Its the Magic Word
My kids will tell you that "Please" and "Thank you" are the magic words, of course they do not understand money.
For everyone else, FREE is the magic word. On your web site, giving away free things can be a good promotional exercise, but when I talk about free on the internet, I mean free information.
The primary and fundamental purpose of every web site is the exchange of information. You inherently assume that you must give
away free information.
It is an expectation that defines the internet. The question is, is that information valuable to the user? While you may be quite pleased with describing your own awards, you business and your struggles and a lot of other things about you, most users just don't care about YOU they care about THEM.
You must aswer these critical questions:
- Is the information useful to the user?
- Is the information valuable to the user?
- Is the information interesting to the user?
- Will the user come back again for more information?
- Will the user tell other people where the information came from?
Every web site must present information that they at least think passes these five tests. When users do not come or do not come back, many times it is becasue one or more of these questions were answered in the negative.
To put it in perspective, lets look at an example, a search engine. Search engines were born about the same time as my oldest son, around 1992. What are they? FREE useful and valuable information:
- Free - some databases chanrge for access, not a search engine
- Useful - people only go there becasue of the usefulness of the search feature. The attempt to create portals is an after thought. Take away the search feature and no one will go to Yahoo. (You Always Have Other Options)
- Valuable - time is money. A good search engine helps you find what youare looking for without wasting a lot of time, so it is valuable
- Information - It's the information revolution - it's all about the information
The single most obvious, but most overlooked aspect of designing a web site is that it is NOT ABOUT MAKING MONEY. It's about
providing FREE, USEFUL, VALUABLE INFORMATION.
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