brings me to YOUR website.

What I can offer are some great ideas for your sites, SEO, marketing related suggestions that you may not have even considered. It's truly amazing what a third eye can bring to a business.

So > here is my site > Go a little easy, it's not nine.msn, but the concept and content are good....

Marketing World and my Marketing World Blog (which is getting all the hits!)

Thanks for the feedback and same if I can help.

Bernster
29th Jan 2009

[El Craigo]

Hi Bernster,

Welcome, I'll answer this from the perspective of someone that offers Marketing services as a consultany;

A few things I noticed;

- The site is very texty, I'm not sure that people are going to read anywhere near the amount of information that you post
- I'm not sure what problem it is that you actually solve. To be "full service" is fine, but sooner or later you need to show examples of what it is you actually do (such as a portfolio of achievements).
- You refer to "us" and "our" all the time, yet in big bold print have a mobile phone number. To me that immediately indicates you're a one person show. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're the professional you need to state that ... and I couldn't find your name anywhere
- The site looks as though it's been knocked up on a basic program. I think you need some professional design assistance.

Hope that helps,

El Craigo

[Gav]

" a full service marketing agency offering strategic planning, website design and development, SEO, SEM campaigns, online marketing solutions, logo design, branding, print campaigns, direct response marketing, television and radio commercials, public relations and lots more."

Wow! You offer more than agencies that employ several thousand people...

I think you could be over-selling yourself a bit there!

A company that provides traditional grass-roots customer service with the focus on YOU the customer. We also want to provide a website that hopefully will become a leading international resource centre within the marketing profession.

Sorry, but either you're deluded or just wildly optimistic and trying to run before you can walk - concentrate on one thing you do well, get results and get some clients with testimonials.

[newbie]

Originally Posted by Bernster

So - hello all.

I was out and about today looking for affilate marketing opportunities in Australia to plug into my website that I have been building over the past month. Which brings me to YOUR website.

What I can offer are some great ideas for your sites, SEO, marketing related suggestions that you may not have even considered. It's truly amazing what a third eye can bring to a business.

So > here is my site > Go a little easy, it's not nine.msn, but the concept and content are good....

Marketing World and my Marketing World Blog (which is getting all the hits!)

Thanks for the feedback and same if I can help.

Bernster
29th Jan 2009

Bernster, welcome.

First, forget Amazon. (After pushing it hard for five years, you might be able to put together enough commission to buy a good round of drinks). (Depending on the venue).

You are right, it is not "nine.msn" but if you are going to sell your message at that level then you must persist until it looks better than "nine.msn".

Nothing wrong with your vision, you just have to make sure you measure up to it.

You obviously have talents. Why not put together a flock of separate affiliate sites and move product for Australian merchants just as you are doing with Amazon?

If nothing else, the experience will give you insight into the business and a vantage point to speak to clients from.

Sign up to ClixGalore and DGM and you will not have to look back and wonder.

[Bernster]

Thanks for the quick feedback guys... Still a work in progress and I appreciate all the constructive material. Will go through each point as time permits.

Bernster

[HarveyJ]

I'm going to get to the point.
If you want it sugar coated, go eat some Frosties, I hear they're grrrrrreat.

Colour Scheme:
Wrong! Just wrong.
Do not EVER use a soft red, or indeed any red, on white and/or offwhite backgrounds, unless you're running a Dexter fansite or something similar. Red is not a trustworthy colour. Pale reds on white are hard to read, particularly for people on passive colour monitors, such as those in some laptops and cheaper LCDs.
You run into similar problems with white on light grey. I should not have to strain my eyes to read your site.
http://kuler.adobe.com Go there and try again... or better yet, just get a predone template from something like Templateworld or something.

Keywords:
Too many in your meta, and the localisation doesn't match up with the supposedly global read you're going for. If you're this big marketing company, why are you targeting Sydney? It should also be pointed out that some of the largest corps in Oz have their marketing departments in their Melbourne branches, such as Coles Group, Telstra, Optus, MS, etc.

Claims:
DO NOT offer broadcast media unless it's actually in your capability to do so. Community channels don't count, neither does Foxtel. Even then, most small businesses won't be able to afford it, and most medium businesses will expect more than what you can provide for, due to unrealistic expectations.
It's amazing how badly that will bite you in the arse if you don't deliver.

Layout:
Seriously, get a CMS with a decent them on it. Wordpress would do just fine for something that's just plain media, although if you want something that'll do client bookings as well, you might want to look into Joomla.
Your layout shifts constantly when the page is resized, the tabs at the bottom don't make much sense, considering the repetitive icon usage.

Affiliate program choice:
Amazon does not have local distributers, so the shipping costs are insane. As a choice of retailer for an Australian site, it's pretty piss poor, unless you're linking to digital media downloads. Go to a network like www.ClixGalore.com.au, and find local book merchants.

