Thoughts on Banner advertising page

[nealrm]

I'm trying to sell some banner advertising to business. The ads will appear on the front page and the interior search results page. I have an page for requesting information about banner, I would like some feedback. You can access the page at this link: http://www.houseviewonline.com/AdvertiseOnHouseView.php

D (http://www.houseviewonline.com/AdvertiseOnHouseView.php)oes the animation distract from the form?
Would you request follow through and request information?
Is the information requested clear?
Is it easy to fill out the form?

Thanks,

[Wozcreative]

When at first seeing the link, I wasn't sure what was happening.. the text was just too animated. When it finally stopped I was able to closely read it and gather thoughts about the offer your advertising.

Some things I noticed:
• The shadow on the text is distracting and out of date
• Your second bullet mentions "thousands of times each day". I'd like to be linked to statistics to know how true that is. You can't make a claim without some real numbers.
• Be consistent with your grammar
• The logo is—sorry to say—awful.
• Consider hiring a designer to actually design this page for you. There is no sense of margins, nothing lines up, you are using 3 different fonts, and the form on there doesn't need to be there... consider a Modal UI popup for it as forms are usually not pretty anyway.


I'm also going to answer directly to the questions you've asked:


Does the animation distract from the form?
Yes (See above reasons why)

Would you request follow through and request information?
There is no where on this page to ask about information, where is the privacy policy page, how do I know how you'll use my info. No sense of pricing or quoting offers are given in the ad either. I fear that if I give you my contact, I will be given calls by pesky sales people. I usually want more info up front to guage if this is for me or within my budget.

Is the information requested clear?
A lot is missing. You mention "your ad is seen more often.".... more often than.. what?

Is it easy to fill out the form?
It's easy, but the text "All fields but comments required" reads really weird to me. Why not use a * (people are used to this by now).
The comments box could also be bigger as the user may have a lot of questions.

[Pack-Secure]

I like the animation.

I think the shadowing on the lettering is too much.

As for your form I would put *'s and push the form to make it mandatory, by coding it that way.

Your page states: Reach those browsing for decorating ideas. Reach those browsing for home improvement ideas. I did not see anything like that on your main site. Is your main site still a work in progress?

I would give some examples of your current banner ads and also some target pricing. You should include samples of the size banner ads that you accept. It says reach hundreds of potential customers, honestly it would have to reach thousands before I would consider banner advertising on a website, but if the price was right (exceptionally cheap) I would perhaps consider it. You should let the potential advertisers know what the cost will be and how many rotations they will receive or if it is a fixed banner ad.

Where is your phone number? If I am going to pay to advertise on your site I would expect to be able to reach you by phone.

You should also consider a newsletter or blog for your website and include your paid banner advertisers on that as a bonus feature to them.

You need to make your logo larger or perhaps take out the metallicized lettering.

Keep up the good work, it is a good start.


 

Just some thoughts, keep up the good work, you are on your way.

[KristineS]

Yes, the animation distracts. It's also pretty old school. I look on websites for advertising information all the time, since we mostly advertise online these days, and I want to know the following things:

1. How big is the audience - not an estimate, I want to know how many unique visitors per day - also demographics are helpful
2. What is the length of time available? A month, a week, or a year?
3. Where do ads appear? Is this a front page banner, or does the banner rotate through the site pages?
4. If it rotates, how often will it be shown per day? How many other advertisers will it be competing with?
5. What forms of payment are accepted?
6. How can I contact you?

Also, I have to ask about people looking for decorating and home improvement ideas. I don't get how that connects with your site. People might be looking for a house and want to purchase decorating services or home improvement services for their new place, so it is feasible that your site might be a good place for contractors or decorators to advertise, but it needs to be phrased that way, and the ads need to be tailored for that market. Anyone who's browsing strictly for home decorating ideas would probably bounce right off your site.

[nealrm]

Everyone, Thanks for the comments.
I have incorporated many of them into the page. I toned down the animation, and added information.

let me know what you think, now.

The logo is well know in the area, so changing it is not an option.

Neal

[Harold Mansfield]

To me the styling of the page is still a little weak. And this immediately stood out to me

"Contact us to found out about advertising on HouseView!" :(

Also, most sites that handle thier own advertising have some kind of PDF that you can download that has a few months of traffic and demographics information. You won't be able to sell to brokers who handle ad spots for large companies without this information readily available.

[libra]

My first impression of it is favourable. Animations are minimal and not distracting or irritating at all,
unlike some of those overdone flash animations/movies we see so much of in recent times past. (If
people want to see movies, they will visit any of the abundant movie sites). Thank goodness it's all over.

Just my tuppence worth. :)

[vangogh]

I think the animation is distracting. Obviously reading through the comments some people don't. I'd like to rephrase the question though and ask what do they add? What purpose are they serving. If you can't offer a valid reason for what the contribute to getting someone to contact you then you should remove them.

Just so you know I tried reading the text 3 times, but have yet to make it through. When one line loads and I start to read it, I can't because the second one begins coming in, which takes my attention away from the line I'm trying to read. That's what movement, in this case animation, does. It attracts our eye away from what we're looking and and toward the movement. It's an instinctual survival mechanism. Ultimately all the animation here does is makes people wait longer for the information to load and the longer you make people wait the less likely they'll make it to the end.

As far as the form itself is concerned it seems easy enough to complete, though I would ask if you absolutely need someone's phone number on the form. If you have an email you can contact them and if needed you can get the number later. Since you're providing your phone number, my guess is anyone who prefers phone over email is going to call you instead of filling out the form. A general rule with forms is every additional field you ask someone to fill out is that many less people who'll fill it out.

I agree with others who've pointed out you should add things like traffic numbers and location on the page. Those are things people absolutely need to know before advertising on your site. It's information you need to provide. I also agree with Harold that the look of the page could be improved.

[nealrm]

Thank for the comments everyone. I took them into account.

I have been looking for a test for Google Analytic Experiments, and this seems to fit the bill. I created 3 versions of this page. One with animation, one without, and one with animation and with stats. I will let you know the results.

[vangogh]

Definitely share what you find. It'll be interesting to see the results.

[Pack-Secure]

Looking much better. One thing I noticed, not to be nit picky, but this sentence seems clunky.

"Checks accepted, Credit and debit cards accepted via paypal." Perhaps word it as two sentences. Also, if you are going to capitalize Check and Credit, you should be consistent and capitalized Debit Cards or not capitalize any.

Keep it up, Looking much nicer.