Shortly afterwards, Gmail came out and if you got an invitation, it was free and awesome. Hotmail and others that wanted to charge for storage had to drop that business model or lose out to Gmail. In the end, it didn’t really matter, as Gmail quickly became the most popular webmail (tho a good amount of people do still have AOL(remember them?), Yahoo!, and Hotmail accounts), and we all became accustomed to free webmail service.

We’ve also grew to expect free everywhere in our lives. The ‘Fremium’ business model can be found in almost every facet of life for us nowadays. Free samples, free downloads, free webinars, free service, etc. For people a bit older than me (28) upwards to the baby boomers still working, this is most likely something that is nice and new, but definitely not how business generally runs. However, for my generation and younger, we (sort of) expect that a business will have a fremium model of sorts.

How has this affected our perceptions of business?

Say for example, you enter the design world, you are somewhat expected to offer free comps before moving forward with a project. I say this because without some work to show, you will struggle to get a job. And without doing some things for free, you cannot get experience to show for a job, it’s quite a vicious circle. As someone who is constantly trying to build my portfolio and skills, I have embraced this (for now at least, if all I did was freelancing, I might have a different opinion though). Whenever I meet with a potential client, I am aware that I’m going to have to do something (usually a mock-up) for free to get the business. Until I have a more robust portfolio that speaks for itself (or until the economy really turns around and people don’t expect the world for $100), I don’t believe I can charge for initial comps, unless of course the client offers this.

In addition to how I sell myself, I use a bunch of online apps to help me with things I cannot, or do not have the time to do myself. I use mint for budgeting, dropbox for online storage, feedly for my daily newspaper, skype to stay in contact with family around the world, WordPress for my CMS, toggl for time tracking, last.fm*–all of which have (or only offer) fremium models that are quite sufficient for my needs. I can’t imagine paying for any of these, although if they required this, I’m sure I’d decide to keep a few. My parents often refer to talking to their accountant or their whomever, something that I’ve never decided to do. Older generations grew up knowing to get something good, you would have to pay for it. The younger generations have been used to getting something good for free, or at least getting the tools to do it ourselves for free.

Does this mean to charge for something, we have to deliver something exceptional?

I don’t mean to suggest that creating a product that is just good enough is how the world used to run, but it seems more and more evident each day that this was more pervasive than not. My Dad used to tell me it wasn’t how great the product you sold was, but rather how well you could sell it; the auto industry is a great example of this. Before the internet gave every Tom, Dick and Harry a voice, no one could really hear all the little guys complaining about poor products.

I feel the fremium model make us (or a business) HAVE to deliver a great product. Without it, you are going to have a hard time selling the fremium model, and an almost impossible time trying to sell the paid model. So although I think it’s spoiled us a bit in terms of what we expect, it has also pushed up to make a much better product because the magnifying glass we are under now is much larger and more intense.

Also, the fremium model has given way to the open source model which A) makes things available without charge, and B) promotes sharing ideas, challenging ideas, and pushing the limits of what is possible.

* We’ve also become the On-Demand generation. I love my DVR and last.fm–no commercials to annoy me. I honestly can’t remember what it was like to watch a 30 minute show, with 21 minutes of programming and 9 minutes of commercials. The Super Bowl seems to be the only time I watch commercials. Although Gen Xers did live thru the print ad / tivo-less era, it’s less likely that Gen Yers have known anything but On-Demand living. Although this has been written, the coming of the iPad (and other tablets) might change this up a bit, but it seems unlikely for our generations as we probably won’t view / read the old media (that died in print) on the iPad.

This was because I received my first email from ThinkVitamin after joining their mailing list earlier this month. ThinkVitamin is the blog of the extremely talented webbers from Carsonified. Their site and blog is extremely well designed and built, so I figured their email template would follow suit.

