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Cookie cutter looking websites
shiva-yogi
Posts: 26
Joined: 13 Mar 10
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22 Mar 10 7:26 am

Cookie cutter looking websites

I have a serious question which seeks a serious answer. So I was in the affiloblueprint area looking at the site reviews section and i'm just curious in the long run how many of these people are actually going to turn a profit? From a user stand point if I click on a website that looks like it was designed in 1995 I leave without even reading the content. There is so much stress in the IM community on content but no one really stresses good design.

Good design and a proffessional looking site can make or break a website. It can be the difference from making $200 a month to making $2000 a month. Ehh maybe I just come from a different school of thought and the people buying these products don't care, but I certainly would not spend money at a website that looks like it was designed back when compuserve was the craze.
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Moderator
wollowra
Posts: 869
Joined: 14 Mar 08
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22 Mar 10 11:09 pm

 Hi Dew,
I understand where you are coming from as I design with photoshop.
However, alot of the people who take the affiloblueprint course are 1. just starting out or 2. have no funds to pay a web builder/designer for a site right off the bat.
Mark just uses wordpress and xsitepro because it is the easiest way to get started.
It is entirely up to the individuals circumstances how they want to put a site online.
The end goal is to outsource anyway but at least with the blueprint they can make a a couple of hundred dollars and reinvest that into a better site or design if they feel the need.
Also, what mark teaches in the blueprint is easily duplicateable.
In my opinion I wouldn't call them cookie cutter sites as the sizes, layout and graphics can be different.
But I know where you are coming from as I hate self replicating websites that get sold by the boatload to new marketers.

Just as an example..
Mark's site http://dogobedienceadvice.com/ makes him some decent money each month.
Is it the best eye popping design? well that is up to the individual I suppose.
I also see a site like http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com/ which is not mark's site from my knowledge and it is number one for me in google. Is this a good design? again, up to the individual.

Just out of interest can you show us one of your sites that you think does not look like it was designed in 1995.
Just so we can get an idea of what you mean. Would be good to discuss this as other people may have some input.

Kind Regards
Troy
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Site Admin
aletta
Posts: 3392
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23 Mar 10 4:55 am

 You can have a "good looking" site with nice shiny buttons and well designed graphics, and it can still stink.

You can have a site that looks like it was designed in 1997 and it can rake in $10,000/year.

It's not so much whether the "design" is polished, it's whether it is highly targeted and effective for the audience's expectations and needs.

Is it targeting the right keywords? Are the monetizations in the right place? Are they enticing enough to be clicked on? Is the SEO right? Is it presenting the right information in the right places? Is the content good? Is there a great newsletter series which keeps people hooked?

Pretty much all you have to do when "designing" your site is not offend your visitors so much that they click the back button immediately. Don't make a site targeted at men bright pink. If you're making a site about yeast infections, don't plaster the front page with a huge blown up picture of some gross skin irritation. I bet even my description there was enough to make you slap that back button. Don't do that, and don't use comic sans, and you're probably fine.

Just between you and me, most of the people out there in the world don't have the greatest design sense anyway. How else can you explain the continuing popularity of Comic Sans? ;)
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troskell
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Joined: 06 Apr 10
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29 May 10 11:23 am

 I have been working as a graphic designer for nearly 20 years now (admittedly design for print rather than web) and I don't mind using the Affiloblueprint theme at least for the first one or two sites. If you were designing a site targeted at artist, other designers etc then yes I would agree that you would need a more designery/modern theme but for most niches as long as it looks tidy, trustable and easy to read I don't think it matters. It all depends on the target audience.
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shiva-yogi
Posts: 26
Joined: 13 Mar 10
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29 May 10 1:48 pm

 I don't know, from a user standpoint who isn't new to the Internet and frequents other eccommerce sites if I click on a blog or webpage that looks poorly designed and "ameteurish" that website automatically looses trust.

I'm VERY surprised that many IM based niche sites actually make conversions due to their gaudy tactics, but then again I guess anyone who is purchasing clickbank items and are not just purchasing reputable items from eccomerce "brick and mortars" aren't carrying much about these things.
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Site Admin
aletta
Posts: 3392
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30 May 10 9:40 pm

 I had the same issues when I first started dealing with affiliate sites. I studied design, and I have opinions on what is gaudy and 1997ish as well.

But one of the first things I had to learn is that when it comes to sites like these, promoting products like these, they don't need to be works of art. In fact many sites that you'd probably consider to be more aesthetically pleasing would suffer in the conversion stakes because "pretty" usually means having navigation hidden away, and having subtle calls to action.

You have to make peace with the yellow highlighter, big bold links, buy buttons with arrows pointing to them, popover boxes, etc. People wouldn't keep using them if they didn't work.
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PremiumMember
challer
Posts: 28
Joined: 11 Apr 10
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05 Jun 10 3:25 am

 When I see an amateurish looking website, it generally loses trust to me too, but looking back on it, I've only picked up 2 information products in 15 years online (including this one!). I'm certainly not someone most people would want to advertise to.

Remember that you are selling to your audience, not yourself. As it has been said, if it didn't work, people would stop doing it.
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shiva-yogi
Posts: 26
Joined: 13 Mar 10
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05 Jun 10 3:59 am

 You're all very right.

Although its been around since 1994(actually long before for shareware) its still new to many people around the world, hell many people still don't even own personal computers. I'm just a geek/deisnger who has had a computer in his lap since the texas instruments days when i was 5 years old. I just gotta remember not everyone is like me. There is an audience out there, I just have to tap it.

And to my chagrin(as a designer) it seems split testing shows that people don't even like good aesthetics on a website :(
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PremiumMember
jmpruitt
Posts: 3918
Joined: 19 Jun 09
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07 Jun 10 4:53 am

 The funny thing is,most marketers i talk to dont like the way their sites look. as said by challer we have to do what the customers want. I currently have AB style sites, and some more 'modern looking" sites and the AB site out sells the others.
I have actually been redoing some of my other sites into the AB model.
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