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Sounds obvious, doesn't it? Well, you
too can make the same mistake made with many first round websites.
And yes there is an extra charge, and it can be expensive! First
and possibly the biggest mistake made when planning and developing
a website is making it satisfy the ego of the owner or official
of the company. Sound ridiculous? Ask yourself: Is the owner of
the company going to be the primary visitor to the site?
When planning your website, remember
to put yourself in the place of a typical visitor. If part of your
business is going to be generated by visitors from a search engine,
you had better have an opening site to get their attention and keep
it. If yours is a reference site, then you should, as quickly as
possible, get your visitor to the information they seek. You are
probably the worst person in the world to grade or evaluate your
own site. You may not be objective enough when it comes to designing
it either. Ask your customers what they want. Then don't ignore
them. Look at what your competition is doing. Ask others what they
do and do not like about the competition's site and your's (once
it is up). Don't ask general questions like "what do think
of my site?" Ask specific questions like: "What was the
one or two key features of my home page that made you stay and read
more? Did you use the XYZ feature? Did it do …….for you?
What would you have rather seen instead of the XYZ feature? What
are the nasty comments you mutter under your breath about the way
the site works? Make your evaluators feel comfortable telling you
your site stinks! If you do not make them feel this level of comfort
first, they will be polite and tell you it is wonderful. This is
absolutely useless and probably harmful information.
Unlike a printed ad, web pages are living
and dynamic. You should be prepared to constantly make changes and
upgrades to your site. If you budget and plan to make one big development
effort on your site, then maybe you should save your money and put
it into other marketing efforts. Once your site is up, get some
feedback. Do not be offended when visitors start telling you that
something is really bad with your site. This is free feedback from
the most important people, enjoy it and USE IT!
 If
you really want to develop a website that customers like, then try
this. Run a contest on your website. Ask visitors to name the worst
part and the best part of your website. Advertise the contest and
giveaway some decent prizes. People can't resist the chance to kick
someone in the rear. Visitors will visit your site to possibly win
for kicking some anonymous sucker. They enter the contest, give
you firsthand feedback, they also give you their e-mail and phone
number and address to enter. And if you design your site with some
thought, they see your product line and maybe some enticements to
purchase along the way to enter your contest.
© 2001 - Barry
Wroobel - Discovery Data Systems, inc.
(note: Set left and right printer margins
to 0.25" for printing)
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