However, I was extremely disappointed when I opened their email only to find what I would describe as a cookie-cutter template that was being used. I found this ironic and slightly funny after reading an article on their blog about cookie-cutter websites nowadays. Besides the same colors (sort-of) used in the email and on their website, I felt nothing in the email continued the brand they had obviously worked hard to establish.

Here’s an image of their current template (click to view the full version):

Like I said, this template works fine if that is all you care about. However, if you are a brand-lover like I am, I’d really love to see this template evolve to reflect their web brand.

Here are a few things I would change:

• I would set this up to 550px width to help more of it be seen in narrower inboxes
• I would move the social icons as well as Unsubscribe and Forward at the very top (like copy on the current site). As most of their readers (I assume) are very web smart, there’s no need to say ‘E-mail not displaying correctly? View it in your browser,’ just a simple ‘View in Web’ should do the trick
• I would pull the logo from their website exactly as it is. Although in email you don’t want to add more height than is necessary, as this is an double opt-in email list (that I would imagine the list is well engaged), this should not be as much of an issue
• I would add a table of contents (with links) showing what is included in the body of the email (for those with a smaller preview pane)
• I would style the sections of the content more like their blog posts online
• I would change the typeface style to match those of online –> sans serif for headlines, and serif for body copy
• I would add the computer image as a background –> this will not display in all email programs, but it’s a nice touch and a sort of email graceful degradation
• I would add the social links at the bottom for repetition
• I would add the dotted content to the footer also like online

Here’s an image of how I would set up their template (click to view the full version):

Again, this is just how I think they COULD update their template. And more importantly, maybe they have a reason for doing their template the way they have it. I do feel they are missing a huge step in their branding process with their template being the way it is now, however.

What say you? Am I being too anal, and should I just mind my own business?

Like the old lollypop saying ‘How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsiepop,’ you need to be very conscious of this idea when creating your web architecture. It’s amazing how many sites have great information that is buried under layers of beauty pages. Not only is this a bad idea in terms of SEO (more on this later), but it’s very, very frustrating for users.

More clicks required = less clicks, less users, less business

I can think of many times when I’ve visited a site and been promised an article or PDF I was interested in only to give up after going three or more steps (crazy!!) to get to it. Often, this process requires a registration form of some kind (another topic for another time), and then a few pages after this, and even (the Pièce de résistance), an email with a link to ANOTHER page.

** Note: I do think if the content is highly valuable, to both the creators and the user, then a SIMPLE (i.e. nothing more required than what is truly needed) registration form is okay, but immediatly afterwards get the user to the content. I understand businesses wanting to qualify leads before giving their content away, but as I’ve often said, a “qualified lead” that never converts, or even acts again, is a wasted lead, or better yet, not a lead.

I’ve also encountered sites that, on the SERPs, show content that I am interested in reading. However, when I click through, I’m taken to a generic page, and if try to find the content, it takes me upwards of two to three more clicks to get to the desired content. And that’s if I ever find it.

I think I’m rather generous in the time and patience I usually have for websites, but I feel this is because I’m in the business, and thus understand the issues many websites face. Unfortunately, 99% of the world probably doesn’t feel the same, and if they don’t get the content, they’ll go elsewhere to find it. And they’ll do it quickly.

Besides the human element as to why this is a bad idea (which is a big part no doubt), adding extra steps into the content process is bad for a websites SEO as well. The farther the bots have to crawl, the more likely they are to get lost, and the less likely they are to get to your content. I’m not saying this will negatively affect your SEO, but it will not do you any favors. Laying out your content structure in as simple a way you can will greatly help the bots and your SEO. More importantly, it will help the users get to the content they want to, which will help your business overall.

Easy does it, right?

The secret to a great web experience is not really a secret anymore. It’s as simple as combining great content laid out in an easily understandable way, and shown to the user in a pretty but well thought out manner. Granted, that sounds like a lot (and it is, that’s why us designers and developers are so valuable), but it’s something that needs to be thought out as a whole from the beginning.

Lastly, as a good rule of thumb, it should never take more than two clicks to get to the content in question.

