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I own a motorsports website which I have poured my heart and soul into to make it the best in the industry and of which does very well and is blessed by Google in search for popular queries such as "Honda Dirt Bikes for Sale" and I have a nice flow of traffic but I can't get people to add their bikes for the life of me.

I've experimented with verbage and layouts until I'm blue in the face yet people still abandon the form and rarely add their listings.

I've also asked friends and family to take a look and administer "Tough Love" but all I can get out of any of them is "Looks good" (which is actually a true statement which you'll likely agree with) but the problem still persists of minimal new listings.

I've even contacted people attempting to sell their bikes on facebook (probably the worst place to try to sell a motorcycle), yet even using that strategy they have never listed their bikes with me and actually perceive me as spamming (which I'm not) so I've abandoned that strategy.

If anyone here wouldn't mind taking a look and offering any input on why YOU would NOT list your motorcycle (or widget etc) here I would be most appreciative as I'm NOT giving up and will eventually conquer the world in this niche.

Here's a sample page of listings and how to add yours should be fairly obvious http://www.your-adrenaline-fix.com/honda-dirt-bikes-for-sale.html

Please also realize I have made the call to action even clearer in the past with additional links and even placing the form directly on the listing pages, both to no avail and would greatly appreciate any additional input.

Note: I recently included the logo's in the RH column to foster trust through familiarity but this recent addition has not affected the conversion rate either.

I thank you all in advance and look forward to your input,

Stuart K

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  • Looks unprofessional to be honest,you would be better off using squarespace: keeping your traffic but gaining credibility.
    – downrep_nation
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 10:20
  • I don't know how using someone else's SAAS is going to aid in credibility. I can do anything on my own that squarespace provides and not be using someone else's code and site layout but I do agree that the site desperately needs an updated look.
    – Stuart
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 15:45
  • If you can please be more specific with your question. As it is its too broad.
    – Mayo
    Commented Jan 24, 2016 at 14:38
  • Hi @Mayo I really don't understand why this was put on hold or why you feel my question is too broad. I'd be glad to narrow it down. Once I get visitors to this page: classifieds.your-adrenaline-fix.com/add.php they rarely complete the form and I was trying to find out why not? I feel I've been pretty clear about that and I do agree the site looks very outdated but I have spent the last several years learning PHP, Javascript, jQuery, AJAX etc to make the site what it presently is. NOW, I'm working on the look & feel but still welcome input on the minimal conversion of form linked above
    – Stuart
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 13:27
  • I also don't understand why my question would be downvoted (likely by the same person whom later removed their "answer"). I was not disputing anything anyone said, merely extending discussion and I am now working on the design.
    – Stuart
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 13:29

1 Answer 1

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I disagree with the assessment that the website looks good. Unfortunately, there's several things that make it look unprofessional. My very first impression was that it was probably someone's first website they ever tried making, and it comes across more as a spam or scam site than a site with legitimate business listings.

Here's a few of the first things that stand out:

  • The images on the sidebars are extremely low resolution. This immediate screams run to me and hurts your site's overall appearance.
  • The right side bar seems to remind me of an ad, not valuable content. It reminds me of a low budget newspaper ad, which is something I tend to gloss over and never look at.
  • The ad in the middle of the page once again cheapens the appearance of your website.

While I can certainly see you're passionate about your business, which is a great thing by the way. Your website doesn't come across to customers that way. To be very blunt it comes across as a poorly designed website on a low to nonexistent budget. The overall look and feel is very outdated to me.

The good news is this: appearance is an extremely easy thing to fix. You seemingly do have valuable content (i.e. the listings available), which is the most important. If you're serious about this, I'd recommend hiring a UX designer to go through and completely build a website.

tl;dr If I had a bike to sell, I wouldn't feel comfortable entering any personal information on your website. The overall appearance is low quality and unprofessional.

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  • This is true in its entirety. Well put
    – downrep_nation
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 10:21
  • I sincerely appreciate your comments. You've provided lots of valuable insight which I will be taking action on. You're right, It is my first website but I don't fully understand how it is perceived as spam or scam because I have worked to make it everything but that with a clean and uncluttered look but I'll be revisiting that thought and looking at it under a different light. I would like to add that viewing the site on a mobile device or tablet rids the side column images and the reason I have retained the 3 column for desktop machines is because I don't know what else to do.
    – Stuart
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 12:27
  • The 3 column (and entire site actually) layout seems to please the visitors per Google Analytics with 3+ mins time on site, 2+ page views and 25% Bounce rate (with ~25% returning visitors) so I've felt that the site was doing it's job. I also agree the site looks very outdated but again I haven't known what to do about it and it is a very low budget (rags to riches) operation which I simply don't have the $$ to invest in, nor would I trust anyone to touch it since I can learn and do anything that needs done in time. I also welcome and hope for continued discussion about this & Thank You again
    – Stuart
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 12:32
  • I'd also like to add that the sidebar images go away on mobile and tablet devices although even in that configuration usability performance (Conversion rates) do not seem any better. Also, I've been stuck with the sidebar images because I refuse to use anything off the www if I can't make it myself and the reason I've stuck with the sidebar images for so long is because they load instantaneously but I will be replacing those with CSS in the near / immediate future and still encourage extended discussion
    – Stuart
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 12:43
  • Thanks for the comment about valuable content. I'd like to reinforce that there is much more valuable content throughout the site than these listings and I am very serious about this site and will never give up and hope we can extend discussion about it with ideas of what to do. Infact I have been trying to figure out what to do about the RH column which is also why I have attached ?RHColumn=1 to those links as a way of measuring their usage. Basically, Google Analytics data has me paralyzed on what to do but once again I encourage and hope for additional input.
    – Stuart
    Commented Jan 23, 2016 at 12:46

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