This concludes a three part arc covering my response to an IMedia reader who wrote I have subscribed to the a few of Imedia's Newsletters for quite a few months now. I've just been reading your articles about web design, specifically the 6 colors and the one about whitespace, simplicity and 3D. I have a website which I've been working on more then a year now, [the reader included a link. The site provides a place for visitors to post personal creative content]. I've done every bit of work on the site myself. I imagine you have no desire to see yet another amateur and his garish website. However, I honestly believe that I have managed to put together a fairly agreeable site even with all the ads.
My question to you is; do you think I need to pay a web designer to fix things up or despite my complete lack of artistic talent, is my site, at the very least not garish?
I eagerly await your judgment.
Wishing you a most pleasant day,
I wrote in Responses to IMediaConnection Reader Comments, Part 1 firstly my thanks for reading my work, then that I'm not qualified to judge, then started writing about creating material that suits your audience. I followed that in Responses to IMediaConnection Reader Comments, Part 2 with something that most clients find a challenge; their creative might be more harmful than beneficial due to non-conscious messaging. We pick up that thread here.
These non-conscious messages are important because they pass our intellectual barriers and go straight to the deep brain where our emotions and childhood superstitions lie. Here are some examples from pages of different companies and organizations that NextStage has helped over the years:- An Energy Trading Company (no, not Enron): "Pay no attention to what you're telling yourself about us" and "We exist everywhere"
- An Undergraduate and Graduate College: "Being here will not change you" and "How will your decision affect the lives of those close to you?"
- A Marketing and Consulting Firm: "I don't have time for you" and "There is nothing I can do to help you change"
- A Web Design Firm: "We're no different than anybody else"
- A Business Development Agency: "You're stuck where you are and can't get out. Nothing's going to work for you"
- An online Insurance Agency: "Go away. We're not ready."
The long and the short of it is, though, that whatever's happening on your site is something you intended. Like it or not, there it is (and yes, NextStage is guilty of this ourselves).
So, is this reader's site garish? Doesn't matter. All that matters is whether or not this reader is getting the traffic they want to get. Answering that requires a lot more work though, and our rates are at the bottom of NextStage's homepage.
In a nutshell, though, I would offer that if a site is drawing the desired response nothing else matters. Are visitors coming to the site? Are they returning? Is site revenue satisfactory? These are the real questions, not if the site is "amateurish" or "garish".
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- NextStage Case Study: Site-Penetration Up 225%, Time-On-Site Up 300%, Conversions Up 20% in Four Months
- NextStage Trainings:
- Responses to IMediaConnection Reader Comments, Part 1
- Responses to IMediaConnection Reader Comments, Part 2
- Shared Traits of Great Web Design
- Usability Studies 101: Follow the Eye
- IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
Comment Preview