Let’s say our lovely dachshund decides it’s too cold out, and the carpet will do just fine for her (jk Bean, I know you would never…). Obviously, I’d be in need of a local Arlington carpet cleaner, and sooner rather than later.

So I open up Firefox and in the Google search bar type in ’Arlington Va carpet cleaner,‘ then hit enter, and await the results. After a brief second or two, I get the following results:

Not too bad—they look good enough for me.

Now let’s try KBG. I fire up my handy iPhone, create a new SMS to ’542-542“, enter the same query in, and hit send. After sending, I receive an immediate response (although this is because I haven’t used this service before). The result come back about a minute later. And, voila—it’s the same first result as showed in Google.

So far, I’d take the Google results over KGB–no charges plus more options if the first is A, closed or B, not what I’m looking for.

However, the first real difference for me is in WHEN I’m searching:

1. If I’m at home, or anywhere on wifi, then I’d always go with Google–especially with no charges.
2. If I’m out running errands, and I can get on 3G, then I’d still go with Google.
3. If I’m out running errands and low on battery, or 3G is not available, I’d KGB it.
4. If I did not own a smart phone, then KGB would definitely make more sense.

And, the second main difference, and more important, is in WHAT I’m searching for.

I think the real area where KGB would, and is meant to, have more value over Google is when you are asking a very specific question, rather than just a search query. They employ real people, ‘agents’, to do the searching for the asker. This is why I would think that a specific questions KGB answer would be much more targeted than what Google might come back with.

What about you, do you prefer one over the other? Do you find one gives you vastly better answers than the other?

I think this idea is not only important in fine arts, but I also see a huge amount of benefit in my web design. During a normal day I spend upwards of 10 to 11 hours in front of a computer working on some sort of design or social media funzie. To some people, I’m sure this sounds ridiculous and a waste of time, but I love it, and it does pay the bills.

I’m able to engross myself into all sorts of web-goodness during this time, and most of the other time during a day, I’m usually thinking of how I could be doing something on the web better, or at least differently. However, with this sort of schedule it’s very easy of me to get web-tunnel vision. Even though it may sound cool (sarcasm), this can be quite a creative / project de-railer.

Give your eyes a break

This is perhaps the most important part of stepping back from a project. After a while of looking at the same thing over and over, it’s easy for me to begin to write run-on sentences, use poor grammar, and make silly spelling mistakes. Even if this is your own project, things tend to blend together, and I find it begins to get tough to make critical, usable design decisions if I’ve been working on the same project non-stop.

Give your brain a break, as well

Not only can your eyes play tricks on you, so can your mind. Without taking an adequate break from time to time, I might easily misread a project brief and go off in a tangent that’s quite the opposite that the client might want. Or, if I’m working in code, after a while I notice that I have trouble keeping track of where I am in the code–this is a tell-tale sign to me that it’s time to break.

Step away, refresh, and reload

Besides the benefits noted above, stepping back gives me a chance to rethink my creative approach to the project. Something that I might have thought was awesome at first may not seem so awesome upon a second glance. If it makes it through this secondary review, then I usually know this is something good enough to stick around longer. But, I also find many things that are not so great, and with my new fresh approach, it’s easy to spot these and redo or remove them. When I take a break, I also get my mind into something other than what I’m working on. This helps to maybe give me direction, or new inspiration to incorporate into my work. Or, thankfully not often, it gives me time to realize that what I’d been working on is not working, and it’s time to cut my losses.

And if I can’t step away for a while?

We’ve all had projects that kept us glued to our computers and up late at night. In these situations, we can’t afford to come back in the morning, or in a day or two. Even still, stepping away for only a few minutes, and distracting myself with something non-computer related can help make my project much less error prone. Plus, by not focusing on that project 110% for a bit, my brain gets to relax, and thus I find, usually thinks about the project in a different, and often better way.

