Hi,
I have been with for just over a year now. I have only 1-10 sales a month. I have about 400 hits a day. I have advertised only myself with search engine submission. I have be to scared to do the PPC thing. I really don't have the funds to put out a lot of $'s. Please give advise on what I need to change or where I need to go. I want to desperatly quit my other two jobs and work only at home. Here is my website. Please give feedback Visit My Website Thank you
Vicki

First impression when opening the page is it looks pretty good. But when I scrolled down the page it seemed to loose any cohesiveness to it. Looks ...... incomplete. As if the designer just gave up and started tossing stuff into the page.

Your SSL really doesn't do anything but show an image. Anyone can put up an image.

Why are you advertising all that ..... stuff! ... below your credit cards?

Final impression? Not very professional. Not a site that makes me want to stick around and buy from. Or even search through.

You don't want to advertise others people sites on your site unless your linking back. I would create a link page to do this.

You don't have a clear phone number on top of the screen. When I put my phone number up I quadrupled my phone calls and more than half become sales.

KENNYE
Can you rip my site apart for me? I am curious whats your opinion.

I have the advertising search engines under my credit cards becuase I thought I had to put those on my 1st page to be advertised by these search engines. Hopefully that makes since. If I don't have to have them there, they are being removed today. Can I put these on my links page? As for the rest, I do need to change. thank you for being honest. I noticed a couple of websites that have just text on the bottom of their homepage with names of products and manufacturers. Does this help.'
Vicki

Well, I like your site. My whole family is into fishing. I will give them your site. I work three different jobs, so I don't have a lot of time to work on my pages everyday. I will have some time today. I am going home today at 1pm and going to make some changes. If you have any other suggestions please let me know. I don't have a telephone number due to I can't answer the phone until after 7pm. Not sure how that will work. Looks like I better look into getting myself a toll free # and answering machine.
You have a very nice website.
thanks again
Vicki

If you'll start your own thread I'd be happy to rip you a new one. <lol> Don't want to highjack Vicky's thread.

I noticed you FAQ link doesn't go anywhere. The other ones do, so I guess it's not on my side. That would red flag me as a customer.

You're obviously using the basic MC templates, which is what I started to do, then broke down and spent some $ to get a designer. Those basic templates look very unprofessional, imho. However, you did a good job with your fonts and colors. obviously provides the bare minimum with templates, they want you to pay them to improve it.

I agree with the cohesive comment, overall, your homepage looks pretty good but I start getting "lost" as I scroll down. I would try and organize it better so your customers don't have to scroll down any more than they have to on your homepage. I've heard this is a killer, and I personally don't like doing it when I visit pages. Your home page should be the launch pad for the rest of your site. I'm not sure why below the Search by Price there is a picture of a coffee press and ten more items listed? Is this your top products? If so, I'd make sure a button is in there stating that and maybe move it so it doesn't stretch your page out so much on that side.

The other red flag, hate to say it, was mentioned above - your ssl image. Anyone can do that. Unfortunately it costs $ to get a certificate but the NetSol basic cert is only like $120 per year. That at least would give you some credibility. I personally run from sites that dont' have some kind of security, there are too many thieves out there. You already have 128 ssl through MC, but only we know it. Anyone else can say it.

Overall, you've done way way way better than I did with the basic template!

Coomdo has SSL for $99 for 2 years. Go to Authorize.net's site and click SSL.

Thank you so much for your input. I feel really stupid to ask, but what is ssl image mean? And what do you mean when you say pay to get a certificate? I have not heard this before. I really need to get on this board more. You guys really help. With three jobs I need to carry my lap top everywhere I go. My co- workers are already wondering why they here typing in the bathroom stall LOL. Thanks again and look forward to more comments.

vicki

If I could add one more idea, for your center content on your home page, instead of just re-listing certain products that you're already selling, create a new category, something different from "dinnerwear" or "ice cream machines", not sure what exactly, but how about something like "complete chef's kitchen" and list like 6 or so different products like a knife set, center island, blender, etc. So someone can pick what items they want to become a "true chef". Make it fun and interesting and unique. Research other sites like yours and see what they are doing. Not sure if you have photoshop, but take a general picture that seems relevant to Complete Chef Kitchen, or modify one of the product pictures, put the text "Complete Chef Kitchen" (or something that sounds more fun ) underneath, and insert it into html message editor or html news editor. This will give you a unique image that can be linked to a whole new set of products in this new category you've created.

