Review My Site: How to Generate Profitable Traffic

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Keyblast

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Yes, I'm a newbie. However, I figure I have to start somewhere.

I have ventured into the eBay affiliate program, and created this website with only eBay affiliate offers...(The Build A Niche Software essetially gave me the idea, but I built it from scratch...buying a ClickBank product just doesnt sit well with me).

The website is - » Welcome to eTreasureHunting.com. My question is how can I generate profitable traffic? Currently, I have written a few articles (ezine articles, etc) and have posted in some forums. I am hoping to avoid Google adwords, etc at this point.

What suggestions do you have for generating FREE traffic to this website, and what changes should I make on the site, to make the user more likely to click away!

Any suggestions would be great! Thanks!
 


OK, this takes forever to load.

Also, the permalinks are not SEOed .. search for permalink structure wordpress or something similar.

The logo does not fit in with the rest of the header.

Try a non serif font for the text as well. Arial, Helvetica, whatevernonserif.

::emp::
 
What might be the reasons it takes so long to load? I use Bluehost (if that matters). I also have a redirect from the home page to the actual landing page; is that whats slowing it down?
 
On my resolution the header image background stops close to the right side and gives way to just a plain background color. I'm on 1280x1024. I like the idea of your site, though.
 
Loaded quickly for me. You'll need to do some linkbuilding and invest some time in further article marketing. Another way you could get free traffic is finding relevant places to post links, ie. Yahoo Answers, Blogs relating to artifacts, etc. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the advice! I have/will be implementing some of these suggestions. I got my first sale yesterday, so I am pretty happy about that! $3.86 woohoo! I am also considering adding a blog/updated news feature to the site. However, I need to decide how much time I have to devote to this before that happens.

I also had a few other groups test out the website, and most said that the load time is normal...so I wont worry about that too much. Articles and link building will be the focus. Thanks for the help!
 
jeez, how fast do you guys want it to load? I counted only 2 mississippis and it had loaded.

EDIT: I just saw MisterX's post. Cool link. My load time on my site got a 4/10 though :( It said that it took 39 seconds??? wtf it takes me like 2 seconds when I check it, the "report card" came back in 5 seconds so where does 39 seconds come from??

and how do you speed it up?
 
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You've got good content, but the site design is a bit bland.

I can't tell immediately why the site exists. Is there a tag line or something that you could add to you header to sum things up? "Ebay's is a treasure chest. Here's the map!"

Ok, that's a bit cheesey I guess, but you get the point.

From a design standpoint, the header graphic is a bit lame (maybe hire a bit more experienced designer to pump up the treasure map theme) and the color schemes are actually pretty off. You have a blue-ish scheme on the buttons but the background color behind your graphic is a bit more greenish yellow than a blueish yellow. Nitpicky I know but the eye path on the page is seriously disrupted by the color schemes of the coin graphics which contrasts with the header graphic and overall design colors.

At a minimum center the "map graphic" and the "Welcome to eTreasureHunting.com" headline. Maybe also put the headline in its own cell/section and make it a complimentary color. I think an actual slug line would be better, but this will do until you can get a good copy writer on the case.

Most of you adsense units are showing GPS stuff, which I assume is what you want and pays well. That's a good job you've done.

Perhaps a bit more actual content would be good. Make this look a bit more like a blog than a commercial site and give your visitors a reason to bookmark you and come back to see what else you have to say. Articles that draw them back in each week. You may not sell them immediately, but if you establish yourself as an authority, or at least someone interesting, they may just happen upon an ad that they like and buy from you.

If they never ever come back after their first visit... well, you get the idea.

overall a nice site, but needs some love and care.


 
Thanks for the advice...seriously! I think I just need to realize that I suck at web design. I have good business sense (at least offline so far), but extremely low programming skills. I suppose its better to just hire someone for the graphics, setup, etc. I'm sick of trying to do all of that myself anyway.
 
MisterX said:
Well, those "other groups" ARE NOT your friends, that's what I'll tell you.

And here's a good way to check it yourself. Pay special attention to your load time score.

SiteReportCard: Web Site Optimization and Promotion Tools
Click to expand...

Thanks for the report card. Yesterday my site (according to the report card) took 57 sec. to download. I deleted my image header, which no one liked, and switched to nonsans-serif. Today my time is 21 secs! Thanks!

I am still working on the look of the site...
 
Definitely better.

Another thought that might help the eye-traffic. Maybe add a bit larger padding to the text to tighten it up in the columns. In other words a slightly larger white space between the left and right borders of your center column.

Let..
etreasure...
simply...
will...

are the first words (in my main browser Firefox 2.0.0.7) on the left and they are just soooooooo close to the "pages" column that they sort of smoosh themselves together. You may be optimizing for IE. In IE the colors are a bit brighter and the padding a tiiiiiiny bit wider. Of course I also have a lot less stuff (edit: toolbars that drop the page lower on the screen) in IE than FF so it's in a different relative screen position too which my be having an effect.

Anyway, it's better now, but I still kind of lose the title and wonder exactly what the page is for without more direct clues.

Also, 21 seconds is HELL for a load time. I have a connection that causes steam on my neighbors windows and still taking more than 15 seconds to load. Might want to optimize a bit for that.

My rating: improved, but still needs TLC.
 
Here is an equation you may find useful:

Good content + SEO + PPC, Paid back links, Forum posts to similar niche, banners, etc. = Great traffic and more targeted traffic!

IMO, opting for paid ways contribute well to a good marketing mix especially at getting targeted traffic. You have higher chances getting conversions from these. In reality, getting 10 targeted traffic is better that 100 random traffic. Getting just mere random traffic doesn't constitutes your site's success - it's the conversion you get from your traffic. Getting traffic is just the first step, offering the right stuff to your visitors and conversion should be utmostly considered.

To sum up, SEO is great for the long run and should't be left out. This is a long process and wouldn't always give you immediate results. Premium ways (PPC, paid links, banner, etc) for faster generation of targeted traffic especially if you have time constraints. ;)
 
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