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....

Thanks for info. I have my forum where I do my best for help/inform those who like to get help/courses/ideas and more, not only those over 35, but old networkers and newbies too. Keep up the good work Linda.

Good Morning - Yes, I am over 35, actually will be 70 in just two short months. I have been online for almost five years. Almost a year ago I started over following two nasty Florida hurricanes and major credit card debt. I have relocated back to New England and I'm making progress building my business with a new Company after several unsuccessful online disasters. I made several poor choices because of my ignorance about online businesses so I believe that information is very much needed in this area. Now some thoughts about this specific site. As was mentioned it seems rather thin as far a information is conserned. Also, the site navigation could use some assistance. Further I would like to see larger font size and more contrast, as the material is somewhat difficult to read. The idea of offering information to people beginning again at mid-life, or after, is a good idea, however much more material, or links to sites offering quality advise would be essential for me to want to return to this site. Cheri you are heading in a good direction and it is great that you have this site online. Experience and guidance will help you to improve the quality of the site and attract more return traffic. Try to identify a unique position that will set your advise apart from other similar sites and focus on that one area. To Your Success, Jane Avery

Hello, I could not agree any more with all of Linda's comment. the site is missing a lot of content that I would have expected to find given the sites description. Technically I found a few issues with the layout, two especially were the offers page where the navigation some how is ghosted out and another is link to the Free Advartising where the there is no navigation at all. I think there is also no need for the contact page as well as the e-mail link in the navigation. I would like to see you starting to use your domain address for e-mail instead of the g-mail address. There is a current report out that discusses E_Mail Blocking and Filtering. G-Mail was the number two for blocking e-mail that was somehwere around 39% for the first half of 2005. Now I also liked when I saw Ricks articles on your website. I am Rick's publisher so I am always pleased to see his articles and information being used at other websites. (Wow did the world just get that much smaller once again?) I think that if you follow Linda's advise she will help to put this all on the right path for you.

Linda, Thank you for your thoughtful review and the advice, both from you and from other replies. I see that I have some work to do, and perhaps someone can guide me in that. Let me first tell you what I was trying to accomplish, and then maybe I can get a consensus as to whether I should change my focus. This site wasn't intended to give advice about starting over. It was intended to be a place where people who are starting over or starting for the first time could support each other spiritually and emotionally by getting messages of empowerment that it isn't too late for them to do it, because others have done it and are doing it. I agree that the content is thin. It's a new site, and I don't have any help in the design or administration areas...it's all me (with SiteStudio helping on the html, one reason the navigation and page titles are out of whack; I'm no expert! lol) I was hoping to find suitable articles, like Rick Beneteau's, to fill in until subscribers begin to contribute. I wrote some of the archived articles myself, but with only 24 hours in each day, it's hard to beef up the content doing that. Now I wonder if I shouldn't shift my focus a little to align it with what you were thinking it was about. I could indeed provide more, much more, especially regarding the financial information as that is my deepest expertise and my primary business. I put this site up (on a shoestring, obviously) because I felt a calling to communicate that one idea to people. I knew that success at any age includes the ability to achieve financial security if not prosperity, so I put the link in the Resources page because I didn't want the rest of the site to be commercial. Perhaps that was naive of me. Given all this, I do in fact need and wish to make a living through the medium of the internet. This site could remain a labor of love, and it would probably be very slow to develop due to time constraints. Or I could develop it in the direction you have suggested, make it commercially viable and feature my primary business. I'm leaning toward that...do you agree? The first Monday review ended up with a complete design change...would I need that and if so, what would it take to get it? Now I'm all excited, and I've got appointments all afternoon and into the evening so I can't even come back to look at your reply 'til tonight. Darn!!! Cheri