I’ve been making and improving websites for people for almost five years now. And I’m always looking patterns that make webmasters successful over time. Finally, I think I’ve found one such pattern.
The Web is a Marketplace
The Web is a Market
Before we dive into the pattern that makes a website successful, let’s play a little game: Let’s think of the internet as a big marketplace. To make it more simple, let’s think of it as one of those old desert markets in Egypt or wherever. Picture all of the tents set up, the camels, gold… all of that.
So in this mental image, all of the merchants are websites. They’ve come to the market to sell their wares. Sometimes these wares are real goods (like shoes, ebooks, cd’s, or mp3s), but usually they are just selling you a free article, or maybe some information about what your friends are up to (like facebook).
‘Selling?’ you ask? ’But it’s free’ you might be saying.
Yes, but you are selling your time to read and participate. You are selling your attention. In this mental experiment, you are one of the buyers walking around the marketplace and you’ve put your attention up for sale to the highest bidder (or in this case the most interesting website). You are exchanging your attention for good content.
It’s an exchange.
The Pattern of Successful Websites
So let’s get into the pattern of successful websites that I was mentioning a moment ago. And we are going to use the idea of an exchange like we talked about above to make sense of this pattern.
In a marketplace, everyone shows up with a bunch of stuff they have, and a mental list of stuff they want. Instead of thinking about this from the viewpoint of the customer- as we did before- let’s think about this from the viewpoint of the merchant. In this case, the merchant is a metaphor for a webmaster/blogger/small business website owner.
Merchants come to the desert marketplace with their wares and hope to leave with money. Just like the customers who show up with money and want to leave with goods, the merchants bring stuff they have (their wares) and leave with stuff they want (in this case money).
In the webmaster’s world, that means you are bringing stuff you have (content) and want something in return (a lead, a click on your add, a subscriber).
When you simplify the web down to this most granular level, it is very easy to make a good website.
The Problem is Ambiguity
Walmart would never do this.
The problem with most websites is that they are ambiguous about what they offer and what they want in return. This isn’t because the webmaster meant to be ambiguous, it’s usually because the webmaster doesn’t know exactly what they have and what they want in return. So the secret is:
You have to explicitly define what you are offering (at least to yourself) and explicitly define what you want in return (at least to yourself).
Some people call an explicit explanation of what you are offering a ‘Content Plan’ or ‘Editorial Guidelines’. It’s an idea of what content you are giving your readers. Because your readers aren’t coming to your site for any other reason than to use your content. You are selling content, even if it is free. So make sure the content you are selling is something someone wants to buy (read).
Now what you want in return can be a little more difficult to decide upon. Most people are hesitant to get specific about what they want in return. But avoiding the question won’t improve your bottom line, whatever that bottom line is. So get specific and decide if you want RSS subscribers, ad clicks, insurance leads, or whatever it is you re looking for.
Using Your Haves and Your Wants to Make a Great Websites
Once you know what you have (what you are offering) it’s simple to make sure that you are creating a website that showcases that information. And it helps you to decide what to write next or create next. Because you are ‘selling’ your content, you need to make it inviting, approaching, shareable, etc. So the same thing that makes content salable makes it good for the web. Funny how that works, huh?
And now that you know what you want in return, make sure to make it easy for your user to give that to you. So if you are looking for an insurance lead, make sure to make that form really prominent. And if you are looking for an RSS reader, encourage them to sign up.
To take this idea to the most extreme: I challenge anyone to put a box at the bottom of their posts saying: “This article took a lot of effort to produce, it would be a huge benefit to me if you did (insert your Want here). Thanks!”.
Of course there are many better ways to phrase that request than what is above. But even with such an explicit request for ‘compensation’ for the content, I would bet that you would get more of what you want from the website.
The Haves and Wants in Practice:
If this is all to theoretical for you, let’s look at this in practice.
Real Estate Sites: The real estate office HAS information and Photos about properties that visitors want to see. The easier it is for users to get that data and browse around from the comfort of their home, the better. The RE site WANTS to show/sell the property. So make it easy to get the showing appointment and ASK for the appointment.
Amazon.com: Amazon HAS a ton of information and reviews about products like books and media. They WANT you to buy from them. They make it easy to get the reviews and in return they give their most valuable screen space to trying to sell you the item.
Facebook: The ultimate ‘free’ site, Facebook HAS information about your friends, and they WANT you to click on the ads. So they make it easy for you to click on relevant ads and they give valuable screen space to the ads.
How to Improve Your Site Today
Simple follow the steps below:
- Brainstorm about what your site has to offer and who is ‘buying’ it (your demographic). Try to describe in one paragraph what you offer. Now try to write a few sentences that one of your users might say to their friend about why they like your site. Now try to write a few sentences that the same user might say to their friend about why they dislike your site.
- Determine what you want in return from your visitors. Is is a comment, subscribe, purchase, lead? Make that want of yours more prominent on your site and start split testing your site to see what makes people give you what you want more often.
- Put your discoveries into action and solicit feedback from your users. Test if what I’m saying is right and find out for yourself!
Thanks, and good luck!
-Brad
(photos courtesy of Flickr and lordcolus)
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