How does this look?

Your site is currently a 'Back Button Special' at this point.

I'm not saying that to be mean, but it lacks a hook to immediately let the visitor know they have arrived at a useful site.

In other words, there is no emotional reason for investigating your site past the first 2 seconds.

Perhaps adding a good headline would help point to the benefits you offer.

KJ

Ditch the stuff at the top, move the opt-in box and associated content up above the fold. Add some bullet point to give visitors reasons to sign up to your newsletter and get the freebies. Market the PLR you put out to the list you build.

No reason to overthink this stuff. You have the beginnings there, but you need more reasons to entice visitors to do something useful for you.

I'd make it free and just do it as ad supported like google ad sense. My friend does that with his article directory and he gets tons of articles coming in.

It's cleanly done and very professional looking...however, it feels stark and cold to me. If not for you asking, I wouldn't have gotten past the front page. Since you did ask, my only other problem is having on-site links open in a new window. It's just a pain the arse to keep closing them.

You need "FREE PLR" screaming somewhere up top.

Is the date at the top left corner necessary?

Are the tags needed in the middle of the site?

If I didn't know you wanted a review and I was sent to this site, I wouldn't know the opt-in even existed down at the bottom...

LOLOLOLOLOLOL I can't answer you here, because i have someone with not much sense of humour on my tail...

dare to take this conversation to Twitter and you will find out...

Laura

richdirtygirl,

At first glance, the site itself doesn't look bad, but a little unorganized. It's a bit of an non traditional template which can work well in some cases, but If the site isn't working well for you at this point, I'd say that't the reason.

The navigation doesn't pop out.

The left sidebar titles are nice and snarky (I like that kind of stuff) but a little unclear.

Just needs a little tweaking =)

You can increase conversions if you have more details in the top center/left corners. I have no idea what this site is about. You can't assume everyone knows what PLR stands for. The important locations all seem "blank".

All you need is a site with good solid content

The site looks really great. You just need a video presentation now. Goodluck!

You need to Sell your Service from the front page and give them a reason to look further.
For example : Like you have done with your avatar, your nickname and your
"always ready" slogan. Now that sales ! You need to use the similar enthusiasm on your sites home page.

You've already had some great suggestions, so I'll just add a couple more into the mix.

I think there are a few 'leaks' on the page that let the reader's attention wander away from where you want it.

The first is that there are around 85 possible actions the visitor could take, and that's just above the fold on the homepage. There are all the links in the tag box, the sidebar links, the top navbar links and the tab bar links. That much choice will usually paralyze a visitor into choosing nothing at all.

I would decide exactly what it is you want the visitor to do, and then on that page remove all additional options, and pull the focus in tight on your main option. The tag clouds etc. don't help you get signups, but they do distract you as a visitor when you first arrive on the page, and prevent you from seeing the opt in form. I'd suggest pick one thing you really want the user to do, and then laser beam onto encouraging that particular action.

Some folks have already made the suggestion of using bullet points to pull in focus on the one major action you want the visitor to take, and that's great advice. More reasons why someone should "Join Now" will help for sure, and will also act as reasons why a person should stay on the page at all to learn more about the offer.

You can also use some color and layout tweaks to tighten up the focus. Layout and color on a page effects the way a visitor's eyes will naturally wander across the site.

My two suggestions in this area are:

1. Change the background color to a darker color, probably a navy blue, a darker shade of the blue you have in your logo. What this will do is prevent the visitor psychologically feeling they have to take in the whole page. As soon as they see the dark blue background, they'll know that they only area they need to look at is the brighter white/light grey central area. It's a similar principle to blinkers on a horse, ie. it removes the peripheral information that is of no value.

I would remove the distracting bubble image background: http://yumplr.com/templates/rt_affin...2/page-bg2.png

Replace the top gradient image with a blue one: http://yumplr.com/templates/rt_affin...header-bg2.png

...and change the background color code for the entire area.

2. The full width header graphics also add to that attention leak / eye wander factor, as the eye tends to naturally follow them. It's only for a fraction of a second, but it only takes a second for someone to hit "back" so that lost time can be important. I would either crop / rearrange the header images to be the same width as the content area itself, or add something to the image that clearly defines where the visual focus should start and stop. You could do this with a drop shadow for example.


I hope that helps, and good luck with your site!

Laura, I know you guys celebrate everything down there but do you celebrate X-mas?
If so may you have a Merry One.

"What do IM and Brazilian wax have in common?" You I gotta know !

You are a live wire. Bet you are loads of fun to be around and yes I did think that you were Brazilian. I have done a bit of traveling myself.
But regardless you have a great personality and exploiting that can do nothing but help with your IM ventures.

BTW please add me to your friend list!

"What do IM and Brazilian wax have in common?" ??

Actually I like the like. But I don't really know what will I get when give you my email.
Also for a noob like me, I don't know what is "PLR" (2 months ago).