Today I’m going to be redesigning James Willney, a painter, photography and graphic designer.

The Original Design:

You can see the original site design below:

You can check out the original website here: James Willney

First Impressions: Strengths

Every site has some merits, and the good impressions I made here are these:

James’ Work is Prominently Displayed

With any kind of portfolio site like this it’s crucial to display your work prominently, as it is your work that sells you.

James’ does a good job of this, making his work the true centerpiece of his website’s homepage, using a large image of one of his paintings to act as a type of landing page.

This instantly sells his services to potential prospects.

Simple & Minimal

James has opted for a very simple, minimal page design, with a primary focus on his work.

There is no excess content detracting from this, and the layout of the title, menu and work example works fairly well.

Legible Text

The minimal text on the page is legible and well padded.

Given that this is the only way for people to browse the site or get in touch with James to hire him it’s crucial that this is the case.

First Impressions: Weaknesses

Of course no website is perfect, and our site’s often make negative first impressions upon readers without us even realizing! Here are the negative first impressions I received from this site:

No Call to Action

There is nothing on the page pushing me in any direction. Quite simply, I didn’t get a sense of where I should click next.

Even the large painting image on the homepage doesn’t link anywhere. The only option is to randomly browse the site using the faint gray menu text (which could be more bold).

The site would really benefit from encouraging people to either browse James’ work or hire him (or both).

No Real Branding

Whilst the painting on the homepage is a visual centerpiece, the site itself is almost too simple.

Even James’ logo is comprised of plain Arial text, the same as the menu text.

By being too simple the site is void of any real branding, and there is nothing particularly memorable about it.

James’ should try to communicate more of his style and skill outside of just the work examples showcases. It should be evident in the wider site design, even if done subtly.

Doesn’t Showcase his Various Talents

I found it strange that James’ site only shows a single image of one of his painting on the homepage. From what I can see James is in equal parts a painter, graphic designer and photographer.

It would make more sense to display each of these talents equally on the homepage, as he could potentially draw commissions from any area.

My Redesign Proposal

You can see my redesign proposal below:

Let’s look at some of my aims for the redesign:

Showcases James’ Various Talents

Whilst the current design only shows a single painting on the homepage, I think a better approach is to showcase James’ three passions (painting, photography and graphic design) equally. Not only does this give more scope for being hired for any one of these mediums, but it is a better visual representation of him as an overall artist.

Establishes Branding

The original design was too plain, and didn’t really establish a clear brand for James.

In my redesign I really wanted to push a unique set of visuals to support James’ work.

As well as creating a more customized, professional website design, I integrated James’ name into the page background to intrinsically link his brand across the entire site.

I also created a custom logo design, using some more creative typography, filled with the pattern of one of James’ works.

Included Clear Calls to Action

In the original design there was no clear call to action, and a lack of direction to the site.

In my redesign I included three clear areas (painting, photography and graphic design) encouraging people to click through and explore James’ talents.

More importantly I included a bold ‘hire me’ link to encourage new business and action on the part of the visitor.

Suggest Your Own Site for a Redesign

You can have the chance to have your website redesigned in next weeks post. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your website address and why you think it needs a redesign.

Today I’m going to be redesigning Man in the Moon, a new York based bakery and cafe.

The Original Design:

You can see the original site design below:

You can check out the original website here: Man in the Moon

First Impressions: Strengths

Every site has some merits, and the good impressions I made here are these:

Great Brand/Logo

The thing that first struck me about this website was how cool the logo was. It’s really unique and memorable and helps to instantly start establishing the bakery’s brand.

The ornate golden text and illustrative logo are really well designed and have a charming, fantasy feel to them.

The logo also serves the dual purpose of clarifying what the business does.

Attempts at Product Promotion

Whilst it’s not a huge factor in the current homepage, it is good to see Man in the Moon promoting their products via a relevant photo. For this type of business it is CRUCIAL to post nice photos of your product range to entice and attract potential customers.

The image of cupcakes could be a lot more nicely presented, but it’s a decent start, and something to build upon.

Relevant Information Explaining the Shop

It’s good to see Man in the Moon using explanatory text selling their business right on the homepage.

Many sites don’t make it clear exactly what they’re offering, so it’s definitely a positive that Man in the Moon does go into detail.

First Impressions: Weaknesses

Of course no website is perfect, and our site’s often make negative first impressions upon readers without us even realizing! Here are the negative first impressions I received from this site:

Overly Colorful, Distracting Layout

The main issue with Man in the Moon is that the layout is totally over-colorful and down right garish! It’s so bright and distracting that it totally detracts from the content.

Regardless of the type of bakery they are running, this layout feels more like a fun fair, and definitely not appropriate for their business.

The various shapes, colors and symbols all seem to clash, and have very little to do with the content available.

Text Overload

Man in the Moon currently has WAY too much text on it’s homepage. The area explaining the nature of the company should be massively cut down, and the sub headings in the sidebar should be reserved for a subpage.

At the moment it’s the classic example – if there is too much text, people won’t read any of it.

Cut down the text to your main key points.

Not Pushing Products Enough

Whilst there is a product photo on the homepage, it’s not particularly enticing.

For this type of shop (much like with a physical shop) you want to have your customers salivating at the site of your products. They should be the absolute forefront of your website and the biggest draw to get people to part with their cash.

Think less ‘plain 2D looking photo’ and more ‘reach out and grab it’.

