Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelAncher
You find it confusing... why ? there is a big easy menu to follow..Glamourgirls has been a content store for 10 years now, and it's the first time I hear that..and why should it look like all the others ??
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First, let me preface this by saying this is not a personal attack or me trying to start shit. It was just an observation.
To address your question... People online fail to understand that it does not matter much how a site looks. It's not about "looking like everyone else". That said, it would not matter how it looked, if it was perfectly clear at a glance. Clarity is everything. People argue until their blue in the face about pretty design vs ugly design etc etc etc.. and both sides fail to understand the winner has little to do with design as much as which is clear.
YOU think its easy to understand... you built it. You look at it everyday. You see it differently than a stranger opening it for the first time.
A visitor opens a page and you have mere seconds (usually 5-7 or so) to grab their attention and make it clear where they are, whats there, that its what they are looking for and what they need to do to get it.
People have short attention spans online.. When someone opens your site, at a glance, it appears to be a blog. Its a bad assumption to think that people are going to take the time to really dig in and try to understand it, look around, read and so on. Worse than mainstream, you are dealing with a customer base consisting of a disproportionate amount of pot smokers, drug addicts, drunks, the unintelligent and general ADD degenerates.
People skim, assume, react.
Every page is a landing page. Every page has to be crystal clear at a GLANCE. Every page should guide the user to an objective (i.e. purchasing a content set) Think of it as buying traffic. Imagine you are paying .50 a click for webmaster traffic. This is hard to understand without having the benefit of having bought a lot of traffic - but you learn quickly how important simplicity and clarity are. If you were buying traffic, your conversions would be horrible because a large portion of people would be closing the page before they even looked at the content.
You site is a conversation with the visitor. They are asking questions... you can't hear them, but you need to be answering them effectively, answering them in the proper sequence of the users thought process AND you need to be guiding them to an objective (i.e. selling them the content they are looking for)
User: "where am i"
You: "Glamour Girls"
User: "uhm...ok, i need glamour content, cool"
You: "HQ photos, HD/SD videos for web, mobile and tv"
User: "wait... I don't know what that means, am i in the right place? Can I actually buy content here"
You: "Glamourgirls is since 2002, a leading Glamour Content Provider. We supply Web Masters, Mobile Aggregators and Cable TV"
User: "Huh, didn't even hear what you said..."
This text is actually important as it is the first bit of information that tells the user they are in the right place (though could be better stated). It's small and unassuming and de-emphasized - and as such, doesn't suggest its important information and as an user trying to make sense of your site in the first few seconds, i've skimmed past this to the site content.
Most users eyes are skipping right past this and a % are not backing out or closing the page because your 5-7 seconds of their time is up.
ALL sites that have been online for years can be improved. People in this biz are the worst marketers online and light years behind mainstream and more than anyone else online they fail to properly engage with the user and rely on the notion that everything just sells itself. But its your responsibility to guide the user, to guide the users thinking.. to guide them to the objective.
You've been online for 10 years... did it occur to you that you've lost millions of dollars in 10 years?
Stop and calculate the compounding returns of 1:5 users purchasing content
1:5 of those users who purchased content referring another customer over 10 years.
Then calculate the loss when 1:5 becomes 1:10 and 1:10 of those refer a new customer... or worse. What if 1:3 are saying "that site wasn't very well laid out and it was confusing and the experience was clumsy and confusing and irritating (i.e. Paul Markham Content)"
You don't need to be a math whiz to understand that the difference and gain of improvement in the user experience is exponentially greater - particularly so as the length of time expands (i.e. "10 years..."). This is true of any site online today.
Everything can be tested and significantly improved.
Anyway.. Don't take this the wrong way. I know i'm somewhat abrasive, but these are just my thoughts as I look at your site. I know criticism is never pleasant.