Should I include products on the home page?

My site is a webzine; should I sell stuff on the home page?

[erikv]

I've asked a lot of questions already, and I am very grateful for the help that is around on these forums, and for the time and effort everyone seems to put in answering these... But I'm afraid for most of you --who all seem to have a commercial "instinct"-- this question will look like a very dumb one.

Apologies in advance, but I must ask it because I really don't know: should I offer links to amazon books on my home page? My site is a background info site, resembling Salon a bit, but then focused on IT and no editors but me. I have links to amazon on book review pages and on the index pages of subdirectories, but none on the home page itself.

My current number of visitors is 8500 per month. These are human beings. I rank 6/10 on Google and for a number of keywords I have top or top ten positions. When looking at my server log analyses, I come to the conclusion that many people enter the site through the front door, hence my question.

In my (non-commercial --I've long been a Belgian lawyer and we couldn't advertise at all, and now I'm a journalist: not very commercial either) mind, pushing sales on the home page will turn people away. But is this true? I need to make an income from this wretched web site because freelance jobs have become scarce over here.

[Drastic]

That's not a dumb question at all.

Specific to Amazon books, I don't think direct links on the home page would help much, as a gut call. Your recommendations/reviews are what sells from your site, and I don't think people will be inclined to click and buy right off your home page.

However, I always recommend testing, so why not put up a top 3 or 5 best sellers (from your site) in a small box for a week or two and see if sales increase.

I took a look at your book review pages, and I do see a small problem. The links to purchase the book are not easily found. They are in on the lower right on the page - about the last place your eye looks. You want to make it painfully obvious to the user how to buy, don't make them think. I had to search for a "buy" link for a couple of seconds at 1280x1024 resolution.

I suggest putting the buy link at the bottom of the review in the center column. Your eye is trained to follow the content to the bottom, not to the side. If it were me, I would have buy links at top and bottom of the page. Your link needs to be so plainly visible it draws a click without the user even thinking. As it is now, the user has to really be motivated to purchase the book to find the link and click it.

[erikv]

Hi Drastic,

Thanks for looking at my site! I'm really trying out things in the dark. I read a buy button should be in the bottom right corner above the fold; that's why I put them there. I don't know where I got the idea from. The "Make Your Site Sell" manual from a Canadian who claims he knows everything about selling on the Web.

I'm glad that you gave this feedback; it's very valuable to me: I don't have people around who are willing (or savvy enough) to discover these things. And as I said, I'm not at all commercially intelligent.

I'll make these changes as soon as possible and I'll also go with your suggestion to try a few books on the home page!

Thanks again!