Wanted: Website Review Mobile Broadband Website Review

[Tricky1]

I can't justify the time to switch to Wordpress, but I don't think doing that would make me any more sales anyway. I need to work on traffic to the site, and then converting better, hence the minor tweaks.

Thanks for replying Accelerator and glad you didn't take offence at my comments..

First thing is you will more chance of making more sales if you can stop people immediately hitting the back button as soon as the site loads.

Adding an image of a dongle is not really going to make that much difference as the majority of punters arn't interested in what it looks like. They're only interested in what they are going to get for their buck.

I get the impression that in your mind the move to another platform is just too much work, but as previously mentioned a couple of days and your up and running, I'm more than happy to help, just PM me..

Just about to send you an example of a site I've just designed for a customer, PM on the way.

 

[AlienAlien is verified member.]

Change it ASAP - I bet your conversion rates and income go up long-term.

Here's a good WP one: http://demo.awesem.com/?theme=compare

If it was my site I could have that changed over and converted in a day or so tops - time well invested.

I also have loads of sites with static templates too (e.g. non WP) - some very nice buys on Theme Forest too.

 

[acceleratoraccelerator is verified member.]

Change it ASAP - I bet your conversion rates and income go up long-term.

I really appreciate the comments and keep them coming, but I only have time to work with the existing site structure, I can't face a fundamental overhaul.

I need comments about things that could be done to the existing site. One thing I've now done to improve the look is change the heading colours to dark grey instead of green. Not revolutionary, but a little step in the right direction perhaps.

Rgds

 

[AlienAlien is verified member.]

One thing I've now done to improve the look is change the heading colours to dark grey instead of green. Not revolutionary, but a little step in the right direction perhaps.

Rgds

It's a little softer perhaps.

Why not as an interim measure replace your stylesheet.css with a nicer combo of colours? Something a little more modern perhaps?

That way you can leave the rest of the site alone. :-D

 

[AlienAlien is verified member.]

PS: Interested - why are you using tables? <table>

 

[acceleratoraccelerator is verified member.]

PS: Interested - why are you using tables? <table>

Haven't felt it worthwhile to switch to CSS based design. Tables don't break in browsers and you can still build sites that makes sales with them.

Rgds

 

[boxfish]

Couldn't you use the profits from the site to outsource a redesign if you don't have time?

 

[acceleratoraccelerator is verified member.]

Couldn't you use the profits from the site to outsource a redesign if you don't have time?

I do have time, I just don't think it would be worth the time. I don't do outsourcing at the moment anyway.

Rgds

 

[retired_member36]

Just taken a look at some of your sites in your sig and http://www.moneyoffcode.co.uk/ is a much better design than the current one your using. (I would use this for your broadband site, and remove the featured stores part to make it that bit better).

Lee

 

[chippyb]

I do have time, I just don't think it would be worth the time. I don't do outsourcing at the moment anyway.

Rgds

You dont think its worth the time, something is not right there, the design is so ugly its unreal, im sorry but no one in there right mind would stay on that site, out of interest what is the bounce rate on that site?

There isnt little things to do to that to make it worth the time in the first place, why waste time making little tweaks that wont make the site any better, you do know css has come a long way since you must of designed that layout the first time.

You got to move with the times, the site scares me.

 

[boxfish]

I do have time, I just don't think it would be worth the time. I don't do outsourcing at the moment anyway.

Rgds

Changing the design won't just affect visitors looking to buy but also those threads you keep posting and bumping about swapping links, blogposts and facebook likes would also get a much better response, and from a better quality of website owner too.

 

[acceleratoraccelerator is verified member.]

OK, thanks for the comments guys.

In an effort to improve the look of the site, I've now changed the background colour to a light grey / silver. Does this help it look better? I think it does.

Rgds

 

[boxfish]

OK, thanks for the comments guys.

In an effort to improve the look of the site, I've now changed the background colour to a light grey / silver. Does this help it look better? I think it does.

Rgds

You've cracked it, looks spot-on now :cs

 

[Jamie101]

Just taken a look at some of your sites in your sig and http://www.moneyoffcode.co.uk/ is a much better design than the current one your using. (I would use this for your broadband site, and remove the featured stores part to make it that bit better).

Lee

By the looks of it, that site built with iCodes.

 

[domainseller200]

No offence but for someone working in this arena since <2005 it is quite worrying that you think it could even look like an authoritive website which people would trust and use.

OK, thanks for the comments guys.

In an effort to improve the look of the site, I've now changed the background colour to a light grey / silver. Does this help it look better? I think it does.

Rgds

This is a bit like painting a wing mirror of a Skoda a different colour, and asking if it looks better.

You obviously have a passion for working online and great determination to make something work, but without being disrespectful you remind me of one of these people on X Factor who return year after year with the same act and haven't taken onboard any of the advice given from previous critique.

 

[acceleratoraccelerator is verified member.]

