Hi AndrewD
I like the idea, so good on you for that.
It's always tough putting a first site design together, though - and I agree you should keep it simple, easy to navigate, and forget over-flashy presentation.
You have a great product idea - but your potential purchasers need to get some idea of quality - beyond your say so...
I have bought/ended up with numerous plr ebooks that are (as you imply) frankly rubbish - and I think potential buyers need to see examples of work, say a series of pages that might show, say a random 2 pages out of ebooks you have already written. This would preserve your product as noone is likely to 'steal' two random pages - but will also give an decent amount by which to judge your work. PLUS this will enable you to expand the number of content pages on the site so necessary for SE visibility.
On one or two other issues - I think its a mistake to use a crowded mish-mash of diffreing fonts and colors on the front page - and as is often the case 'centralised' content seems to 'clash' with lefthand justified content when you see it together. The whole needs molre 'room to breathe' - I would say 'use more white space' (except your bacjkground is 'black' - and I think you might reconsider this - black is a hard color to carry off to be honest, without looking a bit tacky).
You are right that if you want to make an impact on the market place you need the site to look professional. Maybe - and just as you suggest in your own 'sales pitch' (that is that for other business folk 'writing ebooks' themselves is too time consuming for them) - perhaps the same argument goes for site building AND trying to write ebooks it too much to try and crack at one go for wewriteebooks?
Perhaps you could do a trade with a more seasoned web site designer who might like to swap some design work for an ebook.
Take a look at some 'broadly' competitive sites and see how they deal with their own 'look and feel'. Whilst I think it is good to steer away from 'obvious' templates (or at least do some 'customizing' if you use one) -- at the other end of the scale it is hard to garner a professional image without a crisper, more professional 'look and feel' to the site (probably involving some more graphic input).
A final comment - don't be too focussed on selling yourself cheap. I realize you want to get the business - BUT if you are selling something for a quarter of what others are - and THEY are rubbish...then you are underselling yourself.
By all means advertise 'deep discounts' during your launch phase - and by all means offer repeat buyers cotinued savings on future additional purchases - but I learnt the hard way - IF you sell yourself cheap people think you ARE cheap! It was, and is, never a successful business ploy to sell high quality for bargain basement prices.
If, say, your basic offer made it clear that your ebook's cost US$499.00 but during launch any orders received will be at 75% discount it gives you a stronger point to come from when you want to put your price up - it is already clear what the price really is!! You can always offer your list of clients incentives to 'buy again' at the price they first bought at.
On a small point - you don't show your currency on the main products/pricing page. I think you should make it clear that its US$ - so potential UK buyers can see what adeal they are getting whilst £1=$2
OH YES...I nearly forgot - I would advise - NEVER put your email address, even a disposable one, on your web pages - UNLESS you want a boatload of spam! You'll be wading through rubbish trying to pick out serious punters...and MIGHT miss one
You need to get an onsite form that folks can use to contact you!
Just some disparate thoughts I hope may be helpful - good luck
websage
