SiteSell Blog

The Art of Feedback

Ken's Blog

Never hesitate to ask for feedback. You only have two eyes and you live inside your own skin.  So the opinion of others is invaluable.

The art of receiving feedback is based on two principles. Well, there are many more, but two occur to me now...

1) Never be offended by tactless feedback. It sometimes contains the most useful information. I learned this when inventing my first board game.

I asked a colleague at the hospital to test it. Not a particularly likable chap, he was a "smarter than thou" who never quite figured that out. But he gave great, if nasty, feedback. He slammed it with vigor and without mercy. That feedback helped me to improve, and ultimately license, that first game of ours. And so my first non-medical career was born. Take-away lesson?...

Paper Is Dying Not Books

Ken's Blog

To continue the conversation started in my previous post, What's The Message?...

I'm not saying that books would disappear. Books are staying. Paper will disappear.

Paper is just the vehicle that delivers the ideas, the stories that are contained in "books."

Think about paper newspapers... real news that professional journalists deliver and that we need so badly, is not dead. But it's moving online, leaving paper behind. As the publisher of the New York Times said, "My job is to figure out how to bring the NYT online within 5 years." (Paraphrasing from memory)

Horses are not dead. Nor are buggies. But cars rule our roads and towns.

Music is not dead...

What's the Message?

Ken's Blog

Have you seen this YouTube video?...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weq_sHxghcg

Clever, although I've seen the technique before. But the message is facile. It goes from a young generation who is superficial-brain-dead to one who is profound-and-thinking in a blink.

The reality is that the big fat middle of the bell curve sits half-way between the two playbacks. And where the Web ends up moving them (or do they move the Web where they want to go?) could dramatically affect how smart the next generation is.

How much kids read today, though, compared to us, is very debatable. On the other hand, do they learn more by all the other ways they gather information?...

Listening vs. Obeying

Ken's Blog

Whenever you make changes to your Web site, or product, or service, or business in general, you are guaranteed to receive feedback that ranges from "I love it" to "I don't like this particular feature" (opinion) to "This feature is broken" (fact) to "This feature makes it harder to _____ (fill in the blank)" (fact).

In our case, we recently updated the SBI! Forums, my favorite meeting place. There was some great feedback about the changes, but no "I hate it" global-type comments (phew!) -- just "points" for us to consider.

The key, when listening to feedback, is to differentiate between listening and obeying...

Your Site's Voice

Ken's Blog

"Should I use "you" or "we" when I am writing?"

This question pops up in the SBI! forums every so often. For many sites, it's not an issue. For example, in a travel site, you talk about your travels (so you use largely "I" and "we"). And if applicable, draw people into dialogue on your Content 2.0 site, using "you" to invite people.

But for some sites, you need to think about the choice. As one SBIer noted, based on her interpretation of "Make Your Content PREsell!"...

"I think that which voice you choose depends on if you want to be perceived as an 'expert expert' or somebody more approachable."

The bottom line question for a site, and for your core audience (you simply must be able to visualize your typical visitor/customer), is...

1) Do you want to have the voice of an authority? This is especially strong if you are a clinical psychologist who wants to sell your services, for example. There are, I am sure, other scenarios where the "authoritative voice" that talks to ("you") works just fine. Just remember... if you establish "authority" in this area, you should be able to back it up.

2) Do you want to be one of your visitors ("we")? A closer, more intimate, and sharing voice? You are one of them, have been there, suffered that. You share solutions, etc. As you see, a totally different approach. You establish another type of "authority"... experience.

So...

The answer to the we or you question has to do with...

• who your visitors are and...
• the whole direction/VPP (Valuable PREselling Proposition) you plan for your site.

Think about both factors when you are figuring out your site's voice.

All the best,

What's a Typical Traffic Pattern?

Ken's Blog

Every now and then, we all need to "rise out and above ourselves" and see the big picture, not of where we are, but where we are headed.

We generally see three basic traffic patterns...

1) Exceptional - there is a steady increase in traffic, month after month, starting quickly (in the first weeks to couple of months) and growing steadily and well thereafter. This is usually a sign of a great niche (good demand to supply ratios for many keywords), well executed with good content, and/or someone who is working harder than average and is creating a lot of good content, building inbound links, etc.

2) Moderate -- the more typical pattern is a site that runs in the 10s to 80s (per day) for a few months, sees a jump to the 100-300 range, which seems to be the critical hump after which growth is steady. The period and exact levels vary with the niche and the time invested.

3) Dismal -- this pattern is generally due to a bad niche (too general being the most common mistake) and/or just not investing the time to build pages and links.

Overall, the conclusion is... The better the niche and the more time invested, the better you do.

And that, believe it or not, got me thinking about the stock market and site traffic. Here is the connection...