No offence but for someone working in this arena since <2005 it is quite worrying that you think it could even look like an authoritive website which people would trust and use.



This is a bit like painting a wing mirror of a Skoda a different colour, and asking if it looks better.

You obviously have a passion for working online and great determination to make something work, but without being disrespectful you remind me of one of these people on X Factor who return year after year with the same act and haven't taken onboard any of the advice given from previous critique.

These are fair comments, but all I can say is, believe it or not, this website has made many sales ... so I must be doing something right!! However, it's fallen off recently, and that's been a traffic hit after Panda/Penguin or whatever.

It's not that I ignore advice, but I have overstretched myself by building a large number of sites, so it's difficult to attend to everything.

I like doing these threads because it motivates me to try and improve things. However, what I need is realistic "small steps" that might work, rather than what I tend to get, which is "scrap it and start again", which it's not something I feel is worth it.

Keep the comments coming though. Suggestions for small improvements that can be made are appreciated.

Rgds

 

[retired_member36]

which is "scrap it and start again", which it's not something I feel is worth it.

Can i just ask why you feel spending time tweaking the site is worth it but not starting again using something like wordpress with a bought theme. ?

I think you would be genuinly shockd at how quick you can bang a site together, especially since you already have all the content.

 

[inbound]

I can sympathise with you being concerned about the time/effort that changing the entire design of a site; it's all too easy to be afraid of change.

I think that you are hurting yourself by not taking the advice of so many people on here, and I'd like to add to the chorus of people singing from the same hymsheet. You should promise yourself to change one of these sites completely and then see how you feel after that - you may find that things you were concerned about were easier than you thought (and other seemingly simple things may turn out to be a nightmare and things to avoid later).

As it stands you are literally wasting time that could be better spent once you bite the bullet and change your modus operandi. Every small change that currently takes you minutes/hours could instead be taking you seconds/minutes if you were to invest time in updating your skillset/changing your mindset.

I also resist change, and I still use tables for many things, but I use CSS for many things where it's better. If you run dozens of sites then you really should have a method of working which separates the look of a site from the content. As it stands it seems to be the case that you are held back by the very thing that you don't want to change.

It might be a good idea for you to list your skills so that people can see what things may help you, suggesting things that you may learn easily based on current skills.

I think that you should resist creating more sites until you have streamlined your update/creation process (and improved the ability for you to update site design).

You don't need to use something like wordpress, if you have even basic PHP and Database skills along with the smallest helping of CSS you may be able to dramatically increase your productivity and profitability whilst easing your stress about managing many sites.

Please, please take the advice of people seriously - they are trying to help. As for the fact you have made sales; you probably could have made a lot more with a different design. Expectations are getting higher and higher - you are a decade behind and falling back - you might be currently catering to a very small percentage of people who still find your site credibility high enough (as your design calls that into question).

Ask yourself this:

Given the choice of 2 taxis for a journey, which you know will be priced very similarly or even identically, would you choose to ride in the 1 year old new looking, scratch-free taxi or would you go for the 12 year old taxi that's looking worse for wear? Which of those would you expect to be more likely to break down? If you were asked which operator was more likely to be around in a year, who would you say?

Your site is a that clapped out taxi when it comes to what image it projects about the person/company behind it. Some people will use it, but most will avoid it as they know there is plenty of choice (Google will direct them to competitors with a shiny new fleet).

The internet can be a brutal place when it comes to first impressions. Although you might not like to hear it; to me, and probably many experienced web users, your site is saying that you are a bedroom operator (that may not be around tomorrow), that you do not care about your own site (so why should you care about anything else about the quality of your operation) and that you don't understand technology (which is a bad thing when the content is any way technical).

The Good News:

Sometimes you can see incredible results by investing a (relatively) small amount of time. I changed the design of a site and saw a huge uptick in revenue for the same amount of visitors - I had avoided it as I thought I knew best, I eventually tested something after being pursuaded and found my thoughts were wrong. Be prepared to prove yourself wrong, always challenge yourself - do design specific A/B testing (this is easy when you separate design from content). I am not a designer (although I did the original design for the site in question) so I brought in assistance, it cost a little (things can be very cheap indeed) but it literally has paid off more than one thousand-fold (that's not revenue going up by that, it's the extra revenue generated by the change divided by the cost of the outside help).

Cost should not be an issue, if you cannot afford to buy in help then it's just further proof that you need to change. If you need to sell a site to be able to change the others then I think you should do that.

 

[boxfish]

It's not that I ignore advice, but I have overstretched myself by building a large number of sites, so it's difficult to attend to everything.

Are you planning on maintaining that number of sites indefinitely?

Now may be a good time to cut your losses, ditch the crap and focus on the ones which have the most potential.

 

[acceleratoraccelerator is verified member.]

Are you planning on maintaining that number of sites indefinitely?

Now may be a good time to cut your losses, ditch the crap and focus on the ones which have the most potential.

Now that I have built them I am just going to leave them up, but only focus on a handful of them.

Rgds