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Need your feedback on a product and website.....PLEASE

UltimateDealerButtonUltimateDealerButton subscriber Posts: 2
edited April 2006 in Website Critique
My wife and I just started a business selling a home poker accessory. 
Please check out the website, product, price, and everything else.  All
feedback is welcome.  We are trying to reach the worldwide poker home game
market (basically the same people who buy chip sets, cards, tables).

www.ultimatedealerbutton.com

Do you have any connections or advice in reaching this market?

Thanks!!!
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    bfleming98bfleming98 subscriber Posts: 0
    Grant,
    To help with Site Design: http://www.Elance.com</A> -- You should be able to find someone to clean up the site for a $100 or so (probably from India but that`s OK)
    Figure out something to give them for free, like an e-book (that you can write) or something.  The idea here is to get their email address so you can follow up with them.  This is really really important.
    Recruit affiliates at http://www.clickbank.com</A> (free).  People will promote the product for you, but you`ll have to give them a chunck of the $$.
    Finally buy some traffic from http://adwords.google.com</A>.  Then you can test your conversion rates until you get them where you want.  At that point you can turn up the heat with the marketing.
     
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    EricEric subscriber Posts: 8
    Grant, I can only assume that by the looks of your product--it looks very finished--you have already attended or are considering a trade show that caters to the specific market that you are trying to reach. If you haven`t, you really should look into it. It only takes a couple of key contacts to make a huge difference in your future.  Great job with the website by the way. Can I ask who you used to do it?
    Eric
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    theswaynestertheswaynester subscriber Posts: 15 Bronze Level Member
    I think you have a solid base of a site.I do agree some cleaning up should be considered.I have to say--I don`t really like the horzontal bar across the top quarter of the page. Not sure it`s necessary and it breaks up the page. The words are kind of hard to read--would you consider breaking up the copy a little?
    Matt
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    ChuckChuck subscriber Posts: 6
    Grant - as a poker fan, I`d say it looks like a great product.As far as the website, there are a few issues I can see.  First and foremost, the site is built using frames and flash.  The various frames lead to several scroll bars, with the most odd being the vertical and horizontal scroll for the top frame (where your navigation menu is found).Beyond the visual problems with that, the fact that all of the navigation is reliant on Flash poses problems - anyone who doesn`t have it installed and enabled won`t be able to navigate into your site.  And as a search marketer, I`d be very concerned about your ability to ever have your site indexed in the major search engines.So my advice would be to either move away from the framed/flash site, or create a distinct version of the site that relies on neither of these options (and is accessible from your home page).I`m just scratching the surface, but that`s as good a place as any to start.
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    UltimateDealerButtonUltimateDealerButton subscriber Posts: 2
    Awesome feed back guys!  Thank you.  Keep them
    coming!




    If you know anyone in the casino supply or gaming community
    please let me know.




     
    Eric - I am waiting on permission from my website designer
    before I submit his info.
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    keyconkeycon subscriber Posts: 34
    I have to admit, I know very little about the poker craze except there is a poker craze going on. I know there are some well-known players and "stars" playing. Before selling your soul to the BIG BOX STORES, I submit the following suggestions.
    I would suggest going for some endorsements from some top name players. Give away some UDBs to big tournaments. Or local tournaments. Create some buzz in the poker world. Make available as door prizes or lesser prizes if these tournaments do this. A short infomercial on late night cable is not that expensive to do and by buying group cable rates, you can cover a lot of ground on minimal bucks and hit up all the people who don`t sleep at night. I figure most of these tournaments are on the cable channels - not network.  
    If you can jump through the home-shopping networks hoops, this is a good route - but suggestion, stay away from QVC - they are the toughest and are not easy to work with based on experience helping a friend with his product. He is having much better luck working with the several lesser known shopping networks. Get exposure here, create the fad, and every poker player will have to have one - but be ready for the orders.
    And if you make it this far, do your pre-publicity announcements and post-show announcements - let the world know. Poker magazines (I`m sure there must be a dozen). Gambling trade publications. Ads here could also send people to your website, including wholesalers.
    Just a few suggestions off the top of my head.
    Good luck!
    R@
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    Rugbyjay1Rugbyjay1 subscriber Posts: 2
    Bry,
    You rock.  I already place my ad on Google.  I`m hoping to see traffic coming to my site soon.
    "You look absolutely beautiful. You truly belong here with us among the clouds." - Lando
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    EricEric subscriber Posts: 8
    Alright....after a bit of thought I`m going after the product alone.
    First,.... yes. I do play poker....I would bluff and say that I`m not bad at all but you`ll have to see for yourself.  Find Chicago West On UltimateBet.com and that`s me.
    Sooo........The Ultimate Dealer Button.
    I love the idea. BUT (there`s always a big but getting in the way)  What I truly believe would set this product apart from all of the other gizmogadgets is .......a color backlit screen.......yep, just like you see on your phone/pda.
    The one thing that is synonymous with cheap is a green screen liquid crystal display. Yes.....they use less battery. So what. Let it glow with 65,000 colors using four AAA batteries and you will have the product that everyone will be looking for.
    I know that you`ve already considered it and determined that it didn`t matter. But I say that it will be the difference between  a toy and a tool. One is a play thing, and one is a real piece of equipment used for doing business that a lot of people take very seriously. I would argue that you could even get casinos to post mini tournaments using your button if it were built so that it was a substantial piece of equipment. I can really see guys trying to get into a ten player mini tournament live just like they would online.
    Somebody tell me....am I splitting hairs on this? What`s the cost difference between the way it is now and a fully lit color screen. Sure.....add all of the progamming too. I know we are talking big bucks. I would like to know how much more. Just curious. I would say that if you can`t get the color version, you should welcome the big box stores openly and try to sell as many as you can as fast as possible......then let loose with the color version soon thereafter.
    Best of luck!
     
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    keyconkeycon subscriber Posts: 34
    I agree with Eric. He is dead on. Go color.
    R@
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    davennydavenny subscriber Posts: 2
    I like the site, it look really good and tells me about the problem
    your product solves.  I personally do not believe you are going to have
    most of your sales come from this website, but through other website such as Amazon,
    eBay, etc.  Also I would highly recommend getting your product into local billiard
    shops and possibly and I mean possibly wal-mart.

    Good luck
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