Fallond Stock Picking Service
Ordered recently was a ReviewMe of the Fallond Stock Blog from fallondpicks.com, which is run by Declan Fallon (vice the Fallon name). The blog is based around his stock service, where you can subscribe and gain personalized access to Fallond picks and trades. The blog offers a lot of technical analysis and stock charts, and has a very strong focus on the technical side of the market, which is where Declan gets his picks from.
Blog Layout Overview
The first thing you see right when you head over to the Fallon blog is his logo, which to be quite honest with you is pretty sweet. The detail and professionalism is something you don’t see too often from individual blogs, and this immediately shines (logo picture is further down in the review). Below this you can see that his blog was mentioned in Forbes, and is also a Instant Bull best of breed 2006 which is good for first impressions. He also has listed up a chart which depicts his returns over the last six months. Personally I am a visual person, and it is pretty easy to see his picks are turning out well overall. What I didn’t see though on the header was a menu bar with links, but I will go into that more later.
The blog is a single sidebar setup which is on the right, and there is A LOT of information going on here! From support Kiva.org to Trader Jobs to trade-ideas RSS Subscription buttons, followed by an extensive blogroll and later disclaimer.
(Fallond’s Logo – Minus the baby eyes, does it get much cooler?
What Fallond Brings to the Table
Technical analysis, technical analysis, and yes, more technical analysis! Out of the ten posts displayed on the first page, five of them were Trade Idea posts which display eight different stock charts (you can see examples here, here, here, here, and here). Now, I used to be pretty obsessed with technical analysis, and it is obvious Declan knows his stuff.
Check out this post for example which is a review of what seems to be stockcharts.com commentators and their picks. If you aren’t familiar with stochastics, MACD, support and resistance lines, waves, etc. than this isn’t going to be your cup of tea, but for those who love stock charts and analyzing them, you will find yourself right at home. He goes through and highlights these commentators picks, depicting what he likes and doesn’t like about them.
Selling a Service
From looking over the blog and the rest of his site, it seems to me that what Declan is selling here is his stock picking service, which runs for $19.95 a month. The problem is though, I couldn’t find anywhere to sign up or read up on it more.
Declan has a menu bar on the main site, and I think this is a must for the blog. Even having a simple one with four or five links would be huge, because then I can 1. Find out about Declan, who is he? What is his trading background? What is his trading philosophy? 2. What exactly does the service include? What do I get for $19.95 a month? 3. How can I go about contacting Declan? There is a link on the main site to his email, but not on the blog. Lastly, a link to the blog homepage! The logo simply takes me back to the site home, not the blog home, which is definitely a bad beat.
All of this information can help me greatly because I can get an idea of what he is all about and what his philosophy is on the stock market. If you look at his site homepage he does a pretty good job of this, and even has subscription buttons for his service, but none can be found on his blog.
Other Thoughts
I am a HUGE believer and supporter of keeping things simple, and there is so much potential for this blog if Declan can focus his information. I would go through the sidebar and get rid of anything and everything that either A. doesn’t pertain directly to the blog, B. doesn’t pertain to his service, and C. Isn’t really relevant for readers. The top of the sidebar is the most valuable space, so having job postings towards the top may not be as effective as putting a few RSS buttons up there. Narrowing down the blogroll could help the length, and a very easy fix is the disclaimer, put it on its own page! Simply copy all of the disclaimer, put it on its own page, then put a tiny link in the footer that links to that page, and you then have a protected site with conserved space.
If Declan can get rid of the clutter and focus more on what he does best, there is a lot of potential to sell more of his service. He already has credentials to back his work, but for the average joe making that information as EASY to find as possible is huge.
[Looks like my original comment didn't post - but if this is duplicated it can be deleted].
Dear Blain,
Thanks for the site review. I have taken your comments on board and made a few changes
[1] There is a now a links bar at the top of the page
[2] The bulk of the non-essential info has been cut or reduced
[3] The image link goes back to the blog, not the parent site
[4] I have included a profile piece which details my services
[5] The Blogroll has been cut
[6] Disclaimer has been shifted to its own page
I appreciate the feedback and wish you well.
Declan
nice review! maybe ill order one when my revenue starts coming in
You best be doing that man!