Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

1. hire the cheapest Designers
2. hire uncle Bill to design their website
3. reinvent the wheel on the navigation of the site
4. website has an identity crisis
5. website has no call to action
6. think it will be easy, fast, and cheap to rank #1 in Google all over the world for the term “personal injury"
7. copy content from other websites in the same niche
8. websites are not search engine friendly and some are down right search engine anti-social
9. turn their website into the Times Square of the internet with excessive advertising
10. link out to anybody and everybody
11. make poor domain name choices
12. (BONUS) Their site looks and sounds like a video game promo

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

You may, but you may not.

I was speaking with a former colleague last night who has landed with a new company.  He said they paid 60,000 (no typo) for their corporate business site and it was horrible.  (One of these Flash-driven sites that probably fits your #12.) They paid another 5,000 for someone to "fix" it and now it`s even worse.

I was floored. 




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Tammi L. Coles
Archer Targeted Communication
ArcherTC.com
Follow me on Twitter @archertc

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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

No worries, as I understood your "may" just fine. ;-)

No surprise, the 60k sites are the realm of the corporate world rather than the startups.  When you`re spending someone else`s money (e.g. decided by some CEO who is making money that he or she will have to apologize for after a bailout), it may be easier to authorize.







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Tammi L. Coles
Archer Targeted Communication
ArcherTC.com
Follow me on Twitter @archertc

I would change #8 from "anti-social" to "hostile" which is the correct opposite of "friendly".


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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

You should elaborate on the Times Square rule. Website owners should not intergrate in-text, interstitial or popup(under) advertising methods. They are a nuisance.

These are indeed good tips...

The only problem I see is that so many small business owners don`t even recognize when their sites are doing these things.

For example, a site I am working on right now (a redesign) looks "slick" to the average business owner, but really offers no benefit to the owner of the site at all. A black background with recycling symbols for a site focusing on organic fertilizer (not recyclable), for example.

Yet, some people actually look at it and say, "I like the way it looks," without realizing that it does not give them the right feelings.

*smiles*

That list is pretty funny. I`m sure it`s not funny to someone in the thick of a problem, but from the outsider ... pretty funny. Although, I think you can not do 1 or 2, and still end up with some designer giving you all the rest.