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Ok, i have had this site for a while
It’s not getting good search placement, and not generating the $ i had hoped it would.
I spent quite a bit of time on it, with my limited web design experience, i added over 100 pages of just horse racing content, and the poker, casino, sportsbooks, are mostly a collection of too many banners, from too many places.
I’m trying to think of how to improve it, it seems to be branching out in too many directions. Some pages aren’t completed because i’m thinking of deleting the sections.
I would like for it to make money, but also be quality, and useful to people.
Here it is
I would really like to hear your honest opinions, the impression i get, is some people really like it, and others really don’t.
I don’t know, i have several sites, which seem to be more popular, but i thought this one would be my best, because i spent the most time and money on it.
Hi Nick
I would add content to your HomePage – I got to the site, and didn’t really know what to do – the graphic in the middle doesn’t lead me anywhere, and there are too many options in the left-side menu.
I would suggest to focus – if you believe your site is horse-racing related, then add news, information on the industry, and then include links to other options. It is important to make your site easy to navigate, otherwise you could easily lose a User.
My thoughts…
Stephen
Hi Nick
I’d agree with Stephen. You need to ‘pick your poison’ and decide who you want to target, what you are passionate about enough to invest the energy in, and whats the best strategy – with the elements you choose – that will make you money.
Check out http://www.paddypower.com . Its a sportsbetting portal site. If you glance at the page – and most people do just that, – which 3 points and in what sequence do your eyes flow across the page? This tells you what they want you to focus on. Within those few seconds you – as a visitor – should be able to decide on your next move. Is this site for you? Is the first impression one that leaves you with a sense of ‘I know what this site is about’, and ‘they know what they are doing’? Does the sites home page have enough visual anchors (a couple of bold visuals / pics / banners) to immediately convince you to stay, to explore, to drill deeper?
Yes, Stephen is right. Simplify the navigation.
For example, you could immediately trim your main navigation list down from:
SPORTSBOOKS
SPORTSBOOK REVIEWS
PREMIER SPORTSBOOKS
POKER ROOMS
POKER ROOM REVIEWS
PREMIER POKER ROOMS
CASINOS
PREMIER CASINOS
HORSE RACING
THE HORSE PAGE
BINGO/OTHER GAMBLING
GAMBLING INFO/SYSTEMS……….. What is this? If in doubt, kill it.
TIPSTER
WEBMASTERS…….Put this in as a link in your footer (include max 4)
OUR STORE……….Kill this and all links UNTIL you have something valuable to add
SHOPPING/AUCTIONS…Kill this. :shooter: You are encouraging your visitors to beetle off elsewhere.
MISC/MONEY MAKERS… Kill
COOL FREE SOFTWARE…Kill
ADULTS ONLY…Kill
CONTACT US… Important, but wrong place. See http://www.paddypower.com
HISTORY & TRIVIA…Kill. To Trivial
BREEDERS CUP CLASSIC….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here. :crazy:
TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
KENTUCKY DERBY WINNERS ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
2005 DERBY PROFILE ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
KENTUCKY DERBY PROFILE ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
BELMONT STAKES ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.To:
Sportsbetting > + Reviews + Books + Top Sportsbooks
Poker > +Top poker rooms + Reviews
Casino > + Top casinos
Horseracing > + News + Live listings
Bingo
Contact usIf I were you I would refine my focus even more with only 2 main related offers:
Casino
PokerOnce you have built a business around these two I would slowly introduce other offers as tests.
Also, you’ll make money quicker if you hang a few special offer banners on your home page. Kill that massive picture. It chews up too much of your prime space that you could be using to display special content or offers.
Lift some of the juicy content you probably have buried in your site up to the homepage – in bite sized chunks only – to whet the visitors appetite and engage with them.
Look also at colour schemes that work and those that dont. Dark navy blue – all over – is depressingly serious. Add lots of reading to that (deeper in the site) and it becomes a …. :shots: chore rather than a delight to be in. Websites work like shops in malls. Some shops draw you into them with special lighting. They create atmospheres that either encourage you to spend loads of time there, or atmospheres that are viby, light and get you moving quickly through them. What do you want to achieve.
Check out other sites. See what works for them. Use ideas from the best.
Be careful not to give birth to an elephant with an appetite that breaks your back. You dont want to have to spend all your time as a copywriter, massaging content. You want to create an easy to maintain machine, that does the grind for you. Grind is any activity that doesnt produce revenue for you.
Think about syndicating content from a number of credible sources. Use RSS (see my March postings in my personal blog for comments on RSS).
Please dont think Im being rude. Im being straight forward. Hopefully Im giving you feedback that the many visitors who past through your site never gave you.
All the best,
Brad
yeah guys, that is good
i do have a dilemma with the appearance of the site, i can’t really alter it too much, because it won’t let me, my options are limited, and the color scheme and layout were the best out of the options i had to choose from, believe it or not.
i will, and have already narrowed down the navigation bar on the left
it started like this, sportsbooks, poker, casino, horses, bingo/other gambling
then, because i am involved in the horse racing industry, and get “those” people viewing my site, i had requests, where can i find this…, etc…
so i put it up on my site, just about everything i could gather on horses, including rare race footage, and other, very hard to find, useful info.
It took forever to do, so i’m not really in the mood to delete it now, but it did stray away from the original idea, which was to promote gambling only.then i had other requests, about adult stuff, software programs, etc…, so i added that in there too, since i already had the content and aff accounts, but didn’t know what to do with them.
again, i strayed from the original idea
now i’m thinking about adding content that will help people make money, like useful handicapping tools/systems, and other sports, poker, casino info
i don’t know, it seems if i had simplified, i would have been better off
the other concern i had, was if i just put links to gambling places, it would not be good, because many others do that, and have better search rankings, so i needed an angle, some place gamblers would find helpful, when trying to make money
i hope what i’m saying makes a bit of sense
i like the idea of altering the home page, the color scheme, i don’t know, you should see my options, i’m not too excited about having pics of flowers all over my website, just so i can have a white background.
i will most likely get rid of those sections, even though the dating sites in the adult section, are doing ok, i’ll incorporate them elsewhere somehow, the horses stay however, despite RVP’s euthanasia request, but i will remove them from the left hand column, they just show up on the left automatically, then i have to remove them manually after i link them properly
i’m curious, what color would you recommend for the background
and Stephen, if i replaced that pic on the homepage with a table divided in 6 sections, ie, sportsbetting, poker, casino, horses, bingo/other gambling, tipster, and linked each one to the proper section, it would be better, and easier to find your way around ?
i’ll figure it out, thanks guys, appreciated
I agree with all the killings, but not the euthanasias….But the euthanasias should probably be links from some text someplace, so they remain as a deep pages for spiders to play with, and not the menu.
I also agree with the ones in the wrong spot.
This menu is way too long.
Perhaps if you make all the adjustments, shrink your center picture a bit, and put half of the menu on the left and half on the right. Sort by sport/non sport. Remember you are dealing with lots of people over 40, who do not normally need glasses online yet, but are seeing less clearly. Make sure there is good contrast and font size for them, because rather than going to get some glasses to read your page, they will leave and go elsewhere. This is much overlooked in this industry of young people. And also, make the picture link to something, too.
Then I happen to look at the poker rooms – we have the opposite problem here. Banners and font are too large. Poker reviews – better banners, font too large.
That’s basically it.
The front page is too hard to get an overview – you need to be able to determine what you are looking at with one look.
The inner pages are hard on the eye with the large print and large banners.
I like it otherwise. It will likely be a work in progress for a while.
