Newbie - advice

[l234244]

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Hello everyone, complete newbie here. First post so go easy - I started my own website recently - www.dolphinposters.biz - could someone take a look and let me know how I am doing. Been moving up the SERPS quite nicely, seem to be doing alright through adsense but not selling many posters. Wonder if there is some experienced affiliates here can offer good advice. Thanks inadvance.
Michael

[lowndsy]

Hi. from a web design point of view there are a few things that could be improved.

First off, you aren't really driving visitors to the poster view pages. The three paragraphs for posters, pictures and prints are a good idea but you could do with linking them from the titles instead of just those little go>> buttons. If your stylesheet skills are up to it I'd link the entire caption but set the text so that it doesn't look like linked text - it won't look over the top that way and will make it easier for a visitor to get to the pages that sell.

Second, using Iframes to display the posters creates difficulties for search engines and visitors don't like scrolling at the best of times but especially in frames within pages.

The three different sections are a little confusing - what is th edifference between posters, pictures and prints? If oyu stated the differnece on the home page (ie Dolphin posters - relaxing dolphin posters suitable for mounting on walls, doors, ceilings...), with typical sizes then your surfers would be more advised as they clicked through.

The menu bar at the left of your page isn't very clear - you have a home link on the home page, and although you have three poster sections, there is only one link. You have also set the link colour to green, but you seem to have missed one (about us) on some pages.

The affiliates link is misleading - you are simply trying to get 2nd level comissions off other webmasters so you need to start convincing them. I'd replace the link with an article on how allposters adds value to a site, creates revenue blah blah blah and when I wanted to link to it just show the first paragraph with a "more..." link.

The adsense colour scheme is ok, and if you're getting results from it I'd leave it as it is. Did you know that you can block certain ads from displaying on your site? The top result is for dolphin telecom, so when you spot an ad that doesn't fit note the url and bar it the next time you log into adsense.

Hope this helps a bit,

Steve

PS, habitat is spelt without the "n"

[l234244]

Hello Lowndsy, thankyou for the fast and thorough post. I'm busy learning CSS and looking to carry that out in the upcoming weeks.

On my products pages I have used inline frames to prevent any pagerank loss in the future. I wasnt sure whether the affiliate links could be read by google, any ideas?

I like the idea behind explaining the difference between posters, pictures and prints I will look to elaborate on that.

Just a quick note about second level affiliate page, I was thinking of doing the article that you suggested. However in the month that I have been up and running I have signed up 5 people already - Do you think a better page would improve this further? I suppose I can try and if not go back to that one.

And thanks for the adsense advice I didnt notice that.

This has been great advice, I will try and make all the suggested changes and see if this improve, thanks. If anyone can see anything else please post.

Michael

[lowndsy]

On my products pages I have used inline frames to prevent any pagerank loss in the future. I wasnt sure whether the affiliate links could be read by google, any ideas?

To be honest I'm not sure on this. Yes you are correct (I think) - changing the content of the iframe would not affect the pagerank or SE ratings, but having each page as a proper part of your site would add a lot more pages for the SEs to view and index, and what sort of future changes are you planning anyway? Unless you change merchants completely or swap all of the products for spiderman pictures you should be fine. The content of the iframes could even enhance your listings if google could see it!

Maybe a compromise would be best for the affiliates page if it is already working for you - put the article on the existing page. The paragraph you have is (imo) quite short so if that has managed to get signups then imagine what more convincing content could do!

Glad to help anyway,
Steve

[Elaine]

Well I've signed up - thanks for that - should be a good little earner. Not that keen on your Logo - but I'm sure your it will all change on a regular basis as you learn more, look around and 'utilize' other designs etc. - mine does.

Good luck - I'll leave all the techie advice to others.

[l234244]

Hello Elaine, thanks for signing up. All posters is a very good affiliate program I have done very well with them in the past, good luck!. Any suggestions about how I can improve my logo?

Just a quick update have managed to setup an agreement with one of the biggest "adopt a dolphin" programs on the internet. The agreement is that I will place a link on my homepage and give them 10% of any profits. For this they will give me a homepage link and also include me in there up and coming marketing. I have seen this site before advitised on posters and tv around the country so sounds like a good find. The lady I spoke to quoted from business online that people are 81% more likely to buy something if it contributes towards charity.

Michael