Kernow Connect

Hi,

i would like some advice on an affiliate website that i have setup, if you could give me the pros and cons of it and any other advice would be most welcome, this is my first website and i am unsure on how to draw the attention of viewers so that they use my site instead of hitting the back button

cheers
Luke

sorry forgot to add the site address

here is the link my site

cheers
Luke

Your site description in the middle of the hompage that is surrounded by ads almost looks like an ad itself.

I would eliminate most (or all) of the ads on the homepage leaving perhaps a few there.

Use that page to briefly describe your site and make it look clean and appealing.

The ads on the rest of the pages are great because they are categorized and have descriptions.

Also having two images on each ad (left and right) may be a little confusing. Forcing the user to choose "which Amazon.com should I click on?" May be not, just a thought

hi totalnirvana, thank you for your comment, i totally agree with what you have said i do need to get rig of the ads on the homepage, i find the home page difficult to implement because i need to get the correct balance of text and images and im finding it difficult, i want to catch the viewers eye but at thge same time i dont want to bore them so that they leave the site.

cheers for your advice its much appreciated
Luke

hi, i have re-done mysite and removed all the extravagent colours, please ignore the homepage i uploaded it by mistake, im currently working on it,

if anyone can offer any advice, what's good about it, whats bad about it etc

thanks
Luke

right site is now finished apart from the offers page (so not finished )

can you please make some suggestions on how to improve it, what good/bad etc would really appreciate it.

cheers
Luke

Hiya,

A couple of thoughts:

• The general look and feel of the site is very basic, especially in relation to sites like Amazon, Apple, Dell or PCWorld (some of the companies you advertise). I would maybe look at the overall colour scheme and layout to make it stand out a lot more. I would also NOT use center-aligned text.
• Home page: General usability issue: what is a link and what isn't? You are using 2 different highlight colours, one of which being a general link colour (yet it doesn't link). You will need to address that.
• Home page: none of the images link to anything. If I wanted to look at "Designer trainers", why can I not click on it to go directly to a page about designer trainers?
• Home page - main image: the concept behind that image is very poor. I understand where you are coming from, but having a blurred image "un-blur" itself when you hover over to explain the clarity of search on your site doesn't help, especially when there is no real clarity (I will get to that in a bit)
• Home page - categories: overall, the categories ("Find great deals on...") are very low down the page and do not help as clear call to actions
• Product pages (I am using the "Entertainment" section for now): usability issue: the "Buy The Best..." is in the same colour as the link colour
• Product pages: You are listing the companies you are affiliated with, followed by the actual product categories. From a user's perspective it would make more sense to have a bit of spiel about the product section directly followed by the categories
• Product pages - categories: The wording "Search by product" doesn't work as you are not searching by any product, but listing the most important ones on that page with images of the affiliates. This doesn't really help a customer - if I was to look for the cheapest copy of "Cloverfield" on DVD (since you do not list Blu-Ray), where would I do that?
• Product pages overall: I think you dug your own hole already with the "miscellaneous" tab: your product pages are limited to only a number of sections, with the miscellaneous section not properly working on its own. It would be worth getting rid of that and focus on diversifying the existing sections.
• About us page: Apart from the text this page doesn't have any actual value. I would maybe link the bottom panels to the relevant pages / categories and give a bit more detail on how you selected those sites (apart from the affiliate links). I would also have the terms and conditions / privacy policy on a separate page
• Contact us form: I would maybe split the page into a contact form and a separate feedback form.
• Clarity: Let me get this straight: you are using the site to get affiliate money, is that correct? Effectively, you are displaying company links you say are trustworthy to go to and purchase from. Other than giving you some revenue, what is the actual value and the merit to the user / customer? Do they get a discount? Is there any sort of "things to look out for" or review system? Any notes about delivery times or suggestions? Effectively, there is is no tangible value of using the site right now. I'm not being funny, but you need to add value to the purpose of the site if it is to take off and an information / link portal.

Overall I think the concept is very poor, as it has no value whatsoever to your users, and I think you would be hard-pressed trying to find users who would actually spend time on the site trying to use it. Your site is pretty much a con for users trying to get purchase advice and deals on these online-shops you advertise, yet all they will receive is a redirect to the site they could have found much quicker through google or price comparison sites.

This is probably the harshest feedback I have written in a while, but know that I have been around in this business for quite a while and I have seen many many sites trying to spam users with affiliate links and advertising without any actual merit to the customer.

What I would do is rethink your site's structure and maybe have a look what other comparison sites do (say Find-DVD.co.uk or hotUKdeals.co.uk for exmaple) and see how they deal with deals, how customers can search and browse through categories and finally make a purchase.

ALEX

__________________
Alexander Rehm - Web Architect
Portfolio | What was I thinking?

Hi Alex,

WOW!! lol, firstly thank you for spending so much time in responding to my post, im happy that you have dicected my site so precisley as it gives me so much info on how to improve it, im not trying to con people i just wanted a place where people can access many stores from 1 location, and give them the user a list of stores which sells a piticular product.

you have given me much help and advice with this and i appreciate it

thanks
Luke