My Redesign Proposal

You can see my redesign proposal below:

Let’s look at some of my aims for the redesign:

More Appropriate Colors

The colors were totally damaging the original design and making it unsightly and garish. In my redesign I opted for colors that compliment the elegant logo. The black/gold color palette is fitting for the business’s brand, and the bokeh background provides a sense of magic for the website. The bokeh marks also visually compliment the round moon shape in the logo.

Overall the new color palette helps their business come across as professional, unique and intriguing, rather than a cheap fun fare.

Pushes Products

In my redesign one of my main aims was to really push their range of delicate products. By putting the products at the forefront of the site using a bold slideshow area, potential customers are able to get an up-close look at the product range.

By having a stand-alone ‘cut out’ product image I was able to make the product feel more 3D and ‘touchable’, rather than a standard flat photo. This should trigger a response in the visitor as they are more able to imagine touching and eating the cakes on offer.

Clearer Menu Area

The menu is definitely an issue in the current website, as the links are pushed above the layout right to the top of the site and feel like a bit of an after thought.

In my redesign a created a bolder, more prominent menu area that should make it easier for your visitors to browse your website. I also edited the menu links, as the current links are somewhat confusing (I’m still not sure what ‘update’ is for).

Suggest Your Own Site for a Redesign

You can have the chance to have your website redesigned in next weeks post. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your website address and why you think it needs a redesign.

Today I’m going to be redesigning Brusheezy, a hugely popular site offering free Photoshop brushes.

The Original Design:

You can see the original site design below:

You can check out the original website here: Brusheezy

First Impressions: Strengths

Every site has some merits, and the good impressions I made here are these:

Brusheezy is Clean and Professional

The current version of Brusheezy is actually a redesign of their original site.

It’s a great design, and so let me start this casestudy by saying that I don’t think a total overhaul is needed. In fact far from it!

Brusheezy has a clean, professional design that is for the most part fairly easy to use. The colors are soft and easy on the eyes, and there is great attention to detail (with elements such as the menu having a very ‘pixel perfect’) feel.

Elements on the homepage are well spaced, and nothing feels particularly cramped.

In fact, many of the usual issues I find with sites are avoided with Brusheezy!

It’s Apparent What the Site Does

Due to the name ‘Brusheezy’ this site doesn’t need a whole lot more explanation.

However, everything from the logo to the featured brushes section above the fold make it clear that this is a site offering free Photoshop brushes.

The reader isn’t left wondering about the purpose of the site, and is able to get on with browsing the available brush sets.

Consistent Branding and Style

As well as having a very solid design, Brusheezy makes a good job of consistency throughout their site. The typography, colors and styling are all very consistent across the entire page, making it feel familiar and more usable.

Little splashes of blue and the consistent 1px faint gray borders around certain images all help bring this design together.

First Impressions: Weaknesses

Of course no website is perfect, and our site’s often make negative first impressions upon readers without us even realizing! Here are the negative first impressions I received from this site:

Elements of the Site Push People Away

I always like to think how to make my sites as ‘watertight’ as possible. By this I mean retaining visitors, instead of pushing them away.

I see that Brusheezy has a LOT of advertising. I recognize that there may be a need for this, and it’s probably not worth removing/replacing if it’s generating quite significant revenue. One idea may be to push their membership area more through these ad spaces, as this will help generate revenue whilst also keeping people on their network of sites. Another option is reducing the number of ads and upping your prices (this may not affect your advertisers negatively as they should receive more clicks with less ads on the page). In terms of visitor engagement it’s always better to have 2 ads at $50 each, rather than 10 ads at $10 each.

Other areas like the ‘friends of Brusheezy’ section in the footer are a classic example of losing visitors needlessly.

Even the header cross promotion to ‘videezy.com’ may benefit their network, but it also feels like it’s drawing me away from this site.

Overall it’s hard to put my finger on it, but I don’t feel like Brusheezy is keeping me on their site as well as it could. Often I do feel like I’m being pushed away by the wide variety of ads and other elements.

Not Enough Emphasis is Put on the Brushes

I know that Brusheezy offers other types of files (patterns, textures etc…) but for me (and many others) it will always be a Photoshop brushes website.

This is inferred by their name, and seems to be the thing that they want to push the most, and what they are most known for.

Given this, it’s strange to see them not pushing the brushes on their site a great deal.

If you look at their homepage they actually given fairly equal precedence to ‘textures’, ‘patterns’ and ‘sponsored images’, giving each a box displaying 6 featured items via thumbnail format.

Given that the Eezy network contains a series of niche sites for things like ‘vectors’ and ‘website inspiration’ I could see it being more effective to put Textures and Patterns within their own network sites. This would:

a.) Help to grow their network
b.) Allow them to market more specifically for each site
c.) Allow them to clarify the purpose of each site

Looking at point c here, Brusheezy would be able to clarify their purpose much better, being seen as the go to place for free Photoshop brushes, rather than a site that’s trying to do too much.

Browsing Brushes Could Be Easier

This is the main problem I can see with Brusheezy.

It’s just not that easy to find the right brushes, at least not from the homepage!

The ONLY links to brushes on the homepage are:

• The ‘brushes’ menu link
• The 6 featured brushes
• The search form allowing you to browse brushes

There are several issues with this:

• The search form isn’t clearly for searching brushes. At first I thought that it was for searching the site in general, rather than trying to find brush sets.
• The featured brush sets only show a tiny percentage of the brushes available on the site. It’s not a great draw to encourage people to start browsing.
• By needing to click through to the ‘brushes’ page, using the menu, you’re adding an extra step for people. You should make it easy to start browsing brushes right on the homepage.