[Robyn]

Hi Bernster,

Welcome.

From my experience Newbie is spot on regarding Amazon (as is Harvey regarding the postage) - some very good affiliate programs with Clixgalore and DGM for local booksellers.

I like a bit of red it's bold (enough would be the highlights in the Nav bar, Header, About Us and Our Services) the rest is really excessive and should go. I think the blog looks good and is an excellent idea to get traffic to your site.

Good luck,
Regards,
Robyn

[Bernster]

Again - thank you all for your replies. Very impressed! This will be an interim site until I can get the time to complete a new look site. I also aimed to draw attention, develop an all in one marketing resource centre and gain an SEO advanage whilst I develop a new site. This will be based on this link:

http://www.dreamweaver-templates.net...-bs/index.html

I really wanted to have 'something' up and see if I could generate some interest an SEO advantage. The Blog is certainly drawing a nice crowd, with relevant articles on local marketing and events. My Veet Ad is top 3 on Google. Two months ago, I knew little about SEO, templates, affiliates - so much wiser today!

Again, thank you all for taking the time to visit my site. Your advice will be taken and re-presented in due course. Great stuff guys - well done! THANKYOU!

Bernster

[Gav]

Originally Posted by Bernster

Two months ago, I knew little about SEO, templates, affiliates

Yet you feel the need to say you're and SEO agency and can advise others?

Sheesh. I'll do med school for three months if it makes me a doctor.

I'll be honest, it's people like this that make life hard for the genuine companies out there who have got years of experience of putting it into practice. (Not blowing our own trumpet, but we've done work for MAJOR brands here in Oz and got great results.)

[Bernster]

GAV

I have years of marketing experience and 3 degrees to boot. PLease don't make comments like "it's people like this that make life hard for the genuine companies out there who have got years of experience of putting it into practice". All of them started somewhere!

I 'll be honest this time Gav, your comments are just plain rude and unfounded.

[Gav]

Erm, you admit to only finding out about seo two months ago but feel you can set up an agency advising on it?! We do all have to start somewhere, but that shouldn't be advising others on something you're just learning about.

Concentrate on what you know and what you can do wellwith your experience, which I'm sure is something. Don't pretend to be something you're not.

[El Craigo]

Bernster,

I won't get into the tiff below, but I'm also a little surprised that you offer services such as website design and SEO

A lot of people (myself included) have at one stage been burned by SEO firms, and if I were wanting to get a website built I would use your site as the benchmark of your talents.

I'm wondering, when I started my own business 8 years ago I was flogging my potential services to death, and nothing happened until I jagged business with Sanitarium. I leveraged this to then go onto other clients.

To me, one testimonial from a company you've actually worked with would be worth more than every character of text on your website.

El Craigo

[Bernster]

Yes and I have plans to add testimonials. I have two franchise testimonials and one retail which will be added shortly.

The SEO and website design will be outsourced as will a number of other marketing mix ingredients to partner designers and SEO specialists.

My skills are defined to certain industry groups and strategic planning, promotional development, campaign mgt + research. Although I can offer a wide range of services, I am focusing on providing clients with an integrated approach to their marketing and building affiliates who can do the work required on behalf of Marketing World. Hence the variety of services offered, which all form part of the overall strategy.

I know that my website is not right, far from it. The non-personal comments are all fine and sincerely appreciated BTW, but I wanted to try to develop it myself, every component, link, Blog, META, SEO, even if it did bring critisism. I can offer a variety of services, it doesn't mean I need to do them! Finally on this point, the website is an interim website. As I said inpost #1 it's no msn!

As per my inital post, I was seeking advice on affiliate marketing opportunities in Australia as I was accutely aware that Amazon is a US based coy and I wasn't happy with this situation. I was looking for who offered similar services in Australia and other options. I hope this makes things a little more clearer. To date from this thread I have become aware of DGM and reminded of Clix.

Again, thanks for you continued input, Gav, El, Newbie, Harvey and Robyn.

[bcl]

Originally Posted by Bernster

As per my inital post, I was seeking advice on affiliate marketing opportunities in Australia as I was accutely aware that Amazon is a US based coy and I wasn't happy with this situation. I was looking for who offered similar services in Australia and other options. I hope this makes things a little more clearer. To date from this thread I have become aware of DGM and reminded of Clix.

Again, thanks for you continued input, Gav, El, Newbie, Harvey and Robyn.

for affiliate networks for you to join, there is also Commission Monster. Or you could do a fishpond direct program for your books.

if you are suggesting affiliate marketing to your clients there is also the option of running their own in-house program and we have our own performance network for small businesses just wanting promotion on our sites. All have their pros and cons.

[El Craigo]

Bernster,

Why did you give the thread a thumbs down? This is a place for direct feedback, and all of the comments have been non-personal.

Craig