This is a guest post by David who has just launched F1 Betting, a new website targeted at the sports betting market.
It’s far to easy to get attached to one idea, way of thinking or website, build it, fall in love with it and then go around thinking it’s perfect. The truth of the matter is though that in reality your site or idea is probably riddled with flaws that you’re unable to recognize. I know my sites aren’t perfect, I’d like to think they look good and navigate well but I sure as hell know there’s always room for improvement.
There’s a process you follow when you build a new site. You plan, you keyword research, you design, you write your content or get someone else to, you add the content and then you start link building. I’d be interested to know how many people actually have multiple site reviews in their process. I don’t mean posting on a forum asking for one just so you can get a link either. I’m talking about asking different people with different backgrounds what they think of the site, how they think it navigates, what they think of your design and how interesting they find the content. I bet everyone reading this article has a pretty diverse list of MSN or Skype contacts they could seek feedback from.
Only today I was talking to one of my affiliate mentors on Skype and I showed him a couple of sites I’ve been working on this year. In the space of about 15 minutes he’d made two outstanding suggestions which I’m certain will improve my bounce rate and conversions. He spotted these things straight away and I’ve been looking at them for months. It proved to me that the importance of multiple opinions was paramount. I had been blinded by these two sites, looking at them everyday I’m not surprised it happened but I’m sure it must happen to everyone.
It really doesn’t matter who you get to review your site, in fact the more wider a range of people you can get opinions from the better. Having the opinions of other affiliates is important but having the opinion of real web users who aren’t thinking like affiliates is just, if not more, useful. These are the people who can recognize the flaws in your work instantly.
Everyone in this industry has their own way of doing things, their own opinions on web design, how to link build and where to send their players and you don’t have to get to know many affiliates to realize that their strategies can be worlds apart but still very successful. Something I’ve realized recently is that neither are correct or incorrect and that if I can take the things I feel are best about certain methods and combine them then I’ll have created a successful affiliate business. I would encourage any new affiliates reading this to seek multiple opinions from people they respect and try to use the feedback they get to create something which combines the strength of all of them.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice post & something I was actually thinking about today.
Something I’d like to add is the fact that when you ask for advice, you should be open to whatever you’re told – whether you agree with it or not.
I’ve seen others ask for advice and then totally get defensive about why they did something in a particular. Or even ask for advice and not even try one of the suggestions.
So anyway, in addition to asking for advice, those who do ask need to be very open minded and try to find ways to implement this advice to their sites, all the while not comprosing their ideas and goals as well.
I really like your F1 site…nice work David!