My Redesign Proposal

You can see my redesign proposal below:

Let’s look at some of my aims for the redesign:

More Visitor Retention

As I mentioned, it’s not great how the current Brusheezy feels like it’s pushing you away.

In order to retain more visitors (whilst keeping the ad units in place) I did a few things:

• I removed the ‘friends’ section and replaced it with a newsletter subscription area (you should be collecting emails)
• I replaced the header link pushing people to another network site with a slogan naming Brusheezy as a hugely popular brush website (giving you social proof and helping to explain what the site does more).
• I made browsing easier (more on this below)

Easier Browsing

The main problem with the current version of Brusheezy is that it isn’t that easy to browse brushes.

If you really want to browse them more easily you need to go to the ‘brushes’ subpage, rather than use the homepage, which only previews 6 featured brush sets.

To help improve the user experience, I kept the featured brush set area, but made it an interactive slider. This should help engage your visitors more.

I also included a ‘latest brushes’ section, which helps display far more brushes right on the homepage, and lets users order these by ‘latest’, ‘featured’ and ‘highest rated’. Of course you could change these variables to ‘categories’ or anything else you wanted. The point is that your visitors won’t need to find a subpage in order to browse brush sets easily, they can begin doing so on your homepage.

Finally, the inclusion of a pagenation area is a great way to draw people further into the site, rather than pushing them away to an external site.

Made Brush Previews Less Ad Like

With so many ad images on Brusheezy (including sponsored images that are laid out in the same format as the actual brush previews) it’s pretty easy to confuse the brush previews on the homepage with ad units. They don’t jump out as being Brusheezy content at first glance.

This is a big problem because it means less people will be clicking these previews.

To help fix this problem, I included brush set names under each preview image, as well as a total number of downloads.

This serves several purposes:

• It makes it more clear that these areas of content aren’t ad units.
• The download numbers act as good social proof for Brusheezy’s popularity
• The brush numbers help clarify the type of brush set (currently some of the previews don’t really show the brush types very well)

Suggest Your Own Site for a Redesign

You can have the chance to have your website redesigned in next weeks post. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your website address and why you think it needs a redesign.

Pretty damn awesome I’d imagine!

What holds most people back from running a successful members area lies in not understanding the two fundamental principles behind the members area business model.

First I’m going to tell you about them, and then I’m going to provide you with a simple, actionable tip that you can use to help with one of them…

The Two Principles of a Successful Members Area

You probably realize how powerful a membership website can be for generating online income. Within our network membership income accounts for the greatest portion of our total monthly revenue, EVERY SINGLE MONTH.

The power lies in recurring income. The idea is that if your members stay with you, you will continue to earn a monthly fee from them. Therefore if you increase the number of members, your monthly income will rise.

The problem in making a members area profitable lies in two parts:

1. Attracting new members to sign up
2. Reducing the number of members who drop out

It’s safe to say that most people focus most of their attention on number 1, and just assume that this will help with number 2.

Well it’s true, if you’re building a members area that is enticing to new members, it probably will help reduce your dropout ratio.

However, there are a few easy methods you can use to help with both these fundamental points.

I’ll be discussing these methods over the next few weeks, but today I’d like to share a really easy technique that you can implement TODAY that should help reduce the number of members who dropout from your members area.

A Simple, Quick Tip To Reduce The Number of Member Drop Outs for Your Members Area

When members drop out and stop being active it’s typically down to two reasons:

1. They cancel their membership
2. Their payments are suspended/skipped

The reasons behind these two types of drop out are very different, and it’s important to identify these differences:

Cancellations:

Cancellations are a deliberate decision on the part of the member. They will usually cancel your service for the following reasons:

• They are dissatisfied with the level of value/quality offered.
• You don’t update frequently enough (again, this ties into value offered)
• They no longer have the finances to devote to your service.
• They have found a superior/cheaper option.

Suspended/Skipped Payments:

Suspended/Skipped payments are far more annoying. Cancellations are a natural part of running a members area, and if you do a good job can be vastly reduced.

Our cancellation rate at the FanExtra network is the lowest I’ve ever heard of (around 2-3%).

You have far less control (in fact no control) over suspended/skipped payments. These typically occur for the following reason:

• The member no longer has adequate funds in their account and the recurring payment cannot be processed.
• The member has closed their payment account.
• The member has some financial issue such as switching bank accounts, which can disrupt their online recurring payment profiles. (This actually happened recently with one of our members, who wanted to sign up again after his bank account interrupted his payments).

So as you can see, you have very little control over this type of drop out.

What’s annoying is that for our network, we see FAR more suspended/skipped payments than we do cancellations (at least our members are happy though!).

What You Can Do TODAY

I’ve been thinking a lot about reducing drop outs lately and suddenly realized a super simple technique I could start using today!

Simply email the members who drop out, and try to persuade them to become a member again!

No this isn’t rocket science, and it’s not some guru tactic. What it is, is effective, solid marketing. It’s also something that the majority of people aren’t doing!

It’s such a simple concept, yet most people running a members area (myself included) have seemed happy to sit back and think ‘there goes another one’ whenever a payment gets skipped or suspended.

Remember – this isn’t people choosing to cancel. Often they are unaware of their payments being suspended, or they just don’t bother to sign back up to your service again.

