Site review smokers.com

[rutopia101]

Let me know what you think this is a first run on the design,
basically a community for smokers as well as smokers that are trying to quit smoking.
http://publicityfox.com/smokers/ is new design
What are some of your ideas for extra revenue ?

Please keep in mind many of the top links are there as example only.

 

[Badger]

Horrible... Sorry.

And confusing (i followed the under 18 link cos it stood out and said click here)

The whole deal is amateurish. Its a mass of stuff and arranged with your marketing messages at the outset (which is a no no)...

Ok so you have punters on your site.. Im now really hoping that the text on your index page is simply just a word layout and not the final proof. Its badly worded, will lose you customers and is unnecessary. The images look like low res mock ups done in something like microsoft paint fgs.

The text is all different size fonts... The indian thing inside the dollars is just the worst ever...

So, If you are going to do this yourself, stay simple. People will not be on your site to be impressed by your layout. Therefore your objective is to make cigarette purchasing, simple, quick, safe and easy. If i was to design this site I would look to take insprirataion from elsewhere. I.e. have a under / over 18 disclaimer perhaps something like google (page centre, white background, small crisp logo). then have a purchasing system where the emphasis is on 'get in, get out'

On the plus side (which i guess is why i am bothering giving a reply), the idea of what you are doing is gold. The domain is gold dust and with yesmoke.com /ch in all sorts of trouble the potential is golden...

SO, do yourself a favour, give up being chief web designer, go to the bank, give them your ideas, employ a 'proper' web design company, visit overture or google and pay the ppl 's for 'cheap cigarettes', 'cheap camel non-filters' etc etc and sit back a nd count your money. Either that or sell me the domain and let me do it.. :lol:

In any respect, good luck........!

 

[Matt]

Have to agree with all of the previoous comments. Appaling site and deleting is to good for it. I dont know what could be worse for a website, but maybe someone has an Idea. Pay for a design and for the site to be properley coded. Good domain, good concept. Poorly planed imo.

Rgds
Matt

 

[dx3k]

basically a community for smokers as well as smokers that are trying to quit smoking.

the first thing i saw was a sign saying discounct ciggerates.......

 

[DSL]

Its an ok site...

 

[Badger]

got your pm and checked the site which, in all fairness, is not bad....

But perhaps not appropriate for what youre doing...

Your problem lies in the fact that youre trying to cover too much and too many subjects.

As with any marketing / business project and perhaps more so with web sites (because they are inherinently linked with marketing) you need to know in advance what it is you are trying to achieve...

I posted originally because i think your domain and concept (of selling cheap cigs online) is great... You need to forget the forum for quitters, for discussion and anything else that doesnt make you money because it will gain you little traffic and runs the risk of putting off genuine customers.

smokers.com straight away gives you kudos. If you get a reasonable listing (and I notice no-one is paying ppl's on your concept) then you have the potential to make a load of bucks..

your final problem lies in your site itself. Research tells us that online purchasing is growing at a mega rate and people buy from sites when a, the site is fast i.e. it doesnt have a flash driven intro. b, the sites exudes confidence to the buyer that they are dealing with professional rather than someone who has knocked up their site in their garage and c, its safe and their details and cc info will not get abused.

As I said before, get a web design company (there are many np's doing this here at reasonable rates), tell them what you want i.e. dont let them play hobby with your money, pay ppl's to google and yahoo etc 10c per click should do it (add the conversion rate and cost of this to your sale price) and retain sole ownership of your idea....

Hope this helps. And Pm if you need any more advice.

Cheers

Ian

 

[oblivious]

well, the site design istn't anything spectacular, but i dont think it's as bad as all that. just keep working on it, and maybe it'll all come together. on a different note, i just want to state that i do not in any way support smoking, as it is detrimental to one's health.

 

[Badger]

thats really good to know oblivious, thanks

 

[soapbath]

I like it. Just remove the black, and give the nav section headers.

 

[Miyavi]

I don't care for the layout, but the color scheme is actually rather nice and easy on the eyes; however, the one thing it had going for it was/is ruined by that huge BLUE advertisement at the top. It doesn't match, and it sticks out l ike a sore thumb.