Rate the idea/site: GiftOrTake.com

[guest2013-1]

- The whole layout is done using <table> and <td> I haven't had a chance to change it yet, that's just what the original template was
- The main banner is badly done

Normal users don't give a **** if your site is done in <table> or aramaic or braile or even written in human excrement on a wall at your offices. As long as the browser can interpret it and show them what they want to see, you're golden.

If I were you I'd get a designer who knows how to design for SEO.

SEO isn't just a bunch of keywords you feed to the bots to keep google happy and have you rank high. It's also largely about page layout. What "call to action" you have in place to entice people to click or register. WHERE those call to action buttons are. WHAT they say, HOW they say it etc.

As an example, a company took their newly designed website and split tested it with an exact copy. Except they took the smiling lady holding the phone (it was a CRM company) on the top left out of one and kept the other one in. After split testing they found the one without the image actually converted 25% more than the one with it.

Stuff to look at is Facebook login. This encourages users to login more because they already have facebook (and even if they don't facebook allows your site to have it's own registration system kick in at anytime). People often misjudge the power of the last-minute-gift and variety (but keeping to a specific niche) is preferred. Your niche is "christmas everyday" and you probably have those related items ready to send as gifts. Great. Nothing that they couldn't get by going to Walmart's website right? So what else is your selling point? Giftees? Why? WTF is a Giftee and why the hell is it so special and why would I want one? or want to be one? Service?? What makes YOU you. Do you have great service? Do you have some kind of awesome idea? WTF IS YOUR AWESOME IDEA ??

Keeping those questions in mind you can go ahead and look to design a site who answers those questions quickly WHILE maintaining a minimalistic EASY TO UNDERSTAND captivating layout that not only pushes the idea behind your site on to the end user quite quickly but also gives them an idea of what gifts they could send (you could be seasonal on this one, 2-3 weeks before easter do easter related crap etc)

Forget about <table><tr></tr> type crap.

 

[guest2013-1]

The facebook like button is up and there are a bunch of backend improvements.

We've chatted about limiting by country and it's definitely going to happen, we just need to figure out the best way to do it.

i've done a real-world test on this and limiting by country is actually a bad idea. when I've found a lot of people don't mind shipping that much if they can get what they want at a decent price

 

[guest2013-1]

The facebook like button is up and there are a bunch of backend improvements.

We've chatted about limiting by country and it's definitely going to happen, we just need to figure out the best way to do it.

You have to be careful with the facebook like button. I had it on my site and it turned out it added 1-3 seconds of load time onto the end-user's side. So test it out.

And really look at the UI for your site. If you'd like I can put you guys in contact with a designer who i've worked with for a couple of years now and does excellent work.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Maybe I've misunderstood something, but how is fairness ensured? What's stopping me from sending people condoms and receiving PS3s in return?

 

[haiku]

And how do you know if you're on someone else's list. It'd be horrid to send out but not receive anything.

And can you request a new giftee if you've sent a message requesting a proper address, which remained unanswered? There should be a facility for that.