Some advice/tips appreciated

gregmp · 13-05-08

Hi everyone,

I realise this is a very general question and maybe something people won't be that willing to answer but I'd welcome any feedback you'd be willing to give. I had a site built - GoCatalunya.com - A Complete Guide to Catalunya - GoCatalonia.com, A Complete Guide to Catalonia - by someone else using Joomla and it's been up for about 18 months now. I get about 2000 visitors a month and have experimented a bit with adwords around hotels but found the commission didn't justify the spend. Although traffic is increasing slowly month by month what I'm earning from affiliates seems to be going nowhere. Since the site was built I've learnt how to use dreamweaver and find this a far easier way of building and optimizing sites than joomla, though my skills are limted to html so php and mysql are out.

So my questions are:
- Any general tips or advice
- Is 2000 monthly visitors a figure you'd expect to earn from or is it just pathetic?!
- Does anyone use Joomla to build affiliate sites and do they find it works? ie should I invest the time to learn joomla rather than doing future sites in dreamweaver?

Thanks in advance,
Greg

mattg · 13-05-08

Greg, to start at the beginning, surely most English speakers are going to be searching for 'Catalonia' not 'Catalunya'.

I think the average level of knowledge may be lower than you think ... (vis a vis Kosher vs Halal on The Apprentice ;-) )

gregmp · 13-05-08

Hi Matt,

Yes, probably a stupid error though I'm not sure if changing it now would do more harm than good as catalunya is one of the few terms that I do well on. I chose catalunya because the search volume was far higher than catalonia but probably no the best rationale, but at least I didn't set up koshermeat.com and target Muslim users! Looking forward to this week though 'Could you tell me the difference between my arse and my elbow Sir Alan'

henry01 · 13-05-08

"catalunya is one of the few terms that I do well on. I chose catalunya because the search volume was far higher than catalonia but probably no the best rationale"

Sadly thats prob why your sales are low as their looking for something different to what your site offers. Its better to get low targetted traffic than high general traffic.

Check your log files and see what language your visitors use, if its not English that will again show why you get low rev.

Do a test with someone like Crazy Egg – visualize your visitors to see where people do click and find possible faults in your design / layout. For example in one of my sites I found people where clicking in mad places, so made them links tot eh bookings page and saw rev go sky high.

cottageguy · 13-05-08

Hi

Anything to postpone attacking this big pile of filing . . .

OK, I booked a trip to Catalunya last May for six people. First thing I wanted was a map that showed where it was, where the airports were in relation to the beach, the cities, the roads etc.

your home page is packed with stuff that will be irrelevant to most visitors, because you are appealing to different groups - movers, people living there, break-takers etc. So I would concentrate on making your home page restricted to information relevant to all of them, map, weather, special offers, then have clear pathways to specialist sections. You have the three headers, but they are drowning in a sea of information.

What about:
"Three things you MUST know if you are flying into Barcelona airport" (one of which should be how to avoid the traffic once you leave, or at least advise to visit the rest rooms before you set off

)

"What not to miss on a catalan menu"
"my favourite places in Catalunya"

Anything rather than taking me straight to a hotel booking engine - I have ones I like already.

For the record, we stayed in Platja d'Aro, played golf and had a fine time, but I couldn't find golf info on your site. It may well be there, but not quickly visible.

HTH

Jon