The important thing to remember is that these are people who have:

• Previously paid for your members area.
• Enjoyed the resources on offer.
• Are receptive to what you’re offering.

My suggestion is to drop them an email that goes a little something like the following:

Now of course you won’t get everyone you email renewing their membership. However, it literally takes a minute or two to send this email template, and it’s definitely worth it, even if you only get a few members signing back up to your service.

Now there are a couple of important things to bare in mind that should drastically help your results with this technique:

• Be sure to use their actual email address, not their Paypal email address. This means going to their account details page in your members area admin section and finding their personal email address. Often people’s official personal email and their Paypal email aren’t the same.
• You’ll notice in my email template that I mentioned how easy it was for people to login to their expired accounts and simply update their subscription. This is a massive bonus, as it reduces the work involved for them to rejoin your members area. This is a built in feature of Amember Pro, which is what we use for our members area. You can sign up for Amember here.

Our 7 Day Blogging Course

If you enjoyed this post then you’ll be sure to love our free 7 day blogging course.

I walk you through the specific techniques and steps that I used to build up this blog network and attract over 7 million unique visitors!

Sign up for the FREE 7 Day Blogging Course Today

Today I’m going to be redesigning Simple Indian Mom, a personal blog aimed at teaching all elements of being a mother, from health, to home finances, parenting and more!

The Original Design:

You can see the original site design below:

You can check out the original website here: Simple Indian Mom

First Impressions: Strengths

Every site has some merits, and the good impressions I made here are these:

Attempt at an Explanatory Slogan

It’s good to see Simple Indian Mom using a relevant, helpful slogan in the header. This slogan ‘The Ultimate Momma Guide’ helps to define the site for new readers and let’s us know that the content will be related to being a good ‘mom’.

Prominent Posts, Focus on Content

There is a definite focus on content in Simple Indian Mom.

The featured posts area is prominent and eye catching, and in general the blog posts are the part of the site that we are most drawn to. This draw is largely down to the visuals of the site, wherein the bold photos and colorful post titles catch our eye.

Simple Layout, Not Much Fluff Content

Many websites tend to cram their layout full of obsolete content that doesn’t help the visitor. There seems to be a fear of having a concise, functional website, and as a result many sites are full of busy, needless details.

Asides from one notable piece of ‘fluff’ content (outlined later in this casestudy) Simple Indian Mom does a good job at focusing on the important content (the blog posts) and doesn’t distract by integrating needless content.

The overall layout is a simple, functional two column blog layout which works well for this site.

First Impressions: Weaknesses

Of course no website is perfect, and our site’s often make negative first impressions upon readers without us even realizing! Here are the negative first impressions I received from this site:

Confusing Menus

It’s very confusing to have two menus on your site, particularly if they’re in close proximity of each other.

Simple Indian Mom has quite a poorly laid out menu, as the second menu (the post categories menu) actually looks like a Google adsense bar. These links will receive far less attention than they deserve as many people will dismiss them as a text advert.

It’s also counter intuitive to make the site-relevant navigation more prominent than the category navigation. People will be more worried about how to find useful content than they will about your ‘forum’ or ‘links’ pages (especially as the forum isn’t active or working).

Posts Area Strangely Displayed Multiple Times

This issue is baffling for me. For some reason this blog displays a list of recent posts not once, but seven times on the homepage!

If you look at the following locations you can see a list of recent posts:

- the slideshow area (top of left column)
- the three boxes (top of left column)
- the main area of the left column
- the footer
- the top of the right sidebar
- twice more in the right sidebar

This is crazy! You only need to show your recent posts once (at most twice). At the moment this blog appears hugely unprofessional by this repetition of content. Not only is it ugly and unhelpful, but it actually makes the site much harder to read and more confusing for visitors.

Furthermore, this type of clutter and ‘fluff’ content is totally obsolete and only detracts from the right types of content.

Lack of Personal Branding

Given that this blog is the personal portal of Menaka Bharathi there is virtually no personal branding on the site. We are aware that this is a fairly personal ‘momma’s guide’ but we are left asking who the momma is.

This blog could definitely benefit from pushing Menaka to the forefront and putting her image and voice as the most important thing on the site. People want to listen to other people, not a faceless website.

Menaka should use her personality and her family to help brand her website. This will have the double benefit of giving her more blogging motivation, and she will feel more personally connected to her blog.

My Redesign Proposal

You can see my redesign proposal below:

Let’s look at some of my aims for the redesign:

Personal Branding

As mentioned, one of the main issues with Menaka’s site is that there is no personal branding, no sense of the personal behind the blog.

To try and fix this I included various images throughout the layout. Unfortunately I couldn’t find an image of Menaka on her site, so have used a filler model for now. However, I would recommend that Menaka follow my strategy and promote her image in the header/ebook sign up areas of her site.

The idea behind this is to give the impression to visitors that they are learning from a person, not just reading another impersonal, faceless website.

Simpler, Easier to Navigate Menu Area

The original site’s menu area was confusing, with two conflicting menus clashing with each other (one of them resembling a Google adsense text link unit).

In my design I reduced the site to a single, simple menu that is easier to use and understand. The menu divides the site’s content into broad categories that can be explored at the click of a mouse!

Single Column, Basic Layout

This blog doesn’t really have a need for two columns, as the only real sidebar content in the original was obsolete.

