New Site Comments Please www.locomobilia.com

[Piersland]

Hi Guys & Gals,

We would really appreciate your comments regarding our new site that offers transport related memorabilia from across the globe.......

It's taken me a few months to get to this stage and the site is now live but no sales as yet....

I am in the process of advertising the site via email campaigns/ magazine articles and basically trying to pull people away from our generic sales via Ebay by offering discounts etc...

I'm also trying to integrate google analytics but it gives me the option of adding some new ga code which I don't really have a clue how to integrate into the Actinic V8 layouts......but I will have a go if any kind person can help or whether they think it's best left alone at this stage.....no sales as yet!!

Any advice would be welcome.....from navigation/SEO/design

Many thanks for your time

Piersland
http://www.locomobilia.com

[Ho Ho Bird]

Well done with your efforts so far.

It is clear you are enthusiastic, which is a good starting point for me.

I'm not over chuffed with the colour scheme. I'm using the same layout (I think) and I tried everything before settling on a white background.

Your section pages should be multi column, (ie 3 columns) not a long row descending way off the 'fold' of the page.

You don't seem to be using 'Single Product Per Page' layout. This comment is common to almost every new site put up for review. Search around to understand the 'whys' and 'hows'. Your use of multi product pages and then extended info pages is how I started but is less successful.

The text under the home page graphic is the right idea but is difficult to read and not very Punchy. Look for posts by user Bamboo for ideas of how to get maximum input here.

I like your logo design (not particularly the colours or size) and the domain name is good if my current reading is correct (ie favouring an identity rather than a string of keywords)

It says orders can be placed by phone but I couldn't see a phone number. I see the basket is in $ which was a surprise...but an immediate search didn't reveal who and where I'm dealing with. I found it in the end but it wouldn't inspire confidence. I have very limited html skills so for now have incorporated our phone numbers into the logo used in the header....no html required if that is what is holding you back.

Your brand is good because it crosses boundaries easily.....it fooled me, I assumed you were in UK initially.

I think you need to consider carefully how you position yourself. I don't know if you are newly starting out (save for ebay). You don't want to look a complete amateur but equally you don't want to claim world domination with a new site and only limited products and fewer sales.

Overall I think it an encouraging start. I should work on the structural issues first (page names, layout of sections etc) as Google will soon be looking. You can change logos and colours later without upsetting any ratings already won.

Keep at it!

[jont]

Roger - have you seen http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=30141 for a step by step guide on GA?

[Mark H]

I have a problem with some (all?) standard Actinic themes which I think is worth repeating ad nauseum rather than just telling you to search the forum for previous replies.

This is simply that the standard "contact us" link takes the visitor to a form to fill in to await a response. This is a huge turn off and I would never use one of these on a website.

Similarly, the phone number and the address should always be on the "contact us" page. I check this first on any new website that I visit and if these details aren't there, I leave. Terms & Conditions should have the contact details, but these should be prominent elsewhere too.

I would suggest you put your phone number prominently on every page, and you address at the bottom of every page, and these should certainly be on the "contact us" page. Email address also, using some means of preventing spam harvesting.

[gabrielcrowe]

you've got a lovely big picture there on the front page, with no call to action, and no link!

get linking and start selling.

[Piersland]

Single Product Per Page layout

Thanks for the excellent comments - I'm trying to work out how to alter my layout to single product per page layout....any help would be appreciated.

Thank you
Piersland

Well done with your efforts so far.
You don't seem to be using 'Single Product Per Page' layout. This comment is common to almost every new site put up for review. Search around to understand the 'whys' and 'hows'. Your use of multi product pages and then extended info pages is how I started but is less successful.

[guccij]

You can find examples in the Advanced User Guide

[Piersland]

Many thanks for the comments and suggestions...having fun now with single product per page layouts!.....I've got main sections with subsections and products falling off each sub section.......I think

[guccij]

Try adding the new sub-section by right clicking on the relevant section, not the most recently created sub-section. You can re-order the sub-sections later.

[bamboo]

Best piece of advice I can give you as the site is so new... change it's name!

Seriously LOCOmobilia screams TRAINS not cars and it will always be the biggest reason why people leap off your pages. Your site will annoy train buffs (because its all about cars) and it will annoy car buffs (because its name suggests it's all about trains) who from your product offering would seem to be the target market.

People who are passionate about anything are the most likely to be visiting your site with card in hand and unless you give them exactly what they are looking for they will move on. They don't care about the site or the company they just have to have that 'Jaguar at the 1929 Monaco Grand Prix' print right there right then.
As most of your products are priced in the hundreds of dollars it is even more vital you convert as many potential customers as possible because there will never be hundreds of thousands of them.

Even if you went and bought the crappiest car or auto related domain name that is for sale anywhere, at any price, it would have much more relevance for what your site is offering.

So please, please go get a better domain name.