Website Design Is Dead

[Guest]

Might I suggest that some of you concentrate on the content of your site and not the design?

Many of you have beautiful sites, with some of the most boring, trite, hackneyed, 'blah' content (and graphics) I've ever seen. I think you all copy it from one another!

Some of you need to hire a good copy writer instead of a good web designer. (And no, I'm not seeking any writing assignments!)

YMMV.

Al
I am at this ugly website.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Some of these theme studios are pumping out incredible looking sites. One small problem some of them have is they try to get a bit too fancy, especially with the text. Some of it is form over function, especially with some of the shadow text effects they use.

One obviously downfall of "$30 themes" is the average person can't set it up. I'm getting pretty darned good at simply configuring them. It's a bit like buying Ikea furniture. What you picked out looks great - now it's only 20 pages of instructions on how to put it together.

It's why WP themes haven't really caught on yet on a "it'll replace web design" level. Getting some of them configured can indeed be a bit tricky as as you know, when you buy a premium theme you have access to "some" support on their forum, but definitely not "set this up for me" support.

The themes studios have to operate on volume when they're selling themes for $30 to $60. With that kind of volume they can't offer configuration services. This is what I'm getting into as kinda a side "hobby" - offering to configure them.

I'm still learning CSS....getting there. I can make some basic changes in the style sheet but it's fun to learn.

 

[Guest]

One small problem some of them have is they try to get a bit too fancy, especially with the text. Some of it is form over function, especially with some of the shadow text effects they use.

Make sure you test your site on the tablets and smartphones.

Sometimes simple is better.

Al

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

Might I suggest that some of you concentrate on the content of your site and not the design?

Many of you have beautiful sites, with some of the most boring, trite, hackneyed, 'blah' content (and graphics) I've ever seen. I think you all copy it from one another!

Some of you need to hire a good copy writer instead of a good web designer. (And no, I'm not seeking any writing assignments!)

YMMV.

Al
I am at this ugly website.

ehhhh i just copy chumps content and change the state names

 

[Josh]

Josh, I don't know how complex the site is. It was built on Ruby on Rails and it has a Content Management System that is awesome to use. And I can update everything very easily. From a consumer viewpoint, I guess it is clean and professional looking---which probably translates into leads----way more than I can handle so if anyone is an LTCi expert call me!! I've been coming home at midnight every night.

Josh, I would appreciate your feedback on the site most of all.

I think it's a really slick site. Could it have been done on wordpress for less money and still had a powerful effect? Sure, but you're going after a big ticket item. When I look through your website I think you're serious enough about your company to invest in a quality website and there is something to be said for that.

Personally, I'm a fan of wordpress sites, but I do recognize them. I have around 40 sites up at this point and all of them are wordpress so I should be able to spot one when I see it. Would a wordpress site convert for you? Probably. Could you have paid someone half what you paid them to do everything in wordpress and came out with a very polished professional looking site? Absolutely. Did you get ripped off? Absolutely not. To save money on your site you would have had to fight with it yourself or pay someone to put it together and to get that level of quality out of wordpress, you're still going to be spending several thousand dollars. If I were you I would tell them to pull the link back to their site off of yours, but that's between you and them.

Another thing to consider about your site is that how clean the code is will effect load time which will effect user experience and search engine ranking. Your site seems to load *really* fast and wordpress can have some extraneous code and render things in a goofy way which can be noticeable. I did find something funny on your site which may or may not have been intentional, but one of your header tags made me laugh a little:

<h2>Get F<strong>ree</strong> Long Term Care Insurance Quotes</h2>

The emphasis is on "ree" instead of "free". It most likely should read:

<h2>Get <strong>Free</strong> Long Term Care Insurance Quotes</h2>

It's not a big deal and there may have even been a reason why they did it that way, but probably not.


If you had made more than $20k for it then I might be more inclined to think you may have overspent, but you have a great website that is clearly serving it's function.

Going back to comparisons:
If you take a client to a cheap steak house vs a $500/plate restaurant, they'll notice.
If your office is in a low-rent area instead of prime real estate, they notice.
If you wear a cheap suit to an appointment, they'll probably notice.
If you have a cheap website and are asking for big ticket money, some of them will notice.

About half the time I walk by an open freezer in a grocery store I think to myself "they have the heat on and they have these freezers keeping food cold without even a piece of glass in the way, how ridiculous is that?" Surely they would save money my making even a modest attempt to stop wasting that much energy, but I can only assume the reason why they use open freezers is because customers are more likely to buy their ice cream that way and that by removing the minor obstacle, folks just go for it more. If spending more money on a website creates a better user experience, then that can easily make more sense then constantly having your freezers and heating system fight with each other in an endless struggle of warm vs cold.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

"ehhhh i just copy chumps content and change the state names"

And sadly, those sites look better than mine!!!

 

[Josh]

"ehhhh i just copy chumps content and change the state names"

And sadly, those sites look better than mine!!!

Copy the competition, then make it look better Recipe for success.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Seriously, there was a guy in another state last year that did copy (did not even spin it) a bunch of my stuff. I followed it for a while and none of his stuff showed up in the rankings. He also copied a few other site content as well.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

Sorry chumps that was just a test run

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Wordpress studio designers are having this very issue do to the way WP is licensed. There's a lot of back and forth about the ability to copyright a design and the owner of Studio Press said in a recent interview that there is "nothing he can do" if someone takes one of his themes, grabs the code and calls it their own.