Step 1Spread news about your website by word of mouth, but prevent your front page from telling anyone what your website is about, why it might help them, or what's cool about it. If you let people find out the secrets, they might visit your website, view your ads, or spend money on your merchandise!
Maybe you have a webcomic about a group of characters. Or a website that sells awesome T-Shirts. Or a website that can save people from procrastination. But you're scared that people might find that out casually without showing the proper level of dedication,
whether or not they think the latest instalment of ongoing relationship-drama and plot-critical reveals is fascinating before they
Avoid "about" pages! Keep "help" and "cast" pages to a minimum -- if you try, it's surprisingly easy to write a cast page which is funny to people who already know the characters, but does almost nothing to help new readers understand which character is which, or what the salient facts they need to know to understand the strip are.
HANDY TIP: Did you know, the more people visit your website, the more bandwidth you may have to pay for?
( Read more... )TL;DRYour front page should link to an "about" page that explains what your website is. In text.
Webcomics: link to a strip that's a reasonable place to start reading.
Companies: explain what someone might want to buy. If you market to individuals and companies smaller than fifty people, swallow your pride and admit how much it costs (even in general terms, if I know it's £10-£1000, I can guess where I might fit, and you still have a chance to negotiate. If you don't say, I'll just pass on).
Also: I hate video! Video is hard to consume. If you don't have the time to edit your video to a form I can see, fair enough, but don't pretend you're doing me a favour. If you don't want to read your website, fine, but try to put "eff off, we hate people" on the front page, don't make me click through several links first to find out.