SITE REVIEW: HUMISTAT.COM

A while back, my buddy and I put together a site http://www.humistat.com to help support my small business, which makes small humidifiers to keep wooden instruments from drying out, cracking, etc. It has a lot of potential, based on the orders I get from people who manage to find it. But visitors (as you all know from personal experience) are too few and far between.

Your comments, especially suggestions on wording, features, links, etc. would be really appreciated. I'd also like to put in a Flash sequence showing how the products are supposed to be used, but I'm afraid of slowing down the site any more than it already is for those with slow connections.

Thanks!

(If you know how I can get visitors--without paying an arm and a leg or being ripped off by those "we can get you millions of hits" Spam sites--I'm all ears.)

http://www.ozzu.com/other-search-engines/more-website-hits-please-t20328.html
this is a on going topic on web site hits,might find something helpful there.your site looks great,i cant give advice on something i know nothing about,untill now reading the faqs on your site,you did a good job on letting us know its affordable and what it is and does exactly,my opinion is the wording is good that you used, and the instructions on how to use them are informative,is there a warrenty on them?maybe tell what some of the causes of cracking,warping,shrinkage,sticking keys and pads are and how ur product sheilds it from them.(just my opinion tho)

Thanks, JM! There is wording that offers a 30-day unconditional refund. (I need to edit the wording a bit because, looking at it again, it could be interpreted to just guarantee the product's price, rather than the product itself.) I have tried to answer all possible questions in the FAQ section, but will certainly go back with your suggestion in mind.

Nice design!

I would suggest verifiying your keywords to make sure they are popular...some seem very generic. Try http://www.wortracker.com for some ideas.

You need more links. Find musical instrument realted sites to link to you. This will increase you traffic and boost your search engine ranking.

After reading the FAQ's the only question I have is where does the humistat go...do I put it inside the instrument.....in the room where I store my instrument....somewhere else....be kind!

I also agree the gurantee is confusing....maybe link the gurantee lnk to a page that explains it in more detail.

enjoy

How about some testimonials. Other people's opinions can sway a potential buyer from wavering to ordering! Especially if theri use is similar to that of a prospective buyer...ie:

Dear Humistat:

I can't begin to tell you how great my old guitar is sounding. Living in an arid area of the Southwest my instruments have taken a beating. Your product has brought them back to life and has paid for itself ten times over.

Joe Guitar

Found your info on where to put the humistat: "Both HUMISTAT® models come with Velcro
for easy, secure mounting in your instrument case.
Or, you can simply place either model in your case unattached"

This only appears on the bottom of the first page. Perhaps making the site wider would bring this closer to the top of the page. I clicked to a menu item before scrolling down so I didn't see the usage info. Maybe add it to the FAQ's

WOW!

Thanks for those terrific observations and great ideas!

TESTIMONIALS: Today I got a letter from a violin maker who praised my products and actually wrote, "Bravo!" He'd be a good one to ask for a testimonial. I wonder if you have to give people like him something in return (not money, but a couple of free pieces). I got a similar e-mail from a professional violinist and, when I asked him for a testimonial, his manager called me and requested $300 as an "honorarium". Thanks, but no thanks I said.

LINKS: Do I put them on a separate page? And should they simply be URL links, or can I let other sites give me a link to use that has graphics? I've seen both types during my Web searches.

Thanks again! David (aka Involved)

Maybe you should target the average musician to get a response...although a renowned artist may be more recognized I would think a regular person could be as convincing...depends on what they have to say.

As for links....they can be simple or elaborate...i.e. You could have titles that are hot linked with short paragraphs or just addresses in a list or a bunch of graphics...or a combo or all. Look at the Telluride Colorado Real Estate Agents link in my signature....click on the site map link at the bottom of the page. I've used a variety of links as well as a new link page that is DB driven from a asp script...where users can register a link for link trade. You can find that on the site map as well

You should understand that it is more important to the person that you are linking to as to how the link is formed...then it is to you. Pre-florida update it was important to have keywords or phrases in your links...now I'm reading "THEORIES" of how this could trigger a seo filter on google....not sure what to make of it. Currently I'm using keywords til I can verify otherwise.

One more thing on the graphic links....some sites will supply you with code that pulls a graphic from their server...this can cause your site to have loading issues if the remote server is not performing well or is down. An alternative is to copy the graphic and upload it to your server, then edit the code to point to your image and not the remote one. Then it will be consistent with the rest of your sites performance.

It is very well done. You may want to consider changing the font and making the website flow better from a design / layout standpoint.

Thanks! Can you give me suggestions about the font (I know it is larger than on most sites) and on making the site "flow better from a design/layout standpoint"?

Thanks again.

David (aka Involved)

Firstly, look at the w3c validator ... 26 errors ... http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http% ... ype=Inline ...

I would suggest centering the page, It would look better that way on bigger screen resolutions ... And that image on your homepage is extremely pixelised, I don't like that at all, for free stock images try http://www.sxc.hu ... I see it's actually on all the pages ...

Sorry I have nothing else to add ...

Hi R.T....Sorry? You should feel just the opposite (whatever positive feeling that is, LOL).

Thanks VERY much for your input. I haven't checked out your recommendations yet because I wanted to express my appreciation ASAP. David (aka Involved)

The product has found, next step was sells the question, suggested you looked about the sales book looked, the SEO technology very much was also effective.

Your site has very good theme.The home page looks quite clean.

xigefei...Thank you for your comments.

I am not sure what you mean about "sales book". Can you clarify that for me?

Also, WHERE was the SEO technology effective?

BTW, do you live in the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China?

-- David (aka Involved)