Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2004 3:22 pm Post subject: Brand new to this. Could you review?
Thanks so much to all of you who regularly post to the board and help your fellow AM'ers!
I've just finished my first site at www.aircrafthomebuilder.com and would appreciate any feedback. It's set up for Adsense and I hope to have that approved and set in place later this week.
It's not loaded with affiliate links except for the bookstore and "Pay for your project" pages.
Let me know what you think and thanks in advance.
Any critique is greatly valued! _________________ Thanks!
I think your site is well-designed ... but you need more content pages. I only saw 2 articles on your site, the rest were all offsite.
How many actual pages do you have?
On your "Software & Design" page, I would provide information on what software can do for you, and what it can't. Offer tips and recommendations on the various software available, with a couple links to affiliate merchants that offer the software, then link to the page you have there now. You could even do a page for each software program you recommend, outlining more info on that piece of software, and how to use it properly or for most benefit.
I would carry the same idea to your other pages ... provide your content first, with your affiliate links, then link to the offsite resources last. Keep them on your site and reading your information as long as possible.
Your offsite resources are a great resource to have, but I would be more inclined to keep them a little deeper into the site, more as a "last resource" than a primary one.
Hope this helps,
Debs _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
This is my first stab at AM and I struggled for a while trying to come up with a concept that I knew enough about, but wasn't beat to death from competition.
The part I struggle with is many of the vendors who would be selling to experimental aircraft builders don't belong to any type of affiliate program (hence the stab at eBay listings, etc.)
But, that's my challenge and I can figure out some creative way to monetize the site (I know of one site that actually has paying banners from mfg companies in the kitplane industry advertising on his site, so one goal is to build enough traffic to support paid advertisers - a lofty goal I know, but I think I can do it )
I know I'm in serious need of content and I'll be adding to that soon. Maybe I jumped the gun a little in publishing, but my vanity didn't want me to wait any more.
I'll give more emphasis on doing some reviews and maybe I can develop some other affiliate methods I just haven't thought of yet.
I really appreciate your time! _________________ Thanks!
Adsense should be a great way to monetize your site, and with content your chances of being approved are greatly improved.
If, by chance, you do get turned down, don't despair. Keep the rejection email! Build the content, then email a reply and request a re-review. Don't try to reapply, as the site will have been tagged and useless for Adsense without the "re-review."
Consider contacting merchants and manufacturers directly to create either individual affiliate referrals, finder's fee, or similar action based commissions.
Tim Warnock had some excellent ideas for this, search for his posts, it was relatively recent that he wrote about this. "View posts" not "topics" for better results.
I would also suggest using the eBay listing boxes that were discussed in another thread ... from what I understand they look similar to Adsense, but are well-branded as eBay, and offer detailed and up to date listings for the targeted products you would want to feature.
No problem getting the cart before the horse a bit, just don't let it sidetrack you from getting the content online because that is what will get your site into better placement on the SE's and draw in the traffic.
I would also suggest you provide a submit url page or form so people can request a link exchange. Get more links into your site to help with rankings, this is very important so don't put it off.
Keep a balanced approach if you can. Every week, add a couple articles, and a couple links. Within a few months you will start to see an increase in traffic and, hopefully, income. If you can put in more time, make it daily instead of weekly
Debs _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
Debs - Oddly enough, as I was writing the post about how long AdSense take to reply, they were sending me my approval e-mail
WOO-HOO!!!
I really appreciate your input. I know you've been successful at this game (very impressive site, I might add; nice job) and it's great to have an experienced person be willing to share their knowledge.
With respect to the eBay - do you think the eBay pages are too overwhelming? I narrowed down to just the aviation section and put in the most common searches for aviation items that a homebuilder might want. You can see a page here:
http://www.aircrafthomebuilder.com/ebay%20-%20Electronics.htm
I'll certainly search on Tim's posts. Thanks for the tip. I'll probably have to go that route for the reasons discussed earlier.
I do try do accomplish something everyday. It's a tough time of year for that though, being a CPA!
Thanks a million for the input!! _________________ Thanks!
Doug, I like that page and think that works very well for eBay ... I would reverse the order though and put the search box after the listing of items. That way, the detail is first, the search is only needed if the detail isn't what they want.
Debs _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 1744 Location: Bangor, Maine
Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 1:42 pm Post subject:
Doug,
I noticed in that last link you published that your filenames have spaces in them.
As Debs pointed out in another post, spaces are converted to the %20 so a browser can render them correctly. Sometimes the browsers will display the link properly, and sometimes it won't. I suggest removing all spaces from any of your file names. It will help you reach the most number of visitors.
One quick comment. Your site appears in my browser with some of the page cut off on the right hand side of the screen. If I want to see it all I have to scroll back and forth horizontally. I see this on many sites and it is annoying enough to make me leave immediately unless I am really motivated to stay and put up with it. I don't know how to correct it other than putting everything in a table and setting the width to 500 or so as I do on my site.
That issue just happens to be a pet peave with me.
You guys are great. I'll make some changes and get the site tuned up a little more.
I don't know about the width, though. The site was actually a template and I may not be the greatest programmer, but I'm certainly going to keep that in mind for future sites. _________________ Thanks!
Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 1744 Location: Bangor, Maine
Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:39 pm Post subject:
YOu might want to consider finding (or buying) a template the uses CSS and XHTML. That will give you a nice flowing width, so the page always fits almost any browser window size. _________________ Eric D. Burdo They Made $6,513 a day With Clickbank Doing This...
You can also adjust it to percentage vs. fixed width pixels. But you want to be careful if you get into changing to a fluid layout as it can be a little tricky. Once done, however, it is worth it.
For anyone posting about width problems, it would help the site owner if you posted the info on your resolution, screen size, etc. so they know what you mean and can easily recreate what you are seeing.
Something like ... 1024x768, 17", 32 bit color
Debs _________________ Learn how to turn keyphrases into quality, well-targeted articles your visitors and SE's will love with Gary Antosh's new ebook "Web Content Made Easy!"
Content ideas... What about Aircraft for sale (you get a commission on every sale?) and ... financing your home build... Successful methods people have used, specialist aircraft financiers? most entrepreneurial etc. _________________ Neil Best
Expert information on all areas of small business finance, from effective planning, to finding grants and making successful loan applications http://www.smallbusinessfinancetips.com
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