On The Cutting Edge
| Category: Website Design and Development | Date: 2003-10-23 |
Your site is up and running and its amazing. Right on the cutting edge, with all the latest bells and whistles, its a marvel of Internet technology. A wonder to behold and a pride to own but...are you making any sales?
Youre doing everything right. You rate good on the engines. Your other promotions are all pulling well and people are arriving in droves. So why is nobody buying?
If you were to check your site stats, you would probably find out it is because nobody is staying.
Does your page take too long to load? Unless the reason they came to it in the first place is VERY compelling, you have about 30 seconds (a minute, max) to load up and get their attention before they leave.
Do they have to download and install special plugins and viewers or the latest browsers to see your page? The majority wont you know, they will just leave.
Does your page flash and sparkle with enough graphics and pop-ups to dazzle the eye and confuse the brain? You may have just confused them right off your site.
Technology is great, and a successful site needs it, but not the cutting edge type. Leave that to the trail breakers. The big money sites. The ones that are so popular that people will do whatever they need to get into them.
If you want to become known as an technological wonder, or superb entertainment, then go ahead and lay in the latest and greatest that technology has to offer
If on the other hand, your goal is to sell your product and make money, then take an example from the Internet greats and stay back on the beaten path because thats where every one else is, and thats where you will find your customers.
Look at Corey Rudl for instance. He is undeniably one of the greatest Internet marketers of his time. When you visit his websites though, you enter a low keyed, quiet, unassuming place.
Using only words, (usually black text on a white background) he leads his visitors quietly into the inescapable conclusion that they need to buy whatever product he is offering. His pages load fast and you wont find any popups, rollovers, plug in downloads or requests that you use the latest browsers. In fact, most times you will be hard pressed to even find a small graphic.
Dont misunderstand, the technologies are there, his websites are fully automated and his visitor stats, ordering procedures, and affiliate programs etc. are second to none. Its all behind the scenes though, where it should be in the majority of websites.
So to sum up, if your website is intended to be used to sell your product, make it competent and efficient, but leave the flash and sparkle alone. Instead, learn the art of gentle persuasion and aggressive promotions, and you will be much further ahead than a lot of your competition.
About the Author
James Thomas owns three Internet business Web sites and is the publisher of Succeeding 101 - lessons from Cyberspace.
Sample copy at secondfloor.hypermart.net/ or subscribe by sending a blank E-mail to
succeeding101-subscribe@listbot.com
http://secondfloor.hypermart.net
Youre doing everything right. You rate good on the engines. Your other promotions are all pulling well and people are arriving in droves. So why is nobody buying?
If you were to check your site stats, you would probably find out it is because nobody is staying.
Does your page take too long to load? Unless the reason they came to it in the first place is VERY compelling, you have about 30 seconds (a minute, max) to load up and get their attention before they leave.
Do they have to download and install special plugins and viewers or the latest browsers to see your page? The majority wont you know, they will just leave.
Does your page flash and sparkle with enough graphics and pop-ups to dazzle the eye and confuse the brain? You may have just confused them right off your site.
Technology is great, and a successful site needs it, but not the cutting edge type. Leave that to the trail breakers. The big money sites. The ones that are so popular that people will do whatever they need to get into them.
If you want to become known as an technological wonder, or superb entertainment, then go ahead and lay in the latest and greatest that technology has to offer
If on the other hand, your goal is to sell your product and make money, then take an example from the Internet greats and stay back on the beaten path because thats where every one else is, and thats where you will find your customers.
Look at Corey Rudl for instance. He is undeniably one of the greatest Internet marketers of his time. When you visit his websites though, you enter a low keyed, quiet, unassuming place.
Using only words, (usually black text on a white background) he leads his visitors quietly into the inescapable conclusion that they need to buy whatever product he is offering. His pages load fast and you wont find any popups, rollovers, plug in downloads or requests that you use the latest browsers. In fact, most times you will be hard pressed to even find a small graphic.
Dont misunderstand, the technologies are there, his websites are fully automated and his visitor stats, ordering procedures, and affiliate programs etc. are second to none. Its all behind the scenes though, where it should be in the majority of websites.
So to sum up, if your website is intended to be used to sell your product, make it competent and efficient, but leave the flash and sparkle alone. Instead, learn the art of gentle persuasion and aggressive promotions, and you will be much further ahead than a lot of your competition.
About the Author
James Thomas owns three Internet business Web sites and is the publisher of Succeeding 101 - lessons from Cyberspace.
Sample copy at secondfloor.hypermart.net/ or subscribe by sending a blank E-mail to
succeeding101-subscribe@listbot.com
http://secondfloor.hypermart.net
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