Newark, Ohio Links suffered catastrophic failure on the first round. I developed what I thought was a great idea. I found a nice way to present an enormous amount of links and allow easy editing. Everything worked and looked very nice. But then, I started to notice some probems.

The first problem was traffic. Few visited the website and when they did they left quickly. I tried every method I could think of get gain interest, but no results. This is not the first time this has happened to a website that I designed. My first time this happened, I was crushed. All of that work for nothing, and the ads said it was a sure way to riches! Then I found the problem. The website was not interesting and lacked focus. A huge link directory is bound to lack focus, so I had the same problem again. I’ll resolve this with focus.

The next problem was that the site was slow. The design I used was new and innovative, but untested. As soon as the website reached some traffic volume and contained a high volume of links it slowed down. I’ll resolve this with a well tested design.

A few lessons any website owner can learn from this are:

• Redesigns are ok. Websites are nothing more than sophisticated brochures. If you designed a brochure that had little response, a redesign would be expected. A redesign of your marketing materials should happen on a regular basis just to spark interest in your steady customers. Websites are no different. New technologies are making a redesign of many aspects of a website very affordable.
• Website start-ups are tough. Everyone gets excited about the new technology and stories of fortunes coming from a website. Many times fortunes are made! Unfortunately, the stories about great Internet success rarely include the failures that occurred along the way. Be patient. If you have a good product and/or information success will come in time.
• Content management system preference can change. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and even a few others are all great systems. Fierce debates over what is best rage in vain. The truth is they are all very good tools, but none of them do every web function well. If your website is complex, chances are that you will find flaws in whichever CMS you choose. Don’t be try different systems.

I will be covering other basic ideas as I redesign the website. My focus during my redesign will be investigating the Internet offerings and activities concerning our local area. I hope these posts help everyone discover more ways to leverage the local web scene.

Everyone Needs A Website