How do I improve my website?

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MyOwnDemon

MyOwnDemon

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Jan 28, 2007
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www.sitestomp.com
Hey everyone.

I'm new to the webmaster game, and also new to this forum. This is my first post.

I launched a website this past April. So far, it's been doing fairly well as far as traffic goes. My Alexa is around 270,000 or so. As for earning money... well, that's another story. I've used some affiliate programs, but none of them seem to be working too well. The best affiliate program I am currently using is Tshirt hell. The rest are garbage.

I was just curious as to how some of you have gotten traffic to your websites. I know nothing about SEO, making money online, reliable affiliate programs (except the ones I use.. I have recieved a few checks), or anything related to those topics. I kind of just designed my website and threw it into cyberspace without much thought to things of that nature. I'm a complete noob in that respect.

My website is listed in all the major search engines, but like I said before, that is solely because of luck. I have no prior webmaster experience.

I've surfed the internet for MONTHS looking for a good site that can point me in the right direction. I think I finally found it here. I've been reading threads all night and you all know what you're talking about. I can learn a lot here.

So, that being said, can anyone steer me in the right direction? How can I improve my website? What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? Critique my site. What should be changed and what should stay?

The URL is mindofchase.com- ruining the internet since 2005

Much appreciated! Thanks!
 


Go to WebSitePublisher.net and read through all of the tutorials there. If you are running a content site and need organic SE traffic those articles are going to help you out a ton.
 
I would look into a redesign, I cant see how you could possibly have that site optimised to convert into any type of click, sale, lead .... .....

Not talking shit at all, but you could have all the traffic on the net and your not going to get any of the above if the site is not optimized right.

I would suggest experimenting with different affilates and offers, CPM, CPA and CPC, optimize ad placement... .. ...

If your getting decent traffic, experiment, experiment, experiment!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah and get that site re-designed!
 
A few more things:

might want to look into installing wordpress, makes updating and SEO very easy

Ruining the internet since 2005. - your archive only goes back to 11/2006

 
Hey Jerx,

Thanks for the feedback. :) I'm not really sure what you mean by optimize the site. I try to keep the ads out of the way of the content. I know that's probably a bad idea from a money-making point of view, but I HATE websites that throw ads right in my face, so I figured people would appreciate that little touch.

As far as a redesign, what kinds of things do you suggest? I do all the coding myself (I'm no designer by any means), so what little things can I do to make the site more attractive/helpful to visitors?

Do you currently use any affiliate programs you would recommend?

Thanks again! :)
 
Hey Nachoninja,

The archive only goes back to November 2006 because that's when I started linking other sites from the main page. Up until then, it was all original content (most of that content has been removed now. To address the 2005 issue, the site ran for a while on a free server before I moved it over to it's own domain. Hope that adresses your concern.)

Wouldn't wordpress make it a little too "bloggy"? I'm not really a blogger, per se.

I like to make my layouts from scratch. I didn't really use much software to design the site.

Thanks for your feedback! :)
 
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MyOwnDemon said:
Hey Jerx,

Thanks for the feedback. :) I'm not really sure what you mean by optimize the site. I try to keep the ads out of the way of the content.
Click to expand...

Thats your sites main issue!

Work your ads into the content, throw some affiliate links into all the other links your site is pushing........

the site is to, i dont know, seperated... I think its the black, bg...

sign up for some affiliates that offer cpm ads, "Valueclick", CPA offers try "CJ, Azoogle", CPC try "Adsense, YPN, Chicktika"... Find out what works, best for your site... Not only which ads convert best, but youl also have to piss around with placement on each, from my experience, and I know there a shit loads of people here that have tons more its not something thats going to happen over night, you have to invest time into all aspects of the process. Dont run a certain ad in a cetain area of your site for a a few days, run it for a month or so, then try something else, then try something else, then try something else, when your done fucking around, take a look back at what worked, implement it and move on to another project.
 
I do put affiliate links into the other links I'm pushing. I already disguise affiliate links as content. Trust me, I may be new to this webmaster thing, but I'm not an idiot.

I think I'll look into Azoogle.

Thanks again for the feedback.
 
Okay. Okay. Redesign. Yeah, thanks.

You guys keep telling me I need a redesign... but you haven't offered any suggestions as to what that redesign should consist of.

So, speak up.

What should stay? What should go? What is wrong with the current design that can be fixed? Ideas?
 
Well, without doing anything too crazy, some simple things you could do to improve your traffic would be to remove "mindofchase.com" from all your title tags of both your home page and subpages.

I doubt you'll have to worry about competing for that phrase.

Your homepage shows a pr4 on my toolbar. If you chose some keywords or a phrase related to your theme that people are actually searching for that's not to highly competitve, you should begin to rank and get a significant increase in traffic depending on the keywords you choose.

Write a couple of paragraphs introducing your sight that stays at the top. Keep it focused on the theme of the title you choose.

Also, don't have your homepage or any page actually, drag on too long. Start new ones after roughly 30 outbound links or so. The more outbound links you have, the more pr your dishing out. If you cut back just a bit you should have enough power to rank for something fairly decent.

That's a start anyway, give it shot. I'd love to hear the difference it makes when the search engines update.
 
MyOwnDemon said:
Okay. Okay. Redesign. Yeah, thanks.

You guys keep telling me I need a redesign... but you haven't offered any suggestions as to what that redesign should consist of.

So, speak up.

What should stay? What should go? What is wrong with the current design that can be fixed? Ideas?
Click to expand...

Ha Ha Ha, you want us to design it for you too?:D

But, seriously....

Use you imagination, how do you invision your site, take a look around the web jot down some ideas, to look good and work doesnt always = complicated.

youll really have to take a look around and come up with some ideas, your the only one that really knows your site.
 
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