1. Not knowing, before you design your webpage, why anyone
(besides you) would feel compelled to visit it.
2. Not knowing, before you design your webpage, why anyone in
their right mind would return to your webpage on purpose.
3. Lack of focus. Not knowing the one, single thing that
visitors come to your page to have satisfied. (If you
actually have more than one way of satisfying visitors,
then, unless they are *intimately* related, put them on
separate pages. Better yet, separate sites. Think
infomercial rather than search engine. Think television show
rather than channel surfing.)
4. Not knowing --and, therefore, not taking it into account
before you design your webpage-- how people will get to your
webpage. In detail. (What did they see and how did they
happen to see it? What did they click and why did they click
it?)
5. Not understanding that trying to please everyone pleases
no one.
6. Being afraid to repel visitors. (Even though it was likely
designed by some, the U.S. Small Business Administration
website probably repels people who say "Later, Dude."
America Online is actually proud that nerds hate America
Online. XXX.com is designed to repel your grandmother.)
7. Not knowing the likes and dislikes of your page's reader.
(You don't have to conduct a survey to find out -- you will
get what you design into it.)
8. Giving your visitors too many options. (Yahoo! adds options
to *keep* their multitude of regular visitors coming back.
They did not, and could not, *get* that multitude with all
those options. Ebay.com does not offer email accounts.
Napster.com does not offer electronic greeting cards.)
9. Not knowing the age bracket of your page's reader. (You
don't have to conduct a survey to find out -- you will get
what you design into it.)
10. Not knowing whether more men read your page than women, or
vice versa. (You don't have to conduct a survey to find out
-- you will get what you design into it. If you try for
both, you will probably get neither.)
Dale Armin Miller. The author makes his living online, and is Master At Arms of the
Internet Marketing Success Arsenal![sm] "What works online ...
guaranteed." Get free, detailed, online-marketing strategies at
http://www.successarsenal.com