It’s not always apparent that I need to back away, but it’s something I’ve ingrained into my design / development process. After a while, forcing myself to stay focused just doesn’t bring anything good to the table.

How often do you step away from your work? And, does it benefit you the way it benefits me?

Post this goodness to twitter.

This was never a hugely time-consuming step, but it was a whee bit annoying. For the record, I’m not sure if other people have done this before, I’m sure someone has, but after a quick search on google, I didn’t see anything.

I created some dummy content and explained what I was doing and then pulled a dummy pic from a previous (also FPO) project. I marked it up without any major CSS, just normal body stylings. Here’s the HTML:

<div id="demoWrap">
	<div class="fpo">
		<img src="images/holderOne.jpg" height="164" width="249" alt="" />
		<abbr>FPO</abbr>
	</div>
	<h1>This is cool stuff.</h1>
	<p>This way, you don’t need to create a PSD file with FPO and then
	remove it later.</p>
</div>

Here’s the before look:

Then I added a bit of CSS:

#demoWrap .fpo { float:right; margin:10px 0 -50px; }
#demoWrap .fpo image { display:block; position:relative; z-index:1; }
#demoWrap .fpo abbr { display:block; font-size:300%; font-family:Helvetica,
Arial, sans serif; font-weight:bold; position:relative; z-index:100; top:-115px;
left:75px; color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8); text-shadow:#101010 0 1px 2px; }

And voila, I got just what I was looking for:

Like in the image, in modern browsers, this adds a nice flavor that we used to get only in Photoshop. Older browsers will ignore them and this effect will still be effective, just not as glamorous.

Post this goodness to twitter.

I’m not sure I’m actively seeking these ideals, I think it naturally just happens. Perhaps when I got deeply interested in the marketing and business aspects of web design and development I really took note of this. Some of my favorite follows on twitter happen to be plain ol’ businesses. Before twitter, and social media itself took hold of us (and changed us), the thought of caring what a business had to say was laughable. Unless I was really a sucker for being told what I needed to buy and why, I can’t imagine even taking much note of any.

Great content makes a site worth visiting

Before this shift, a website content (for the most part) was all about the business itself. Whether it was about a product they were trying to sell, or a service that we were told we needed, it was sell copy. And with SEO coming of age in the late 90’s, it was uber-keyword rich and super-corporate speak filled. Basically, it meant nothing to the consumer except the fact that we couldn’t, or shouldn’t, live without product A or service B. If I land on a new site and find that the content is not user-centric, meaning it’s mememe, then 99% of the time I’ll bounce out of there. I get enough of traditional marketing offline, I don’t need it online. I feel that if you either have an awesome product, or do an awesome job, it will show in your work, your tone, and the content you provide on your site. Talk to me about your business, but don’t talk at me about why I need to do business with you.

Transparency, it’s not just for the President

The Obama 2008 Presidential campaign made ‘transparency’ into the latest buzzword. However, this is a very important concept in business these days. I used to often visit sites and they might have a section for ‘Our Staff.’ This section might have a picture of some people (usually only ‘important’ people with manager or more in their title) and a snippet of their bios. This was decent enough, but as I know from personal experience, it doesn’t tell me sh*t about what they do at the company and how involved they are. Lots of companies today (typically those actively involved in social media) have most, if not all, of their staff actively involved in at least their blogging. I find this highly beneficial as it shows me that the company A) cares what their employees have to say and contribute to the business, and B), they believe they have great people representing their brand.

Another important aspect of transparency besides with their employees, these businesses nowadays are very keen on sharing their projects, and often while they are working on them. I can’t imagine this sort of thing happening even a few years ago. In fact I know plenty of businesses that wouldn’t think of doing this today. What this shows me is that the business is so confident in their ability, but also that they are open to failure. No business can produce 100% effective campaigns every time. Especially not when a lot of these campaigns are in the ever changing web landscape. But, they are not afraid of criticism and failure, as this very often makes them a better, more effective business.

