In any complicated topic, there are always a few fundamentals that continue to ring true - and are worth looking at again and again. Read on for a quick refresher on how to "keep it real" with your web site.
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It's Still Simple After All These Years
I've been chatting this week with folks about brand new websites - their business's very first ones. It's kind of unusual for me to have this discussion, as KISS primarily focuses on what I'll call "big bore" stuff - we look for clients that provide challenging work to the team. That usually means serious entrepreneurs, folks who sometimes see sales of a million dollars plus per year. Our fees are serious but reliably end up as a small percentage of sales. KISS likes to work with new concepts, intriguing products, people who are looking to push the edge of the envelope a bit and generate incredible success. I used to summarize this concept in Chamber of Commerce meetings and the like by saying "These days all KISS builds are high performance race cars". |
So it was sort of interesting to think a bit about a basic web presence. It brought me back to all those folks with whom I started the conversation by explaining the benefits of having a website in the first place.
I sold my first commercial "website" to a client in 1992 - almost fifteen years ago. At that time Usenet groups (which became dejanews.com and then google groups) was much more important than any "pages" you had on-line. Amazon.com sold their first book in 1995. In 1997 the domain name business.com was sold for $150,000 - when it was sold again in 1999 the price was $7.5 million.
While it's fun to take a walk down memory lane, the point I am getting to is this - the basic realities of a "good" website haven't changed at all. It's still simple after all these years.
A great website keeps focused on things that often times still get overlooked today. The first three fundamental questions are still the same ones we asked in 1992.
- What is it?
- How much does it cost?
- How do I get it?
The next layer asks a few more questions, but they can be just as important
- Who are you and what do you do?
- Why would I buy from you?
- What is your name, address, and phone number?
(don't make me work to find it)
- Does you site load quickly or are you going to make me wait?
- Is it easy to read?
- Is it easy to get around from page to page?
Then you get into some marketing questions
- Is it clear what you want me to do? (old newsletter on MDR here)
- If I don't want to do it (buy), what do you want me to do? (SDR)
- Do you have anything for me? (think free content)
This was the basic list of questions in the early 90's - and it is still the same today. One of the best ways to improve any website is to take a good hard look at it with this question list in mind. Improving the basics is still the best way to make your site better.
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KISS News |
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KISS is pleased to announce a new addition. Gina Schmid has joined the KISS Team as a production assistant to work with Josiah, and we're very happy to have her with us. Our year has started off strong, and new projects continue to arrive, and we needed the extra pair of hands. It's a nice problem to have, of course, and we are confident we found the right solution. Gina is a registered nurse of a dozen years who returned to school to study computer sciences and HTML editing, and has been able to come to her KISS desk at full speed on her first day. We welcome Gina, and wish her well at KISS.
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