strobe — Sun, 25 Jan 2004 17:49:36 +0000

OK, I try to see the positive in every situation, so let me start there:

You have a good amount of descriptive content, on a wide variety information relating to scooters. That's a good starting point.

However, your design needs some serious improvement. At first glance, it appears to be very unprofessional and first generation. I apologize if this sounds harsh, but I am being honest. Your tables have large borders, the text isn't properly aliased in places, the font rollovers on the left look very old and overdone, and some of the clipart looks like it came out of Microsoft office.

Additionally, the content is very scattered and unorganized in areas. An example of this is the 'compare scooters' section.

My first thought when I loaded this site, and I hate to say it is, 'This looks like one of those scam emails I get. One of the cookie cutter 'sell scooters now' site that you might find on E-bay.

Also, when you click to purchase a scooter, it's evident immediately that you're not buying from your site. This may confuse people or make them nervous. Some users are very apprehensive about purchasing online, and this may act as a further turn off to them.

I would recommend getting yourself a quality template, and reintegrating your content into it. I think you've done a lot of work, and I feel very bad telling you to basically rebuild your site over again. Unfortunately though, I think that's what you need to do in this case.

Best of luck to you.

-- Craig

The Webmistress — Wed, 21 Jan 2004 17:40:01 +0000

Well said Mike! Don't have anything to add to that you have said it all very well

fifeclub — Wed, 21 Jan 2004 17:27:37 +0000

First of all, it sounds like you're getting plenty of web traffic. Maybe not Amazon or eBay numbers but considering you're relying so heavily on search engine results, that's great. But now your problem is that you can't close the deal, and I agree with others that it's all about your image. Your site says to me that this is not a trusted business and I should be weary of buying from you.

In general:

1) Keep it clean and simple! K.I.S.S. Sorry for my brutal termonology, but don't "whore" your site up. More is not more, more is less. More junk means less focus on your most important message(s). Look at one of your partners and you'll see a simple header, simple navigation, and clear layout design.
2) Stop yelling at people. I know you're not trying to but huge, bolded text is yelling at me. Even your small text is huge. Look at that partner site again and you'll see small, simple text everywhere.

Other:

* Big horizontal scroll at 800x600. I can only see about 60% of your text at one time.
* Top header doesn't go all the way across.
* SHOW ME A SCOOTER! You've got a drawing of one only if you scroll down (and get rid of that drawing) but you need to have a nice beauty-shot visable without scrolling.
* Get rid of those 5 's. No need to break the page into so many pieces. That info should be a small, unabtrusive bullet list.
* Sorry, but that drawing screams to not be taken seriously.
* Do you really need a mailing list? If you insist, avoid putting a Yahoo button on your site. It is unprofessional and just adds further distraction. Besides, it's just an ad for Yahoo. The newsletter quietly on the nav menu is all you need.
* The block of scooter links: okay but think about highlighting just three or four with small photos and using a link for "more scooters" where you can put that whole list. Everything doesn't need to be on the front page.
* The block of links at the bottom: Why is that there? All those links are already in your navigation menu. In fact, at first I thought they looked like paid advertising sponsors. A second text based menu at the footer is actually a good idea but tiny text only, and no lengthy descriptions. Instead of

Quote: How to Maintain Your New Gas Scooter
Keep your gas scooter investment running in top condition. Visit our maintenance section for an in detail look at what steps you need to take.

just say "Maintainance" and that's all.

The good thing is that you seem to be getting the necessary traffic. You just need to capitalize on it. Most importantly is keep it simple! If you were speaking to potential customers you wouldn't start off yelling every bit of detailed information at them, would you? Just get them interested in getting more information, and don't give them any reason to run away.

Greg K — Tue, 20 Jan 2004 03:50:40 +0000

I agree with the notion that it looks like a non professional page.

I did try to follow a link to see the purchse process. here is what caught my attention big time: "ABSOLUTELY NO REFUNDS OR EXCHANGES" Now it does go into good detail to explain the warrenty info more, but boy did that stand out.

I would think something like this, I would be more inclined to buy from a local retailer than online.

Also, are you tracking your visitors on your site? You mentioned you are getting about 75 unique visitors a day. Are they all people using browsers, or does this include spiders, etc. Where do they go on your site (ie, are they following links into your site, or just seeing the home page and leaving). If they are hitting the home page and leaving, then, assuming it's not the look of the site turning them off, your site may not be what they are looking for, and maybe need to redefine what terms you are paying for and/or try to improve the description that displays with your listing so people can tell more..

Just some quick thoughts from a very tired Greg....

Scooter Beast — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 19:37:00 +0000

Thanks Megan. I appreciate the input. I agree with you on the lack of selling. When looking at what the other scooter sites are doing mine appears almost clinical by nature. Im going to try and lose the blue background and see how it looks with the scooters on the white background, blended with the background of the GIF image.

The sites I am affiliated with seem to be able to sell these things (one does 90% of his sales over the net) so I know it's possible! I'm gradually reaching the realization though that putting together a successful site takes a bit more than putting together a successful powerpoint presentation.

Im going to have another go at this and will ask you to take another look once I make some major changes. Again, thanks for your input.

Harvey

Megan — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:12:54 +0000

Could be that people are wary of buying an item like this over the internet. Could be that they're wary about secruity, shipping etc. Could be that they're using your site to research but want to see the scooter in real life before they buy. You'll have to work to present a very professional and reliable image.

Honestly there is so much to be done on this site it's hard to know where to start. Look around at big e-commerce sites and comapre.

A few things that stand out here: centered text (unprofessional. In graphic design this is used for a formal effect, such as on wedding invitations. On a screen it just doesn't work), horiztonal scrolling, use of horiztonal rules and default table borders, weak logo, white backed photos on a blue background etc.

There's also often too much going on on a page. Keep it simple and focus on the sell! There is a lot of stuff on the front page there - clean it up and present only the essentials. Remember that you want people to buy! I see no mention of anything related to selling or buying on this front page. Maybe if you offered a special promotion on the front page it would entice people to consider buying from you. I'm sure there's a lot more that could be said about this and I'm not really the expert on marketing.

You might need to hire someone to help you with this...

teammatt3 — Sun, 18 Jan 2004 16:22:14 +0000

This is what I think, I hate to be harsh but it is the truth, you site looks very unprofessional, it should look more clean, IMO it looks like a site off of geocities, I would probably never buy off a site that looks like that. PM me and we can discuss it more and maybe I can offer some free help