Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

First, I want to say how excited I am to be part of this community.  I`m new, but am really looking forward to providing input and assistance to everyone!

I would truly appreciate constructive comments/criticism of my website
www.grantgopher.com

I am thrilled about the prospects for this site, but want to be certain I haven`t overlooked anything that would be a concern for potential subscribers.

Thank you so much!!
Rachel

I think I might have the same concerns - after spending some time looking at your site, I began to understand what`s supposed to be unique, but it took that amount of time to do so.  That`s generally not a good sign - I`m not sure exactly how you should do it, but I`d want to see much more of a clear value proposition stated up front and center.  Convince me immediately that your service truly changes the game as far as grant searches go.

On the design side, there are a few elements I`d change - I`m not a big fan of centered text as you`ve used it in a few places, looks slightly amateurish.  The use of javascript for links and navigation is a no-no if you`re at all concerned about SEO (and I`d think you would be).  And on a related note, I saw that you had your <title> tags at the end of your head section in your code; generally not a good idea given the importance of that tag for search engines.  I`ll try to give a more thorough once over later.


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chuck fuller

You`ve got a cute logo, and the colors you`ve chosen for the site work well with it. However, the design doesn`t give big visual clues for what the site is really about. It looks very plain, but the organization of the navigation isn`t bad. But some of the text in the left brown box is hard to read, because there isn`t enough contrast between the text color and the background color.

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Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback!  

Your comments have really helped, and were in line with what I suspected about the site.  It`s been a little tricky because I`m so involved with it every day that I feel  like I`m missing the big picture - losing my objectivitiy....

I`m leaving everything in place right now in case anyone else wants to offer some insight, and then I look forward to making some improvements!!!

Question? How are you marketing this? I believe Firstgov.gov offer the same solutions.

Firstgov.gov and other federal government websites (like grants.gov) only offer information about the federal government programs, and some limited state information. 

The difference with Grant Gopher is that we provide information that is much harder to locate - the open grants within private, public and commuity foundations.  It looks like unfortunately the website is conveying that we only have information about government grants - and your comments are correct, the federal government does a great job of providing that info for free.  The state and city grants are harder to find - we include those too.

Also, subscribers get very targeted information - filtered for their area of interest and location, which is something nobody else provides for all these grant sources.  Again, an individual can do this with the federal govt. site, but not with  foundation grants. 

My experience working with nonprofits shows that they find about grants of interest to them after someone else was already awarded the funds.  I`m trying to give grantseekers the jump on open grants, so they actually have a chance to apply instead of having to wait a year for the opportunity to come up again.

You have all opened my eyes to the fact that I am simply not conveying the true offering, it is a very powerful database application, unique to the niche and I really need to get some help with the site copy!! 

I had a little trouble figuring out what exactly you were selling..but once i moved around the site a little it all fell into place. I think the layout was a little overwhelming. The congrantulations was cute - except when you click on Put Grant Gopher to work for you! you get a nasty error page :-(

good luck to you !

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Margaret Manning Editor and Founder Ex In The City Empowering Women to Move from EX to EXtraordinary! www.exinthecity.com info@exinthecity.com

wow this is pretty cool can I get you folks to take alook at the grant site I built and tell me what you think about it and give some suggestions for what I should change to make it better also ---  http://www.businesssuccessexpress.com/

 

Thanks in advance

GrantG, I like the site and I will be visiting it again.

Susan

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Susan Gould www.hopeforahome1.com www.emortgageoptions.com WNNN 1470am 6-6:30pm for Mortgage Options

Well everyone, it`s a year later and I`ve made a LOT of changes to the website. 

It still feels like things aren`t "quite right" with the site copy.  There is plenty of traffic, but the site still doesn`t grab the visitors like I`ve hoped.

Can I please impose on you all to check out the site again and let me know what I`m overlooking? 

http://www.grantgopher.com
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Thank you so much!