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Heres A Dumb Website Question Are You Content With Your Content
By: Bob Granstrom
Websites are authored by a Webmaster, or a publisher, or, more often than not, by a plain ?Joe? or ?Jane? who want to share something, or say something, or make money. All splendid motives.
I scrutinize Websites like a nosey voyeur, surfing the 'Net with no rationale or plan, stopping here or there for something that catches my eye. Sometimes I pause to admire a color combination, or a clever layout. Other times I am intrigued with a photograph or a drawn image. I may spend several minutes rummaging though the site even if I?m not interested in the theme. But, if you catch me up in the content of your project, I may stay for an hour or more. And, I might even buy something!
When I was a kid, I often hunted for Indian arrowheads. When I found one, I?d admire my find and wonder about the person who meticulously chipped it out. Who was he? What was he like? When did he do it? Well, it?s the same for me with Websites.
If you have a Website - one with great content - I may not have seen it yet, but if I do run into it, you?ll hold my attention for a long time and I?ll be curious about your site and you. Am I the norm? I doubt that. I?d like to think there?s a lot of us out here like that.
Gimmicks may catch our eye on that landing page, but substance will get us to hang around. Pretty pictures may stop us in our surfing tracks, but plenty of compelling information will hold our interest for some time. A flashy presentation may get us to take a second look, but valuable, well-written content will get us to camp out on your Website. That?s right. You?ll win us over with lots of priceless content.
In the early days of the Internet, I was bothered by misspelled words, lousy sentence structure and the redundancy of the same word being used over and over again. Those things shouldn?t happen with the tools we now have at our fingertips, but they do. They may be a turnoff for some people, but I?ve grown accustomed to those kinds of errors. Now, I?m put off more by content ?without teeth?. Nothing turns me off like meaningless, rambling, or excessive text, and there?s oodles of it out there.
Do you have one or more Websites? Is the content rich in information? Is it compelling? Is it valuable to the reader? Will it make the visitor stay on your site for a while? If not, get busy with repairs.
Take your time. This is not a race. It?s a challenge to produce accurate, concise, gripping data that your visitors can find worthy and valuable. Get content with your content.
The author tells how he is a successful Website publisher in his Ecommerce For Families site. For more information, see www.ecommerce4families.com/websitepublisher.html |