As this is a very simple site with a heavy focus on content, I decided to push this even further in my design and reduce the blog to a 1 column, basic layout.

The new layout gives massive precedence to content, whilst also pushing the email sign up area (putting this above recent posts).

Through doing this the site should see a good conversion of email sign ups, whilst engaging visitors and pushing content.

Suggest Your Own Site for a Redesign

You can have the chance to have your website redesigned in next weeks post. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your website address and why you think it needs a redesign.

It had been years since my last guest post, and I hadn’t seen great results from that one. However, with all the hype surrounding guest posting I was determined to give it another try.

I wrote out a guest post that I was really happy with and low and behold, it got accepted by Pro Blogger!

For those of you who don’t know, Pro Blogger is one of the largest sites about making money online (with a staggering 166,000 RSS subscribers!)

This was going to be big…

I was told the day of scheduled publication for my guest post and sat waiting eagerly.

I told my friends, I even told my dad (who knows nothing about blogging).

This could be just what was needed to help grow this still fledgling blog.

Click here to view my Pro Blogger guest post: Reach New Readers with a Freebie Blitz

Here’s What Followed…

My post went live.

I sat waiting for the new subscribers to pour in. I sat checking my traffic stats.

After 24 hours the results were in:

Traffic: 30 unique visitors
New Email Subscribers: Less than 5 (even though one of the links in my guest post signature was to the landing page for my free ecourse).
New RSS Subscribers: Less than 5

Initially I thought something had gone wrong with my stat counters. This couldn’t be right…

I had a post accepted on one of the largest blogs in my niche, after spending hours crafting a great post, and this is all the reward I get?

Lesson 1: Guest posting, like other blogging strategies is not a magic solution, it’s merely a piece of the puzzle.

It’s crazy to think that a single guest post would change the fate of my blog or suddenly make it more popular.

Mid-Long Term Benefits:

What I’ve come to realize about guest posting is that you can’t view the initial traffic as the main goal.

Far more beneficial are the long term benefits.

Let’s take a look at the traffic from my guest post for the rest of the month:

You can see that while the residual traffic is low, it’s consistent.

105 unique visitors.

Still not fantastic, but it’s looking a little better…

I’m still regularly receiving around 2 unique visitors average each day.

This means that in the first month after my guest post was published I should receive around 140 unique visitors.

Certainly not the mind blowing results I was hoping for, but let’s look a little deeper.

The Power of Guest Posting for a New Blog

Say that you’ve started a new blog, and you’re attracting around 1000 unique visitors per month.

This certainly isn’t bad for the early days.

Suddenly this one guest post would have given you a 14% traffic boost.

That’s a 14% traffic boost for around 2-3 hours writing. A pretty solid investment in time if you ask me.

Additional Benefits:

There are further benefits from my guest post.

Here are some of the main ones:

• A slight boost in email/rss subscribers.
• My name is being seen by a lot of Pro Blogger readers. The post got quite a bit of Twitter attention and it’s nice to see people engaging with my writing.
• The post helps establish me as an authority. Even if most of the people reading the article didn’t click back to my website, it is helping me build a name for myself in this niche.
• Looking at the other stats, the Pro Blogger visitors to my site have a very high time on site, great pages per visit ratio and a low bounce rate. These are quality visitors, and the exact type of visitors that you want to attract.

It was really encouraging to see so many people personally addressing me as the guest author and appreciating the strategies I was sharing. Whether they clicked through to my site or not it was awesome to be engaging a new community.

Looking Beyond the Obvious Choices for Blogs to Guest Post At

While it’s a monster in the blogging niche, Pro Blogger probably isn’t one of the better blogs to target for a guest posting campaign.

They publish several posts each day, which means that your post will receive less attention.

My guest post only received 12 comments, despite Pro Blogger’s huge audience.

If I look at some blogs with less subscribers (Smart Passive Income, Social Triggers, Think Traffic etc..) then these blogs regularly receive over 100 comments per post.

The community engagement for these blogs is HUGE.

If you post on this type of smaller, more active blog I’d imagine more traffic, and more engagement.

If you stick around and interact with all commenters on your post then you’ll be demonstrating MASSIVE authority.

A Better Guest Posting Strategy:

If you land a guest post on a large blog like me and then are disappointed by your early traffic then I would recommend not giving up.

It’s easy to say ’30 lousy visits, guest posting isn’t worth it!’.

However, I’m going to take a different approach.

I’m going to try and land guest posts on all the top blogs in my niche.

Even if I only get a couple of thousand visits from this I will be putting myself in front of more eyeballs.

I’ll be interacting with a wider community, and demonstrating my authority to new audiences.

If I can retain 1-2 daily visits to my blog from old guest posts, then each guest post will be driving 50 unique visitors per month.

If I have 10 guest posts out there, then that’s 500 highly targeted, very engaged, quality visitors to my site each month. There’s a lot that can be done with those 500 people. If I convert 1% to sell a product to, then 5 product sales per month could be some serious money.

My advice for guest posting? Don’t look at it in terms of immediate results. Play the long game, and see what happens.

One of my all time business idols is Jamie Oliver.

It may seem strange to hold a celebrity chef up as one of my all heroes, but there is so much that inspires me about him.

It’s important in the blogging/entrepreneurial world to look up to the right types of people. Are you following a shady guru type who claims to make tons of cash, or are you following someone that you can truly learn from?

