Review my website

[vanroojdotcom]

Please review and pass on your feedback suggestions for my newly designed website aimed at the travel market (airline flights)

http://www.cheapestflightinternational.com

thanks
Hurst Vanrooj

 

[Mike]

Neatly built suite, horrible positioning of the google adsense bar. the google box that sits in the middle of the screen is a huge distraction from what you're setting out to do. Your target group are users that want to travel, not look at a dominant google box. resize it or integrate the adsense bar in a smarter way. the skyscraper adsense is placed quite ok.

the site handles intuitively, i like the overall design, the globe with the different flags is a neat idea, so is the kid in the banner.

capitalize on how you're trying to help, by putting your emphasis on searching for flights, hotels, etc. and try to get contextual advertising rather than just google boxes. i agree with the idea of wanting to make money, but it can be done a bit more skillful and not so blatantly obvious.

overall, if you look at my perception of the site, it's only minor adjustments, the rest sits well. although, i would suggest more images, hotels, airports, beaches, sights, etc. anything to make the user feel like they'd already be on their vacation.

:tu:

 

[vanroojdotcom]

Thanks for the reply.

You think that the google ad in the middle is too much? It's only really been live for about three weeks so I'm still learning - I've got another position for the ads at the bottom of one page

http://www.cheapestflightinternational.com/cheapestflight_search.php

Do you think this is easier on the eye than just slap in the middle?

The contextual ads rather than google confuses me a little (could you elucidate) i.e I thought that's what they were!

I do want to make money but I also want to expand on the site so that it is a site for people to get information (travelling is a real big part of my life and I have experience so in time I want it to be informative - not just for google ads to sit there)

I've got 14,000 hits in the last three weeks and "Cheapest Flight" tapped into msn.com gets my site between no1-no4 on the results.

Maybe have a 'random script' so that each time you load, different pictures appear in the top banner?

Thanks for your imput
Hurst Vanrooj

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the reply.

You think that the google ad in the middle is too much? It's only really been live for about three weeks so I'm still learning - I've got another position for the ads at the bottom of one page

http://www.cheapestflightinternational.com/cheapestflight_search.php

Do you think this is easier on the eye than just slap in the middle?

The contextual ads rather than google confuses me a little (could you elucidate) i.e I thought that's what they were!


Maybe have a 'random script' so that each time you load, different pictures appear in the top banner?

Thanks for your imput
Hurst Vanrooj

Contextual ads as in- when you read a newspaper article about a car (example) chances are that this story is a sponsored one. Even though it appears that the story is genuinely written by a journalist, it's actually a contextual ad. Even though google advertises their adsense as being contextual, which in a way is correct because the ads are driven by the context of the site, the true contextual advertising takes place within a story.
Ultimately you accomplish 2 things; (1) you're delivering a piece of entertainment while at the same time, (2) you're delivering suggestive advertising.

your google adsense placement is extremely intrusive at this time, it takes away from your "mission" i would definitely place them differently.

The script that displays different sights, places, people, historic landmarks, etc. in a random display is a great way of making the site more interactive. Or, place a flash window on your site that randomly broadcasts the live cams from different locations. Anything to stand out, look different and serve the clients.
14k hits in a matter of weeks is a great accomplishment already, but now you're setting the site up to give the users a reason to return. I'm not sure if a "travel diary" would fit in your site or even make sense, but it would give users the ability to suggest destinations, give updates, and tell others which the really cool places are, at the same time, YOUR site can get them there.

just a few thoughts.

 

[vanroojdotcom]

Thanks for the support / advice, I will rethink this over the weekend. You're right about my 'mission' for this site - I don't want it to be just 'hits and hope' that I will make people click the adverts ie. - people visit the the site and think it's just another site full of adverts. And then never return.

All the information was written by me, from my experiences, so I think I will tone down the 'sponsorship' and let it grow over time. I do want people to visit it and gain some knowledge and then add to it themsleves.

I have created a 'feeder' site that I hope to use as a way of directing people to my real site (at the moment it just directs you to the site, but what I want to do is search for destinations and then link them to my booking site) if you refresh the button on this the pictures change.

http://www.cheaperflightsworldwide.com
*this is a site that I've subscribed to "TrafficZap" a free link site that automatically opens pop-under advert - so if you don't want to click it it's upto you)s

I've also created an RSS feed, but again this just links back to my site (this is in test mode at the moment - but I'd like to use this to announce new articles etc)
http://www.cheapestflightinternational.com/rss/cfi.php

BTW this is a fantastic free RSS script downloadable from http://www.feedforall.com/download.htm (fourth one down - for Mac) no affiliation.


I like the idea of encouraging other companies to have an input into it and will look at that closely - I had an email from an Australian travel company who saw my site and wanted to put their booking informtion on my site so that's maybe the way to go.

I'll take on board your suggestions and work from there. I'd say more positives than negatives.

Thanks for the response
Hurst Vanrooj

 

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