Our First Muse is Almost Ready- Need Website Feedback!

[bmonsma]

Hello Everyone!

My partner and I are almost ready to launch our first muse and we're really excited. We appreciate the feedback and email conversations we've received from some of you - your feedback and advice has been invaluable! As most of us on here have figured out, building a business is an ongoing process and now I am posting a link to our webpage for your feedback.

Please look it over and let us know if there's anything missing that would enhance the site, increase sales, improve communication of what our product does for site visitors, etc.

www.studentmnemonics.com

We've changed the domain name to one that's easier to say and remember but we're posting this to not interfere with google analytics for the new domain.

To sum up our product, it's a mnemonics memorization device to help kids memorize the state capitals. You watch it until you have the capitals memorized. Customers have the option to download it or order a DVD. We're toying with the idea of a subscription-based service, too, instead of a buy-once-and-use-it-forever deal, so feedback on the best purchase and delivery method for both us and our customers would be appreciated.

So far, we're marketing to public and private school teachers (who can play it for their class), homeschool parents, and kids to use at home.

We're negotiating advertising in magazines and on other websites like Scholastics, Nat Geo Kids, Highlights, and other places students, parents, and teachers in public, private, and homeschools will see. Advertising ideas are very welcome.

And, we're fairly certain we're going to use a C Corp as our business entity. We like a C Corp instead of an LLC because you can take better advantage of tax laws and fringe benefits like medical insurance premiums, life and disability insurance, and reimbursement of medical expenses. Granted, with this one product we may not build a huge corporation, but I'd rather set it up right and be prepared than not. But, advice is appreciated.

Again, it's www.studentmnemonics.com

Thanks for your time!:cool:

[jaywenk]

The video load time is a little long for my rather slow dsl connection. Perhaps hosting the videos externally would make them play a little faster and not cause problems down the road if you are selling these like hotcakes. I use screencast.com for my vids.

Also, is it possible to patent your process or in any way protect your intellectual property so your idea doesn't get duped like DVD's site?

How's your response been so far from the live site (with better name and url)?

[Jetpacker]

I like the nice clean design and the big text - very easy and quick to understand what the site is about. The bullet points make the values and benefits of your product plain to understand. I would have to echo the previous comment though - the big videos were SLOW to load. See if you can make them smaller or lower resolution and that could help.

[Matthew Connors]

Yeh looks good but load time is very slow

need to optimize your photos and host your vids on you tube or vimeo to speed this up...

Other then that your landing page looks good

I personally would remove the top order now button. Let them read a paragraph or three first and get comfortable before saying Order Now.

[Grayman]

One of my biggest pet peeves is no price on the main page. If I don't see that I immediately think "what are you trying to hide?"

I don't know how it affects conversion (it will definitely increase your traffic to the order now page) but price is something I immediately look for.

[bmonsma]

Thanks a lot for the feedback! Okay...



The video load time is a little long for my rather slow dsl connection. Perhaps hosting the videos externally would make them play a little faster and not cause problems down the road if you are selling these like hotcakes. I use screencast.com for my vids.

Also, is it possible to patent your process or in any way protect your intellectual property so your idea doesn't get duped like DVD's site?

How's your response been so far from the live site (with better name and url)?

I'm asking my partner who handles all the web stuff, to see what he can do about the load times of the videos. They are quite big. Thanks for the link to screencast. They look good. He and I will chat about whether we want to use external hosting you pay for or just go with YouTube. I like paid services because not everyone searching YouTube can find our sample vids (I think it looks a little unprofessional) but YouTube is free.

For our IP, we're doing the poor man's copyright where we mail a screen shot of each mnemonic to ourselves and we're keeping a log of our emails, etc. What do you mean, though, "doesn't get duped like DVD's site?" Do you mean by Flickrocket? Any other ideas for IP protection just starting out?

We just purchased the other domain. It's parked and that's it so far. We're finalizing the videos then we're choosing a fulfillment house, so we have a little more to set up. We'll likely use flickrocket because they host the product and offer several distribution options like downloading, subscriptions, and DVD drop shipping and their basic service is free.

Just to note, the samples are slightly different from our final product in that my partner recorded the samples and I did the voice for the actual product. We're changing the sample vids to match.

Thanks again!

[bmonsma]

One of my biggest pet peeves is no price on the main page. If I don't see that I immediately think "what are you trying to hide?"

I don't know how it affects conversion (it will definitely increase your traffic to the order now page) but price is something I immediately look for.

I agree with having the price near the top. We'll change that, thanks. The first thing I do when I don't immediately see the price is look for it because I want to know why the company didn't tell me, then I'm skeptical from the beginning.

Thanks!!:cool:

[bmonsma]

Yeh looks good but load time is very slow

need to optimize your photos and host your vids on you tube or vimeo to speed this up...

Other then that your landing page looks good

I personally would remove the top order now button. Let them read a paragraph or three first and get comfortable before saying Order Now.

Thanks, Matt!

Going along with Grayman's post, we'll probably keep the ORDER NOW at the top but add a price, for convenience and so people can immediately see how much it costs. And if they can see how much it costs, why not let them buy it immediately, too? ha ha. That might be convenient for returning customers or referrals- if, for example, if a teacher recommends the product to a parent, the parent just wants to purchase and doesn't need convincing.

I agree that there's a fine line between blasting ORDER NOW at the top and building rapport and being convenient. We'll look into moving it off to the side so it's less intrusive.