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Skip Lombardi
Posts: 2
Joined: 12/16/2003
Status: offline
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I'd be grateful to have my site critiqued - 12/16/2003 15:58:33
Thanks for this opportunity. I'm selling a combination memoir/cookbook on my site, and while I'm doing quite well by "allowing" users to print an order form and mail it to me, I've sold only nine copies of my book using PayPal. The site is two and one half months old, so if any old hands on this board know some way to get users to click on the PayPal button, I'd be grateful to hear about it.
Also, I'm not crazy about the message I'm sending on my home page, but I got a lot of "advice" from a friend of mine who is in sales.
Otherwise, I'd love to hear any general comments about speed, navigation, etc. And yes, I'm doing this voluntarily, but I'm a big kid now. I can take it.
Again, thanks in advance,
Skip Lombardi
http://www.skiplombardi.com
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Mike54
Posts: 4789
Joined: 3/26/2001
From: Way Up Over
Status: offline
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RE: I'd be grateful to have my site critiqued - 12/16/2003 17:03:49
Hi Skip and welcome to Outfront.
The first thing I would suggest is to get your links up where people can see them rather than the bottom of the page. Make the "buy" link as obvious as you can without over doing it. I'd also get some images on the site. Show everyone how good the food looks, use some imagery, show an image of grandma with the oven mitts (I'm sure there's a graphic on the web of something similar if you don't have the real grandma). You might also try using a little more of the visitors screen, the content looks more like a single column newspaper article (table width at 50%???).
_____________________________
Who was the first guy that looked at a cow and said, "I think that I'll drink whatever comes out of those things when I squeeze them"?
New photogalleries, stop by sometime.
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Eli
Posts: 2659
From: ... er ...
Status: offline
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RE: I'd be grateful to have my site critiqued - 12/17/2003 4:31:12
to be honest ... i didn't know it was a cookbook site. I generally skip over the initial post here, and go straight to the site - you don't get to explain your site to "normal" users so i don't give you the opportunity here. Thats probably the first thing I see - I wasn't sure if it was a personal site, a story site ... I just didn't know so you need to make it obvious.
Secondly, I agree with Mike, make the paypal/purchase options obvious. That will also help reinforce the fact that you're selling something.
Thirdy, and only a personal thing although it's shared by many people, don;t use Times New Roman as a font for web sites. It makes it really hard to see. The best font to use for text is arial or verdana
Fourthly, i love Italian food and this is the kind of book I'd buy - however I downloaded the pdf for free. There is now no incentive for me to buy the book. If the e-book is not the full version of the book, you need to say so, it it is the full version you're not going to be able to sell your book to as many people as you'd hope
other than it looks like you're coming along nicley
Keep us updated, ok?
< Message edited by Micah -- 12/17/2003 9:35:32 AM >
_____________________________
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning
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Skip Lombardi
Posts: 2
Joined: 12/16/2003
Status: offline
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RE: I'd be grateful to have my site critiqued - 12/17/2003 7:27:24
Thank you so much for the feedback. Of course, you've set me about having a rather long day today.
I consider myself more of a writer than a software engineer, but if I didn't demonstrate that
1. I'm selling a cookbook on my site, and..
2. That the PDF version is highly abbreviated (10 recipes compared to 89 in the Paperback), then I'm not doing my job well at all.
So I'll be working today to convert the entire site to Verdana, to clarify the descriptions of what I'm doing on the Web, and what I'm offering for free, and thinking about how to make the PayPal button more prominent.
Alas, I have no other photographs of my grandparents, but maybe I could glom something generic elsewhere on the Web.
I'm afraid getting the links further up the page on index.htm will have to wait until the weekend.
Thank you again, and best regards,
Skip Lombardi
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