Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

 I launched a new website in December called www.letsbakecookies.com that caters to "everything cookie".  It`s a membership type educational site containing how-to videos for decorating sugar cookies, recipes, tips and tricks, community page, etc.  I`m new to all this so would love some feedback.

I really like the look and feel of your site. It`s very eye appealing.

Allen
www.eathealthyanywhere.com



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Eat Healthy Anywhere

I am very impressed with the professionalism this site delivers.  Everything is explained and easy to navigate.  I did have to search a bit for the featured recipe - you might want to find a way to highlight it better.

Out of curiosity - why did you select Infinovision for your video hosting?  Not that I have any alternative suggestions, but as a web videographer, I am curious what drove your decision to host your videos with them.


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

I like the site a lot. Color scheme is good, layout is good, it`s professionally put together and the banner is front and center and is noticeable.

Can`t think of anything that I would change, well done!



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Motivation for Entrepreneurs
Entre-Propel.com

Thanks for your comments.  My main struggle is trying to convert registered users to paid members.

I think the site looks great, works very well too. As for paying customers, I doubt you`ll have much interest given the many commercial recipe and food sites. They`re supported by advertising for the most part.

The way I see it, if someone asks me to pay money to join a site my first question is, "What do I get for my money?"

In your situation, the initial answer is cookie recipes. My "objection" to that would be that I can get cookie recipes up the wazoo through a Google search, and those many recipe sites.

So how do you overcome the objection? What unique value do you offer that can`t be gotten from anywhere else?

When I say nowhere else, consider intangibles: ease of use, personal instruction, speed, simplicity, complexity, translation, support, and so forth. In other words, I can buy a car a 1,000 places. Why do I choose the particular car dealer I select?

Same here: I can get cookie recipes all over the place. Why would I choose this particular site ahead of all the rest?

Craig offers a very good advice (as usual)
And as other users said before me, it really looks professional and well built
Also, if your main purpose is to sign people up (at least for now) I`d suggest to enlarge that option
It can be passed over easily by users, especially since it`s on the top of the screen and visitors have to scroll down to the useful content.
Make sure the visitor is well informed of whats waiting for him/her when they register, and make sure that the information is very easily accessible (e.g. in a viewable box on the homepage, so they see it without having to click anywhere)

A strong point though, the lovely moving flash on your homepage has no link, it`s definitely something people will click, and you should direct it to a page that will make them want to signup

I like the site, and I wish you the best of luck

Jmes



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My LookupPage

Regarding Jvideo by Infinovision:

There are several reasons that we choose this tool.  From a technical perspective, the hosting is on AmazonS3, and wicked fast.  They do an amazing job of encoding – the video looks great.  The component (in Joomla) does a remarkable job of seemlessly integrating with the Joomla platform.  It honors membership / registration levels, and integrates directly with other Joomla plug ins (Like JomComment).

It can be privately branded and have more features (for $100 a month)

While not perfect – it was the best “plug and play” component for integration to our site – which is a membership site.  There are times that using Social media platforms for hosting video might be more appropriate.

Great component. Responsive developers.  Did not need any special work to make it work with our CSS and templates.

The domain name is a good one, before I entered I could tell you are serious. I am sorry,  am tired of people getting domains that don`t rep their business or use the live.com domain all over here like spam.

The site is very good, it has user membership which is a plus and what we can call a "social site" with all the media works video, etc.

The only thing I can say is that your site should be listing better on search engines, you have to come up with better titles and other tags to up your listing.

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Dave Barnes
Spider Climbing, Inc.
(734) 994-0646
www.spiderclimbing.com

2009 Elevator Pitch Contestant Please vote for us!