Today I’m going to discuss some invaluable lessons that you can pick up from Jamie Oliver. These are really crucial pillars to your blogging and business, so I hope that you take something from them:

1. Great Branding

Jamie Oliver is the king of positive branding.

He started out as the ‘naked chef’, which back in the 90s was an effective shock technique to get his name out there. He was viewed as the edgy, trendy new youngster on the scene, subverting from the older, dusty stereotypes of the cooking world with his cheeky cockney accent and down to earth approach.

He used similarly strong branding with the introduction of his recent 30 minute meals series. The idea of quick cooking is nothing revolutionary, but he presented it in such a way that it was simply, straight-forward and accessible by the general public. He managed to build much of his recent brand around this series, as he became even more of a household name and became known as ‘Jamie Oliver – the 30 Minute Meals guy’.

Whatever stage of his career he has been at Jamie Oliver has had a very strong public image, often centered around a product range, public service or simply his personable nature.

Think of some of your favorite chefs… the ones that spring to mind probably have the most memorable branding.

In England it’s:

Heston Blumenthal – scientific, experimental cooking
Gordon Ramsey – angry chef, lots of swearing
Jamie Oliver – formerly ‘naked’ chef, 30 minute meals guy, public food missions

There are thousands of other top chefs out there, but simply being known as ‘a good chef’ doesn’t make you memorable to people.

2. Constant Improvement/Evolution

I personally don’t know how Jamie Oliver finds time to sleep!

He seems to be constantly involved in a multitude of projects. He’s out in America championing healthy school food, filming his TV series, making endless public appearances, networking, learning and exploring the world to improve his recipes.

He is absolutely committed to improving his craft, and being a hugely successful businessman in the process.

It’s great to see him evolving so much over the years too. Whilst many other chefs seem to remain set in their ways, he has evolved his style of cooking dramatically, as well as his public perception. He has moved from a cheeky young cockney lad to a respected, successful, mature business figure.

None of this was possible without years of extremely hard work!

3. ‘Being Everywhere’

Online ‘Being everywhere’ may be attributed to top blogger Pat Flynn, but Jamie Oliver is definitely the leader of this in the offline world.

He is known for the following:

• A vast series of cookery books, all of which have been very successful.
• His series of Television shows, such as 30 Minute Meals and Oliver’s Twist.
• His efforts to improve the quality of food in public schools.
• Appearing regularly in Sainsburys supermarket’s television adverts
• Releasing a wide range of products from cookery knifes to bathroom and living accessories to food products.
• His chain of popular restaurants.
• His own production company.
• He even drums in a band!

Some people know Jamie Oliver for his books, others for his television series. As a result he has multiple audiences.

However, the collective audience when these are combined is huge, and growing all the time!

4. Hard Work and Passion

One of Jamie Oliver’s most admirable attributes is his absolute passion for what he does.

Whenever I watch him on television he clearly loves what he is doing. Whenever he is in the kitchen or meeting with others who share his passion he looks like a kid in a sweet shop!

His passion is contagious, and you can’t help but feel excited about what he is talking about.

This is a trait that many super successful figures seem to have.

5. Helping Others

It’s no good getting into business simply to make a quick buck.

Jamie Oliver has become notorious for his work to help improve the food in public schools as well as fighting against supermarkets selling unhealthy produce.

You can see that he genuinely wants to give back and cares about the causes that he supports and champions.

What Do You Think?

Do you agree with the principles of Jamie Oliver’s business? Will you try to use these techniques in your own blogging and business?

Today I’m going to be redesigning Advance Tech, an Australian company that deals with solar, air conditioning and electrical products and applications.

The Original Design:

You can see the original site design below:

You can check out the original website here: Advance Tech

First Impressions: Strengths

Every site has some merits, and the good impressions I made here are these:

Clean, Professional Layout

Advance Tech is certainly one of the stronger designs that I’ve had to work with. It uses a fairly conventional layout and is clean and professional.

Overall the site feels aptly corporate. The use of attractive typography, clean slideshow areas and good padding make this a reasonably solid design.

Good Promotion of Products

It’s encouraging to see Advance Tech promoting some of their well known products right on their homepage. This should help to encourage sales and reduces the steps required of the visitors to explore their extensive product range.

The products are presented in an attractive slideshow area, making them more interactive for visitors.

Clear, Usable Navigation

The navigation menu for Advance Tech is very clean and simple, making the site fairly easy to navigate.

The various links are concise and well spaced. There aren’t many obsolete menu items, and the menu text is clear and legible.

First Impressions: Weaknesses

Of course no website is perfect, and our site’s often make negative first impressions upon readers without us even realizing! Here are the negative first impressions I received from this site:

Pointless Orange Bar

The orange bar underneath the slideshow area may add a nice splash of color to the homepage, but it is essentially pointless.

The ‘our new website’ link isn’t very helpful (nor is the post it links to) and the mini screenshots of the various slideshow slides is unconventional and actually quite confusing for visitors.

The Welcome Area is Not Engaging

The welcome area is not particularly engaging. The text is too small and there is too much of it. It’s also not that contrasted against the background, meaning that it’s easier to skim over.

All in all, our eye is drawn to the ‘welcome’ header text, but then we skim over the actual welcome text, as it doesn’t draw us in.

Some Areas are Sloppy/Unnecessary

There are a few areas of Advance Tech’s website that don’t seem very necessary.

The very top right menu (Home | About | Contact) repeats some of the primary navigation links (despite being positioned very close to each other).

