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What’s wrong with this site???

DOCTORGDOCTORG subscriber Posts: 1
edited August 2007 in Website Critique
www.skinutrients.com</A> markets a nutritional supplement for people with acne.  I developed the product in order to help my own patients who wanted to avoid taking oral antibiotics long term for their acne (dermatologist here).  There are strict limitations on exactly what I can claim for this product because it is not a drug, but a nutritional supplement.  The before/after photos and testemonials are my own patients and are real/unretouched.  The business started selling product about two years ago.  Due to slow sales, I tried to mimic proactive by offering the product as a "subscription" whereby first month free, then autoshipments every three months if happy.  This helped a bit but still only about $1000 sales retail a month, and NOT growing.
What about this site is turning people off?  I get one sale for every (approx) 150 visits to the website.  I would like to get more like 2 for every hundred visits.  Then of course, I need to get about 10 times as many visitors to the site as currently going there.  I`ve done many itterations of google ad words, yahoo, etc.
Lastly, off topic, I would be interested in partnering with anyone with EXTENSIVE experience in getting nutritional supplements successfully to a broader market, into stores, infomercials, QVC, etc.  I`ve got over 6 figures invested and am looking for someone to invest their time/expertise/money to help exponentially increase sales for a share of the business.  Thanks.
 
Dean
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    DOCTORGDOCTORG subscriber Posts: 1
    The site in this itteration has been up since 1/1/07 and the keywords (I`m not the webmaster) include acne, treatment, natural treatment, herbal treatment, skin care and others.
    Dean
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    WeblineWebline subscriber Posts: 13 Bronze Level Member
    Coding ... In viewing your page source, you don`t have any meta tags set up for keywords or description; some search engines might not mind, but you should have them there anyway. The only meta tag you have is the title. All of your css should be moved to an external file, then included. You have a ton of tables in your code. Also, the W3C Validator shows 342 errors just on your main page. I think I`d have a talk with your site developer if I was you.Visually .... myself, I hate seeing a slide show right away. I would prefer your main information right at the top telling me what you have and why it benefits me, for example this part ..."Something Completely New and Entirely Different Than Anything You`ve Ever Tried for Your Skin!"Just my opinion, I`d use a link to another page with your comparison photos. And I`d eliminate the slide show and just use comparison photos next to each other. And, do you really need the "Get SMART Now" banner 3 times on one page?Your
    layout seems like an hourglass on some pages, i.e., wide at the top,
    narrow in the middle, then full width at the bottom. Just my
    suggestion, try to keep it a consistent width all the way down the page.
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    vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    Dean,
    There are some basics for successful conversions on an ecommerce website
    (1) The site needs to be user friendly - easy to get around and esy for the viewer to find what they are seeking.
    (2) Easy to find - searches, referral links, word of mouse, etc.
    (3) Your marketing message should be clear and something that connects with the viewer.
    For your site, as suggested above your content needs some work to get your marketing message across. That starts with an understanding of your target market. Who they are, their demographics, and how they relate to a product...etc.
    You can certainly look at examples of successful products and use their success techniques without copying thier site... but making it "yourown".
    I agree, the slide show is not important to have on the main page although you could have one before and after photo on the page.
    As far as your code... there are some issues as noted above. In addition the site`s style code should be put into an external CSS, it is not necessary to have it in the html of the page nor is it search engine friendly to do so.
    At the bottom of your home page is a link to another site/domain... I`m assuming that is your`s also.  You might think about how to use your domains. To cross link, or consolidate, 301 redirect..etc. to get the most value and ALSO NOT CONFUSE your potential customers. I folowed that link to a number of related but different sites.. now I`m confused.
    ~Rolandvwebworld2007-8-12 13:8:35
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    DOCTORGDOCTORG subscriber Posts: 1
    OK, that`s like a million dollars worth of great advice from all.  Thanks so much.  I think Cartess and Craig hit on the major problem with the site - it tries to sell a product -  a bottle of pills when it should be selling clear and beautiful skin.  After all, customers don`t want my product at all, they just want clear skin.  Best case scenario is my product is a neccessary evil/expense to get that clear skin.  I`ve been trying to sell a product instead of the solution people want.  Interestingly enough, Proactiv is called Proactiv Solution. 
    Any ideas on who can help to market this product more broadly to wholesale channels, etc?
    FYI, I did do a few hundred direct mailings to health food stores, dermatologists, spas, etc., but only about a 1% conversion rate, so after expenses it was pretty much a wash.
    re: priority mail - its easy for me to print the labels, and then they are automatically tracked in my software and customers can track too.  I definitely want to track stuff.  I have a lot of people say they didn`t get their order when in fact they did, and some of those people never even ordered!
    My cost on the product is very very low, I just need some volume to make it happen.  Thanks again for all your help!
     
    Dean
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    marketingcurvemarketingcurve subscriber Posts: 0
    I`d market more tightly than more broadly and then use some targeted social networking to get some buzz going.
    Does anyone use http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/</A> for headline checking? (Or bullet point writing, etc.)
    I agree that you want to improve usability before going nuts on PPC, but when you do go back to PPC get some really nice specific long-tail keywords. Like "sick of bad skin" (longer, more specific) or "middle age acne" - and also make sure you`re appropriately utilizing negative keywords!
    I`m usually more verbose, but you`ve already been given such amazing advice...that was all I could think to add!
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