The Automatic - Info site

Hi guys,

Would appreciate some constructive comments and criticisms on my newly opened site, TheAutomatic.info.

Not really looking for design critique, but would appreciate critique on content, SEO, and coding.

www.theautomatic.info

Thanks

Very plain, header image is nice, but the rest is just too plain for my liking

Originally Posted by electrohead Not really looking for design critique, but would appreciate critique on content, SEO, and coding.

I did say that ^ but you are a designer, so i'll let you off

Thanks for the comments

to be honest I didnt read the first post, just clicked the link and commented, since this is the gallery

Fair enough

The design is great for a mini content site such as this. However, you're really not making use of the possible monetization of this site!

Money

Now first off, I've never heard of this band, but I would assume that if you can get tickets you can get merchandise. Also, they obviously have at least one CD. Where's the online store!!!??? You should at the very least be selling their one CD through some sort of affiliate program; I know there's got to be at least one on the internet.

Another thing, is that ticketmaster link an affiliate link? I've never used ticketmaster.co.uk so I wouldn't know. If it's not, then you should try to find some sort of ticket affiliate program. I use stubhub (through Commission Junction).

Now assuming you're not really interested in selling CD's, tickets, or merchandise and you just want to monetize through Adsense then that's fine (although I would suggest having an online store nonetheless). You have a single Adsense link and it's all the way at the bottom. If this were my site I'd have a big fat leaderboard across the top of every page and some adsense text links as well. No way would I rely on a single adsense block at the very bottom of my page.

Content

I also found that your content is a carbon copy of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Automatic) How do you expect to compete against Wikipedia in SEO when you're using their content word for word? And on top of that Wikipedia isn't even on the first page on Google for "the automatic." Also, I'm fairly certain that Google bitchslaps duplicate content.

That's all I got for you. To be honest I think the site looks great and I really see some potential in this. Also note that I've never written this much in the gallery section so I would really appreciate it if you'd take my suggestions to heart.

Thanks for your comments feros. I'm looking into affiliate links as we speak, and i've applied for the TicketMaster affiliate program.

I'll also look into CD sites that have affiliate programs too

You mentioned an online store. Would you care to explain exactly what I would do to set one up? I have no experience running web stores and don't really know what it would involve. (e.g. amount of effort required and what system(s) to use for it)

As for the content, which I used from wikipedia, it's only temporary while I rewrite it, and i'll be adding more information.

Very nice Mike! Good luck with it. I've spoken to Rob (singer and bassist) on MySpace a few times *claim to fame*.. They're such an awesome band/

All I use for my webstores is CJ affiliate programs. For my CD's it's usually from Buy.com but there are a number of different ones.

One of my new launches this week is my Mythbusters Store. All the DVD links on this site take you to Discovery Channel's store. I may could make more money by taking orders and shipping myself, but I feel that people would trust Discovery Channel's store more plus it's a lot less work for me.