As already mentioned the orange bar underneath the slideshow area is obsolete.

The strange image menu area at the bottom of the page feels unnecessary, again repeating some of the primary menu links (‘about us’ etc…).

My Redesign Proposal

You can see my redesign proposal below:

Let’s look at some of my aims for the redesign:

Bolder, More Unique Design

Whilst the current design for Advance Tech is clean and professional, it’s also a little boring. There is nothing really making it stand out or making it particularly unique.

In my redesign I tried to retain the professional qualities of the original, whilst making it bolder and more memorable.

Visual centerpieces such as the large, bold, textured menu should help achieve this:

More Engaging, Concise Welcome Area

I replaced the formerly missable welcome area with a large, eye catching intro area. This replaces the previous slideshow, which was also not very helpful.

The new welcome area using large, custom typography, with a bold call to action button and relevant picture.

The area is informative, and should instantly tell people who Advance Tech are and what they do.

Removed Fluff Content

In my new design I was careful to remove any fluff content that was unnecessary or unhelpful.

I ensured that the new design was concise, easy to use and to the point. I focused on a few key areas, such as pushing popular products, explaining the nature of the company and imbuing a sense of quality and reliability.

Suggest Your Own Site for a Redesign

You can have the chance to have your website redesigned in next weeks post. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your website address and why you think it needs a redesign.

When we think of the purpose of email marketing then most people will think of it fitting under one of the following categories:

• To promote products and courses to subscribers.
• To promote new websites and ventures.
• To establish and improve relationships with readers.
• To promote affiliate products/promotions.

Sadly, traffic is often overlooked as a primary component of a successful email marketing campaign.

However, almost all top bloggers are successfully using email marketing to drive QUALITY, loyal traffic back to their blogs. This is a hugely powerful technique, and something that I want to look at in more detail today.

You CAN Build Up a Decent Sized List in the Early Days

Often new bloggers regard email list building as a catch 22. Without much traffic they aren’t able to build an email list.

However, gaining a lot of email subscribers in a short space of time isn’t impossible.

As bloggers are beginning to realize the important of successful email marketing they are finding increasingly clever ways to explode their lists from the first day of their blog.

If you’re a little lost on how to build up your own lists then check out our recent article:

3 Advanced Tried and Tested Strategies to Explode Your Email List.

In this article I show some real life examples of awesome list building campaigns that can’t fail to work for you. (clue: it’s a little more work than slapping a sign up form in your sidebar!).

Think Traffic and Social Triggers are both very popular blogs, but use their homepages as landing pages for their email list. This type of page converts VERY well, and allows you to build up a very decent email list even in the early days when you aren’t getting much traffic.

Growing Your Early Traffic Using A Fledgling Email List

Using some of the techniques outlined above (combined with good promotion and content of course) it’s entirely realistic that you should be able to build up a list of 1000 email subscribers in the first 3-6 months of your blog (some new bloggers grow lists much faster than this).

Now of course you should be promoting key products, events, webinars and the like to this list.

However, you should also definitely be linking back to your regular blog posts, and boosting the residual traffic for your blog.

This type of email really comes in two formats.

The Full Blog Post

Some bloggers like to email their list the full blog post, but simply in email form.

There are several benefits to this:

• As people don’t need to click through to read the post your content will be reaching more people.
• This wider reach means more engagement, more affiliate sales (if relevant) and probably more loyalty from you list.
• Some subscribers will click through to read the post on your blog, even if it is presented in email form.

However, the main disadvantage is:

• Many subscribers will simply read your post in their inbox. Technically this doesn’t really matter, as the post is still being read. However, your blog traffic won’t be increasing as much as it could be.

The Preview Blog Post

Some other bloggers prefer to email a short preview of their latest blog post, with a teaser or description. This will draw subscribers back to the blog if they want to check out the full content.

There are several benefits of this:

• Your blog traffic will be boosted very easily simply by sending out one email.
• The traffic you’re sending to your blog post is the best kind: very loyal, interested in your content, potentially interested in buying from you etc…

However, the main disadvantage is:

• Some subscribers won’t bother to click through to your original blog post. These people may have read your content otherwise, but this extra step means that they will miss out on it.

Both of these methods seem to work well, as many top bloggers use each method.

Personally I prefer the second method, and for the purpose of this article it’s certainly more effective for boosting your early blog traffic.

Breaking Down the Numbers

If we look at Mail Chimp’s helpful article:

Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry

We can see that for our niche (blogging/marketing) the open rate on emails is around 20%, whilst the click through rate is around 4-5%.

Well I say screw the average figures and the statistics!

I’m pretty new to email marketing, and certainly am not an expert at writing enticing headlines or copy.

However, this is what the click through rate looks like for my last 4 emails promoting a blog post on my site:

6.7%
8.3%
7.5%
21.5%

The 21.5% is the only email that I made a deliberate effort with to write super engaging copy and use an intriguing headline. I think the results speak for themselves.

My point is that even if you’re just doing the basics of building a solid, responsive list, you should be aiming for click through rates of around 10%. If I’m a newbie and I’m averaging this you can too!

So looking back at the example of building an 1000 email strong list in the first 3-6 month of your blog you should expect each email to receive around 100 clicks.

The Value of This Traffic

100 clicks may not sound like a ton, but it’s certainly not to be sniffed at either!

100 visits guaranteed for each of your blog posts is pretty incredible for a new blog.

