Idea - Website Consultancy Wrapped Up in a Box

ideaburst

Hi guys,

I am toying with a couple of online business ideas at the minute (my username becomes clear, ay?)

One of these is a site that would provide you with in-depth feedback on your website. You may have seen the website review forum on Boards - this site would be a high-powered, much more structured version of this, where you get in-depth critical analysis on your website in the following terms:

-Overall website review, review of usability factors (i.e. what you may be doing wrong, what you are doing well, what you could change/tweak, what is missing, etc). The website review would not only consist of our reviews and analysis, but also those of up to 5 other different people (the general public).

-Conversion analysis - an analysis, based on your goals for the website, of how well your site is set up to convert its users. For example, if you were an e-commerce site, we would go through your Analytics (if provided), highlight drop-off points, areas for improving the conversion funnel, etc. Even without access to Analytics, we would do a full review of what needs to be changed, improved, etc.

-SEO review and competitive analysis - a high-level review of how you are doing SEO wise, and how you stack up against your competition (and what you can do to gain an edge on them).

There would be more, but that's enough for now. You can always go online and ask punters on a forum for a review of your site, or get conflicting SEO advice from a bunch of randomers, but this site would give you everything you need to know wrapped up in one package, complete with recommendations - we'd be talking about a 6-10 page report.

Is this something you as a business owner would be interested in in terms of your own site and online presence? What kind of price would you pay, approximately? (I know that's a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but humour me!).

It's pretty much website consultancy in the form of a product rather than a service. No expensive retainers or fees or wondering what you are actually going to get for the hundreds or thousands you might spend each month - just a very detailed, in-depth review of your site, carried out by those who do this for a living every day - and which you can use to start improving your results online quickly, in an easy to understand way.

Thanks

Gloomtastic!

So I pay thousands to have my website designed, then I have to pay you more to tell me whether I've spent my money wisely - or not. But who are you? Who made you the god of all things Internet?

Talk to these guys and see if they'd be interested in your services to sell to their clients http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services/Processes-Systems/

jmcc

Have you identified your target customers and, more importantly, quantified your market?

Regards...jmcc

Cianos

OP, the problem with the idea is that it adds an extra step to the (re)design process that brings with it additional cost (ie, you have to get paid).

If a website is performing badly, or looks terribly outdated, it's usually quite obvious that it just needs to be redesigned, so there's no point in doing a big analysis of why a terrible website is performing badly, when the correct action is nearly always going to be a redesign.

For normal business brochure websites, the cost of your analysis would probably come close to a whole redesign, so you're not really presenting much value for money.

For bigger sites, the solutions you're suggesting would usually be taken care of by the in-house designers/developers, who are probably aware of the problems and have various reasons why they haven't been dealt with.

So in summary, your idea sounds good in theory, but in practice there isn't really much of a practical application for it and you'd find it very difficult to find businesses willing to invest in the product/service.

AltAccount

It also seems like a funny mix of short and long term - the website review would probably be a one-off, the SEO consultancy would be an ongoing project. How do you wrap both into a Boxed package?

tricky D

I do a good bit of this kind of stuff.

A few points:

Redesigning actually doesn't often solve the existing problems, just moves them to the new design. The majority of the usual website problems do not need it. Too many of these reviews are given with a view to getting a redesign job and is something I try to avoid as it often doesn't provide good value.

While many websites do make the same mistakes so often, there's more to it than that which requires a lot of business experience and analysis which will never fit in any 'box'. This experience, and lots of it, is vital otherwise you're wide open to doing more harm than good.

The notion of getting reviews from 5 people from the general public would make me less than comfortable. I wouldn't buy a car or a house based on reviews from the general public, I would be looking for opinions from professionals mainly. I don't see it as much different when it comes to websites.

On cianos' point about in-house handling, sometimes or often that is true, but not always due to 'operating in a vacuum' where the required priorities get largely reordered into the wrong order. Also you need to know how to get beyond the resistance which can arise in such scenarios.

ideaburst

Hey guys,

Thanks for the feedback. I actually started describing the idea, and then went off on a bit of a tangent describing other features that could be built on top of it

The core idea is actually not 'website reviews' from the point of view of a 'web expert' as such (although that could be an add-on feature, e.g. get expert consultation following your review), it is actually more about getting feedback from unbiased users, i.e. those would be on your site in the normal course of events.

It's for those business / website owners who want to get an idea of how users perceive their site, what they find good/not so good, how easy it is for them to find what they are looking for, etc. In other words, what do people think about the site, how do they feel about it and is it serving their needs in the way we hope it is?

An example could be a sports gear retailer who wants to know what people think about the company's site. What do people make of the design, what do they think of the site versus competitor sites, how easy is it to make a purchase, etc.

So it's really about feedback from the users, rather than the experts - sorry for the confusion! An idea of what I am talking about is startuplift.com - my site would have other / additional features however.

ideaburst

ideaburst wrote: »

Hey guys,

Thanks for the feedback. I actually started describing the idea, and then went off on a bit of a tangent describing other features that could be built on top of it

The core idea is actually not 'website reviews' from the point of view of a 'web expert' as such (although that could be an add-on feature, e.g. get expert consultation following your review), it is actually more about getting feedback from unbiased users, i.e. those would be on your site in the normal course of events.

