I've been creating a website - still a bit new to all this - and would like all the constructive critique you can give me.

http://www.goodfoodrecipes.com

I'm very open to consider changing aspects of the website - however I'm a little cash-strapped...

thanks
Terri

Hi Terri,

I think you've got some gold nuggets in there somewhere. However, on a very quick peruse, I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the concepts.

Do i want easy recipes? Yeah - course I do. But that may be somewhat removed from your target market's actual desires which might be to look like Gwyneth Paltrow.

For any of us to give you any meaningful feedback, you'll have to tell us who visits your site - average jo's looking to lose weight, or people already committed to eating raw or healthy. They are not one and the same thing! Who buys from you? Who do you really need to appeal to?

Without reading too much of your site, I can guess where you're at. Which is probably somewhere along the lines of "listen to your body", "give it the right nutrition" and "now it won't bother you with cravings for chocolate and chips".

But most people are still indoctrinated in the Christian/Scientist mode of thinking (everything in pigeon holes, science has all the answers) and may not get the more holistic approach. They want quick fixes. They want Weight Watcher's meals that you get out of the freezer and shove in the microwave for 3 minutes.

You know, and I know, that that stuff actually makes your weight problems worse because you're not receiving any true nourishment, so you end up eating more in the end. Are average dieters your market? If so, can you make what you sell a bit more appealing to them?

Or are you appealing to people who can't cook very well, like me?

Can you see where this is going?

Jane

You're probably losing the most people on the opening of the copy.

The multiple headlines seem to be a big problem, try using just 1 Headline and maybe a subhead, and then a summary of the offer before you go into the actual letter.

A headline & subhead like this could work:

"Busy, Overweight Housewife discovers 15 amazing little Home-Made Recipe Secrets and loses 36lbs in just 15 Weeks!"

And her important letter will show you how you can do the same and grow into a tight, femine and healthy body eating nothing but Delicious, Easy meals you can make in 30 minutes or less!

Any improvements to this from other copywriters?

You have far too many headlines all fighting for attention. This will NOT get read I am sure. That isnt good news when you consider over 80% of visitors will only read your headline!

Get focused and use the headline to tell them what you have, the offer, the usp, anything that will sell the product like crazy.

For example...

Lose Weight in Days With Natural, Fast and Easy to Prepare Recipes or Your Money Back!

Also your page formatting is very confusing. You think your getting to the end and then it starts all over again.

Copy what successful online. Multiple product sites really should have a kind of portal page leading to good sales letter for each product. Bit like aother site I mentioned on here a week or two ago called...

http://www.ohpdirect.com/product.php

I have tested this kind of portal for multiple products on one site at one of my own site at http://hairee.com and it outpulls one page copy.

Hi Terri,

Your copy is a bit confusing, but Jane, Eric, and Allan can help you take care of that, so I’m going to leave that alone and focus instead on the website itself.

Header Graphics:
Your Header graphics, do not help your sales letter and look out of place and unfinished, I would recommend that you ditch those graphics and Just use a powerful headline and sub head at the top of your page, no image.

Background Color:
If you want to stay with a very simple website, and don’t want to use shading or other methods to make white stand-out on white, then I think you should change your background color to a darker more somber color (black, navy, gray) to help focus the visitors attention on your sales letter.


Main Table Formatting:
The first thing I would do is shrink the size of your main table. Take it down to something like 600-700px, this is just my opinion, but I would rather have a longer sales letter than have one that is stretched out across most of the screen. It will also help in making your visitor think that the letter is not to long because it is skinnier (is this really a word?)

If you change your background to a darker color, you might also want to change your main tables border color to help spice up your letter. A color that goes with both the dark color and the white. (PS not a sickly or pale color cause your site is selling health, so it needs to be strong)

I would also save your book graphics for later in the sales letter, as the way it is know you just kind of through them out there without any lead in or introduction.

I would move up your “hello, I’m Terri Mitchell” Introduction to the top of the page just after your headline and sub head and move all the book stuff farther down the page. Don’t try and sell them before they are ready, build credibility and interest first.

Hello, I’m Terri Mitchell Table:
Personally I would ditch the border, because if you move this to the top of your page, you will not need the border. I would also increase the cell padding of the table so that all your text is indented and away from the edge of the table. The HTML tag is cellpadding=”10”, Just change the number to whatever you want, the cellpadding tag goes inside your table tag, ex: <table cellpadding=”10”>


I would also remove the bulky tables from around your “click here” links, it makes them look clunky and unappetizing.

It looks like you are trying to sell 3 different products through the same sales page, and in reading through your sales letter I became very confused. In my experience it is always better to create separate sales pages and separate sales letters that are unique to each product.

If you still want to give away a free copy of your books to whoever buys X number of dollars worth of cooking utensils, you can do that easily and effectively with a Bonus section in your cooking utensils sales letter.

I think that you will sell a bunch more by breaking them up into separate sales pages

Tanner

Wow - thanks for so much valuable and helpful advice!
I really appreciate your honest evaluation.
Many thanks
Regards
Terri