SITE REVIEW: www.RecipeSecrets.net

I'm a marketing guy who is a complete amateur at web design. I have a niche site for copy cat recipes. The site is designed to sell an ebook and build my email list, but it doesn't have much content. However I have many affiliates linking to the site through the Clickbank Network (Ranked #5 in Cooking & Recipes).

Any suggestions on the following would be appreciated:

1) I can't seem to get listed in the search engines directly. I'm listed in the engines under other sites that link to me. What am I doing wrong?

2) Do Clickbank affiliate links from other sites count toward my sites search engine ranking?

3) Any other suggestions/constructive criticism on design or strategy.

http://www.recipesecrets.net

Eh, the JavaScript alert is tad annoying. The Recipe of the Day is neat, but does it really need to load in a new window? The design is nice...I like the colors. Something that could be changed is instead of having the "Testimonial" image over and over again, just put all of them under one section and image called "Testimonials". I can't think of anything else at the moment, good luck with it!

First Impression;

Oh great an add....lose it!

Layout is way to plain spice it up a bit
blue is a good colour keep the blue nice and calming to visitors

not much visitor activity mabye get a forum up there or a chatroom?

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't buy anything from this site. I couldn't trust it. It looks way too cheesy. Please enlist someone to design it for you or learn to do it yourself. This is pretty terrible.

..and, ClericVash? You don't have forums or chatrooms on a site that's trying to sell something. That just isn't done. No.

If you are new to web design, then I will say your site is very nice. keep it up.
On the dark side :- the links i.e. contact us, disclaimer/privacy, order now etc. are hard to read because of a poor background image. Increase the font size and change the background image. rest is fine. ( very long home page is always annoying, so redesign it and keep it short using more smart and organized layout.)

good luck !

I just hafto say one thing, LOOSE the American style on the page, it feels like an old goverment site.

Loose up some, make it more universal

MAMA MEEYEAA! The pops up gotta go omg! Ok my first impression when clicking on your link was disappointing... The page looks bland and plain.....(not that looks should matter i think) But anyways I really hate to scroll down pages.... I know it's there for a reason but it just annoys me... The images are really blurry and not attractive to look at. I love to cook but dont think i'll be buying anything from this page in this life time... The links in the page opening a new window is no good.... LOL I see you disabled the rightclick button The only good thing I liked about the page is the *FREE BONUS GIFT* (i'm always a sucker for free stuff)

Please destroy this page (just kidding hope to see improvements in the future) good job

Later
SycomCOmp

agree with this the header is not good .

Uh, you took the cheesy approach by blocking the right click. As if that EVER was a successful way of blocking people from seeing your code or stealing your images.

1. Do away with disabling the right click. It's useless. You're a beginner. It's not like we'd WANT to steal your code or your graphics. What are you trying to hide? If the answer is "Nothing" then the code is just wasting space and slowing down the pages load time.



2. This is NASTY html! Learn CSS as quickly as possible and get rid of all of this extra junk in the middle of your tag. Use HTML for layout and CSS for style. Blah!

3. Do away with font tags! Use CSS! Make uniform styles and stick to them!

Your html is about 200 lines (I didn't count) for one single page. You could drastically cut your site down in size. The color isn't bad. It's almost appealing. You just need to work on it more. You said you're a beginner, so you deserve a little slack. But keep working on it. It's not ready for making the big bucks. I wouldn't trust it if I were a shopper.

Thanks to all for bashing my site so effectively. Special shout to "conorific" for your colorful criticism without any recommendations to make the site less "cheesy." Seriously though, I appreciate all constructive criticism that is accompanied by suggestions for improvement. That's what this forum is all about.

I've made several of the changes already and I'm considering hiring a professional. I will also be adding a recipe chat room in the next couple of weeks.

This site started out as just a hobby, but this month I've had over 70,000 unique visitors. I'm adding about 200 people a day to my newsletter.

It will only get better once I revamp the site. Please keep the comments coming.

Very Sincerely,

Ron

no problem

One question, have you sold any cooks books yet??

Later
SycomCOmp

BS!!! What's your secret? 200 people a day are signing up on your site? You sure you're not talking about hits per day (not page views). BTW, how many pageviews are you getting every day?

No BS - check my ranking on Clickbank in the Home & Family/Cooking section. They rank by $ sold. 72,359 unique visitors in January alone all from my affiliates. I don't spend a dime on promotion. As I said in my original post, I suck at webdesign but I know Internet Marketing.

I don't give away secrets, I sell them - http://www.rondouglas.com.

Not to sound arrogant - because I don't think these stats are that impressive. I still have a lot to learn.

The index page is too long. You should keep it around 1.5 pages. One suggestion is to put the testimonial in a new page and so on. Change to font type will help make the page professional.

The design is kind of basic. If I were in your position, I'd rework it a bit, at least trying to make it a little better.

Although, I don't know what sites of your calibur are supposed to look like.