critique my site - suggestions welcomed

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AudienceSnipe

AudienceSnipe

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Nov 28, 2008
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im split testing a couple campaigns for my apparel site on ysm, and after about 45k impressions, 325 clicks and .25cpc ($85 ad spend), i've made 1 sale of $118 and basically broke even after factoring the $40 cost of the items.

here are the 2 ads im running between 8am-12am:

Hot Designer Bikinis for 2009
Hot Ed Hardy bikinis for 2009. 25% off entire store, free shipping.
YoungandEdgy.com/bikinis

Hot Designer 1 Piece Bathing Suits 2009
Hot Ed Hardy 1 piece bathing suits. 25% off entire store, free ship.
YoungandEdgy.com/bathing-suits

i'm bidding on long-tailed variations of the keywords bikini/bathing suit/swimwear such as (designer bathing suits, hot bikinis for 2009, buy bikinis online, bikini sale, etc). the single conversion came from the first ad, and the search term was "swimsuit bikinis". i'm using p202 to track my conversions and to identify keywords to negative match.

i think the site has some potential here, but i just need some expert advice from the community. i'd appreciate any suggestions on how to improve my ads/site in order to increase sales and profiitability. do i have enough data here or should i gather some more?

*note: these are replica items, so i cannot bid on branded keywords
 


You selling fake goods but you dont say so on your site. Thats going to put people off right away. After looking at some items its obvious they are fake (rolex for $175)! At that point i would hit the back button. Real contact details would also help, you give the impresion you are a big store but dont have a trading address/phone etc. Smells scammy, no offence I just wouldnt trust it with my credit card.
 
butcher - yeah i never mention that the items are replicas, but for the most part, i'm hoping the shopper is saavy enough to figure it out. you're right, i probably should consider posting a trading address and #. thanks
 
Atleast make the pictures correct res, and try to push them up the page a little, all the brand pictures are overwhelming. Your flash buttons on the header look like shit also.
 
citizensmif - i've played with the resolution and went with settings that work best for the available space. this site was created from a template, and i've made minimal changes to it as far as appearance goes, so all the buttons are stock.
 
gunman - yeah i probably should move the brands to the bottom, but only 1/2 of the first row of items will then be visible above the fold...i guess it will help. what browser are you using? i know the items look somewhat distorted, but i didn't think they were that bad.


2 similar sites (http://rococolife.com and Discount Cheapest price - Affliction Christian Audigier nike) are doing 3k profit a month, and 3k profit a week, respectively. the first site is on sale at sitepoint, and he claims his only traffic source is facebook with $50 monthly ad spend. i've tried advertising on fb, but never got any conversions after 100 clicks. the second site is now closed down b/c they were bidding on branded keywords and the manufacturers orders a C&D. they're not nearly as nice looking as my site, but they are making some good $. not really sure what i'm doing wrong.
 
AudienceSnipe said:
2 similar sites (http://rococolife.com and Discount Cheapest price - Affliction Christian Audigier nike) are doing 3k profit a month, and 3k profit a week, respectively. the first site is on sale at sitepoint, and he claims his only traffic source is facebook with $50 monthly ad spend.
Click to expand...

You don't believe that, do you? Why would he sell a site that is making $3k/month off of a $50/month ad spend? Would you?

As Confucius said: Beware the quoted numbers of the man selling his site...
 
As I browse the website I notice a few things, a few of which are already mentioned but I'll go ahead anyway.

1 ) When cycling through your tabs at the top, it would appear to the user that the page is not changing, because you have the same huge banner and pictures above the fold. Everything that is changing, such as 'contact us' form, is below this and you have to scroll down to see it. If I'm a punter, I immediately say "This is broken" and peace out. I would consider moving your array of small brand images below the section with all the important stuff and cycling it through every page like so.

2) You mentioned this is a template. Templates are meant to be changed, they are often designed by morons. Remove about 10px of padding or margin from all sides of your featured collections and featured products sections. They are most likely nested div tags, so you could reset the widths and reassign margins to them as needed. I would try to stray away from padding the sections. This is CRUCIAL. The user does not have access to the navigation if they did bother to scroll down.

3) As for the pictures, everyone is right. Re-size your pictures in photoshop, hold down shift while transforming them (Ctrl + T) so that you don't distort them. Save them as a .png, it will make them look nicer. Also, your 'more info' and 'ad to cart' buttons aren't even the same size, nor have you bothered to pad the text or center the buttons. I would do that if it were my site.

4) It really looks like it was designed in 1998. You need to find a way to get some content, this is not as important in your case because you are doing some PPC advertising on it, but it can't hurt and will definitely fill the void that is full of the feeling of scam.

Overall, you have the right idea, but the website has some serious design problems. I know "redo your site" isn't something anyone wants to hear. But I would definitely re-vamp a lot of it. I would consider using a more modern looking template...such as this: Free Hosting Website Template

Good luck sir.
 
jeff - thanks for the helpful criticism, i will consider all the points that you've made. i was really hoping the site would work out of the box with little modification, but i might have to make some serious design changes. thanks.
 
AudienceSnipe said:
i'm bidding on long-tailed variations of the keywords bikini/bathing suit/swimwear such as (designer bathing suits, hot bikinis for 2009, buy bikinis online, bikini sale, etc). the single conversion came from the first ad, and the search term was "swimsuit bikinis". i'm using p202 to track my conversions and to identify keywords to negative match.
Click to expand...

I'm also a noob but here's what I've learned.

I have a site that also has products of different sizes. I think you can get even better long-tail keywords by grabbing search queries that include sizes.

For instance, if I google for "gel asics shoes", I'm probably in esearch mode. Your site is bad for researchers because there's no content, and you get a wasted PPC. I'm not interested in bidding too much for this.

Even if I google for "Gel Asics TN626", I still might be in research mode, but this is getting closer. I'm starting to zero in, and it might be worth experimenting.

But if I google for "Gel Asics TN626 Size 11.5", this is BUYING TIME. I know exactly what I want and want to see who's got it. These are the types of keywords you should go after. Yes, less traffic, but higher CTR.

Anyone agree/disagree?
 
to give you take your text links put them on the left because the average american reads from the left to the right and as jeff dba said i clicke a bunch of pictures before i scrolled down and i would say that the pictures are fine. anybody looking for swap meet louis will know what to look for but i would take the 2 out so that your menu can be seen without scrolling down
 
logo really sucks and is low resolution. My suggestion would be getting something professional designed
 
it would look a lot more professional with a clean design that doesn't use a black background. good idea though, seems like it might have legs.
 
Most of your images are close to double to size at which you are displaying them and distorted. Never, ever, let the viewer's browser do the resizing of images as it looks like crap, and is also taking up twice as much bandwidth as it needs to be.

Images need to be resized to the actual sized at which they are going to be displayed.

The header/intro graphic "spring-summer 2009" at the top is too big and taking up too much space and isn't serving any purpose. Make a smaller version or get rid of it all together. Alternatively use this area to highlight certain products with calls to action.

The mish mash of logos, some in piuctures, some on plain backgrounds, looks messy and is also taking up tons of space. Make them all white on black and move them to the bottom or side. If you need to find clean vector logos for clothing manufacturers try Best Brands of the World - vector logos, brand, logo, logotype, photos. They probably won't have all of them there, but it's a good place to start.
 
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