Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I joined S.u.N. 4 months ago with only an idea of what I wanted to do in business and thanks to some very special people here, I have been able to make my vision become a reality. My new website is http://www.golflessonacademy.com Please if anyone can come and give me your thoughts on the user friendlyness of the site, any thoughts on how to promote it, and just any thoughts in general, it would be helpful.

I want to thank Roland of http://www.vwebworld.com  for all of his hard work and willingness to tell me it could be done, when others told me it could not. I kept waiting for him to tell me that at some point there has to be a limit to what I wanted to do. However, that statement never came and we are now up and running and ready for business. I want to tell others, "This really is one heck of a community and site!!!"  

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Golf Lessons Golf Lesson Academy brings you three ways to a world class golf swing.

Hi Chris :-) Welcome to the community.

For the moment, two things bugged me. I had a hard time figuring out what to click on in order to activate various links. I see no reason why you can`t make links out of your headings. That`d have nice big text and those > buttons.

The other is that I`d move your introduction video up to the top of the page. Importantly, the volume is so low I couldn`t hear it, and the player was already at the highest volume setting. Re-do the audio because I couldn`t hear a damn thing.

Finally, what I`d like to see, perhaps to the right of the intro video window, is a *succinct* explanation of exactly what is your product and how does it help me. Getting lessons for life, to me, having just skimmed your site, sounds like it would cost a lot of money, obligate me to something, and lock me into something I might not want to be stuck with later.

The text was very small, even on my high resolution, so my eyes and brain were just too tired to read the "About Us" page. I`d like some larger bullets, and at least on the main landing page, a larger font that very quickly tells me what I want to know:

• What is this site
• What does it sell
• How do I get involved
• Can I see an example.

:-D I did get the idea that it`s about golf, though....so all is not lost.

The text was very small.

And the intro video ... you are hard to see! If you are not really doing ... anything ... why not make a smaller-sized video, but just maybe your upper body, and put it closer to the top? That camera angle was really odd. It`s like the camera is on a low chair?? Sound was fine for me though. I would actually label it "INTRODUCTION" however. When you label something "IMPROVE YOUR GAME" and you don`t even have a club in your hand, it makes me wonder if the other videos are lacking in actual instruction ...

There shouldn`t be a vertical line after the last navigational item, Contact Us. (It`s actually called a "pipe", not a line, but I figured most people wouldn`t get that. )

I`m with Craig. I wanted, in huge letters across the top,

ON-DEMAND GOLF VIDEOS
ONLINE GOLF INSTRUCTION
GOLF SWING ANALYSIS

The "Lessons for Life" section was meaningless and did nothing for me.

There`s almost way too much text on the entire front page. It seems to be written for computers, not humans.

When I am in the "Pro Shop", I can`t seem to get back to the front page. Clicking on the logo or the Home button just takes me to the front page of the Pro Shop.

Here is the real problem though ... you say "free downloads" but then I am putting something in my cart? Do I not get any samples? Drop a few on YouTube for some viral marketing and put your URL on them. And then you can embed those on your site as samples. If the only sample I have without adding something to my cart is the introduction video (which you label "Improve your game") ... I would not be purchasing or downloading. You didn`t even have a club in your hand! So you need some ready-made samples that I can just see.

Here is what you can do to make me go from "looking at your site" to actually "purchasing your videos" ... and to "telling others":
1) Post some videos on your site using YouTube. Add your URL to the bottom of the video so people know where to go for more as it plays.
2) Embed this video into your site as a sample, free video, whatever.
3) Put a function on the bottom of it, below the video, that says "e-mail to a friend" or "tell someone". So not only am I going to view it and consider purchasing it, but I can send it to my husband`s aunts, his father, and my dad - all avid golfers. They follow the link, watch the video, and then perhaps purchase some of your other videos.

BUT

if my only option is download and add to cart, none of these things are going to happen. I`m not going to give you all my info for a free video, and I`m not going to tell my friends.

The rest of the site seems like it works fine. And I love the idea of this thing - good job!

(I don`t golf myself btw, but I do purchase golf items and gifts for my husband. I have purchased golfing instruction for him before. So I also think you should offer GIFT CERTIFICATES.)

Thanks for the good feedback.

The videos on Golf Lesson Academy   are embeded from Google video rather than YouTube. Google was choosen because its` presentation.. Embeding a video from YouTube also presents other "related" videos, which we did not want.

Viral marketing using YouTube and MySpace is in the works  too.

Oh yes, gift certificates  are now activated in the ProShop.

~Roland

 

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

Just a quick note about presentation. On this link two screen captures for comparison, the top one is this site the bottom one yours, on your site there is a lot of wasted space on both the left and right sides as you can see that doesn`t happen here. Also in order to view the site properly I must download plug-ins, that detracts from your site, I`d suggest you do away with whatever plug-ins are required.

Sorry, couldn`t view your link

The plug-ins should only be those required to view the flash video...a Flash Player. This is a common plug-in that most people should already have if they have every viewed a video clip online...as most sites use Flash to play clips.

~Roland

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

I want to thank all of you that have sent your helpful input, as we are in the process of making some changes based upon your suggestions. The information you have provided is helpful and I just wanted to say, thanks.

 

Chris

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Golf Lessons Golf Lesson Academy brings you three ways to a world class golf swing.

Simply refresh the page, it should work.

Yes Roland, I should`ve said that I use Fx with no plug-ins to browse the net, only after I `know` the site if required will I go there with a fully enabled browser. However many sites i/e this one don`t required plug-ins or extensions to view them correctly I prefer that type of layout.

Well, I`m assuming Google Video and YouTube will be one and the same at some point ... 

You can still drop some videos on YouTube, even if you don`t embed them.

The real point is that I didn`t want to watch the "free downloads" because I had to go through the cart to get them. I really wanted them just right on the site - some samples of your capabilities.

Eli,
At first I couldn`t see the images, but then refreshed and they were there. I`m not at all a developer, but have taken the time to learn how to put up some HTML info for Kathy`s and my flyer. One of the big decisions is whether or not to make a page go all the way across *whatever* monitor someone uses, regardless of their software. It`s not so easy, given the various differences.

Yes, it`s classier to do a full-width page. But it`s also accepted, having a centered or left-justified site explicitly set to a width. I think people just ignore the white space on either side, when it`s done the second way.

I guess it depends on how much time is involved in development, what value to place on elegance, and how long the particular iteration of the site is expected to last. For a long-term, "final" site, I think taking the time to go with % of monitor is maybe more professional looking.