This is my first attempt at a business online [well if you don't count selling cafepress Tshirts] I designed and built the site myself. The audio is dreadful [I put that down to my Irish accent - can't do much about it!] but I suppose I want to be myself too. I hate Internet BS like seeing a photo of a guy on a site who turns out to be a model for microsoft free photos! I know there are lots of improvements to be made but it's only online a couple of days and is very much a work in progress.

Feedback welcome [cringe!]

http://www.quickandeasyaudio.com

Hi Tracy,

After reading your initial comments before viewing the website i was expecting a complete mess. I was pleasently supprised however when i visited your website. I think the areas of the content should be looked at and rewored but you have set the foundations well. A red and black colour scheme is almost fail safe and unless the red is to bright, you cant go far wrong with it.

I personally beleive that if you have a new website thats just starting out, try and reframe from using banner advertising and pop-ups etc. Sites with little traffic usually dont make any profit from banner advertising and it never looks good to people viewing your content.

Good first effort,

- Mark

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I'd agree with what Mark said, except for the banner ads since they do relate. If they were irrelevant, or if you were directly selling something, I would agree. But you don't seem to be doing either, so I think you're okay with them.

My three additional comments:

1) I don't like the audio recording, but not because of the sound of your voice. You seem to be sitting too close to your microphone and you're getting a little feedback from it (it's especially apparent when you make hard sounds such as the "p" in the beginning of a word). I'd say sit back from the mic a bit and/or raise your recording quality.

2) As far as the stock photos go, in the case of this site I wouldn't include them, simply because a visual when you're selling audio doesn't really apply. They do, however, have their purposes.

3) Perhaps the thing that will hurt your sales the most is that you're immediately obvious that you're affiliate marketing other people's products. What you're not doing is giving any real, solid and unique information about the products themselves. You're basically regurgitating someone else's message.

Show us what we can do with these products. Put audio samples up, showing that you've used the products. If they have weak points (as I'm sure they all do), tell us what they are. Tell us how we can benefit from using the products specifically.

The flip side is that, if a product sucks, tell us it sucks. You won't sell any of that product, but you'll gain a certain measure of integrity that will likely lead to you selling more of some other products (provided you don't base your opinion of the product at least partly on the price/commission you get.)

In other words, show us that you want to help us buy the right audio products and why we should buy what you recommend...don't just tell us that we should buy them.

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Nice accent shame about the Ps - You're 'popping your Ps' on your audio. It's not going to impress potential buyes. Re-record it!

You need - for visitors and search engines - more advise and articles. The ones you have are a bit hidden away - I'd quote and link them from on the home page.

Rather pushes your affilates too much. Otherwise a nice site...

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Wow, thank you, thank you, thank you for some excellent critique. I've taken it all on board and will get working on it, the re-recording [with a better mic] and the content especially ...!

Once again, thanks for taking the time!

I like that it's clean and simple... Stay with that and don't let it get cluttered... You might want to make a post comments form (using something like php, asp, cgi, or the likes...) where users can contact you that way rather than just having a mailto link.

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