Like it or not, all site owners who aim to market a product or service online are faced with the same challenge – designing commerce sites that instantly capture (and keep!) the increasingly short attention spans of demanding surfers. Visitors to your web site will typically be sifting through innumerable sites with a purpose similar to your own, juggling limited time with an overwhelming number of choices.

And this is where the 10 Second Test comes in. Studies have shown that the average Web surfer arriving at a new site for the first time takes 10 seconds to evaluate whether or not the site will meet their particular needs. If the site offers an immediate benefit, they stay. If no benefit is offered, they leave.

If we will visit your site what reason – what benefit – were we given to stay and explore the site further? Will help me?

Well, the first thing that caught our eye when we entered the site was the title "jewels Gift Store." That's great. The title is simple but descriptive so, assuming we're looking for jewels gifts, we know we're in the right place. As well, the title appears at the very top of the page. Another good design choice that site owners often miss, choosing to put distracting spinning gadgets or banners where a descriptive title should be.

One second down, nine to go….

The second thing that grabbed our attention was the floating stars when you move your mouse. We're sorry to tell you this because we know you're probably pretty attached to them, but this is a BIG no-no for a commerce site like yours. The stars are very distracting. Remember that you have precious few seconds to get your message across to your visitor before they click away from your web site.

You don't want visitors pausing to watch stars floating around their screen and forgetting the reason they clicked to your site in the first place – you want to be grabbing their attention with benefits that speak to their immediate needs. So with that in mind, we would highly recommend that you remove the stars.

Three seconds down, seven to go…

The third attention-grabber is your sub-heading, "jewels Gifts, jewels Shower Gifts, Birth Announcements and More!" Like the title, your subheading is also very simple, descriptive, and to the point – good for search engine optimization. However, what it needs to include is a benefit.

Your title makes it clear that you sell jewels gifts. Now your subheading needs to offer visitors a clear, obvious benefit. What sets your website apart from all of the other jewels gift sites? How are we going to benefit from purchasing our jewels gift through your site as opposed to the others?

Five seconds down, five to go…

Once we'd read your subheading, the next thing to draw our eyes was the bright colors and movement of the three banners that appear on the top right-hand side of the page. This is a problem because banners are basically an invitation to leave your web site.

We've been at your site less than 10 seconds and you're already showing us the door out? That's not very hospitable of you… (We're kidding, of course.)

Add Quality Content On Your Website

Keep your visitors to read quality information on your website. What I love is creating new ideas, new projects, putting them together. Writing a sales letter gets me up in the morning. I love to write. The internet is about writing, it's about reading so that's fun, it drives me crazy... I love it. It happens to be the key to making millions on the internet so that's exciting.

What I love most is seeing hundreds of people reading my page on my web site at the same time. They are reading what I have to say...so that is finally reaching my biggest dream and to be able to make a difference in peoples' lives is great. Each day I receive hundreds of emails- you know every other guru says that but it's true! It's not like I thought it would be, it's very exciting.

You know, the internet is kind of boring, but people are alive and people are warm- the internet is cold... people want so much. I have seen so many people that want so much success and they are willing to do everything they can so that's fun. It's fun to be able to be with people like me.

You must have a clean web site!

Navigation Menu

Stage two will involve a more extensive reworking of the navigation of your site. Add a vertical menu and seek to establish simple consistency throughout your site – make it easy to get them.

You need to add new events schedules each month for each region you cater to... Plus, you need to maintain an activities page for each separate region.

Given that you're not using this site to keep your members up-to-date on the latest events, you could easily:

Reduce the work involved in maintaining your site

Ensure that it's always up-to-date so you look professional and credible

And dramatically increase the sales you're closing

... by making a few swift alterations to your site navigation.

The site navigation changes from page to page. And this is a big no-no. A standard, unchanging navigation menu should always appear in the same place on every page of your site so that visitors can easily move from page to page without having to "search" for instructions.

As well, the layout of your pages should not change dramatically from page to page. For example, your frames should not shift location from one page to the next, nor should your navigation menu disappear entirely when visitors leave your homepage.

And most importantly, each page linked off your navigation menu should not open as a full-screen pop-up window -- this makes it impossible for visitors to use the "back" button in their browsers (the "back" arrows you've added to your pages don't work as a result of this either) and people are forced to actually close the window they're viewing to return to the previous page.

Right now, visitors who want to return to your homepage must click on your "product" logo. Unfortunately, most people will never figure this out. (We did by accident...) Your homepage should always be designated by a standard "Home" button. As for the content of your homepage, we'd recommend replacing your current salescopy with the revised salescopy we've suggested.

Not only will this simplified version of your site reduce your workload because it will be easier to maintain, the streamlined sales process will close dramatically more sales, guaranteed!