Site Review: Marketing Tools Review
This is a paid review of Marketing Tools Review. You can read my previous reviews and contact me if you want me to review your site.
Who? What? Marketing Tools Review is a site for “internet marketers and information entrepreneurs”, run by an experienced Google AdWords user called Hock. Hock blogs about search marketing, affiliate marketing and how to generate passive income online.
Site design: The site uses a standard two-column Wordpress template, although the masthead seems a little mixed up; the header appears more or less twice in two different looks, taking up valuable top-page real estate and forcing me to scroll down for main content.
Site layout: Home and About are represented in the top navigation, but if you scroll down the right sidebar to Pages there is more information that is crucially missing from the top: Contact, Advertise On This Site etc. Users should not have to search for these links.
Having Popular Posts near the top of the sidebar is a good touch, but the Users (now) Online count should not be included unless your site receives a constantly high traffic flow. A free newsletter option with internet marketing advice is buried far down the page - this is a nice service that should be more prominent. Plus that generic calendar that defaults in many Wordpress themes smacks of ‘blogging noob’.
Content: Hock writes well and is clearly passionate about online marketing strategies, and has been running this blog since 2004. Helpful articles include Develop a Content Strategy for your Blog, Dig into Massive Search Data and How to Increase your Profits by 1-2%. There is also good use of imagery in posts. However, the Categories list is buried quite far down the sidebar - these can be handy ‘quick links’ that help users navigate the site.
Monetization: Hrm. There look to be a few affiliate links buried far down at the bottom. (I also see that Hock was ejected by AdSense and is exploring other monetization techniques - I assume there are affiliate links in the newsletter and in blog posts?)
Interaction: There are the usual Recent Reader mugshots via MyBlogLog, but not a huge amount of comments, despite an average of 400 visits a day. Hock, are you submitting your best posts to relevant Blog Carnivals, chatting away on web forums and commenting on similar blogs? Which posts of yours generate the most comments? (I see from your 2008 Goals that you have considered other ways to increase traffic.)
The About page has info and a photo but nothing personal - readers like to know a little background stuff without airing any skeletons. Location? Family?
I notice there is an ‘Ask Hock’ category but with little content; might be a nice area to grow and increase interaction with readers?
Finale: Marketing Tools Review is packed full of useful web marketing advice, but I think the current layout is prohibiting its growth. The blog header and right sidebar need work and key links must be above the fold: newsletter signup, contact, popular posts, key affiliate links etc. It also needs a bit more ‘life’: taking reader questions might help do the trick.
Why don’t you pay Hock a visit, and see what you think!
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 7:09 am
under
Hock is definitely going great guns when it comes to internet marketing strategies.Internet marketing is all about creating public attention in the right sense.I expect more from you.
January 26th, 2008 at 6:03 pmMore than providing the marketing tools preparing the check list for your market will be a good idea that fit for all category in the online marketing.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:29 am