[jacqueline]

Hi,

Since I know how supportive everybody is in this forum, I'd like to ask for your help in 2 ways:

Having launched my website recently, after working on its development for several months, I am a little blind as to its faults and I would love to hear your views so that I can improve it and make it as simple to use as possible.
it's called: dizcover.co.uk

If you feel like browsing round the site, as I hope you will, please take advantage of my offer of free advertising for a full year, as I need your help to populate it with adverts. I'm not asking for any commitment for the future and there is no cost involved at all, I just need more people to advertise.

Thank you for your support

Jackie

[Indizine]

I dont do web reviews in the full extent, but our Sally will be along as will a few others, to add their 2c.

I went to look at your pricing and I couldnt see what period the costs covers, i.e. is that a monthly cost? Cant find this info anywhere on the pricing page If it is monthly thouh, it seems pretty high to me, not least for a new website. If annual, then it's probably ok. Pricing depends on popularity with this sort of thing.

I see it is awaiting SEO - how are you marketing the site? how many visitors are you getting/expect to get over the next 12 months? I'd want to see these stats before paying for any advertising to know if it's worth eventually paying for it.

[coe114c]

Hi Jackie,

I had a quick look, to be honest I didn't go any further than the home page but I couldn't really figure out what it was about and what you are trying to achieve. I am sure more will become clear as it develops. Good luck!

Helen x

[Indizine]

ok I just registered my business and acitvated it and logged in, but is nothing on the 'My Account' page that tells me where to add my free advert. On checking the 'Add Advertisement' page, thats only for paid adverts. Help please?


Also, just noticed loads of listings in Z-A order on the search results page. And on doing a search for sheffield (no other search criteria) it listed a big advert for Cubs in Liverpool. I would only expect to see Sheffield based businesses in the listings.

Oh and one last thing for now, I dont see anywhere about your contact details, who you are, where you are based, how to contact you, etc. and, although I cant see, presume it is taking payments online? If so, you will need to provide contact details to meet the distance selling regs.

[jacqueline]

I see that I will need to do a lot more work on this site. Please keep the comments coming, this is extremely useful to me
Jackie

[sally]

Hmmmm I can feel your enthusiasm for your business but I really don't like the site so if you are sensitive please stop reading this now.

Opened the home page and saw 5 shades of blue, red and lilac so that put me off to begin with. I know blue is THE website colour but 5 shades is overdoing it imo.

It took a good 3 minutes of reading before I started to work out what you do - a directory, with free wallpapers yes? (although the images of the wallpapers have been cropped too much so look odd). So businesses buy an ad and people can search through the ads.

The search function - as Sandra says, why did you ask me which county I wanted to search in if the results are country wide .... unless they moved Coventry to Cumbria when I wasn't looking

I also had no idea what the top level categories meant so ignored it for the first 2 searches. When I did work it out it was very limited.

When I did get the list it was just names, addresses and phone numbers but everything was so squashed together I would have trouble distinguishing the number I wanted. OK they are the free listings but they are very ugly from a searchers point of view.

Then it goes to the products page, which is for business customers so now I am completely baffled, which parts of your site are for searchers and which for advertisers - there seems to be no line drawn between which sections of your site are for which and searchers don't want to read through stuff for advertisers and vice versa. It would be better with 2 distinct areas, one for each group.

Then you have account comparison and compare searchers to advertisers - apples and oranges, they simply are not comparable. The personal account sounds like it is trying to be a social networking type site but what would people rate a business on if they have never used it?

You talk about looking at what your explorers have discovered this month but surely all there is to discover is business listings in a directory? You make this quite clear here:

Dizcover an advertising site with a difference!!
Why has Dizcover.co.uk been created?
The site has 2 main aims:

* To help businesses advertise in a convenient, clear, effective, affordable and stress-free manner.
* To help visitors to the site who are looking for a service or a business and ensure that they find the best one for their needs.

That is the definition of a web directory surely?

My apologies but I see nothing new or different about it. You seem to be trying to capture everything in order to gain maximum ad revenue but it is obvious even to me that is a paid directory but in trying to sound new and exciting and different you have just confused everything and the people searching for businesses seem to have been right down the bottom of the list.

I am so sorry for sounding so harsdh but I just want you to think about what you are doing. From a searchers point of view it is confusing full of blurb to get advertisers to pay and not designed with their needs in mind. Without them who is going to pay to advertise with you?

[jacqueline]

Hi,

I've been reading your comments and advice very carefully and will make some improvements to the site based on those.

The pricing mentioned is for a full year, when we start charging. However all the adverts are now totally free. All that needs to be done is go to the page entitled "Add advertisement" which shows after you have signed up and had your email verified, place your advert and on the payment page type in J100 as promotion code, which entitles you to 100% off. So the advert is free for a full year.

On the search results page, if an advert shows but has an address in a different part of the country to the one you have requested, it is because the advertiser has claimed that they are trading UK wide.

I'm looking at making it simpler for visitors by separating the pages aimed at advertisers from those aimed solely at visitors.

Dizcover is trying to become more than a business search engine, by being a business portal which contains a variety of business resources and not copy the format of other business search engines.

I am aware that a lot of improvements are still needed and I am grateful for all your input.

Jackie

[Indizine]

It isnt a search engine by definition, but rather, a directory.

Ref the UK wide, I think the whole point of searching on a geographical area is to find something local, whereas if you just hit search and dont choose an area, the whole of the UK listings should then appear.

[Alvin]

Hi Jackie can you give me a reason why I should advertise on your site.?

Traffic area covered.?

How many sign ups to date.?

Alvin

[jacqueline]

I'm offering entirely free adverts for a full year in order to build up the site. I'm not claiming to have a huge traffic yet, however what I can claim is that it increases each day.
Jackie