Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi we launched our website in May 2008 its a community-based tee contest website....you might think yet another one!
We have set up all the traffic through google etc...I am trying to post blogs (interesting?) everyday...yet we are struggling to have people coming on our website... Not sure what is wrong...so I am happy to get all your feedbacks and critique!
http://www.startupnation.com/NET_ROOT/community/www.cocoteez.com
Many thanks

First thing I could see is you dont have any shirts to buy, I click shop and all I get is coming soon...


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Guitar Repair - RepairMyGuitar.com - The Guitar Repair Directory

thanks cubemonkey - the first tshirts are about to be printed to be sold. We spend the first month gathering designers on our website to post designs etc...

apart from that any feedbacks comments? what would you change?

i really appreciate your comments.

You don`t mention how much traffic you are actually getting now. None? Very little? How is anyone finding your site? Searches? Backlinks? PPC?

If you are dependent mainly on search engines for traffic, you won`t get much. Your main page has very little textual content for spiders to crawl. Your sub pages have a little more, but again, it`s nothing unique or beneficial to a spider or a visitor; they all seem to read the same, they just have a different image of a different t-shirt. Your pages have to have unique content, but if they are all basically the same, you are hurting yourself in search results. As an example, go to this link and view how a search spider actually sees your main page, and you`ll see that there is nothing beneficial the way it is currently structured.

http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php

You also have no meta description tags, so even if you do end up in a search result, it`s hard telling what the following site description will actually say.

From a viewers perspective, first seeing your site, my thought is "What`s the point of being here"? The tiny description at the very top is just that... tiny .... people won;t see it at first. The banner at the top center reading "DESIGN  WIN  MAKE MONEY" looks like an ad, so I automatically skip it at first ... T-SHIRT COMPETITION VOTING doesn`t tell me anything on it`s own .... so, your first 3 shots to tell me something, really doesn`t. In short, you need to get across what you do, and why I should be here, more clearly and quickly.

You have a page of images, but since I`m not sure what your site does at this point, I have no idea why I`m seeing them or what their purpose is right away; I have to stop and figure it out, and if I need to decipher the purpose of your site, I`ve probably lost interest in it.

So to me, the two main things are to clarify your page and explain quickly and clearly what you do, and create unique content on every page.

Overall I think it`s a neat idea, but clarify the concept!



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Well I think there are good and bad. I like the feel of the site, easy to use. I like the voting system but I`m not sure I fully understand how it helps you and the customers. Why limit the shirts you`re going to print? You may have 30 people vote for a shirt that like it but wont actually buy it and you may have a shirt going against it that only gets 2 votes, but those people REALLY wanted the shirt and have credit card in hand.....It could be that I don`t understand your whole concept. You have some great artist designs up there and should print them all.

As far as the money goes initially I thought well for 3$ I could just throw my designs up on cafepress or zazzle and get a 6$ profit instead. But guess diversifying designs across many sites would be the smartest thing to do. So I retract that negative opinion :)

So unless there is a barrier that`s stopping you from producing all the designs I would maybe turn the voting part into like a t-shirt of the week or give it a discounted price or give the artist more of the profit b/c its so good. Something to encourage people to buy the winner, and to say to the artist that created it, "thanks".





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Guitar Repair - RepairMyGuitar.com - The Guitar Repair Directory

hello Cocoteez,

I`m in agreement with webline, when i first went to the site i was wondering exactly what you do and what are you selling? What is a "cocotee?" You need to let people know why they`re voting and what they`re voting for. I just did some more digging into your website and i found out what you do, in the FAQ section! That`s not where you should be putting it especially if you`re a new site and not many people know about you. If you`re interested, I`d like to talk to you about your site some more. We do web design at affordable prices, we don`t charge an arm and a leg. I`m not suggesting an overhaul or anything, but maybe we can talk about some subtle changes.

www.RiverglowStudios.com
info@riverglowstudios.com

I completely agree with Webline
I think you should listen to that advice carefully and implement the suggestions
After that we could provide further help but those steps are a prominent must

Jmes



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My LookupPage

Many thanks to all of you!
I will most definitely take those advices carefully. thanks webline for your time and riverglowstudios, i will contact you soon!!

I really appreciate your comments

cocoteez