Would really like some feedback!

[Jeremy]

Hi all,

I'm recently new (5 months) to affiliate marketing and would like some feedback on my site... http://www.saveandwinonline.com.au/ It's been designed as an online directory for competitions (free and not so free!), shopping savings and a money and finance directory as well.

All constructive criticism is welcome!

Cheers,

Jeremy

[PeterH]

Hi Jeremy,

Welcome to the forum, great to see you're asking for advice - its a good way to learn.

To be perfectly honest with you I think your site needs some personality.

I'd test adding a photo of yourself right up the top with a blurb about why your site is different than all the other competition sites on the net.

Some things to think about: Why should visitors use your site? Why should they come back every week?

I'd also test moving your subscribe page to the homepage and include a really enticing offer that people who are competition junkies would want, you'll get more opt-ins that way.

Wishing you all the success,

Peter.

[Marlnet]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

Hi all,

I'm recently new (5 months) to affiliate marketing and would like some feedback on my site... http://www.saveandwinonline.com.au/ It's been designed as an online directory for competitions (free and not so free!), shopping savings and a money and finance directory as well.

All constructive criticism is welcome!

Cheers,

Jeremy

Welcome Jeremy

My thoughts would be:

The look and feel of the site is a little disjointed - it's neither here nor there. The header is old fashioned, yet it is coupled with big, bold buttons. I'm not convinced that the two markets work well on one site as the contradict each other in many respects (imho)...

Maybe see how things look with a more consistent colour scheme - there's a real mix of font colours going on in there! Maybe lighten the mood if you want with a more relaxed colour for the competition side of things if you like, but balance that with a more corporate tone (navy, balck, charcoal grey) when you're offering financial advice.

On a page like this -

http://www.saveandwinonline.com.au/Borrow-Money.aspx

You might consider replacing the banners with the corresponding company logo - and I would be having the text justified to the left of the page, with the logos on the right. You want people to trust your judgement - step back from your site and ask yourself if you would...

You could leave the banners on the comp side of things if you wanted to, but people suffer from 'banner blindness' so you would really need to break them up more - spend some time looking around the sites you are promoting: what do they tell you, what could you write about them to tempt people to follow the link? Enthuse your visitors a little, get them excited.

Other points:

Remove the banner form the 'about us' page - that is your corporate information page, not a sales page. One font colour, text not centralised down the middle.

A newsletter is a good idea - but again you've put a banner on the page - that detracts away from the focus - getting them to sign up!

Lastly I would reconsider the "Free Ads" from adgridwork - if you want ads as well, limit yourself to the Google ones...

I think overall that with a little tweaking and calming down, the site could work really quite well for you. All you have to do now is promote it!!!

If you're producing sites as accomplished as this after just 5 months, then the future is bright for you! Hope this feedback helps - Good luck...

Paul

[Jeremy]

Hey PeterH,

Thanks for the feedback - i greatly appreciate it! Without the constructive criticism (and it's always hard to take criticism!!) i would be blind to a lot of negative points about the site... I shall take your points on board and have a look at some things i can change. Once again - thanks for having a look! I'll be back soon for some more feedback with my tweaks in place!

Cheers.

Jeremy

[Jeremy]

Paul - thank you so much for your review of Save And Win Online...

Getting someone else to critique the website is the only way any website can better itself... as i said to PeterH - it is hard to take the criticism but it's always for the greater good of the site!

I will take what you said on board, tweak as much as possible to make it more user friendly and more appropriate where it needs to be and then see if you're available to have another look!

Thanks again for your feedback - it is most apreciated!

Cheers,

Jeremy

[Tim]

Hi Jeremy - Welcome to the forum.

Just a few comments on the site: -

Too many banners - It just didn't look like it had any real focu, after seeing a few pages with many banners, I could have been turned off by it. I personally don't like to see animated banners - unless in the positions I would expect to see them such as headers / footers and the side. Perhaps smaller 120 images, less flashy but with some good quality text would be more effective?

There should be a clear call to action button or similar for the products.

For instance I have this site here very much in development (started last week), which i will focus on some articles and decent content to get it shifting as well as the datafeeds. I try and get it clean and simple as possible.