Better still, these visitors are the perfect type of visit that you want to attract. Think about it:

• They are already an email subscriber, and so have shown serious interest in your blog/brand already.
• They aren’t randomly stumbling across your article, they are clicking through to it because they want to learn more.
• They aren’t being directed there from some random social media link that is easily forgotten, they’re reaching your post directly from their inbox. That’s a powerful thing!

This these types of visitors will have some of the highest times on site, pageviews and other valuable stats that you’re aiming for with your blog content.

Small Effort – Big Reward

The benefit of email marketing for traffic is not just the quality of the traffic, but the effort involved in driving it.

I’ve seen guest posts on top blogs bring in only around 100 visits. With your fledging email list you’re able to pull in this many visitors via an email that it took you 5 minutes to write.

If you write/promote 10 posts in a month then that’s 1000 very high quality visitors going to your site for less than 1 hours work!

Remember our post about the 80/20 rule and how correct task management can save your blog?

(If not, check it out here: How the 80/20 Rule Can Save Your Blog and Your Sanity)

Well this strategy is putting that technique into action. 50 minutes easy work – 1000 targeted, quality visitors. You do the math.

If you’re not using email marketings to drive traffic back to your blog and make it more sticky, then you need to start today.

What Do You Think?

I would love to know what you guys think about this technique?

Are you already sending out an email to your list each time you publish a new blog post?

If not why not?

Today I’m going to be redesigning Geared for Design, the design portfolio of Molly Rose Odell.

The Original Design:

You can see the original site design below:

You can check out the original website here: Geared for Design

First Impressions: Strengths

Every site has some merits, and the good impressions I made here are these:

Good Branding, Visually Supported

The entire brand for this site is centered around the ‘geared’ theme which is present in the domain name.

The current design is actually quite memorable because it is so closely linked to the idea of ‘gears’ and cogs. This provides a strong visual base for the site and makes it unique and striking.

It is Simple/Concise

Many sites that I review are overly complex. Geared for Design actually keeps it content down to the bare minimum, which is quite effective. It’s very clear once you visit the page that the site is a design portfolio. The only options are to read the informative welcome text or navigate using one of two menu options.

Asides from the overbearing visuals there isn’t a lot detracting from the core purpose of the site (to advertise Molly’s talents and land her more work).

Prominent Navigation

As mentioned in my last point, the navigation is extremely basic on this website.

There are literally two options:

- to view Molly’s portfolio
- to ‘find’ her (view her resume, get in touch etc…)

These two options cover the primary reasons why people would visit her site, and should be converting fairly well for her.

There are some minor issues however:

- It seems clunky having the links overlap onto two lines (‘PORT/FOLIO’). Words should be on a single line to be more readable.
- ‘Find me’ is quite unclear. I would go with something more obvious like ‘hire me’.

First Impressions: Weaknesses

Of course no website is perfect, and our site’s often make negative first impressions upon readers without us even realizing! Here are the negative first impressions I received from this site:

The Layout is Too Unconventional

I’m all for creativity, but at the same time, conventions exist for a reason.

I feel that Geared for Design is actually too different to be effective. Sure, it provides a really striking visual for new visitors, but this doesn’t mean that they will feel comfortable browsing the site or want to use your services.

The graphics are actually pretty distracting, taking up most of our attention, rather than what you do, or your work.

Finally, in her comment suggesting her site for this redesign Molly mentioned that the site wasn’t scalable at all. With a layout that is this rigid, it really won’t scale well or allow you to add in further content easily. This is an important point to bear in mind for the redesign. I’m also betting the site doesn’t display well on mobile devices!

The Text is Poorly Laid Out

The main homepage text isn’t very well laid out. Centered text often looks messy and makes it hard to scan. I would recommend replacing this with left aligned text. Also, the variations in line length (to fit within the cog area) again is style over substance, and makes it harder to read.

The legibility of the welcome text is also hindered by the yellow text on orange background combination. This needs more contrast, as the colors are clashing right now.

There Isn’t Much Prompting Business

Whilst the site is simple, and relatively informative, there isn’t much on the homepage prompting visitors to use Molly’s services.

The ‘find me’ button is fairly ambiguous, and there are no examples or previews of her work.

I would definitely put some work examples on the intro page and push forward your talents for new visitors.

My Redesign Proposal

You can see my redesign proposal below:

Let’s look at some of my aims for the redesign:

More Scalable, Stylish Layout

For my redesign my main aim was to provide a simpler, more scalable layout that would allow Molly to expand her content and focus on promoting her business effectively.

The new gray background helps establish more contrast for the other visual elements on the page, and pushes forward the succinct welcome paragraph and bold logo.

I tried to retain the brand using multiple gear images throughout the design.

I reduced the entire site to a scrollable single page design.

Pushed Forward Molly’s Services

In the original design Molly’s work and services were a little hidden behind the elaborate homepage design.

By using a single page design I was example to push forward her best work examples on the homepage.

Rather than guessing at the vague ‘find me’ link, people can easily jump right down to the ‘hire me’ form at the bottom of the page using the simple, stylish navigation area.

Subtle Design Details

Whilst the new layout is quite simple, I made sure to include lots of subtle design details to try and accentuate Molly’s artistic profile.

From the subtle background texture to the subtle lighting around key visual elements the design should avoid being too flat or boring.

Suggest Your Own Site for a Redesign

You can have the chance to have your website redesigned in next weeks post. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your website address and why you think it needs a redesign.