Hi all--I'm working on a web-based email spam killer and wanted to get some feedback from this community as to the following: 1. What modifications should/could be made to the design of the site's landing page to effectively help make the site most useful to the end user. 2. How useful you thing the application can/will be to the masses (i.e., who do you think my market is and therefore hlep me determine design and content). 3. What do you think of the price points as listed. Too much, too little, just right? 4. Is it something you would consider using. If yes, why and if no, then why not? The site is www.spamkillerz.com I appreciate any and all feedback (in other words I'm OK with 'productive' brutal honesty) I can get from you all to help make this most useful to those who will be most likely to want less spam in their inbox.
1. What modifications should/could be made to the design of the site's landing page to effectively help make the site most useful to the end user. 2. How useful you thing the application can/will be to the masses (i.e., who do you think my market is and therefore hlep me determine design and content). 3. What do you think of the price points as listed. Too much, too little, just right? 4. Is it something you would consider using. If yes, why and if no, then why not? 1. a better template design, more images, better organization of text, better use of fonts/colours, more use of Attention and Interest catching design. 2. Your market is definetly for older people, and people who have no idea how to use the internet. So the less internet savvy the better. Only problem is they might find it difficult to find your website. 3. Quite expensive IMO, I think you should go for one flat fee, and not have it as a subscription service. Maybe 30-50 would be about right. 4. I would never use this because I have great spam protection in all my emails, and I spend minimal time going through junk mail. Definetly not worth the cost, but some people may be compelled.
Thanks for the feedback so far. Take another look and let me know what you think. The first view was what I threw together in a couple of hours. Now that I've spent a considerably greater amount of time, I'd like feedback on the changes. Thanks all.
In addition to fixing the positioning of your leaderboard, consider replacing the lime green with a different color.
avi8r, you can find loads of free website templates here, www.openwebdesign.org if you need any help with that side of your website.
The design is really putting me off. I don't have to say anything else really, most people will be like me. First impression = everything.
The layout of the site is not bad, but the colours are really not attractive. I would suggest you use a free template as mentioned above or look for a template for sale. You could also go to www.colorcombos.com to find colours that work well with each other. The paypal image has not been resized properly and it is hard to read. Also if you are selling an anti-spam service why are you running google ads that point to other anti-spam site? Do you want your visitors to leave the site for another service?
That's a very good point. I've never understood why people try to sell a service think that putting AdSense on their site is a good idea
As has been rightly put by people , the site doesn't give a professionel look . The main points The colors used are not appropriate ; try using light colours The top middle space ( below the header ) is empty ;is not expcepted at all You don't have any advertiser , still the space has been assigned ; it really turns a person off ; Should give it a dynamic space to do away with the blank look Please look at these points before telling people to visit it .
Well I'm asking you all to visit and give feedback before I go live (i.e., actively begin marketing) To everyone who has commented so far. thank you for your input. I do appreciate the comments. It's just as I suspected, my family was only saying they really liked it because they are, well--family So I won't be able to do any revamping until this Saturday--any additional input would be appreciated. To the poster who mentioned about Google advertising. What is your opinion about putting Azoogle Ads (non-competitors, but related topics) on the page? Thank you again to all who have commented so far.
About azoogleads I have never used them so I can't comment on the type of ads that would be displayed, but if you are trying to sell them your service then why would you want to advertise other peoples services that might lead your visitors clicking away from your site thus possibly losing a sale?
Alright, to clear up the confusion. I don't want to advertise a competitor on my site. In fact I just completed setting up the site about 4am this morning and as you know Google draws its cues on what ads to display by the keywords and keyphrases in the meta file as well as the content (particularly what's in the <title> and <header> and <strong> tags. I haven't had a chance get into Google Adsense yet to filter out competitors ads from my site as of yet. I'm also taking it to heart that perhaps Google is not a good companion to my site, and I am leaning towards Azoogle PPA (pay per action or sale) ads anyway. Also, I think I discovered another reason why so many people are making suggestions about getting a template that works and that they hate the color combos. I was just over at my office and brought the site up only to discover that on that computer, it is pushing the white portion (where the body of the document is) down and skewing the entire look so all I see in the middle is bright green. I hate it that way as well. I think the problem is that I am designing with my computer monitor settings at 1280X1024, when most people display at 1024X768. Big mistake on my part. Now that I've recognized this I'll adjust accordingly. For those of you who said you didn't like the look, what is your monitor resolution set at? @ SoftwareOutsourcing - I hear and understand what you are saying about softer colors. My question would be how Ebay and Google made such inroads using bright colors on a stark white canvas. @ all - It is true that my target market are the business executives and small to medium business owners, because like myself, they are the ones that get all the spam and have the least amount of time to bother with it. I'm not trying to argue with anyone about my choices, but I want people to understand why I made the choices that I have made so I can open a dialogue about not just THAT they would make a different choice, but WHY they would make a different choice for my market. Many times there are so many marketing ploys vying for our attention that we tend to tune out the majority of the messages. The ones we tend to pay most attention to are the ones that figuratively shout at us (ergo my color choices). So now that you know why I chose what I did, can I get some constructive input as to why you would do it differently? Thanks again to everyone who is so generously adding their input.
