Question

Topic: Website Critique

Need Help Fast!!!

Posted by Anonymous on 4/18/2010 at 2:57 PM ET 500 Points
Hi all. Happy Spring to everybody!!!

Been a month or two since my last post. Up to my arms in work :(

Anyway, here's the situation...

A very good friend of mine called me a few months back seeking some advice. This friend happens to be a very good talent agent in show business. He's also a former actor who's appeared in numerous t.v. shows and movies.

Basically, he was seeking to add another revenue stream to his current businesses.

He wrote a few ebooks and was willing to provide consultation's for parents seeking to get their kids involved in show biz.

Since I've been "fiddling" with building websites for a few years and he wasn't looking for anything beyond my capabilities design wise, I told him maybe we could put together something inexpensive and fast to just test the idea out. So...

That's exactly what we did.

Although the design isn't "pretty", I come from the school of copy. Copy is what sells. Of course a good product, customer service and all that other stuff too. However, if they've never heard of my friend, the copy is what's going to close the deal.

I came up with what I thought was some good, enticing, "sell the sizzle" copy, and a LOT of benefits.

We also bought some really great keywords (fantastic actually) from adwords. Now, so far, our CTR is averaging out to be about 2%. Which is a pretty darn good CTR. Some keyword's are as high as 11% or 12% and some are okay. However, the important thing is the across the board average CTR of 2%.

We've had the website up for (3) days now...not one sale.

Can't figure this one out for the best of me folks.

BTW, we've been averaging about 20 - 25 clicks per day. So, that means roughly 75 - 80 people have visited the site so far, and no takers.

Great offer, did my homework on the keywords, organized everything perfectly, getting a sufficient amount of traffic and click thru's, but, NO SALES?!?!

Now I have been doing a LOT of reading lately. From all of the info i've gathered, here's what I keep reading...

It is VERY hard nowadays to make a one-time, instant sale from a website. And I tend to believe it. However, I DIDN'T expect it to be THIS bad.

To be fair, here's the positives:

1. Didn't spend a lot of money putting this together. Peanuts actually. That was the purpose of the test. A little market research.

2. The site has only been up for (3) days, so, I might be "jumping the gun" a bit.

3. We put down an initial spend of $50.00 per day for our keywords. So far, we haven't even hit that number yet. We might today.

4. Since we're still in the testing phase, I can and will change anything to get this to work.

Finally, my friends goal was to get two or three sales a day. Not hard with a good product, strong offer & enough traffic. But, I can't seem to bolster down what's working and what's not. Since I put it all together, hard for me to judge my own work.

Take a peek and see if you guys can come up with anything.
Let'r rip people :) Here's the URL...

www.KidsForCommercials.com



To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 4/18/2010 at 3:29 PM Accepted
    Joe, I think what you have here is a strong foundation from which to build, but -- and keep in mind, writing and designing are *very* subjective, and no writers or designers will ever agree 100% on anything! -- I would change things around here -- a LOT.

    So, IN MY OPINION only...

    I'd lose that star at the top. You're wasting too much real estate with it.

    I'd forget the word "learn" in the headline. People don't want to "learn." Learning is work.

    You need to go over your copy with a fine-tooth comb and edit and proof-read. You tend to pluralize a lot of words with apostrophes, for example, which is not correct.

    Much of the copy at the beginning is about your friend. It's very me-me-me. That comes later at the proof stage when you're convincing people that you're credible and trustworthy, not at the beginning.

    I don't care for the centered copy. I also think you have way too many fonts, colors, and formats in there.

    The offer seems muddled to me. It's really not clear what I'm getting or what the benefits are. I don't care much for the second option of buying just the e-books.

    PayPal is easy, but it's a double-edged sword. Some people won't have a PayPal account, and they won't see the small print about how they don't need one.

    I also think you need a money-back guarantee.

    In my opinion, you need to take a more fundamental approach to the structure of your copy:

    Problem
    Promise
    Proof
    Proposition

    The reader should be able to answer these five questions after reading your copy:

    Why me?
    Why you?
    Why this?
    Why now?
    Why this price?

    Don't be afraid to use longer copy, either. You're trying to take someone from zero to a paid offer right away, so you have some selling to do.

    Another thing to consider is just making this landing page about giving away a free ebook, then working the upsell down the road with more touches.

    OK, that's all I have time for at the moment (Sunday calls!), but I hope it helps. You'll get other good responses here, too, as you know.

    Paul
  • Posted by mgoodman on 4/18/2010 at 4:23 PM Accepted
    I haven't looked at the website because I think most of your problem is that you don't have perfect message match between your ads and the landing page (which is your homepage).

