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Trying to get my website to NOT feel like a scam - help?

Quantum Fome

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Hello world!

I posted my website in the Saturday's promotion channel a few weeks ago and was... educated in it being less than ideal. Basically it didn't look professional enough nor did it look like anything but a scam. I'm hoping to get some more feedback from you guys so that I can fix the issues and help build credibility.

I've updated the spelling and wording used in the site. I haven't had anyone fill out an their information yet and I've had about 50 people come to the site. That could just be normal.

www.highwindfinancialgroup.com

Thanks for your honesty!
 
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Quantum Fome

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Yeah, I need to get the logo redone for sure. Not sure how to fix the loading time though..

Thanks for your input!
 

RazorCut

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“Looking for funding FOR YOUR BUSINESS” is a question so should have a question mark after it. The font doesn’t look good and the text beneath needs better formatting.

I’d just pay a web designer to tidy it up for you. Shouldn’t cost much and they will do a much better job.
 
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PapaGang

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I'd say the copywriting should reflect your mission and your positioning a little more. What is your differentiator? How are you different than all of the other loan services out there? The value proposition? People buy into a story. What's yours? People might be interested in knowing how the business was formed, maybe it was formed around a mission to provide capital to visionaries who couldn't get traditionally funded, or hell maybe you just write truthfully about the real benefit they get.

- We're fast, we don't BS you, you just get good, honest American loan for a great rate. Banks suck. We don't.

I don't know, when I look at your site I'm just looking for some personality or human element to connect with. People naturally don't trust outsiders, so they often look for reasons to make sure that you check out. It's easier to do if you have a story or a human element to it.

You have probably done some competitor research, what did you find? I often find that more established and successful companies have already done the marketing legwork and the messaging, so it's beneficial to find someone who has figured it out and produce a flavor of that, with a dash of what makes you unique.
 

Erico123

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Perhaps the fact that it took like 5 seconds to load, there's just way too much input when you first load in. Simply put, rearrange the header by making it more uncomplicated and straightforward. Those 5 <h> next to the "consultion contact box" elements just look awful and give the impression of some malicious site that's secretly trying to download some generic backdoor. Other than that, the rest of the site looks okay. It's just the header that needs a redesign.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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It's dull - washed out - no hook to draw me in - no testimonials - very basic amateur design.

Add - color - animation - authority - testimonials. Align and balance spacing and layout. Burn the logo NOW.

Bonus - add a parallax effect to get attention. Stand out!
 

Mark Trade

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Where does one start. There is so much clutter and non-sensible info going on. I would suggest just taking a screenshot and framing it, then hang it in the outhouse. Give someone a giggle, while their taking a ****.

I added two screen shots, that outline just "a couple" of errors. The first is the header, with your private email in the tab. Not professional. The second is your web is hosted with mysite. How do I know, all I had to do was hover my mouse over the email at the bottom of the page and the "suss" info pops up. Confusing and making people go "whoa" hang on a bit.

Alarm bells would ring "Scam Alert 101"

My best advice, would be visit some finance or mortgage websites, look at their layout, see what works for them. Have a look at Intracorp.
 

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Entre Eyes

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It really is not so much all the errors on the site.

It is the fact you are flaunting such huge numbers and did not spend a dime to get someone to tell you these things upfront or really get someone that never would have displayed all these errors in the first place before spreading it around my friend.

ACCREDITE
D
BUSINESS



It screams fairy tales.
 
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wade1mil

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The reason it feels like a scam isn't because of your logo or the font. It's because 100% of junk mail and junk direct mail says the same stuff as your website.

Financial group, get a free quote, free consultation, looking for funding, quick funding, business lending experts, get an offer in 24 hours, bad credit ok all screams SCAM!

You're setting up your viewers by trying to get a string of yeses - classic sleaze ball sales pitch. My guard is up immediately!

You're either selling my info, offering payday financing with 2800% interest, or slinging someone else's garbage loan consolidation offer. By the way, if it's any of these, maybe you are a scam.