Maybe do another with "Sale on Dinnerware". People absolutely love sales, even if they don't know that they aren't getting a better deal than anywhere else, it makes people feel all warm and fuzzy inside and will at least get them to click and get further into your site.

With the Complete Chef Kitchen example, If you want to put 6 different products on the same page from different categories, manufacturers, etc. this is how you do it. In the "keywords" on each product details editor page, make up a search function like - complete_chef_kitchen. Put that in the keywords section of each item you want on that landing page. Then in your search box type "complete chef kitchen" and all of those items will come up. Now copy the link that got you to that page, it will start with "index...." Next, go to the image or text you have added in your homepage news or message editor and insert that link into the image or text. Now if a customer wants to see what entails a Complete Chef Kitchen, they just click on the homepage image/link and voila, they get all those items on the same page. It's a cool little trick I learned from the great people in these posts.

I'm just thinking that doing something interesting and unique with your homepage content may at least improve how long people stay on your site longer. I know it's hard when it's your own site, that's why very soon I'll be posting a similar topic, to tear my site apart as well!

I'm not real good with this, but an SSL certificate is an image you pay extra for to prove you have SSL and are a legitimate business. The company you purchase the certificate from will verify your address, and other info so when the customer mouses over the certificate image they get a small window that shows you've been verified as a legit business. GeoSafe and others have such high image recognition that they instill, or claim to, a high level of "comfort" to customers. You have 128 bit shared SSL with your cart, but no one knows it but you and us. So displaying the certificate not only shows you have SSL, it shows you've been verified by the issuing company to be a legit biz.

Check out baitnhooks site, the link is above, (awesome looking site, btw). He has Comodo, look in the lower right of the window and mouse over it. There are lots of companies, they offer all different levels of certificates and security.

You'll see "Hackersafe" which is an entirely different bird. It's not SSL, but it scans your webpage daily to make sure there are no security threats, and to make sure no one is hacking in from another computer to steal other people's info. I'm not sure how exactly it differs from SSL, they explain it on their homepage, I just haven't sat down and studied it yet.

All these security measures provide a level of comfort to the buyer and claim to boost sales. There's lots of controversy with that, I don't know personally either way, but I always check sites for these security measures before ordering, personally. It doesn't mean you're completely safe, but it sure helps.

I'm still kind of a newbie, so if anyone wants to correct any of this, by all means.....

I would also remove the 'Powered By MonsterCommerce Shopping Cart Software' at the bottom and add your phone number. Take out the two Browse all products at the top, you only need it once at the bottom (the one at the top is linked wrong anyway and may mess up your search listings).

One more, you should add wish lists.

You are a true warrior.

I'd like to add that your SHOP button should not lead to the quick order page (personally the quick order feature is not too bright of an idea is like shopping via microsoft excel), maybe you should replace it for a HOME button.

I do like the open white on your site, as I think it makes it look clean and it enhances the pictures you have (you have some nice bright pictures). I agree with removing the coffee press single picture on your left/lower side, maybe replace it with some icon-like picture and title for the stuff under it.

This forums can help you alot in many ways, there is good people here.. even Martini Guy.. (Kidding LOL) and we all went trhough what you are.

Scooter

For getting more people to your site you should add more decriptive text on the homepage. Check out the SEO theards here and I believe that will be a big help for getting more hits. You should catergorize you products better with more "stair stepping" of categories. This will help in building page counts to get index. Also you can add custom html text to each category page to make your site more unique with unique content.. I guess all this is part of SEO and should do some research into this.

My 2 cents.