How to improve my site?

[jamied95]

Hi there guys,

I launched my site two days ago, it's very basic at the moment and is very early in the design stages, however on a tight deadline, I decided to get it live asap. I'm going on an expedition to India next year and we have to collect donations/work for our money, seeing the power of the internet, I decided to start an affiliate website, yeah, sure, there are tonnes of them, but I'm sure friends and family will use it enough to make it worthwhile.

It's my first site and I'm looking for some input on how to make people find my site easier, be more inclined to donate, and find the affiliates links faster, also, general layout help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Edit: d'oh, I forgot to include my site address: www.jamiedurham.co.uk

 

[miles01110]

People don't randomly donate money to websites they come across in random Google searches. If you think you are going to be able to raise money simply by starting a website, you need to re-think your plan.

 

[skyton]

I agree with miles01110

You are going to have to drive traffic to the site

SEO will not be much use for you

I would start hammering friends, Facebook, family etc

 

[schimmel]

It's my first site and I'm looking for some input on how to make people find my site easier, be more inclined to donate, and find the affiliates links faster, also, general layout help would be appreciated.

Agree with the previous posters. If anyone except your friends and family is going to have any inclination to donate, I would

a) change the headings, now it sounds like it's questioning the visitor. "So, who are you?"

b) Make it something unique. Why would we support you, like you said, out of a million other people? What's in it for us? Make us understand what's really special about this, if there isn't anything, try and make it as you really have tons of passion for this.

c) Present yourself more, with a picture, something that relates you to India etc.

d) If you can, sell something cool that you've made, or something from India at a price premium, so there will be money maybe for some charity/other deservant person/institution, and for you. Like I said, if people don't get anything from donating to you, it's very unlikely they will. Unless you already know them - in which case they will receive your thanks and feel pleased that they helped you do something cool.

e) Site looks pretty good designwise, but needs more content and a more explanatorty and welcoming feel.

 

[jtara]

Hey, it's a school trip or what-not, and he's doing this instead of going door-to-door selling candy. Maybe he can emphasize that by donating contributors will keep the residents of his town from getting fat.

If there's something more to this than just a school trip, something truly unique, some special emphasis, you might consider doing a Kickstarter project.
You will probably have to come-up with some give-away for contributors.

Forget the affiliate stuff. It's not going to make you any money.

What you have looks nice. It needs more details, but I suppose that will come in the blog. It would be find for linking from Facebook, etc. to get family/friends to donate.

 

[jamied95]

I have no expectations that people will randomly find it, that isn't what I want. It's primarily designed for my connections - friends, twitter, facebook, etc.

My trouble is telling people is one thing, getting them to do it is another. The more I think about it the more I think it isn't going to work...

I'm based in the UK, but have an IndieGoGo project - but that ain't doing much either.

It is a school trip, but it's more of a small group of us, it's a CV enhancer really, one that also helps build schools for a deprived community, etc.

Any more advice - especially on how on earth to make some money for this - would be appreciated, or else it's going to be going to cake stalls and bag packing...

 

[ombrenelcielo]

You basically need do rethink the way you express yourself in the website.
You need to capture that glimpse of attention from the visitor and succeed into making he/she interested in the project.

So my suggestion is to refocus, shifting the attention from your 'need of money' more to the fact of the trip and what it does mean to you.
You need to get the people involved by heart about the situation, not just get them "to pay" because "you need money to go somewhere".

And remember always that generally people are lazy.
So, less text lines, more images and focus on the ideas.