| February
26, 2008
What Makes A Good Website?
Interview
with Chad Barr, President of CB Software www.chadbarr.com |
Mike
Carruthers:
Just about every company and many individuals have websites on the Internet with
the goal of making money. Yet many websites don't have the necessary elements
to grab visitors and get them to buy.
Chad
Barr:
Number one in my mind: it needs to be in your face, grab
me in ten seconds or less. Web
design expert Chad Barr, President of CB Software, a software and Internet solutions
company… Too many
sites out there have what I call the "blah" factor. They are just text
and text and text forever. So I suggest that you reduce to bare minimum the amount
of text that appears on the home page. I compare a home page to a high-grade billboard;
you've got about five seconds or so to grab someone's attention. If
you're selling something on your website, make it easy to buy it. Position
your top items right on the home page, it's similar to what Amazon does - and
Amazon obviously does it extremely successfully. Show them the latest special
for the month on the home page, show them the hottest product that people are
buying. And Chad
says, you have to change your website from time-to-time just like a store changes
its displays. And
I'm not even suggesting that you change it on a daily or even monthly basis. But
there have to be some changes because if people come to your website and they
do not see any change on the home page they're out of there and most likely will
never come and visit you. So there has to be some evolution (as I call it), evolving
the content and putting exciting things on your website that are of value. That
is the key word - you have to provide good value. You
can link to Chad's website from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know. | 