People are talking, so listen (and learn)

Consumer input used to be just getting a focus group, taking what you’d learn there, updating your product, and then advertising the crud out of it. And for a while this worked just fine. Well, to a business it worked just fine, because we as consumers had no real way of telling them that their product needed a change. However, with the social web, this is not the case. If I buy your product and then find it out it’s not everything I thought it should be–I’m going to let the world know (or at least those listening). And, you as the product seller should A) care about this negative feedback, and B) want to do something about it. If you’re not open to consumer reviews, then you’re not into sustaining business.

If you sell anything–a product or a service–your website should let me, or at least show me, review / rate my experiences with this. If I see this on a site of a company I am already much more willing to do business with them. I hear that CEOs are afraid of giving consumers too much of a voice, but it’s way too late for this. All you can hope to do is to listen, engage, learn and [hopefully] put out a better product.

Focus on the consumer–well duh, right?

This one’s seemingly a no brainer. And it’s a combination of all three. This is a major fail for a lot of companies I know, and have had dealings with. Sure, on the outside this is the corporate mission statement. But when you get right down to it, the consumer is the last person on the totem pole when it comes to critical business decisions. I find that if none of the above are being done, or done well, then it’s the consumer who ends up suffering. Without a focus on great content comes a lack of caring for the consumer. With a focus on transparency comes an attitude that we know best and that whatever we do is good enough. Without a focus on listening to your consumer comes a lackluster product. Too often a decision is made because it has great ROI, or because it will save the company money, but rarely is a decision made because the consumer will greatly benefit from this.

****

I am not a business man (yet), and I realize these are generalizations, but this is just my feeling about how some (a good amount happen to be web focused) businesses have shifted. I feel that this is going to be the way more and more businesses need to shift in the future to sustain viability and respectability, both of their peers and of their consumers.

Am I completely off-base on these assumptions? Would you add others to the mix? Have at it and let me know.

Post this goodness to twitter.

I am one of those designers who as soon I get the okay on the go-ahead, I am into it full speed ahead. I even declined a New Years party as I was too engrossed in a current project, and also I just didn’t feel like boozing. I’ve found I’ve always been like this, sometimes to a fault. With the decent amount of work I’ve had over the last year or so, I’ve learned a lot about just jumping in head first without knowing which way was up really. But I’ve never been one to be short on new, exciting ideas I can bring to any project. Ultimately most of these ideas never make it anywhere outside my head, but they’re at least there competing for a spot outside.

And while at first I’m 110% into the project (even though 100% is the most amount physically possible, thanks to The Simpsons I know this) and I can’t wait to keep it rolling along, eventually something slows it down. Whether it the creative not being exactly as desired (and the ensuing back and forth), or other priorities from the client, something eventually comes up.

But how do we as designers keep our initial excitement and our brains fresh on the project? I have a few ways that I always follow to keep myself as fresh as I can for any and all kinds of work, so check ‘em out.

Work on personal web projects

This is one of my favorite things to do, and as I noted in my first #p52 post, something that I often don’t see through to the end (d’oh, maybe in ‘10 though). I have as many as 10 personal projects that I’m working on at any given time. I may not be actively working on them, but I’m always thinking about them, and taking in what I see and then how this can be applied to them. Ideally, I’ll get around to finishing them (as there are some good ideas), but more importantly it helps to keep me creatively inspired. It also gives me a lab for testing new technologies, strategies, layouts and more–something I wouldn’t normally want to do much of for clients without having tried them before.

Work on print projects

My wife is a marketer and a print designer, so I get to see often what she’s working on (and sometimes I give some unwanted feedback as well). I also try to incorporate print design into as many freelance jobs as I can. I started out in print, but have come fully to the dark side. Or the light side, depending on your stance. Either way, I like getting into a print project because it’s different from a web project in so many different way, plus it helps me to re-evaluate my creative process as a whole. And, it’s very cool to have a final piece that you can hold in your hands–this adds the human element back into design for me.