    When someone sees your ad and clicks on it, they expect the offer/promise to be paid off immediately. They need to see that the page on which they land is an exact reflection of the promise in the ad they saw and clicked on. You're probably giving them a brochure-like homepage instead.

    Let me suggest you spend an hour with a MarketingProfs seminar on landing path experiences and how to dramatically improve conversions. It's titled:

    High-Performance Landing Pages that Boost Your Bottom Line

    The seminar is free, and you can access it here: https://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/226

    Everything you note as possible reasons for the lack of conversions is probably operative, but that doesn't mean that waiting a while, spending more money, or upgrading the site quality will solve the problem. And none of this considers the actual copy or appearance of the site. But you ARE getting a decent CTR, so the problem is obviously based on the site itself and the landing experience you're providing for your site visitors.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 4/18/2010 at 4:32 PM Moderator
    Just took a quick look at the landing page. Yes, it's a brochure ... not specific to the promise/offer in your ads.

    And I would observe that e-books are still not viewed as "serious" books. The site could use some credibility building, and the e-books just confirm that this is a fly-by-night operation.

    Is that the problem? Not sure, but it certainly doesn't help.

    Your "research" project may not yield a valid answer to the original question. You want to know (a) if your search advertising will generate website traffic, and (b) if this is a viable business opportunity for your friend. You have the answer to the first question, and what you're testing for the second is whether the copy, offer and website presentation are right. Those are very different questions.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/18/2010 at 4:45 PM Accepted
    If your client has "IT", then let them show IT using a video ad.

    The website as presented is too hard to read (layout), and therefore my first impression isn't "professional". If your client is all that they say, I'd want this to feel like a professional website, showcasing before/after, easier to find testimionials, etc. Furthermore, I'd like a sample of what you're offering for free (perhaps in exchange for my email address). Let me sample the goods to ensure you've got a wealth of information at a great price that's applicable to my needs.
  • Posted on 4/18/2010 at 5:23 PM Author
    WOW, went and lit up the barbecue & had a scrumptious lunch. Came back and already (6) responses. Great!!!

    All of the feedback was excellent. I will be putting into effect some of your changes within a day or two. Especially inbox_ interactive's :)

    Couple of questions for ya'll...

    1. What is leading some of you to think "scam"? Admittedly, my design capabilities are quite lacking, however, again, this was just something to put up inexpensively and quickly to see if the idea "has wheels". Aside from the design, what else? BTW, Karen I do agree with you that it would help to have some links to social networking sites about Darren, etc. However, we don't want to give someone the option to click away from the site. They might actually do it :) Makes it harder to get them back. And in terms of the URL, again I do agree. However, if the idea fails, would make no sense to own a URL longer than (1) year.

    2. Mr. Goodman, how does ebook spell scam? Virtually everyone and their mother is selling an ebook online nowadays. Even Perry Marshall (whose EXCELLENT adwords guide you recommended) sells ebooks, white papers & e-courses going for thousands of dollars.

    3. Any hard, concrete suggestions on how to make the testimonials come across as more authentic. Each one is absolutely real and all happen to be a client of my friend. However, we obviously can't put the clients phone # as they would get a hundred calls a day. I do agree with you guys, but, don't know how to execute it.

    4. My buddy provides a phone consultation. He's not just hiding behind a book. He really does know his stuff. We DO have permission to use several of his (well known) past clients comments about how great he is on the website, but, who's to say the audience still won't believe him. Everybody else is just doing the ebook thing. We are striving for something more. Something of value.

    Thanks for the great feedback. Going to mull over all of the suggestions and go from there...
  • Posted by mgoodman on 4/18/2010 at 6:00 PM Moderator
    Re e-Books and scam:

    Precisely because everybody is selling ebooks, people are starting to recognize that they can't all be good. It's too easy to create a shallow e-book and market it online. The perception is that real experts (and real authors) write "real" books, with ISBNs and available at Amazon.com, in bookstores, etc.

    And white papers are usually free ... designed to provide a valuable sample of what a company can do, or to demonstrate expertise to prospective customers.

    Of course there are valuable and good e-books and e-courses. The point I was making is that when you see a site that looks a little flaky and then see that they're selling electrons, not atoms, a red flag goes up and says, "be careful."

    Perry Marshall, BTW, is one of the best copywriters in the United States. His website has tons of valuable, free content, and he establishes his credibility very well BEFORE he tries to sell you an e-book or an e-course. When your friend gets to that level (even with professional help), then the e-books may make a lot of sense.

    Finally, you might consider this alternative for your friend: Give away a few tidbits free. Then sell the e-books at a reasonable price ... say, $9.95. Then offer customers a personal, one-on-one (45-minute) consultation by phone or in person for just $75. See if that works better for him.
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Website Critique)