Presenter Media is a website that offers PowerPoint templates, animations and clipart for unlimited download during an entire year subscription. It’s a great deal, but most first time visitors miss the subscription information. The video website critique shows where the website can use some improvements to make the subscription services more prominent to new visitors.
• Basically put the focus on your subscription service. Check that your main website content is above the fold. If people can’t see it, they won’t subscribe!
Homepage
• The Flash animation at the top is not working in your favor. It’s displaying your products, but not showing what could be accomplished using your products. You are not just selling images/clipart so I believe it’s best to show what can be done using your products instead of just displaying them.
• There are so many ways you can use that top banner space, but the most effective way is to create a call-to-action for the subscription. Just take a look at other subscription based stock photo websites and you’ll notice that the subscription information is right there at the top to grab the visitor’s attention.
Screenshot of www.getharvest.com
• Another option is to polish up the look and feel of the 3 categories that you currently have blending into the text. For example take a look at what Harvest did on their homepage to focus on the subscription and below that show the 3 distinct groups that they’re targeting.
If you’re viewing this review and want to add more suggestions, please add your comments below.
Disclaimer
The video website critique and suggestions are for you to review and take what you feel will better your business website. There’s no guarantee that the suggestions mentioned will improve your business. Design Leap is not held responsible for any negative outcome.
After putting time, energy, and money into your small business website, you’re eager to welcome visitors and show them around the place. You know some tips for attracting traffic, but how do you convince visitors to stick around and return often?
Content
Catch the web browser’s eye with content that is interesting and unique. If visitors see something that piques their interest, they’ll stick around and check out what else your small business has to offer.
Make regular updates so people have a reason to return. Provide links to new information from your homepage, or offer email updates–returning visitors will appreciate the ease of seeing what’s new.
Organize your content in a way that makes it easy to browse. Provide your visitors with a natural path through your website, so they continue moving and checking out new pages.
Avoid Flash intros and other design choices that will make your website load slowly. People often have limited patience and will move on without waiting for your page to load.
Interactivity
The Internet is growing increasingly social, and people appreciate websites that provide ways to interact. Comments, ratings, and polls all encourage users to become more invested in your site, and can also help you learn valuable information about their experience.
Include internal links whenever they’re relevant, so visitors keep discovering new parts of your website. Avoid outbound links on your homepage–you don’t want to direct visitors away before they even have a chance to see your site–and have them open in new tabs or windows so your website stays open.
Keep these principles in mind, and you’ll find that your website visitors will stick around longer (a lower bounce rate) and return often, resulting in higher conversion rates and improved visitor response.
Email marketing sounds intimidating to many small business owners, but it’s an excellent way to promote your products and services. In addition to being one of the most up-to-date marketing methods, email marketing has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive – no paper or printing costs, no postage fees, and no promotional materials left unused.
But how do you build an email list from scratch? Although you can buy or rent email lists, there are several disadvantages to that method: it can be expensive, you can’t be sure the addresses were obtained legitimately, and you have no assurance that you’re reaching your target audience. Instead, use these simple tips to create a more useful opt-in list, composed of people who have asked to be included:
Take every opportunity to ask. Promote your email list in correspondence with your current customers, on your printed promotional materials (business cards, brochures, etc.), and in person at networking events. Whenever you exchange business cards with someone, ask if you can put them on your email list. Place a “Join Our Email List” link in your email signature, with a brief description of the benefits of doing so.
Make it easy. Provide a simple, interactive form on your website. Place it in a prominent area on the front page, above the fold, and include a form on every page of your site so visitors will be reminded to sign up as they browse. If you have a physical location, offer a way to sign up at the cash register or front desk.
Offer incentives. People rarely give away their email address for no clear reason, but provide it willingly as a way to enter a contest, receive discounts, and take advantage of Internet-only specials. Giving away a free e-book, white paper, or other useful information in exchange for an email address is another popular method. This is a great opportunity to share some of your personal expertise with your customers by creating your own guide or brief e-book.
Respect your clients’ privacy. People are wary of spam email, so make it clear that you will not sell or rent your email list to third parties, and you will only send emails that your clients have opted-in to receive. Although it can be tempting to use your sign-up form as an opportunity for market research, don’t ask for personal information like age or phone number. People are much more likely to sign up if they only need to enter their email address.
Use a professional. Email marketing services can be surprisingly affordable, and their tools and expertise can be well worth the price. Keep in mind that many professional email marketing services require that address lists you provide be confirmed by the email users before you can begin emailing them. The best way to be sure the email user will confirm is if they provided you with their email address themselves, which is another reason to use the above tips to create your own list instead of buying one. This is the case with AWeber, the email marketer I use and one I highly recommend (they have a great autoresponder feature that I love).
Make it worth it. Use your email list as an opportunity to provide your clients with high-quality information, great deals, and real expertise. Your subscribers will look forward to your communications and forward them on to their friends, keeping your email list – and customer list – growing.
If your domain shows that it’s expiring in less then a year, the search engines see your website as not being stable and they may deduct points for SEO. It’s best to register your domain name for more than a year to show the search engines that you have a stable website and that you’re not a temporary spam site.
Launchx provides all-in-one business start up kits for people who are just getting started on launching their business. The video website critique of www.launchx.com offers suggestions on how to improve their website to promote their products easier and better.
• Clean up the organization on all the pages to flow and look consistent throughout the website.
• Use better quality images and size them to look consistent and give a more professional look.
• Add the contact information where everyone can see it on every page (make it easy for people to get in touch with you).
• Call more attention to your Guarantee (assuring people that you’re there for them will make selling the products easier).
Homepage
• Add a call-to-action so people can click and discover other information on your website. Adding a promotion or a special offer can work very well here.
• Reorganize the look and order of information to what is most important first.
Products
• Product pages shouldn’t have links that take away the user from purchasing the product. Make it as less distracting as possible to eliminate people leaving the product page to view other offers.
Other recommendation
• Make the blog link directly from the navigation menu and make it look like the user never left your website.
Of course there are more things to dive deeply into making this site better such as search engine optimization, but this is a whole different subject and will require it’s own review.
If you’re viewing this review and want to add more suggestions, please add your comments below.
Disclaimer
The video website critique and suggestions are for you to review and take what you feel will better your business website. There’s no guarantee that the suggestions mentioned will improve your business. Design Leap is not held responsible for any negative outcome.
Helping over 120,000+ businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber's opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=4a87a5ec-a5e0-4d7c-9358-3190999925bb)
Website Critique | Yiana Palacios | 
February 10, 2010 6:30 am | 
Comments (0) ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=dc23fce4-0e03-4b0d-b227-013e114a4227)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=a7d96a44-7105-4d5c-9acd-338dd7a20658)
Subscribe