Find inspiration everywhere

I also like to view and [try to] absorb as much inspiration as I can from everywhere. Not just in blogs and resource round-ups (though they do have merit), but from newspaper ads, billboards, and other printed pieces. I also happen to find inspiration just from the environment I happen to be in. This may sound cliche, but as a designer, as best I can, I try to be always on. From this inspiration, it is important for me to not just regurgitate things I find, but use them in my designs to push myself to where I never would have gone before.

Listen to my favorite tunes

This is probably the most important thing for me to keep focused and creative. Perhaps I’ve become a creature of habit, but when I have music playing, I find that my mind is freed up and the creative juices really start to flow. This is not to say that without music, I cannot be creative, but it just helps me keep going and stay focused.

Want to be better

If I don’t want to be better, then the work I produce won’t ever get any better. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t ever want to reach a point where I feel like I’m good enough at anything. I’m always reading as much about web design, SEO, and social media as I can without my head implode. This helps me to become more comfortable discussing new topics, it also helps to give me a different perspective on these topics, and I often come across new inspiration in this process. I’ve also noted that I try to write cleaner code on every project, and thus not re-make any of my past mistakes.

Literature

This is one’s simple–read a book. There are infinite ways in which this can help stimulate my creativity–from the vivid descriptions authors use to imagining yourself in a different situation in life or even in a different world (nerd alert!).

While I often hope that a project goes smoothly and without many pauses, these are inevitable. So how we deal with these breaks to keep the project at the highest level is almost as important as all the steps outside these pauses.

How do you deal with keeping your projects fresh?

Post this goodness to twitter.

I found this resolution / challenge the other day while perusing twitter, and saw someone retweet something about it. So I checked out the website. It seemed like an easy enough thing to do: post a new article every week for 52 weeks. I don’t often go for resolutions, as I’ve failed enough and am drowned by advertising reminding me to not do so. But this seemed like something that is really going to benefit me, and hopefully benefit others by reading about either my experience, or someone else taking the challenge.

As stated on the website, it’s time to get people writing again. I also hope that this goes viral, and it’s not just taken on by bloggers and freelancers. I’d really love for companies and their employees as a whole to answer this challenge.

Get me writing

I do enjoy writing, but I don’t commit enough time to doing so. I struggle with a few ideas; which to pursue and which to let die in my head. My feeling is with this challenge, I’ll make a post out of most of these ideas. Whether this will lead to good, interesting content is yet to be known. However, I have a feeling once I begin to start planning more like a blogger / writer, I’ll begin to formulate better original ideas. Or, I may write some crap articles.

Not all writing is good writing

We all remember having a 8 page, single-spaced essay due on ‘The Fundamentals of [Noun] in high-school. Now, if I were to go back and rewrite that same essay, I’m sure there’d be a lot of grammatical errors that I would make. However, what I realize now, is that no one really wants to read an essay. (*Note: obviously certain professions call for essays, fortunately just not mine.) People want personality and something that they can relate to. But, they also want to be able to read the article, not one, long, un-ending run-on super-sentence that never ends. So, my thought was that besides the normal business emails and the 100s of txt msgs (LOL, OMG, etc.) I may send in a given day, this would be a good outlet for helping me re-learn a decent amount of the English language.

What I hope to learn

Aside from [hopefully] learning how to be semi-decent writer, I’m hopefully also going to learn a lot about more blogging. For those who’ve been doing it for years, then I’m sure you know, much better than I, how to drop SEO-rich content into certain places well and not have it seem forced. One of my good friends quit his day job in favor of full-time blogging last year. I was very impressed for two reasons–that he could be dedicated enough to do this and that he could support himself financially doing so.

I’ve only recently started blogging, and have published only 5 posts. Fortunately, I have a nice day job that supports me, so I am not forced to do so. I have really gained a lot of respect for bloggers who do this for a living, like my friend. We’d talk every now and then about it, and I’d always ask him how he kept it going. Wisely he picked an arena he was deeply passionate about, so most of the time it was not a chore to him. But at other times, even daily, he really needed to have the will to make it happen. I’m hoping this is something I also learn.