I don't know what you need to do, but a well thought out and hard 180 is probably necessary.
 

MitchM

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I just read the book “Building a Story Brand” yesterday and it really helped me clarify some things within my own business.

I think if you gave the book a read it would really help you out.

It’s all about removing noise and speaking to your customer’s story. Where are they and where are you going to take them?
 

biophase

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I don’t know if the rest of you read the FAQ. But he’s not doing actual loans. The whole site is scammy.

It’s impossible to get an SBA loan in 48 hours. That is a huge red flag and screams scam.

He put the definition of SBA loan on his site to make it look like he can help with SBA loans. He also did the same thing with a Short Term and Long Term.

He’s basically keyword stuffing to get SEO and to make the business look more legitimate than it is.

EDIT: I'm not saying it's not a legitimate business, but a bunch of stuff on the webpage have nothing to do with what he's offering, which makes it untrustworthy.
 
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Roli

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I've updated the spelling and wording used in the site.
It still doesn't read well, you need a pro copywriter.

Not sure how to fix the loading time though..

Picture optimisation is one way. Hire a developer to sort it out.

I’d just pay a web designer to tidy it up for you.

Yup, the site is one giant hot mess. Do what I did, and google "business loans" then look at the sites that pop up. They all have a certain feel to them, and they all ask specific questions. Your site misses on both of those, when comparing yours to theirs, there is no contest.

For instance, nobody has two big ugly Linkedin and Facebook share buttons above their own (tiny) logo. It looks terrible and I personally wouldn't do business with a site that looked like that.

I'd say the copywriting should reflect your mission and your positioning a little more.
Yup, he's right. Again check out the other sites and read what they've written.

I don’t know if the rest of you read the FAQ. But he’s not doing actual loans.

Oh. Well, we could have your answer right here. Are you just collating information for people? That in itself is not a bad thing, just be upfront about it.
 

Madame Peccato

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You should also fix your {"siteDisplayName"} tag in your code, as of now the title of the tab is a (fake) gmail address.
 

oa92

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Make use of white space.

Small amounts of good information in large blank areas can have a big impact.

Look up the Volkswagen Advertisement (Think Small) to see an example of this.
 

biophase

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Oh. Well, we could have your answer right here. Are you just collating information for people? That in itself is not a bad thing, just be upfront about it.

He's not brokering the loans, he's paying for your future sales. It's a merchant cash advance, which is fine. But what I don't like is that the website says loan everywhere and lists all types of loans which have no relationship to the product being offered and never a mention or explanation of the MCA.

From the FAQ


Q: Are you providing me with a loan?
Technically, this is not a loan. We buy a percentage of your future sales, and advance you that money upfront. In exchange, you agree to pay us back out of those future sales.


Some more info about MCAs.
 

PapaGang

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He's not brokering the loans, he's paying for your future sales. It's a merchant cash advance, which is fine. But what I don't like is that the website says loan everywhere and lists all types of loans which have no relationship to the product being offered and never a mention or explanation of the MCA.

From the FAQ


Q: Are you providing me with a loan?
Technically, this is not a loan. We buy a percentage of your future sales, and advance you that money upfront. In exchange, you agree to pay us back out of those future sales.


Some more info about MCAs.
Great catch.
 
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JAJT

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Q: Are you providing me with a loan?
Technically, this is not a loan. We buy a percentage of your future sales, and advance you that money upfront. In exchange, you agree to pay us back out of those future sales.

You know, before even entering the thread I thought to myself "If someone thinks their site is too scammy, it's probably because they are offering a scam and just don't want it to SEEM that way".

And that kind of sounds like exactly what is going on.
 

DoTheWork

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minivanman

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I'm not big on the ing ing thing. I see it all the time and it just can't be correct. Looking for funding.... maybe Need funding....? Maybe it's just me.....
 
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Bourbons

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The formatting is messy on chrome android. Also the "relax we got this" isn't capatilised when the start of the sentence is, and it should say "we've got this"

Just a quick glance, hope that's helpful
 

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wade1mil

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People giving advice on grammar, formatting, fonts and load speed are missing the point. The whole thing needs to be torn apart. Grammar, formatting, fonts and load speeds are not the reason the website seems scammy. It seems scammy because it is. Rethink your entire purpose.

