“People visit your blog for the content not the layout, please stop obsessing over the appearance and get back to writing.” – She’s right.
Practice what you preach
Over the past year I’ve been honored by the many people seeking me out for advice about their existing blog or about starting one. I listen patiently to the enthusiasm and the great ideas. I’m constantly amazed by all the blogging niches that have yet to be served.
At some point the excited individual pauses to breathe and I always ask the same question. How many posts do you have written? Pretty much the answer is always a blank stare and that’s OK. I’m certainly not trying to rain on anyone’s parade. My wife was kind enough to gently remind me that what really matters about any blog is the content.
A blog needs content to provide the context just as a restaurant needs a menu and a few reviews before you know what the place is about. So, I took my wife’s advice and stopped all the painting and rearranging of furniture that was going on here at Jim’s Cafe. I went back in the kitchen and got to work on the new menu.
Counter-point: All the design details do matter, or do they?
There’s a couple points to consider here. The hard fact is that half (or more) of your readers will eventually consume your content almost exclusively via RSS feed or some other form of content aggregation. That’s your core audience and you’ve already sold them on you. They are the ones who will share your content with others via many platforms. The newbies (*waves* Hi, thanks for stopping by!) will visit your blog once and hopefully also sign up to receive your content via some form of aggregation (keep reading, I’ve made that easy down below).
First impressions. So, the details of your site design matter to some extent. First impressions still matter. That’s why I walk into corporate business meetings with a fresh haircut, shined shoes and freshly pressed clothing. You only get one shot at first impressions with those you have never met. It’s the same way on your blog. It helps to have a pleasing layout and an easy way for new visitors to sign-up for some form of content aggregation.
Back to content. So, where’s the right place to put the messages you want all your readers to see? Yes, buried smack dab in the middle of your posts. Cool updates hidden away in plain view, on the sidebar of your blog… will be seen by less than half of your audience. If you need to ask your audience to do something, like sign up to receive your posts via email each day, do it right in the post.
See how smart spouses can be when we slow down long enough to listen to what they are saying and then take the time to think about it?
Your wife is awesome Jim. Spot on. It’s nice to update websites, try out new technology / apps and monkey around but in the end it doesn’t make you money. It’s a hobbyist activity for the most part. Unless it’s adding a large section that drives business your way (like a speaking section, etc).
The only time a design really affects your brand is when it’s really good or really bad. If it’s good or average people don’t even notice it. And they focus on the content. I dread looking at my website. It’s broken, unfinished and a small percentage of what I have to offer. But I cannot, for the life of me, find the time to finish the new version and launch it completely.
Priorities suck. We just want to take a break and have fun sometimes. And monkeying with the design of our websites / blogs is a good way to do that. Launching a new website or redesigning an existing site is a different story. But tweaking is just good old fun.
Yes, yes she is even when I have to admit she’s right 😉
I agree really good (as JohnNolan points out) or really bad design impacts the, well impact of your site. Otherwise, it’s content baby.
Yes, priorities suck until we get them in such order that we have achieved a station in life where we are really setting them. That point where (as Joe Sorge – channeling Chris Brogan – says) we are seeking the work/customers we want not the ones we need.
Great comments as always my friend.
In principle what you’re saying is good, however I think you’re generalising a little too much here. Imagine what would have happened to this ecommerce store if the company had said “Screw it! People are coming to this site for the products, not the layout!”:
http://www.uie.com/articles/three_hund_million_button/
All things in moderation – food for thought.
Sir, we actually agree 100% While my button change
https://jimraffel.com/2010/09/08/subtle-use-of-color/
did not result in quite so dramatic a swing as the one you referenced we reached the same conclusion. No registration is the preferred option of most on-line shoppers (in our space). Making the checkout process “green” and removing registration increases sales by “a lot”
Great comments and great link – please visit again 🙂
Big fan of Johnny O’s. Glad he found your site. If you aren’t familiar with him, check out his work. Part of the WordPress UI team, did an amazing WordPress site for Virgin Travel – http://blog.vtravelled.com/ (it’s insanely sexy).
Now that your CM redesign has been live for awhile, how have the stats changed? Do you see more people landing on the store page? Clicking that green button? Curious 🙂
Surprisingly, a red button has been proven to garner more clicks. But it stood out so much it drove me nuts. So I choose green. We could do a fancy A/B test. Google has a great tool for running those tests on your site. Food for thought!
I think we’ll need to reconfigure Google Analytics to really know. Set-up a goal perhaps. Just one of those things that slips through the cracks. I will tell you that I’ve gotten dozens of comments that the site looks better. Most from within my industry which is what I care most about. Our online image has been enhanced. We also got kudos from the developer of the Thesis Theme used to build the site and that traffic was off the charts for a few days.
Excellent advice, the over 200 blogs I read every day are in google reader, folks just get lost (been guilty too) in making it pretty but no content – not so good.
Yes, I sometimes forget the real art I’m creating is the words. The words will remain in the archives of this site forever. The site design will come and go. This current look is probably the 4th or 5th in the five year life of this blog.