The reason for not using ads on a site that sells a service is that it gives the wrong impression of your business. Eg - you are not selling enough of your service to make money, so you're reduced to begging for clicks. Why aren't you selling enough? Because your service must be no good. "If you spend 5 minutes per day dealing with spam, that equates to 25 minutes per week, or 21.5 hours per year of your time that is being wasted dealing with something is completely useless." I can see what you're trying to do, but it's not nearly scary enough. I waste more than that reading rubbish forwards from friends, so I don't care about losing a few hours removing spam. People with no spam protection spend more like 30 minutes a day, and could well spend 1 hour a day removing it all. That equates to a much more serious 5 hours a week, or almost an entire day wasted. Over the year, it's a shocking 260 hours, or 10 days!! (And at $12 per hour.. it's over $3K) If you're going for scare tactics to sell, make them really scary. Your logo says "Click here for more info".. but is not clickable. "Eliminating Spam From Your Email Has Benefits" - is this really necessary? The "Referrals" link on the left - change the text to "Save Money!" or "Get It Cheaper!". Most of your target market won't know (or won't care) about referring and affiliates. Also, I think the explanation of how the system works needs to be improved. Perhaps with pictures, and shorter paragraphs. Plus, I wasn't actually sure whether I could keep my original email address.. or, does it work with HotMail accounts, or.. do I have to install any software etc.. Lastly (phew!), $20 a month is too much, especially when free web based email like HotMail comes with fairly decent free spam filters. Although you could drop the price and upsell premium products with extra features.
Will, thanks for the great post - excellent feedback. I don't want to tell people how it allows them to keep their original email address (trade secret), and no it does not work with HTTP email address such as Yahoo and Hotmail--You're right, I'll need to put that disclaimer on there. As far as the price goes, I know that $20 is too much. I want to strongly encourage them to sign up for the one year price which equates to $10 a month. Is that too much? What if the high price point were $14.95 while I still kept the one year subscription price at $10 per month and then incremented the three and six month prices accordingly? Thanks again to all for your feedback.
"I don't want to tell people how it allows them to keep their original email address (trade secret)" They'll have to find out eventually, when they start using the software? Being a technical person myself, I'm sure I could come up with a way of doing it without any trouble, and I'm positive I've seen other companies doing the same thing - so stop worrying people will steal your idea. Not to mention that without this sort of information, a large slice of your target market will not feel safe about spending their money, since they don't really know what they're getting or how the software will work. They wouldn't want to sign up for a year and then find out the software won't work for them! The same goes for the year long subscription - people aren't going to sign up for a year straight off the bat. They need to use it for a while to get a feel for it and decide whether or not they like it. I would recommend giving 1 month free trial. If people like it, they can upgrade. If the product is really as good as you say it is, they'll be happy to upgrade and subscribe - as long as the benefits of long term subscription are made clear (ie.. great big letters saying "only $10 a month!!").
That's an interesting point. I run competitor adsense ads on my website. I could block them off but I need additional revenue. It is not guaranteed that all your website visitors will sign up for your service. At the very least, you want to earn a few pennies from their visit.
True that a smart person could eventually figure it out, I just want to get far enough down the track before they get started so that it is more difficult for them to catch and pass me. I don't need to know how a reciprocal piston engine works to be able to get into a car a drive, and the same is true for this product. As long as they know it works and that it gets back into their inbox, it doesn't matter to them how it happens--they'll just be glad the spam is gone. I thought about offering a months free trial and once I've completed automating the system, that's a good idea. while I'm still doing manual installs (using remote access software) for the client side of the product it's not very practical. Great input, thanks for your help.
You're welcome. I would press the point that it needs to be clear how it works, and what they have to do to install / set it all up. Be as descriptive as you can without giving away your secrets Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
Will do, I'll post occasional updates and give people the opportunity to critique to make sure I'm heading down the right path. I'm still going to put a couple of focus groups into action on this, but feedback from the other pros here is worth its weight in gold!