Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi,
I`m new here and would love some input!

I`m getting ready to revamp my website.   The site builder I worked with had limitations and I`ve since moved the content, but need to change some things.

www.flippee.com

Does my site explain the product?
Is it easy to navigate?
What would make it better?

Thanks for your help!
Annmarie

Hi Annmarie :-) What a clever idea!

I have two thoughts: The first is trivial, and needs only a grammar change. On your order page, you have:
That doesn`t actually make sense, so just change the sentence structure. Do you mean all orders receive $5.99 "off" or that all orders ship for $5.99 flat rate?

The more difficult problem is consistency in look and feel. When I go to that order page, I lose the standard tabs along the top. Granted, by that time I probably already have looked around.

However; another probable scenario is what I did. I wanted to know how much is the product before I spent too much time on the site. I didn`t see the price on the home page, so had to click the Order button. Then I couldn`t see the navigation tabs and had to click "Home" to get them back.

Why not just put the price right there in your content, on the home page? It`s a well-done page, tells me exactly what you`re selling, and tells me how it`ll help my life. It`s a good "sale letter" type of thing, and I see no reason why you can`t just include the price, like a catalog page in a mail-order catalog.

Other than that, I don`t see a whole lot to change. :-)

Actually, thinking about it, there is one more thing. This has been coming up lately in our own experience of online shopping, and it`s the idea of how large a package are we looking at? You could add a paragraph at the bottom of the order form that describes the package (or even a photo).

The reason being that we live in an apartment with a slot-type box in a wall along with other mailboxes. By having a sense of how big is the package, we know that we`ll either have to catch the mail carrier, or we can plan to go pick up the box at the post office.

Annmarie,

I like the very clean and simple look. It focuses the visitor. The coloring is also done right, its not all over the place. I think `I got the product` from even the home page. The other pages are good for supporting information, but your concept is simple enough to understand from first glance.

Here are a few suggestions I have:

• The homepage has a picture in place of text. Don`t do that, it makes your homepage word count even less, and it`s already very low. Just put the text there. You can still use the horizontal bars if you want.
• Link the product image on the homepage to the actual product page.
• Add ALT texts to your images so it enforces your keyword.
• Use `Toilet Shield` keyword more because you already have Position 1 for `Flippee`.
• When in the store part of your site, make the logo link to your actual homepage and not the store homepage. Otherwise visitors may become frustrated trying to get back to the info.
  
• Going along with that, I would move the top menu of the store section of the site, so that it is under the logo (as Craig also noted). I barely saw the top-menu, and that`s why I suggest changing the logo linking of the store section to compensate more.
• Also now I see on the non-store section the logo isn`t linked to the homepage. I would link it; it can`t hurt you.
  
• There`s some random code at the bottom of your products page. It might have been from the Google tracker... I would update that to the latest code as well, since it`s legacy version right now.
  
• Be careful what you twitter, because it`s on page 1 for your product keyword.
• See about making your contact page into a fill-able form for visitors. Since your target market is Moms, you need to make things as easy as possible. This way you can receive more testimonies to put on your site.
  

Regards


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Colin Winter
Small Business Website Management and Marketing

Thank you Craig & Colin!

I am very aware of the inconsistencies with my order page and the main site.   I used ZenCart to build my order page after I found out the sitebuilder I was using didn`t support some things.  Now I`m trying to find an easy, inexpensive shopping cart that supports coupon codes.   It`s all part of the changes that I`m making.

Any suggestions on shopping carts?

I also use PayPal Pro and wonder whether I should be spending the $30/mo...

I will definitely change the wording on my shipping info.

Twitter - I struggled with this.  I`m trying to make business contacts, so I`m treading very lightly there.  It was a surprise to me to see it come up so highly on Google.   Do you think I should delete it?

Pricing on the 1st page...should I?   It doesn`t seem common so I tucked it into the order page.

Great point about packaging size too!

Thanks again!
Annmarie

I agree with all of the other comments. The main thing is to get your navigation consistent on every page so that visitors can easily move around the site. And I don`t think the price on the main page is a bad idea; with just one product you can create a great overview all in one shot on your home page.

BTW .... very clever name you came up with .....

But .... I`m not sure I`d want to see a Flippoo if you ever create one ....


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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

I`m familiar with Joomla`s Virtuemart but I wouldn`t necessary recommend it as a final solution. It has a bunch of kinks, as many open source programs have. You may want to try it in a test zone, and if it works for you then great. I know it supports coupons, and it would remove the requirement of PayPal Pro as I got it working with another client without the fancy API access.

If you want to see how you can implement Virtuemart, you can look at my client`s site which sells Strike Zone Nets. It runs Virtuemart as the store software (side menu links) and the top menu pages via Joomla.

One of the major kinks with Virtuemart is a requirement for buyers to make a username/account. Another major kink is if you ever do try installing it, don`t manage the users via Joomla after it`s installed or everything will break. Backup often when working with databases

I personally don`t use twitter, and I don`t think it would be a good vehicle for you to make business connections. I`m unsure what type of connections you are looking for; are you just trying to market the product/brand or looking for joint ventures?

As far as homepage pricing, I would try testing both versions. See which one gives you a lower bounce rate.

Regards


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Colin Winter
Small Business Website Management and Marketing

I see no reason to avoid putting the price on the front page. The way you have it laid out reminds me strongly of standard mail-order catalogs, anything from the old Sharper Image to Home Trends. In all cases, they have a basic 1-page ad, which you`d nicely done on the home page. The other pages are support, but you have an excellent front page.

To that end, the only issue is how large or small a font to use. It could go either way, both being done elegantly.

On the shopping cart, we`re currently using PrestoSell, which is only an invoice system, but works with PayPal and credit cards. Depends on your choices, most likely. Nicely affordable, too.

On the home page, you have 4 bullet points.  One is "Save money on major bathroom repairs."  Now, I`m not a parent of a young boy learning to pee in the toilet so maybe I just don`t get this one, but it seems like quite a stretch.  I`m wondering how much major damage is done by a little "splashing".

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

" I`m wondering how much major damage is done by a little "splashing"." - you don`t clean the toilets at your home, do you?

Kidding aside, on the shipping, since it`s all the same (I like USPS Priority Mail, too) why not say $29.99 including shipping and handling*.

*Continental US only.


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email