It's for those business / website owners who want to get an idea of how users perceive their site, what they find good/not so good, how easy it is for them to find what they are looking for, etc. In other words, what do people think about the site, how do they feel about it and is it serving their needs in the way we hope it is?

An example could be a sports gear retailer who wants to know what people think about the company's site. What do people make of the design, what do they think of the site versus competitor sites, how easy is it to make a purchase, etc.

So it's really about feedback from the users, rather than the experts - sorry for the confusion! An idea of what I am talking about is startuplift.com - my site would have other / additional features however.

Would love to hear if you think I'm onto something, now that I've clarified the idea?

The Apprentice

I can only give my honest opinion and you have a mismash of products that are already served just built into 1 location.. this may be good and bad as the points noted..

Im certainly not paying 5 randomers to have a look at my site for lots of reasons..
1. They havent a clue on functionality, Design typography, branding, business model etc..
They will know if it works or not which essentially means nothing.. Similar to getting the mammy to rate your singing skills .. "Your the bestest ever son"

2. i WOULD most cetainly pay for an expert opinion of 5 members but scaling this business model will be a nightmare.. there are only so many hours in a week that an expert could and would get paid to evaluate websites etc ?? So clearly, dividing the pot $$ in early start up will be a problem with attracting business and both if this suceeds equal problems when dividing your experts time on evaluation when things get busier.
3. What is your Usp/differentiation to anyone that does web design or Seo as an all in one package such as Red Square, Digino or any of the other comanies that specialise in this sort of area ???

I really dont want to piss on your cornflakes, i love all the areas of the business your talking about personally and professionally.. but as a package im struggling to see whats cool/workable about your product. Lots of people/companies already do this in an indirect fashion which are YOUR direct competitors.

Boostsuite also do a webdesign evaluation similar to what your talking about which is free :S
If you could differentiate it to lets just say eccommerce only websites, but your niche in ireland is Piconiche and the business may not be there to sustatin a full time job.. Lots of media companies compete for that space already...

Sticking Facebook - Twitter and linkedin into 1 veritable social media package may not necessarily make a better social media experience - you need to add a little into the mix.. Liptstick on a pig, is still a pig.
Either way, i hope things go well for you hopefully my points have added some value, or a least made you question or look at it differently..
Best o luck mate

AltAccount

ideaburst wrote: »

Hey guys,

Thanks for the feedback. I actually started describing the idea, and then went off on a bit of a tangent describing other features that could be built on top of it

The core idea is actually not 'website reviews' from the point of view of a 'web expert' as such (although that could be an add-on feature, e.g. get expert consultation following your review), it is actually more about getting feedback from unbiased users, i.e. those would be on your site in the normal course of events.

It's for those business / website owners who want to get an idea of how users perceive their site, what they find good/not so good, how easy it is for them to find what they are looking for, etc. In other words, what do people think about the site, how do they feel about it and is it serving their needs in the way we hope it is?

An example could be a sports gear retailer who wants to know what people think about the company's site. What do people make of the design, what do they think of the site versus competitor sites, how easy is it to make a purchase, etc.

So it's really about feedback from the users, rather than the experts - sorry for the confusion! An idea of what I am talking about is startuplift.com - my site would have other / additional features however.

I'd wonder:
a) what value can "Joe Public" bring to the process that an experienced web designer or usability expert couldn't deliver? What works well from a usability, branding, corporate image or web design point-of-view is pretty well documented at this stage.

b) what value your business could bring to the process that an experienced market research company couldn't deliver? They have experience in facilitating groups of "Joe Public" as they evaluate new ideas and products. They also have existing lists of willing average punters available and able to be segmented by various demographics and interest groups.

ideaburst

The Apprentice wrote: »

I can only give my honest opinion and you have a mismash of products that are already served just built into 1 location.. this may be good and bad as the points noted..

Im certainly not paying 5 randomers to have a look at my site for lots of reasons..
1. They havent a clue on functionality, Design typography, branding, business model etc..
They will know if it works or not which essentially means nothing.. Similar to getting the mammy to rate your singing skills .. "Your the bestest ever son"

2. i WOULD most cetainly pay for an expert opinion of 5 members but scaling this business model will be a nightmare.. there are only so many hours in a week that an expert could and would get paid to evaluate websites etc ?? So clearly, dividing the pot $$ in early start up will be a problem with attracting business and both if this suceeds equal problems when dividing your experts time on evaluation when things get busier.
3. What is your Usp/differentiation to anyone that does web design or Seo as an all in one package such as Red Square, Digino or any of the other comanies that specialise in this sort of area ???

I really dont want to piss on your cornflakes, i love all the areas of the business your talking about personally and professionally.. but as a package im struggling to see whats cool/workable about your product. Lots of people/companies already do this in an indirect fashion which are YOUR direct competitors.

