Building a better landing page

Hey Folks,

Now that the site is launched, I am looking at my user retention times. Currently my users click thru an average of 3 pages and remain on the site for an average of 1.8 minutes.

While I realize this well above the average, I am still not getitng site registrations or user reviews. I even have a contest going on the site to encourage reviewers.

As this is a forum of web professionals, I was hoping I could get some constructive feedback on my landing page. It's the first link in my sig. 'DDGW'

I will be happy to do the same for those who post here as well. Perhaps we can use this thread to discuss best practices in landing page design.

Thanks

 

From A User's Point of View

I went through your site saw the articles and the banners but at first glance did not see the register or login form
I also did not see the current contest going on.

why people are not registering is because you everything is available on the site without registration except for the forum but the forum is blank anyways.

I would recommend putting the login form at the top left on the left column and then the banners below. this way you would get a few more registrations and make sure people know there is a contest going on.

Just my point of view

 

Try using the Google Optimizer tool to test what landing pages work best for you.

 

Have you tried running that crazyegg.com tool? I love it but since I'm still only getting pitiful numbers of visitors its not really useful to me...yet
Also Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think" book was a revelation to me in terms of helping me see my site as other see it but I've got a long way to go before I let others see the site and I expect there still to be huge problems still - but its a lot lot better than my first three versions.

 

PS is there a place on this site which has a list of criteria for what makes a good landing page? Admittedly I haven't searched yet...