Simplicity Rules

Adam DuVander on keeping it simple

An easy peek into your visitors’ heads

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Boiling user behavior in any situation down to a simple list of rules is tough. And often, incomplete. That said, The Page Paradigm misses very little in its two step process:

    For every Web page, visitors will either

  1. Click something that gets them closer to their goal.
  2. Click the back button (or otherwise leave)

This is a pretty powerful–and easy–question to ask about each of your pages. Answering the question might be tough. If it is, chances are you have more to discover about your site and your visitors.

My friend Mike Duffy, who turned me on to this concept, has incorporated it into what he calls visitor effectiveness. He focuses on winery websites, but your site likely has audience segments you need to consider separately.

Nobody knows “it”

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Seth Godin debunks the idea that “I’ll know it when I see it”

“You didn’t know it when you saw the first iPod or the first iteration of Google. You didn’t know it when first exposed to email or JetBlue or the Macarena or Britney Spears. No, in fact, you hardly ever ‘know it.’ If you did, you’d be a lot smarter than the rest of us, and we’d all be eagerly watching for your next product.”

(I guess it’s not just me that is always wrong).

Like most things, there is no silver bullet or magic solution. Just keep doing good stuff and try not to cripple yourself into thinking that you tell “it” from all the rest.

The best way to get traffic online

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If you start digging into search engine optimization forums, you’ll probably go a little crazy with stuff to read. There are hundreds of tips and tricks. A lot of them probably even work. But the best way to get traffic online is to do good stuff.

Peter Figueredo noticed that Google’s webmaster guidelines want Affiliates Who “Add Value”. Rather than site created by a script and an XML file, The Goog is saying no to push-buttons.

When I started in on my last affiliate experiment, my goal was to do good stuff. I was going to write my own descriptions and pretend like I actually cared about medieval swords. It was tough to buckle down and do it. Doing good stuff is hard.

In helping others with their sites (most notably BestPlaces and Who2), doing good stuff is the right long-term strategy. When you are always working on the latest search engine trick, you’ll constantly need to re-tool. Search engines want good results, so they’ll constantly be tweaking their algorithms to circumvent the spammers.

Take a free pass from the constant game of chasing search results and just do good stuff.

Feelin’ Spry – Easy Ajax for Designers

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My latest Webmonkey article is about Adobe’s pre-release of their Ajax framework, Spry, aimed specifically at designers. Retrieving data from XML files is as easy as HTML. I’m pretty keen on it. Though there are drawbacks, they’re not a big deal, and it’s perfect for the intended audience: non-master-coders.

The article has a pretty good overview and then a sample application that shows how dirt simple it is. Read “Feelin’ Spry” at Webmonkey.

My personal approach to spam

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Are you wary of giving our your email address when you’re asked for it? This is more common these days, even offline. Companies have asked me over the phone, on application forms, and of course all over the Web. Most people probably give out what they call their “spam address,” some Hotmail account they check every week or so, tops.

Several years ago I started creating a new email address for every company or website that required it. So, Amazon reaches me at [email protected], while eBay sends to [email protected]. If they ever abuse my address, I can simply login to my server and shut off just that one email account. Simple.

This actually started for me back before I even had an email address. Whenever I would register software, I would give each company a unique last name. It was always similar, but traceable. Maxis, the makers of Sim City, sent mail to Adam DuVanderoni.

On the web, this process is much easier. If you own your own domain name, you can set your main address as a catch-all email address. Any address @yourdomain.ext is automatically created on-the-fly. But the process of closing down an address can be tedious. I started my spam blocker service to make it easier for people without technical know-how or a domain name.

I’m not the only one with this service. Spam Gourmet offers something similar for free. Their email addresses eventually expire, which many people might like. But part of my approach is to keep a unique, continuous channel for appropriate communication. It’s only when a company abuses that trust that I shut them off, all the while keeping my real address safe.