Let_Your_Little_Website_Shine_Part_4

Let Your Little Website Shine Part 4 Thanks for joining me again for this series. We’ve gone over a lot of the fundamentals of website. We will now get into the part you really cannot put your finger on, but these things are just as crucial to your success: 6. Is interesting: This is very similar to the discussion in Element number 5 above. The only thing to add here is that you don't want to just cut and paste from other websites for the free information I was talking about. How dull can you get! This is copyright infringement anyway. Just sit down and start writing what you know. If you can't write or spell worth a flip, find a friend who is very good at writing and pay them a small fee to research and write on the subject. You want your website to be uniquely "you" or your company. It should have your personality or your company's unique personality written all over it. Just before you go to sleep at night or while you're taking a shower, some of the best ideas to make your site more interesting will come to you. (This is when I get my best ideas...you may get yours while mowing the lawn or driving or whatever) Keep a small notebook handy near those places of inspiration. Write these ideas down and act on them. (doing this while driving is not recommended!) Chances are, they're the best ideas you'll have. They usually come from your subconscious. I am a firm believer in the subconsious mind solving my problems for me. When I was a full time computer programmer, I used to go to bed at night with a programming problem really bugging me. The next morning - the answer was there. Anyway, use your creative processes however best they work for you. A boring site will be worse than a whole site dedicated to "I love my company", as mentioned in Element number 5 above. If the subject itself is technical and a little boring, so be it. However, if your subject could be spiced up a little, try to do so. And please, don't think that putting cute little images on your site that jump up and down are going to make the subject matter more interesting. It's like reading a book that has no real depth. It won't take long for your visitors to skim through your site and leave. Surfing the web is very personal for most people, as well as interactive. They're sitting up straight, very close to the screen, and they're not sleeping, like so many of us who watch television. Take advantage of how much an Internet visitor is involved in the experience of surfing to your site. They'll tell everyone, I promise you! Haven't you ever gotten an email from someone you know that includes a link in it and says something like: "You've gotta check out this website. It's cool!" Wouldn't it be great if a bunch of people sent each other those about YOUR website? I'd have to call that the ultimate compliment of an Internet surfer. 7. Serves a great need: Just like any other marketing strategy, the most important question to ask yourself is "What human need is my website and product going to fulfill?" This is the same question you'll ask yourself about your product or service. This helps you to stay focused on the purpose of your website and keeps the content consistently targeted towards that need or group of needs. Any sale happens because the person buying felt like the product or service was going to fulfill a need they had. Get to know what kinds of needs people have. Maslow said that people have a hierarchy of needs. He saw the first needs that must be fulfilled are basic survival needs like air, water, food, and sex. After those were fulfilled, he believed that humans try to fulfill safety needs like security and stability in their lives. The most complex needs are the self-actualizing needs like love, belonging, acceptance. Try to figure out what your service or product fulfills as far as human needs you’re your website has to incite feelings in a person. Does your website allow them to dream about a better life? A new car? Capitalize on it, and direct your website to treating them as if they're your friend. Know how it feels to have this need fulfilled. This may seem a little deep to you for a sale, but the security need has been targeted over and over by insurance salesmen! Have you ever had to use the restroom so bad in a meeting that you could not concentrate on what was going on in that meeting? This is what Maslow meant by hierarchy of needs. This may take some thought, but eventually you'll figure out what it is that makes your website necessary to its visitors. Also, don't forget that people often have a need to relieve stress by having fun. Your website may fulfill this need while selling them something else. This is probably why joke and game websites do so well. This brings us to the next element of a great website. 7. Is fun: Highly technical websites cannot really be very fun in most cases, but the average website can have some fun in it. Maybe there's a contest of some kind, or a joke of the day. Whatever makes you laugh, will probably make your visitor laugh as well. Fun is essential in this stressful world. Find something that will make your website enjoyable to visit, and add it to your site today! After all, we're human and like a good laugh once in awhile. Crude jokes probably won't do too well, unless your target customer base is crude. However, fun makes your site more interesting. Next time, we'll talk about something that will make every business owner shiver, but it's necessary in the strange world of the Internet sale! I look forward to seeing you again! About the author: Lynne Schlumpf is the CEO of Route 66 Cyber Cafe, Inc., http://www.r66cci.com, a Web hosting and design company specializing in promoting websites for new owners, building affordable e-commerce sites, and providing reliable web hosting solutions as an affiliate of Virtualis Incorporated.