Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello Fellow Startup Nation members, and I would like to thank you first of all for those who take the time to provide me a Critique.

I have worked long and hard on this site, I built it on the Joomla 1.5 platform and I am fairly comfortable with overall layout, however additional comments would be appreciated.

My main concern is the content itself and , my ultimate goal is to inspire Entrepreneurship and provide information Entrepreneurs would like to read. I can't quite tell if I am hitting the mark being my traffic generation off the articles has not been quite what I expected. The secondary goal is to drive additional traffic to a product I have for sale.

1. I have been concerned perhaps something about the Joomla platform is making my site non-friendly to Google search from an SEO perspective but can't figure out what to do different.

2. Secondly, I would like some feedback on the content itself, presentation and possible usefullness to those I am trying to reach. Additionally I was wondering if you might feel the front page encourages further reading, if not what would be a good recommendation to encourage visitors to read the Blog's/Downloads/Products links and to visit the website for our first product the "Strategic Thinking" ebook which you will notice from the ad on the homepage.

3. Lastly, aside from the Strategic Thinking ebook, what can I do to further montize the site without having to many Google ads all over the place and all over my content, I would prefer quality rather than quantity for ads. What might be the best way to accomplish this? 

www.ExtensiveOpportunities.com

www.Think-Strategically-Now.com

Any additional comments are welcomed, thanks again for all your help! -  Mike

Anyone?

There's usually more responses than this, so I don't know what's the problem here.

I did look at your site yesterday and I decided to not critique it because I don't agree with the business model.  But I'll try.

I see a lot of 'make money' things on the site, and a predominance of Google ads - almost half of your landing page.  You have never said simply, what's in it for me to continue reading.  I am still not sure what it is you're selling, and how you are any different from thousands of similar sites.

Navigation-wise, I found myself all over the site trying to figure out why I should be there.  There's no clear "call to action".  You seem to be trolling for ad clicks.

I don't mean to be hostile, but the reason I didn't critique your site yesterday is because I don't understand your business model.

Steve

Thank you Steve,

           As for the business model, well its still being developed. I currently only have one product so far which is an Ebook titled Thinking Strategically. More are in the works..

The way the site is monitized is as followes.

I would say the call to action is a more subtle recommendation to

• Purchase our Strategic Thinking Ebook
  
• Purchase any of the recommended products in our directory (which I currently use, or reviewed and I found to be useful) that will also pay me a commission if they purchase. 
  
• Join our affiliate program to promote our Ebooks and receive a 50% commission on sales they refer
  
• Click advertisments

These are the mechanisms by which the site will earn money.

As for the whats in it for me/why should I be here question. I would say the site offers articles that inspire people to become Entrepreneurs and provide helpful articles within the Blog supporting this. So this is my target audience.

I hope the blog articles and products I offer cater to this customer base of aspiring Entrepreneurs. I also provide free downloadable forms that would help my target audience with starting a business or maintaining one. I would like to create more content that attracts my targeted audience and build site stickyness through the use of the community area.

I understand there are lots of other similar sites, however I am looking for more ways to differentiate the site, right now content topic selection and efficient organization are two ways I aim to accomplishing this.

So this is the current business model. What I can do to better accomplish this model or develope a better one is my goal. I would like to provide content and products of value that encourage entrepreneurship and educate while at the same time montizing the website.

Based off your critique Im thinking of:

• Doing away with the front page all together and making the Blog link the front page so the first thing a visitor sees is the Blog articles.
  
• Perhaps a quick sentence on top about what my aim is such as  (just a generic example: "Articles to Inspire The Entrepeneur in You") so they will know whats in it for them and what they can expect from the content.
  
• And perhaps use more of the space on the blog side bar informing them of the Ebook and why they should purchase to create a stronger call to action.

Not sure how to draw more attention to the Products, Downloads and Community area links just yet? Maybe they will come into play on their own after I develope my reader base?

I still think I need more SEO optimization throughout the whole site as well?  

Thoughts??

Thanks again for your critique!