We find what is quietly broken on your own website, and write down exactly
what to fix.
Most of what costs you customers never announces itself.
2 of 3 affiliate links checked on a live product review — a post
the site had updated as recently as last year — sent readers to a
merchant error page instead of the product.
Neither the reader nor the owner saw an error. The clicks simply stopped
earning.
A contact form that silently fails. A phone number that is not tappable on
a phone. A link pointing at a merchant that stopped paying two years ago.
From the inside, everything looks fine, because from the inside nothing is
ever tested the way a customer meets it.
Cold Spring Works checks from the outside, the way a customer would, and
hands you a short written list of what we found and what to do about it.
Fixed price
Stated up front, on this page. No retainer and no ongoing commitment.
No access
We never ask for logins, admin accounts, or anything private.
Written, not a call
You get a document you can act on or forward. A meeting is optional.
Three teardowns
Each one is a fixed-price inspection of a different surface. Each one
says plainly what it cannot determine from the outside.
For local service businesses
Website & call handling
$99
We contact your business the way a customer with a job to book would,
and record where the path breaks.
Callback and contact forms that submit but never arrive
Phone numbers that are not tappable, or embedded in an image
Broken links, form errors, and 404 pages on the paths customers use
Voicemail that leaves a caller guessing what happens next
Mobile load speed on a cellular connection, not office wi-fi
What a customer reaches after hours
What we cannot see
Your call logs. So we will not hand you a count of missed calls or a
dollar figure for what they cost — only the specific places a
customer is dropped.
For niche publishers and affiliate sites
Affiliate link teardown
$49–$99
Affiliate links rot silently. Merchants leave networks, programs
change hands, and old links keep returning a page that earns nothing.
Every outbound affiliate link on your top-earning posts
Where each link actually lands a reader today
Links redirecting to a merchant that no longer pays you
Links orphaned when a network dropped a merchant
Which live program to re-point each broken link at
What we cannot see
Your affiliate dashboards. So we will not estimate lost commission
— only which links are broken, where they now go, and what to
replace them with.
For independent online stores
Post-purchase messaging
$99
We read your storefront as a first-time buyer, then write the messages
the buying moment is missing — ready to paste, not a strategy
deck.
What your signup box actually promises, and when it pays that off
The cart your customer left, and what reaches them afterwards
Shipping and delivery reassurance, including when something goes
wrong
When and how you ask for a review
The message that earns a second order
All five messages written out, plus the observations behind each
What we cannot see
Your email metrics. So we will not promise an open rate, a
conversion lift, or recovered revenue — only the gaps visible
on your own storefront, and the copy that closes them.
What a finding looks like
An excerpt from a recent affiliate link teardown, with the site
anonymised.
Link 1 — men’s boot, “Buy at REI”
DEAD
Redirects to the affiliate network’s error page: “we no
longer advertise for REI.com.” The page then lists ten unrelated
merchants, none selling the reviewed boot.
Link 2 — second boot, same post
DEAD
Identical failure. Two of three checked links funnel to the same
broken redirect, so this is a pattern from one merchant change, not a
one-off.
Link 3 — low-top, same post
INCONCLUSIVE
The request failed outright. Could be a removed link or an
automated-request block. Not counted as dead, and flagged for a second
check by hand.
LIMITS OF THIS SAMPLE
Three links on one post. Enough to show the pattern, not enough to
claim a site-wide rate. Both dead links trace to the same dropped
merchant, which may be one event rather than general rot.
The last block is not an afterthought. Every teardown ends with what the
sample does not prove, because a finding you cannot check is not worth
paying for.
Who you would be working with
Cold Spring Works is a one-person shop run by Chad Malmrose. Every
teardown is read and written up by hand before it reaches you, and priced
the same for everyone.
Send your business name and your website address. You will get a reply
describing what the teardown would cover for you — and what it would
not — before you decide anything.