Hi Nick
I’d agree with Stephen. You need to ‘pick your poison’ and decide who you want to target, what you are passionate about enough to invest the energy in, and whats the best strategy – with the elements you choose – that will make you money.
Check out http://www.paddypower.com . Its a sportsbetting portal site. If you glance at the page – and most people do just that, – which 3 points and in what sequence do your eyes flow across the page? This tells you what they want you to focus on. Within those few seconds you – as a visitor – should be able to decide on your next move. Is this site for you? Is the first impression one that leaves you with a sense of ‘I know what this site is about’, and ‘they know what they are doing’? Does the sites home page have enough visual anchors (a couple of bold visuals / pics / banners) to immediately convince you to stay, to explore, to drill deeper?
Yes, Stephen is right. Simplify the navigation.
For example, you could immediately trim your main navigation list down from:
SPORTSBOOKS
SPORTSBOOK REVIEWS
PREMIER SPORTSBOOKS
POKER ROOMS
POKER ROOM REVIEWS
PREMIER POKER ROOMS
CASINOS
PREMIER CASINOS
HORSE RACING
THE HORSE PAGE
BINGO/OTHER GAMBLING
GAMBLING INFO/SYSTEMS……….. What is this? If in doubt, kill it.
TIPSTER
WEBMASTERS…….Put this in as a link in your footer (include max 4)
OUR STORE……….Kill this and all links UNTIL you have something valuable to add
SHOPPING/AUCTIONS…Kill this. :shooter: You are encouraging your visitors to beetle off elsewhere.
MISC/MONEY MAKERS… Kill
COOL FREE SOFTWARE…Kill
ADULTS ONLY…Kill
CONTACT US… Important, but wrong place. See http://www.paddypower.com
HISTORY & TRIVIA…Kill. To Trivial
BREEDERS CUP CLASSIC….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here. :crazy:
TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
KENTUCKY DERBY WINNERS ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
2005 DERBY PROFILE ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
KENTUCKY DERBY PROFILE ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
BELMONT STAKES ….Too much. Consider Euthenasia here.
To:
Sportsbetting > + Reviews + Books + Top Sportsbooks
Poker > +Top poker rooms + Reviews
Casino > + Top casinos
Horseracing > + News + Live listings
Bingo
Contact us
If I were you I would refine my focus even more with only 2 main related offers:
Casino
Poker
Once you have built a business around these two I would slowly introduce other offers as tests.
Also, you’ll make money quicker if you hang a few special offer banners on your home page. Kill that massive picture. It chews up too much of your prime space that you could be using to display special content or offers.
Lift some of the juicy content you probably have buried in your site up to the homepage – in bite sized chunks only – to whet the visitors appetite and engage with them.
Look also at colour schemes that work and those that dont. Dark navy blue – all over – is depressingly serious. Add lots of reading to that (deeper in the site) and it becomes a …. :shots: chore rather than a delight to be in. Websites work like shops in malls. Some shops draw you into them with special lighting. They create atmospheres that either encourage you to spend loads of time there, or atmospheres that are viby, light and get you moving quickly through them. What do you want to achieve.
Check out other sites. See what works for them. Use ideas from the best.
Be careful not to give birth to an elephant with an appetite that breaks your back. You dont want to have to spend all your time as a copywriter, massaging content. You want to create an easy to maintain machine, that does the grind for you. Grind is any activity that doesnt produce revenue for you.
Think about syndicating content from a number of credible sources. Use RSS (see my March postings in my personal blog for comments on RSS).
Please dont think Im being rude. Im being straight forward. Hopefully Im giving you feedback that the many visitors who past through your site never gave you.
All the best,
Brad