Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

First and foremost. Many thanks for taking the time to do this. I have studied Site Review 101 V1 and believe my site falls somewhere between Level 2 & 3.

I am trying to put together an online marketplace where advertisers and business owners can connect with vehicle owners to display the ads on private vehicles. This is by no means an advertising ploy and I am genuinely interested in finding out what all I can improve in the site to make it better. All the links are working (except sitemap)

I am taking Dean's suggestions and using his proforma to request the critique.

URL: http://cashurwheels.com

cashURwheels is a registered Australian business. It is currently registered in my name as the soletrader. I hope to take it to an point where it can afford being an incorporated entity  in near future.

AS far as I am aware of, this is the first of kind online rostrum where vehicle owners can directly connect withe advertiser, advertising agencies and business owners big or small to get paid for driving with an advertisement. The idea being, making outdoor advertising more affordable and customizable to advertisers and allowing vehicle owners to add another income stream.

In a bid to make it affordable, one of the feature os the website is reverse bidding to drive the prices as low as the vehicle owners are willing to go.

The wrapping agencies are also considered an integral part of this process and have ben included on the website. they can potentially create a mini portfolio with pricelists on the portal and can bid on projects too.

I do not have an IT background and have not designed this myself.  The deisgn has been worked and reworked upon several time until the final product as seen on the url and has taken nearly a year to complete since it's inception.

the website was launched earlier this week, but am not actively seeking users before I find out what I can do to make them stay. The bounce rate as seen on Google analytics has been high and I am trying to understand why. I know one area that needs attention is the copywriting.

I invite your comments on the overall design, ease of navigation, content and its presentation and change I can make, things I need to consider and change to ensure people stick around longer.

I appreciate your effort and taking the time to review the site beforehand.

Warm regards,
Mitra

http://www.cashurwheels.com

Hi,

I would like to know your comments on the video website critique at Get paid to advertise on your car - Website Critique

- Yiana

Thank you for your detailed critique Yiana.

I had a few queries. ON the home page I have used the three grey boxes to clearly indicate the three stakeholders in what I thought was a prominent colour/setting. You mention that should be somewhere on the cars flash? Is the current arrangement not indicating the stakeholders at all?  Would it be intrusive to have them on the flash?

I agree with your suggestions about the content in terms of the describing what the subscription is for and like, on all the internal pages.

There is a provision for the gallery option tht you mention...but am holding it off until I have enough material to display.

The recent activity in the long run will display the most active bid and related users. I agree that there is not much to display right now and may consider not displaying it until later.

Thanks for your time and the review again.

Warm regards,
MItra

Mitra,

For the 3 gray boxes, I wasn't suggesting to place them in the flash, I was suggesting to place them instead of the flash. So the 3 boxes would take the center stage and be the first thing that people see. Having each box be as high as the flash is now and may be look more like a square.

Also, be sure to add some call-to-action to the boxes. Right now there's nothing that's prompting me to select one of them, they don't grab attention and most people will miss them. Keep in mind that most people will make a decision in just seconds if they want to read more or leave the site, you need to convince them in seconds to stay on your site. The Flash animation with cars and the animated ad on the right side take the users attention away from looking at your 3 gray boxes.

I hope this helps,

- Yiana

Thanks for the clarification Yianna.

Mitra,

You have a great concept here. One that could potentially make lots of money. Here are the suggestions I think would make your site much more powerful.

...Upon first glance, I assume most people would think you're in the business of wrapping vehicles with advertisments. In short, I'd think you were in the advertising/sign business and that you are now somehow showcasing the vehicles you designed, all in an effort to get other paying clients to bring their vehicles for you to 'wrap'.

There's nothing that jumps off that indicates businesses would be willing to pay me money to put their ads on my car.

People should be beating a path to your door begging you to put this stuff on their car so they could get paid. But the message conveyed on the homepage will never allow that too happen.

In order to sell a service, the person visiting your website needs to know what's in it for them. And in your case, it looks like you're trying to talk to 3 different types of prospect at the same time. You're trying to talk to the 'vehicle owner', the 'advertiser' and the 'signage agency'.

You see... each of the 3 prospects have different needs and desires they need fulfilled. The vehicle owner doesn't give a dam about the advertiser or the signage agency; and the signage agency doesn't give a dam about the advertiser, and so on.

And since you're attempting to talk to all 3 prospects with the same message, on the same homepage, they all think they've arrived at the wrong place and will likely click off.

I don't know how you're routing prospects to your website, but there's no way those people should be landing on your homepage. Each of the 3 clientel you service should be landing on pages specifically for them.

If it were me, I'd personally have 3 separate mini-websites, so I could talk to all 3 in "THEIR OWN LANGUAGE".

For example, a mini-website for the 'vehicle owners' would talk the language they want too here...

"If you have a car or truck... advertisers are standing by to pay you cash money to drive around with their ads on your car!"

The example above is simply an example, not intended to be used... Anyhow, prospects want to know what's in it for them. Same thing with the advertisers and signage agencies. You can only talk their language when they arrive at an online destination created specifically for them..

A few other tips regarding your website.

1) Get rid of the search box up top. You don't have enough stuff on your site to warrant that. And, it's confusing... at first glance, the categories in the drop down don't seem like they even belong on a site like this. I see why you're doing it, but 'vehicle owners' would not understand this right off.

2) Also, the vehicles in the photographs look 'doctored' to me. Looks like you took some graphic software (photoshop) and just created the graphics and dropped them onto the 'photographed vehicle'. Are those even real 'wrapped vehicles'? Only one looks real too me.

3) Your Welcome message and text under the photographs is simply a waste. No one cares that your process is 'patent pending' and no one cares that you're the 'first of it's kind'... They only care about what they'll be getting.

4) Recent Activity - you don't have enough activity going on to justify having that there. People would assume no one else is jumping on this and then you'll find they won't do it either because 'no one else is doing it' based on the 'recent activity'.

All in all... this is the type of website I'd call an "image based website'. That's a site where the owner is proud of his or her accomplishments and feel it's necessary to let everyone else know about how great or unique their products or services are.

The problem with this type of site is that it Sells Nobody!

Carte

Many Thanks for your opinion Carte.

I see what you mean by speaking to the prospects in thier language and a landing page for each. I appreciatethe idea of a landing page for each seperately and will work to fit it in.

As previously admitted, I know the copy writing needs work.

While I have no intention of making it a website where I showcase my accomplishments, I have done the best I could with the available knowledgebase and resources...but once again, I see your point and will work on making it better.

Thanks for your insight and time.

Regards,

Mitra

PS @ Carte - The Images are actually real and not doctored, so are the stores and thier vans :)

@Carte - I found your critique immensely helpful. I have since played around and made changes to the landing page for starters and that seems to have done the trick for now. I now have more users signing up each day and has reduced the bounce rate too.

Many thanks.

I'm glad my critique was helpful... keep doing what you're doing and your numbers will continue to get higher. Most people will make changes to their website one-time, quit and say 'this internet stuff doesn't work'. The key to making your website more successful is testing different content on the site to see if you can get a higher conversion rate. If you continue tweaking and testing, you'll win in the end.

I wish you well in 2010!

Carte