|
Hi All!
In today's Monday Review, we're looking at Cheri Merz's site at;
http://www.never2late4success.com
If you're 35 or older, or just trying to get your life on a better track, please do read my letter to Cheri, below, because I'd really appreciate your thoughts at the end, okay? After all, I'm not the ONLY person that has opinions. *wink* Thanks!
Hi Cheri;
I've been looking forward to this review, because I think you have a good concept. When I got to your site, the first thing I read was;
"Never2Late4Success is dedicated to those of us who are just beginning to seek, are still seeking, or have just found our passion or purpose in life after the age of 35, 40, 50 or even older."
That struck a chord with me. You see, I got divorced at 35 and went online looking for help to start over...
There are a LOT of people that are starting over late in life. Some from downsizing, layoffs and other job losses - others because sending their kids to college is eating their income with the rising education costs, yet others from divorce and other such situations...
I'm going to mention only a few things related to your website itself, because I try not to do "website critiques" but more to look at the overall picture as the website being just the public face of a business.
There's a survey that I talk about on my site. Consumer web watch did a survey to find out what elements consumers make when deciding if a website is credible. The number one factor is design. 46.1% of people judge whether a website is credible by quickly glancing at the design. Your "design look" is okay - the editor you use does use good templates.
The second factor, once a site passes the "design look" phase, is "information design" which came in at 28.5%.
So, here's that way that plays out. When people go to a poorly designed site, close to 50% of them make a snap judgement that the site's not credible. But let's say you pass that test. (as you do) Another 30% will leave if they don't find the presentation of information to look professional. On a personal note, I think if they redid that survey today, they'd find that information design would surpass overall design as the number one criteria - namely because there are more nice templates available today.
With your site, if I was starving, the content would leave me hungry. On the articles page, I was expecting a list of articles - but there was only one, by Rick.
(Incidentally, you might be amused to know that when Rick started out years ago, his site wasn't working and he hired me to fix it and get him on track. Small world)
The stories page, too, has only two stories, not a link to many stories I could learn from. The archives page did have three, but three is sparse to someone starting over and hungry to learn.
One thing I found is that because the page names don't correspond with the left links, it was hard to tell where I was. For example, I was sitting at a page called "news.html" - but I had no idea which link that was because there's no "news" link. Note; It did dawn on me that if I scroll to the bottom, the "stories" link is inactive, so that's where I am. Most people won't do that, though.
Now... somewhere along the line, I do remember reading about Ascend. But, perhaps I'm recalling a conversation from here in the forum, because I couldn't find much about Ascend at your site except the link to www.mydebtfreefamily.com.
Oh - and as a side note, one thing I notice a lot online is that people put affiliate links on their "resources" page. I know a LOT of people do that, so you're not alone there. But... think about when you walk into a Library. What is the resource section? That's where you go to learn stuff, right? Of course, on the other hand, a bookstore has a resource book area, too, and one has to pay for those books. lol. But either way, I think a resource section should be packed with information that goes beyond links. For example, product reviews would be a perfect fit.
Without focusing on the website too much, I think your concept is a good one. There ARE a lot of people starting over late in life.
The question is, do you offer them enough to keep them coming back? Do you give them enough "aha" moments that they will take your word on what you recommend? The article you wrote on sacrifice - (ie, making your own coffee instead of paying for drive through to save some cash and get finances on track) - is the kind of aha moment I'm talking about. An idea people can use and apply right away and say "this woman gives good advice."
Right now, I don't think your site gives enough of that. But, I think it could.
In particular, I'd like to see more information about the financial management you've learned through Ascend. 96% of us will be dependant on family or government to support us at age 65 if we don't get our butts in gear and do something about it right now. Most financial materials are above the average person's head, so they don't read them or learn.
For that matter, you could also bring in guest experts to contribute articles about things that maybe you can't. Pitfalls to avoid on the Internet. How to keep your computer safe.
And, I also think that if you're targeting people that are starting over, one thing that's sadly missing from a lot of information sites is what to steer away from. For example, when I first got online, someone said to me "As a newbie, you should NEVER join anything where you have to pay to sell. Would you pay someone to give you a job? Of course not. Those are for seasoned internet marketers that know how to make their money back, not for newbies." People need to hear stuff like that.
Right now, everywhere we go online, we see "buy this, it's great" and "join that, it's great" -- but the honest truth is that they're NOT all great. People say that hoping you'll buy into the same crap they did. They need people that they can count on to be up front about what works and what sucks.
I think you could use your business to be honest about what is and is not working for you, and maybe some people can learn along side of you.... and that's not a bad idea at all.
: )
Linda
P.S. For everyone else reading along... if you are over 35 and "starting over" or trying to make an Internet business fly - what would YOU look for? If you came to a site (like Cheri's) that said "we offer help to those starting over" what information would YOU like to see on that site?
Your opinions are very appreciated....
|