Muse not converting - any ideas?

[Jess]

Hi Folks, I've played around some more with my muse but it still isn't converting. Any ideas would be gratefully received!

I've taken on board lots of advice and changed my landing page's text and graphics. The intro is now hopefully much more emotionally engaging, the pricing is quoted clearly and if you click on the images you go directly to the payment page.

As for my PPC campaign, I currently have 45 ads running on Adwords, targetting different aspects of wedding planning people might search for, and I'm certainly getting the hits (around 300 per day) but no sales. The bounce rate is around 90% and people are staying on the site on average 28 seconds. I've tried restricting the countries to just the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand instead of appealing to the whole world - but none of these things seem to have helped.

Of course it could just be a bad time of year for my target audience, but on the other hand if people are searching for wedding products you'd think they'd still be wanting to buy them.

Would really appreciate any feedback whatsoever:

www.loveandcherish.net

Huge thanks,

Jessica

[JeffWilliamson]

The site looks nice but I find the pictures/press info on the left side of the page a little distracting. Can you work them in to the main body of the text in order to naturally drive the reader's eye down to the order form?

Also, you have three order buttons grouped very close together, even though I assume they all go to the same place it could confuse the buyer. I would try spacing them out throughout the text a little more.

I'm not a sales copy expert but everything Ive read indicates that these changes make a page more effective.

Hopefully this helps, good luck!

[JKohlbach]

I hope you're excluding "free" from your search terms. My fiance and I are planning our wedding right now and I can tell you we only looking for free stuff because the reception is costing so damn much.

[Sven]

I agree with Jeff, the stuff on the left is distracting. We westerners read from left to right, just putting the stuff on the right would meake a huge difference. The readr then strts with the most important content.

But the rest looks very good indeed!

[sub8hr]

Spell check! I stopped reading after the first typo:

"Paying for your dream day in hard enough"

Also, there are so many different font sizes and colors going on I kind of feel like I'm looking at a ransom note. You've got a nice graphic and what looks to be a product I would certainly think there is demand for. The page just needs to be made a little less busy so the reader's attention is only drawn to the few points that matter.

You might also try posting on message boards on sites like:

http://www.sheknows.com/channels/weddings.htm

They will probably frown on straight up advertising, but never hurts to make your username reflect your site URL and leave a few insightful posts for the right audience to track back to you...

[jackson]

I'd maybe suggest finding a real photo of a bride, morgue file is a good site for royalty free photographs, the cartoon deters me a bit.

[Keep a Movin' Dan]

You need a comma after the "So." It sounds anal, but my experience is that people say "So what if you did X?" to convey something negative about the "X," while they use "So, what if you did X?" to convey something positive about the "X."

Less sure of this, but I'd also flip the font sizes for the first and second paragraphs. It's the problem that draws people in, the current set up gives people a solution without a problem.

[amecusj]

I am not sold. I think you may have a great product. At minimum it is a great concept. But the benefit to purchase is weakly hidden. Also I agree with others about the stuff to the side. I ignored it completely and then upon closer inspection it looks like they are testimonials/reviews. If they are true (and I am just going to assume they are) why not put it as a part of the copy.

So order it like this: Here are some mistakes. Here is the tool to save you money (and how you are going to do it). Here is what reputable experts say about my product. And then a risk reversal. ta-da = sales

[Davaris]

I used to make and sell computer games and what didn't work for me was mucking around with Google. What did work was getting mentioned in the news sections of sites where the users were fans of the particular type of game I made. So my advice is to try advertising in Bridal magazines as Google surfers are usually only looking for free stuff.

As for your site I would put much less text on it, so you don't confuse your customers and they can find the buy button easily. You should add a forum, so happy customers can sell your product to new prospects. Your site looks kind of clinical, so I would try some attractive background wallpaper with a bridal theme.

My final advice is to cut your losses if a product isn't selling, as there isn't much you can do to a website to fix a non performer. Next time make sure you do market research (as Tim describes in his book) to determine if there is strong demand for a product, before you create it.

EDIT:
What really surprised me about Tim's book was the mention of the better than 100% guarantee. If you cut the info on your site down to this (or even less with the selling focus on the savings they will make).


Here’s just a sample of the secrets you’ll discover:

* How to get 50% off a beautiful new designer wedding dress (Page 76)
* 10 sure-fire ways to cut your reception costs by 40% (Page 187)
* 9 celebrity photo secrets to make you look like a movie star (Page 215)
* The ‘magic ingredient' that makes a ceremony unforgettable (Page 154)
* Proven ways to slash the cost of a quality band or DJ (Page 200)
* How to find the best photographer for you – and 19 questions you must ask (Page 210)
* 15 celebrity secrets for fast, easy wedding weight loss (Page 246)
* Step-by-step how to pick the best wedding dress to flatter your figure (Page 71)
* 5 simple tips to halve the cost of your flowers (Page 142)
* How to make your wedding a unique expression of your personalities (Page 149)
* How to cut the cost of your cake by up to 60% (Page 193)
* 5 easy steps to creating your own unique wedding vows (Page 165)


Then link your claims to your final sale message "If you don't save more than x% on your wedding, we'll give you back what you paid for this book + 100%."

Also up the price to $100 (this info is supposed to save them a fortune right?) and make sure you ship it as a CD rather than a downloadable, so returning it by mail will be a hassle.