New Poker Site launched post-Black Friday--comments please?

[pokerplyr]

Hi Guys--New here and wanted to seek some feedback on my brand new news/info-style site: pokerplyr.com
Still sorting SEO, adding content etc. but format is a bit different. I'm also still figuring out the angle of the site post-BF but I will be trying to include globally-appealing content as I develop.

Appreciate any input. Cheers...

[Lech_Walesa]

much too much banners on right side...

[Laurence]

The color combinations are all over the place, too much banners indeed, news posts don't seem aligned correctly since some text drops under the thumbnail and using multiple fonts in the way the creator did is very bad. Many more, the css used for this site is literally all over the place.

[DealerDan]

The site is destined to fail.

New affiliates e-mail me their new websites like yours all the time - websites that try to cover way too many topics. It's not impossible to make a site like that a success - but you have to be very experienced to even try such a thing. There are just too many websites like this on the web, and they do it a hell of a lot better than you.

It's like your website has no identity - you're just putting up what other websites are, and hoping it works. Like there's no purpose to your website being on the web. It brings nothing new to the table. It's like 10,000 other generic poker affiliate websites out there. Duplicate content, pointless forum, no understanding of basic call to actions etc.

My advice? Ditch it. Start fresh on a much smaller and more focused project. From that project, make your aim to learn about internet marketing(more than aim to make money). I've written a new affiliate guide that should help you.

[pokerplyr]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I 100% agree on the design problems (too many colors, fonts, etc.) and have cleaned some of that up already since you commented actually. The frustration comes from trying to find decent templates for WP to start with and being new at WP.

As to concept, it is hard to sort that out. I've read some of your blogs dealerdan (interesting stuff) and I can see you are thinking about this as well. I probably can learn alot from you and others here which is why I joined for sure. However, I decided to launch as part of a process to see what works and what doesn't for now. I realize this strategy has some drawbacks re SEO but I think it's worth it if it helps me sort it out.

I will say that I have researched other's affil. sites, and what I myself have seen 10,000 of are sites with a bunch of site review tables and banners and not much else. I am instead trying to build some content (and keep building it every day) to make the site attractive SEO-wise and also to the visitor. In my research about modern SEO, everything points to the fact that Google and others do not respond well to linkbuilding trickery, etc. and that content is king.

I am also trying to position the site for the long term as relates to post-BF in the U.S. but I don't want to go into my thinking about that here.

Thanks again and one thing I'd add is I'd still love any further comments anyone else has and I also forgot to mention that the site is set up for mobile devices as well. I've tested on iPhone but could use feedback on others.

Thanks much...

pokerplyr.com