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How does my site look?

PremiumMember
spartan
Posts: 4
Joined: 27 Nov 08
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15 Feb 11 5:13 pm

How does my site look?

I have finished setting it up but I'm not sure if it needs anymore work.
My main questions are if the url should contain www. or not, weather chainging that will mess up my rss feed and how do I get the little rss icon to show up in my url bar?

http://matsreview.com
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jcdean
Posts: 373
Joined: 24 Nov 09
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16 Feb 11 1:30 am

 It looks O.K.

I think you will need a picture and a short bio in the margin, to connect with your readers.
People will hit your page and want to know who you are and why they should listen to you.

The header, just my opinion, looks to business like, IMHO your site should look like a personal blog.

A "guru" that I spy on and emulate a lot Ryan Moran started out with a simple review site like this,
Google Ryan's Reviews. for some ideas. See how you tend to trust him right off when you hit his page.
Another one that works for me is erica [dot] biz.

I didn't see where you were building a list, I would make trying to get an opt-in as top priority, you can promote products later.

Make sure the products that you promote are good, so your name becomes a trusted brand.

Some here will criticize me for using fake pictures but I have split tested and found a woman's picture and pen name gets twice the opt-ins in the IM niche as does a guys. A guys pic work better in others.

Traffic in the serps is hard to come by for the I.M. niches, but plenty to be had from blog commenting. (A females avatar in blog comments pull twice the traffic too BTW)

Good luck.
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Respect,
JC Dean
 
PremiumMember
spartan
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Joined: 27 Nov 08
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16 Feb 11 11:16 am

 Thanks. I've put a link to the about me page but I'm not too sure I can change the header as it seems to be an integral part of the theme (installed by someone else). As for list building NRT options has a box for HTML auto responder code which should put the optin in the free traffic tips box. Just searching for a good autoresponder preferably free.
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Site Admin
michellerana
Posts: 1874
Joined: 05 May 09
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17 Feb 11 2:43 am

 You might want to check out Mailchimp. Some Affilorama members have used it and they said it's easy to use. There are threads on free autoresponders which you could access through these links:

Are there any free autoresponders that are good?
Free autoresponder?
Best Autoresponders To Use
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Michelle
Customer Support
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Limited time special - Pathway to Passive for $37: http://www.affilorama.com/pathwaytopassive
 
PremiumMember
spartan
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18 Feb 11 2:29 pm

 Thanks Michelle. That's much better than the auto responders I was looking at.
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johnbristow
Posts: 9
Joined: 29 Jul 10
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18 Feb 11 3:57 pm

 I use Mailchimp and it is really good. Its free up to 2000 subscribers then you have to go for a paid model which compares pretty well to Aweber I think.
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Geek Face - Solving The Technical Headaches of Blogging & Internet Marketing
http://www.geekface.co.uk
 
davidoff
Posts: 62
Joined: 28 Jan 11
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20 Feb 11 12:54 pm

 I can only answer the first question, but that I can:

I've had best experience using domain names consistently WITHOUT the www, AND going into my hosting account and redirecting the www to without www, AND going into my Google account to tell Google to also use my domain WITHOUT the www.

These three things give consistency plus are "cleanest" - which SE and humans alike seems to like most.

Re/ Michelle's post: Yes, Mailchimp is awesome, I've been a user for a year and because I am not a "list guru" and don't send out many emails at all, I haven't had to pay yet.

Technically, and service-wise, I feel Mailchimp is well beyond A-Weber. Mailchimp is the typical superior underdog. So, Mailchimp really is the creme de la creme for anyone starting out with mailing lists.

Btw, your site's design looks awesome! That can't be a standard jetpack site, or is it?
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PremiumMember
spartan
Posts: 4
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22 Feb 11 3:22 am

 Thanks Davidoff I'm working on the redirects now but I'm still a little nervous about messing with the html code. In response to your question, no this is not a jetpack site, it's a wordpress theme called Niche Review Template Traffic Warrior (and isn't that a mouthfull) from http://www.nichereviewtemplates.com. I arranged hosting and a domain name and they did the rest. The plugins are kind of old so I've learned avoid updating them, it does some very unfortunate things to the appearance settings in the sidebar.
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davidoff
Posts: 62
Joined: 28 Jan 11
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22 Feb 11 3:14 pm

 You need not worry about "messing with the html code" for redirects if you switch to Mark's theme.

If you keep your theme, google "htaccess redirect" and follow the instructions. Even I can do it, so you too ;-)
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