It's like saying an ugly new car that's not selling needs chrome valve stems to sell. Who cares about valve stems when the entire piece of metal looks like crap. Rethink the entire car, don't worry about valve stems.
 
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Bourbons

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People giving advice on grammar, formatting, fonts and load speed are missing the point. The whole thing needs to be torn apart. Grammar, formatting, fonts and load speeds are not the reason the website seems scammy. It seems scammy because it is. Rethink your entire purpose.

It's like saying an ugly new that's car not selling needs chrome valve stems to sell. Who cares about valve stems when the entire piece of metal looks like crap. Rethink the entire car, don't worry about valve stems.
So, you're saying the content is bad? I wouldn't get that far if it loads awfully, baby steps.. Maybe that's just me
 
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minivanman

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Personally, I didn't miss the point at all. I understood 100%. See, I look at things with a bigger picture. You focused on 1 thing (scammy site), I was pointing out that if he/she chooses to do the site different, take this in to consideration for later.

Sometimes the difference between a sale and a tire kicker can be those chrome valve stems. A good designer (website or car or anything) thinks of things such as the chrome valve stems. I never thought of it but maybe that's why I sell so much stuff so easy, I always give them free chrome valve stems. By the way, nowadays they are plastic on regular cars from the dealer. :)
 

wade1mil

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You focused on 1 thing (scammy site)
The most important thing. The thing that needs to get fixed before he even thinks about anything else.

Sometimes the difference between a sale and a tire kicker can be those chrome valve stems. A good designer (website or car or anything) thinks of things such as the chrome valve stems.
You're right, it absolutely can. That's the reason you split test. Incredibly minor adjustments like this are huge deals for Apple and Tesla and McDonalds and Amazon. These companies will sell regardless of font, but you split test fonts because it means potentially millions in additional revenue. I'm confident each of these companies have launched a product or marketing campaign which failed miserably. And you know what they didn't do? Change the font. They scrapped the campaign and started from scratch, or at the very least, changed direction in a monumental fashion.

If a new sports car gets 3 mpg and it doesn't sell, you don't upgrade the valve stems. You first fix the fuel consumption issue. Then once you have a car people buy, you mess around with stuff like valve stems to inch your way up.

If I'm selling cookies made with cat food and chocolate chip, I don't start by adding more chocolate chips. I start by scrapping the recipe and starting over. Then once I have a palatable cookie, I test adding more chocolate chips.

I was pointing out that if he/she chooses to do the site different, take this in to consideration for later.
And honestly, the only reason I even said anything in the first place is because I envisioned this person making all these tiny changes because they're easy and he feels like he's accomplishing something, but the site remains scammy because he didn't tackle the most important one.
 
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Dereklacrone

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Often times businesses or people who are giving "advice" on websites are just going off of looks. There are some great methodologies to driving action. having the CTAs in the right place, the God Spot being purposeful, a funnel / landing page setup that gives and in return receives. If you'd like to chat more, send me a message and we can connect. It looks good. But effectiveness is much different :)
 
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Bekit

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I'm not big on the ing ing thing. I see it all the time and it just can't be correct. Looking for funding.... maybe Need funding....? Maybe it's just me.....
You are absolutely correct. It's a weaker grammatical construction to use words that end in -ing. I see it all the time, too.
 

francevalue

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Hello world!

I posted my website in the Saturday's promotion channel a few weeks ago and was... educated in it being less than ideal. Basically it didn't look professional enough nor did it look like anything but a scam. I'm hoping to get some more feedback from you guys so that I can fix the issues and help build credibility.

I've updated the spelling and wording used in the site. I haven't had anyone fill out an their information yet and I've had about 50 people come to the site. That could just be normal.

www.highwindfinancialgroup.com

Thanks for your honesty!
There is a bit of trouble with the mobile site but overall it's great
 

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