I’ve read here and there that 2010 is going to be the year of doing, not just the year of the idea. I definitely hope so, as I’ve always got a bunch of great ideas floating around, I just need to get down to doing a few of them, and I feel this challenge will help me get there.

Lastly, I hope to gain a little bit of perceived expertise in the web / emarketing world. Like I’ve noted before, I hate the term ‘expert,’ but the point is, I feel I have a lot to offer, but I have to start getting my ideas out there for others to mull over and comment on.

So, let’s get a’writing.

Post this goodness to twitter.

1. Those that decorate ornately for every holiday most likely have children in the home, and just love the idea of the seasons. They want all to know they’re holly and jolly, and wouldn’t mind if you felt the same.
2. Those that decorate a moderate amount, a few lights outside and a few inside. Along with a tree, they don’t go overboard, but just enough to give the holiday feel. This is where my wife and I fit in. These people most likely do enjoy the seasons, but don’t feel it necessary to light the holiday sky.
3. And there are those that just don’t decorate. These may be people of other faiths, college kids who just don’t care (I was once like this). Or maybe they just did not get around to it this time.

The point is, I’m probably wrong about all these generalizations I made. From the outside, we never really know what those inside are thinking and why they do or don’t do something. The same can be said for a website. In this day and age, this is often your first salesman a prospect meets. Is yours sending the right message that you want it to?

I can’t count how many times I’ve found a page that (/via SERP, twitter, or email) looks perfect. It’s got the right terms and it seems credible, so I click into it. When I get there, I find the info (or at least some of it) that I was originally interested in. Usually, if it’s well written and easy to read, I’ll [try to] poke around the site, you never know what you might find this way.

More often than not though, the poking around can lead to frustration and a quick bounce from the site, thus lost prospects. But why is this so prevalent with websites today? Most likely because those who have the budget don’t think anything needs to change, not because they aren’t a credible business.

So how do I find it?

The most important aspect I find lacking is a quality search box. When I find good content on a site, I want to see if there is other good content here as well. But if I can’t find the search then I’m most likely not going to find the content. Another way to increase bounce rates is to get cutesy with the search box. Don’t fall for it–just use the word ‘Search’ for your button. It’s been proven as to what people look for time and time again, so just go with it.

And just what are you?

If I happen to hang around and find the other juicy content, the next thing I look for is what does this company do. If I’m searching for tips on email marketing, and I find your site, and you are an email provider, your website needs to make it clear (on every page) this is what you do. A simple tagline without any corporate buzzwords or jargon is the best way to do this. It’s amazing how many sites don’t have a tagline anywhere, just their logo on each page. This is all good and well for large companies, but for the little guys it can be a killer.

Hmm, you want me to what?

So I happen to like your content, and I see what you do is actually what I am looking for, then what? All websites want a visitor to do something. So, make it easy and simple for each visitor to know what to do. Have a clear, standout Call-to-Action on every page. The web is a wide, vast world, you never know how someone might reach a page, so help make their time on your site as easy and enjoyable as possible.

Gonna party like it’s 1999…

Lastly, but certainly not least, am I going to visually enjoy and understand my visit to your site? Chances are I’ll stay for the original content I came for, but if your site looks like it was built before Y2K, then I won’t stick around to find your other great content. Content and usability are very, very important in the modern web, but a website has to feel the part as well. If I am going to consider doing business with you, then I better at least feel semi-comfortable with you at first glance. If I met with a salesperson and they wore the same outfit I did in 1999, then I’d think twice about the company as a whole.

As I’ve tried to stress to clients, though you may have trouble quantifying lost ROI from a poor website, I can guarantee there is a sizable chunk of new business you will miss out on. New Years Resolution: why not make 2010 the year you bring your site into the new millennium?

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