Looking for advice,help,money,cyanide,long rope etc etc

[beriberi]

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I have a large site thefirstplacetolook.com and am getting totally snowed under with work. I need to talk to somebody who can give me some clues as how to lighten the workload somewhat!! Please!

[evans11]

I want to say only one thing your concept is so good.

[stephenbanks]

Hi beriberi,

Are you a full time affiliate?

As your site is of course about everything it is easy to get taken in a 1001 directions, if you are looking to focus your energies I would concentrate of niches. But if you are already emotionally invested in your site you can always take on a partner or outsource your work depending on how much revenue your site is generating.

Planning your time is extremely important, even more so if you are a part time affiliate and you want to stick at it. I know affiliates who have agendas and break down their weekly activity and goals to help them manage their time, it also prevents (to some extent) from being taken away from your goal by the 100's of ideas and opportunities affiliates find on a daily basis.

What are you spending most of your time on? If you could list your top time consumers we might be able to help with tools, tricks or advise pertaining to those topics individually.

Anyway hope this helps.

[tomj]

Hey,

I could probably help with 4 of the 5 you need lol :tup

Ok seriously, to me it looks like a nicely done banner farm... You'll go nowhere not very quickly with this. Where's the unique content? Have I been dim and missed it?

I get the concept but wheres the real value for the user?

Maybe think about what you are trying to achieve and break it down into phases with realistic goals for each phase that allow you to grow, make money and re-invest...

[Dynamoo]

First impressions:

I love the layout of the first page. It's like a sort of advent calendar.. I want to click around and find what's there. The trouble is that when I move the pointer over the boxes, I expect something a bit more exciting.. even just changing the colour of the box or the background.

I was a bit baffled by the voices I started to hear, then I realised that there was a woman lurking at the bottom of the screen. I'd only had a sip of Becherovka at this point, so I kind of assume that she was meant to be there. Not sure what I think of that.. a nice idea though.

So, I click through and immediately there's a BIG problem.. you didn't check the site in Firefox as far as I can tell, it doesn't render properly. And then.. well, as tomj says.. it looks like a nicely done banner farm. I was expecting so much more. It's not immediately obvious that there's a link to the blog at the top and a main link to the merchant site below.

I think the problem is that the front page made me think that I was going to get some Web 2.0 trickery, but the inside pages are a bit disappointing. (I say this with the full disclosure that I'm a Web 0.9 guy myself). Perhaps some Digg or Reddit style voting system? I feel it need to be more engaging somehow. Twitter. Facebook. That kind of stuff. (Ewww)

You have a good domain name, a tidy design with an intriguing front page, if I dig down I can see some content and useful stuff like discount codes. I just don't feel that the site is very engaging.

[stephenbanks]

Hi Yanaqa,

Not sure if your post should have been placed in this thread.

Depending on what you are trying to achieve, you might want to start a new thread with a topic for discussion.

[Lancaster]

... The trouble is that when I move the pointer over the boxes, I expect something a bit more exciting.. even just changing the colour of the box or the background.

I couldn't agree more with this.

[losdev]

I have viewed this site with Kapsersky switched on and banner viewing disabled...guess what I see....

NOWT

I don't like the layout, the content does not induce any interest and for this reason I am out. JMTC

Hope it works for you.

[benfriedman]

Try using this tool: Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots

it lets you check that the website is rendering right in all the differnet browsers, because at the moment it isn't quite right in a few, mainly Firefox as mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

Ben

[beriberi]

Hi beriberi,

Are you a full time affiliate?

As your site is of course about everything it is easy to get taken in a 1001 directions, if you are looking to focus your energies I would concentrate of niches. But if you are already emotionally invested in your site you can always take on a partner or outsource your work depending on how much revenue your site is generating.

Planning your time is extremely important, even more so if you are a part time affiliate and you want to stick at it. I know affiliates who have agendas and break down their weekly activity and goals to help them manage their time, it also prevents (to some extent) from being taken away from your goal by the 100's of ideas and opportunities affiliates find on a daily basis.

What are you spending most of your time on? If you could list your top time consumers we might be able to help with tools, tricks or advise pertaining to those topics individually.

Anyway hope this helps.

Hi Stephen,
Thanks very much for your interest. I stumbled into this more by luck and no judgement! I had the domain name and just chatted with a friend of a friend about designing a website for it. We both thought it lent itself to being a website directory and away we went. Once it was designed, I had no real idea where to go. Im 58 and previously worked in the City for 27 years in the money markets. I was going to set the site up as a hobby (honest!) and started asking small companies for subscriptions. That got nowhere and I was suddenly put onto Affiliate companies (who I had never heard of). I then got onto a rollercoaster that has been speeding up daily. I had a very small budget (as I wasnt originally going down these lines anyway) and spent that on some SEO and advertising.
Its now just me. I have no real knowledge of SEO, HTML, Google Adwords, networking, the affiliate network - in a nutshell, everything that I need to make this work.My workload is just stupid and I really feel that I need to try and sell the site to someone who might be able to make it profitable. Ten years ago I would have have a good stab at trying to learn a lot more about this but I feel Im a bit old in the tooth now and can appreciate that it takes a lot more specialist knowledge than I've got.

[Dynamoo]

..a bit old in the tooth now and can appreciate that it takes a lot more specialist knowledge than I've got.

Specialist knowledge is sometimes the last thing you need!

Like any other business idea, sometimes it is about identifying a need (often through your own experiences) and then learning how to exploit it. Use whatever life and business experiences you have to give yourself an edge.

I think you're 50% of the way to a great idea. I'm not saying that the great idea will be a success, but it could certainly be worth a punt. Maybe you need to find a partner to help you develop it.

[beriberi]

Specialist knowledge is sometimes the last thing you need!

Like any other business idea, sometimes it is about identifying a need (often through your own experiences) and then learning how to exploit it. Use whatever life and business experiences you have to give yourself an edge.

I think you're 50% of the way to a great idea. I'm not saying that the great idea will be a success, but it could certainly be worth a punt. Maybe you need to find a partner to help you develop it.

Thanks for your comments - they really are greatly appreciated! The truth is, that I didnt go into this with any business plan etc., as I had no intention of making a business out of it. At my age Im looking to dabble in other things that I know something about but not in a career-forming sort of way. I had my career and as I said, if I had thought of this 10 years ago i would have been much more enthusiastic. A partner would obviously help but with no money to offer I could only offer a share in a company that doesnt generate much at the moment. Potential is obviously there but would take a leap of faith.

[tomj]

Why not buy a domain relating to forex trading etc and put a blog up on it. With your experience you could probably pen some decent content.

Theres good commission in trading programs etc

Dont give up. Just keep it simple and experiment.

I cant count anymore the number of crap sites I've churned out on a impulse and with no real thought. Some have made money, some have died after a very short life. Thing is every time you do this you learn by your mistakes.

I got into doing this business for myself in 2003 and only this last 2 years started making real real ground .

If you have the time I'd suggest using this forum to research the areas you dont feel confident in. Just read, read and read. Sooner or later it will all start sinking in :tup