Earlier today a gentleman asked me:
Hi Donna, I have just launched my website. Would you please take a look to share with me your opinions and sugestions. http://www.zeemp.com
I felt it very valuable to the internet community to share my findings so YOU don’t make the same mistakes.
Below is my response:
Hi,
I’ve taken a moment to peek at your site…
First, you should know I’m brutally honest. Please do not be personally offended. My comments are not directed AT you,
1. I have no idea what this site is about?
That is bad. There’s no sales copy or direction… NEVER, EVER let your guest have to guess what to do. Don’t make me think. (ps. Don’t make me think” is a really good book you can find on amazon – read it!)
2. What’s in it for me? (the visitor)
I clicked on HOW TO JOIN US: and got this blurb,
“Effortless steps are required to start your Zeemp Marketing Campaign”, WHY would I ever want to trust your company with my marketing campaigns? Where are the testimonials, results, facts? Just from this first 20 second impression – I’m clicking away. And never looking back at your site again.
3. You have “MYSTERY MEAT” navigation.
That means I have to hover over stuff to find things. That’s WORSE than bad! And a very stupid move on the designers part.
I’ve just addressed the top 3 reasons why this site will fail. Did anyone consult with a focus or test group of users? Or did a bunch of techno geeks get together and spend hundreds of hours working on a project THEY thought was useful for their market?
Back to the drawing board my friend.
"This information is great. It is information that I didn't get anywhere else. I liked the nuts and bolts aspect with the reasons why explained as well."
Glad to see you here! I am Donna Payne, The Web Coach since 2004. I work with small business owners and solo-professionals so they can get found, engage their customers, and grow their profits. Check out our Services which include, "Done For You" - Local Mobile Marketing, Hybrid and Mobile Websites & Newsletters, Custom Mobile Apps - QR Codes and Other Marketing Tools. You can also hire me for Technical Consulting, Social Media Management, or Business Coaching. NOT SURE WHERE TO START? Lets chat! Sometimes we just need a friend "in the know" that we can bounce ideas off or get another opinion. Feel free to schedule 15 minutes at your convenience.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Donna,
We are not personally offended. We are in public beta, so your comments are valuable to us to improve the user experience of our site. We are working to make our “about us” more clear.
Second, if we don’t have testimonials is because we launched yesterday. In fact, we do have received a lot of positive feedback and other great suggestions like yours. You are free to not come back, but we do appreciate if you can look it again to see the changes we are going to do to address some issues.
There is nothing strange in a drop down-menu, it is used all over the web.
We do spend a lot of hours in order to build a great product to help everyone to find useful services and to help companies to advertise their products on Web.
Best Regards,
Zeemp team