Criticise My WebPage PLease!

[Go Jo]

Hi Guys,

I need to bite the bullet and take some criticism for my site. Please let me know what you think would look better etc. Maybe some buttons for the page links? I've gone off in a marketing direction and need to come back to the design.

Is the Daily Strength Link obvious enough? It doesn't look like a link to me, just an advertisement.

I've had it on for over a week now, so here goes!

http://www.irwfree.com

GO for it. :p

[Brendan]

Hey Go Jo,

Site is nice and clean.. is there any reason it is not centred on the page? I think sites always look a bit better when centered.

I am not sure what the aim of the site is, is it to get people to buy your book, or join you in losing weight?

I think your main landing page is a bit boring and it needs maybe some pics and things to get people interested... I honestly think your Join Me page should be your landing page!

The Join me page is cheerful, straight to the point and a bit more personal, people will begin to trust you, know your human and be more willing to buy your product.. if you could tie the sale of your book into that page, by saying things like '.. in order to lose weight, I am using thye IRW diet.. for more information on this diet check out the info page ..' which takes you to the front page you have now, or send them straight to the link.

I also think you should maybe show some pictures of food used in the diet, and maybe have your contact me button go to a form, people are more likely to fill out a form than send an email.

The key to a site like this is to make the users think that this is the best thing they could buy, it works for you so it should work for them!

Hope that helps :)

[Go Jo]

Brendan,
Thank you very much for taking the time to view it, I really appreciate it.

I'll look at changing the pages and trying to plug the book more, which is my main objective. The food pictures are a great idea.

Some one else also suggested a form instead of emailing.

Thanks again, Jo

[HMcIntyre]

While it's not a bad start, there are a number of improvements you can make:

- I would definitely add a number of pictures. Very few people will read all that text, so you need some more pictures. As Brendan says, the "join" page should be your main page due to the extra photos and the more human aspect.

- On my resolution, 1200x800, the text only comes to around halfway through the page. This leaves me with literally half a page of white space, which you definitely should fix. If you don't quite understand what I mean, I'll take a screenshot for you.

- You need to make the fact that it's a book you're selling more prevalent. Personally, I didn't understand what you were trying to sell me at first: a book, diet pills, a Jenny Craig-type program? Make the book more obvious.

- Add another call to action (buy now) button at the bottom of the landing page, for those people who read the entire text and want to buy it. The additional buy now button at the bottom will make it easier for them.

You're off to a good start, but there can definitely be even more improvements made. Keep it up!

[HWT]

Took me a while to find the before and after pictures link, didn't realise it was the title you had to click on. And the shade of green is .... scarey. I'd also reorder the before and after shots (you don't actually have an after, which is confusing) so the fat one is at the top, a cursory look and you just think 'pft, she doesn't need to lose any weight' as it isn't clearly labelled 'goal weight'. Why exactly do you need the pregnant one anyway?

And on a minor technical note, your logo is quite sharp and aliased because you've just stuck it in the page with a smaller size than the image and the browser is handling the resampling. The full size one is nice, but is nowhere to be seen on the website. You should re-sample it so the actual image is the same size as the image you are using on the site, it will look much more professional. And use a less garish green for the menu at the top! Pull one of the more subdued olivey greens from the vegetables and use that instead.

I'm half-thinking of writing a recipe book, but a budget one not a diet one. I just lost about 18kg in 7 months by sitting around on my butt at home reading internet forums and eating constantly, which is not something you want to encourage. This topic is making me hungry ... I think I am the dieters nemesis.