Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello,

Thank you to everyone that takes their time to assist. I love this community and appreciate the help!

Please critique my website...
http://www.lighteningwhite.com

This is our first attempt to sell directly to the public and our first website. We would reallly appreciate your advice!




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John Amador Lightening White Inc http://www.lighteningwhite.com john@lighteningwhite.com

I am impressed with your websites flash and concept. However, I would bring a slide show of testimonials to the front. People tend to want to do what other people are doing. What is your Guarantee that your product works. I was looking for that. How safe is the product? You have on site Recommended by Dentist, you may want to make that larger or insert it in your slide show with a dentist. My thoughts.

Thanks! Great points... This is the same product that Dentist use, in fact we make it for Dentists... It is a great idea to let people know that up front.

I never thought about testimonials on the Home page but that is an excellent idea!

Thank you so much for both the positive and the negative!

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John Amador Lightening White Inc http://www.lighteningwhite.com john@lighteningwhite.com

Hi John,

As RaiseCapital suggested, you`re going to need some testimonials there. Also, its extremely important that you show the steps of how a person actually take their own impressions...It`s extra work, but it`ll payoff.

Also, for credibility, become a member of the National Association of Dental Laboratories, I think it`s like $300 per year and you`ll be able to put their logo on your site and link to their directory showing that you are indeed a member. Sales will increase because of that membership.

I`ve had the good fortune of working with a teeth whitening start-up company about 3 1/2 years ago. When they came to me they were doing about $1,500 per month...we got them to $40K per month within 90 days and the rest was history. They`re now the 3rd largest teeth whitening distributor to the public.

Send me a private message and I`ll send you their web site so you can at least take a look at it. Unfortunately, I can`t provide you with too much information but I can share some of the basics with you.

Also, go after spas and salons...you can wholesale to them, that`s a huge market. Also, consider doing some offline campaigns, the online competition for this is fierce so you gotta be clever.

Consider doing a distributor program where you sell your systems wholesale to "dealers" and let them sell the products for you. That`s where the big money really is (between that and salons).

I think you got to many products on your products page...all this will do is confuse the majority, people can`t make decisions so you have to help them along.

On the autoship of the bleaching gel...include that option with each product they order, don`t single it out. When they select a product, that option should be available for them to check yes they want gel shipped to them every 60 days, or NO -- they don`t want the gel. This will increase the sign-ups for those seeking gel every 60 days (also explain why they need it every 60 days).

That`s free money every 60 days...maximize the response by adding that option to each product that they can purchase.

Hope this helps!

 

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Website Startup Coach: Step-by-Step Coaching to Help You Build a Profitable Business Online!

Hi There...

Have a look at my website - http://www.itmatters.ca

Now, you need to go into one of the section pages off the main page, we used some space on our site to show testimonials.  Seems to help in attracting new opportunities to our company.

Cheers

Stuart

If you are a small business, you may find http://www.calgarysmbshow.com interesting in providing you with information to help your business.

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Stuart R. Crawford Business Development Representative IT Matters Inc. IT Matters is the Microsoft IMPACT Award Winner in 2006 for Small Business Specialist of the Year and CEA Silver Medal for Best Small Business Solution in Canada. 412,1000 8th Ave SW Calgary, AB T2P 3M7 Canada Phone: 403.710.4357 Fax: 403.206.7317 EMail: scrawford@itmatters.ca Web: http://www.itmatters.ca

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"Life is short. Love your work." Steve Bohler, MS The Oxford Program Founder/Head Coach http://www.TheOxfordProgram.com

I vaguely remeber the earlier site, but this one is well done and does navigate easily and your services are clearly defined.


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Hi there :-)
I took a look, and see a couple of areas where it could be improved. I got the idea almost immediately, and understand what it is you`re offering. The problem is that it took some thinking. With a 4-second window to convince someone to go further, you`re a bit "slow," so to speak in getting into the customer`s mind.

The key is jargon. You`re using too much of it. For example, in your mission:
Nobody uses "service providers" other than corporate geeks. People don`t "address the needs" of anyone, and we`ve heard about "exceptional customer service" for so long, it becomes background noise.

Additionally, the above mission says nothing other than, "We wanna be reliable." Fine, but reliable about what?

You could do something closer to a 10-second elevator pitch, and say what you mean without all the extra jargon:
It`s a mission statement, not a contract. :-) People will *assume* that you`re reliable, trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, and that you can start a fire by rubbing two sticks together. The REST of your site can explain what you mean by "reliable" and "professional."

On the FAQ page, although it looks pretty having each item spread out all over the place, it`s too hard to read. Nowadays, everyone is used to a single-column, top-to-bottom FAQ. The questions in bold, the answers below.

Another option is to have an "index" of the questions, each one clickable that takes the reader to the specific position on the page.

Your "About" page is all touchy-feelie, but doesn`t tell me anything about you. I`m not that interested in why you started the company, other than if it tells me "how do I know you`re really going to do what you say? How long have you been doing this?" and that sort of thing.

All in all, the orange on orange is a bit bright, but that`s okay. The contrast for the type itself is strong, and easy to read. You`ll have to see if anyone complains about the color scheme, but I think it`s pretty much okay.

Finally, you may do better to have a contact "form," rather than the buttons. What if I have both an IKEA and a Home Depot item, and want you to do both? You could use check boxes for the brands, and form fields to capture the specifics you want.

But the bottom line is that if you have that much need for details, then just use a basic form: Contact us and we`ll give you a call to find out the details, and give you a final quote.

The copy writing is fairly poor and could use some help, but at least it`s enough to get me to "learn more."

At that point, I`d suggest a single page that offers a "click here" for each of your two pathways. I`m guessing, but it looks like you have testing for the adult, then testing applied "by" the adult "to" a child?

That`s not very clear.

Why not break it down to "Adult Career Testing" and "Student/Child Aptitudes" or something like that? A quick paragraph for each one, then a button to "See details." Maybe?