Boostsuite also do a webdesign evaluation similar to what your talking about which is free :S
If you could differentiate it to lets just say eccommerce only websites, but your niche in ireland is Piconiche and the business may not be there to sustatin a full time job.. Lots of media companies compete for that space already...

Sticking Facebook - Twitter and linkedin into 1 veritable social media package may not necessarily make a better social media experience - you need to add a little into the mix.. Liptstick on a pig, is still a pig.
Either way, i hope things go well for you hopefully my points have added some value, or a least made you question or look at it differently..
Best o luck mate

Grr, you're probably right mate. It's not that cool as an idea and perhaps not quite hitting the spot. I would prefer to come up with something a bit cooler and more innovative alright.

Dang, I have ideas for online startups all the time, but they seem to be just too similar to existing ones, or are maybe not bringing that much value.

Maybe I should just go work at a startup......

ideaburst

AltAccount wrote: »

I'd wonder:
a) what value can "Joe Public" bring to the process that an experienced web designer or usability expert couldn't deliver? What works well from a usability, branding, corporate image or web design point-of-view is pretty well documented at this stage.

It's not really about what is best practice in terms of design or usability. Sure, that's fine when a new website is being built, but this concept would focus around existing websites, which are either around a while or have just been built.

It's about the website as it is right now, and how well it is doing its job for the user. So, can you find what you are looking for, how does it rate against competitors, do you find it easy to go to purchase a product, etc.

AltAccount wrote: »

b) what value your business could bring to the process that an experienced market research company couldn't deliver? They have experience in facilitating groups of "Joe Public" as they evaluate new ideas and products. They also have existing lists of willing average punters available and able to be segmented by various demographics and interest groups.

A market research company could / would cost thousands, and I would say someone would have to have huge reservations about the site to take that step - it seems like a much bigger step to take, and much more involved than simply adding your URL and making a one-off payment to get their site reviewed.

smeharg

Something like this http://marketing.grader.com/ ?

RedRockets

ideaburst wrote: »

Hi guys,

I am toying with a couple of online business ideas at the minute (my username becomes clear, ay?)

One of these is a site that would provide you with in-depth feedback on your website. You may have seen the website review forum on Boards - this site would be a high-powered, much more structured version of this, where you get in-depth critical analysis on your website in the following terms:

-Overall website review, review of usability factors (i.e. what you may be doing wrong, what you are doing well, what you could change/tweak, what is missing, etc). The website review would not only consist of our reviews and analysis, but also those of up to 5 other different people (the general public).

-Conversion analysis - an analysis, based on your goals for the website, of how well your site is set up to convert its users. For example, if you were an e-commerce site, we would go through your Analytics (if provided), highlight drop-off points, areas for improving the conversion funnel, etc. Even without access to Analytics, we would do a full review of what needs to be changed, improved, etc.

-SEO review and competitive analysis - a high-level review of how you are doing SEO wise, and how you stack up against your competition (and what you can do to gain an edge on them).

There would be more, but that's enough for now. You can always go online and ask punters on a forum for a review of your site, or get conflicting SEO advice from a bunch of randomers, but this site would give you everything you need to know wrapped up in one package, complete with recommendations - we'd be talking about a 6-10 page report.

Is this something you as a business owner would be interested in in terms of your own site and online presence? What kind of price would you pay, approximately? (I know that's a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but humour me!).

It's pretty much website consultancy in the form of a product rather than a service. No expensive retainers or fees or wondering what you are actually going to get for the hundreds or thousands you might spend each month - just a very detailed, in-depth review of your site, carried out by those who do this for a living every day - and which you can use to start improving your results online quickly, in an easy to understand way.

Thanks

Okay here is my opinion and I am going against eveyone here judging by the responses..

I like the idea and I think if it was presented properly to an existing business it would work.

There are lots of people around the country that have been sold websites thinking it was paved with gold only to find that they are just not getting hits/ sales or whatever. There standing there doing nothing.

Sometimes internal staff are just too lazy to change something or there is nobody to take control within a company needs to do these website changes. Either way sometimes it take an external consultant to suggest the very basic changes that could make a difference between a website doing 500 a month or 50,000 a month.

I would probably leave out the 5 public reviews though. And maybe go asking existing users of the website instead what they would change/like/or whatever instead. Take this survey--win a prize/discount etc.

So in the end your kind of like a "sales trainer " but for websites ...you could be selling a "we'll get your sales increased by xxx " guarantee or your money back..instead of the usual stuff like " we'll get you to the top of google if you put us on a retainer of 500 per month ".

Best of luck.

ps. There is something here. Everybody wants more sales through that little piece of property called "the website"

Graham

It's worth remembering that when you're selling consultancy, you're essentially selling the consultant.

Credibility is really important here:

What makes you an expert in the field?
What tangible results have you achieved in the past along the same line?
SEO experience, examples?
PPC experience, examples?
.......... you get the idea.

For clarity, 'you' in this post does not necessarily refer to ideaburst.