Its not design

Every now and then I wonder why some websites/blogs are more successful than others. And why some people make more money off website than others... Usually the first thing that pops up into my mind was that successful blog design leads to a successful blog, and the same goes for websites as well. But now after looking around a bit deeper, I've realized that DESIGN IS NOT A FACTOR. It doesn't matter how your blog or site looks, the only thing that matters is what you have in your site. This article/note to self basically goes against the list (and what is said) over at Elliot's site, but I'm sure it makes perfect sense.

For example lets take a look at problogger.net. The design is good no doubt (okay may be not all that much) but can you believe that this guy made 10,000 dollars once (not from this site only of course)? Only from ad sense and chitika revenue. I'm pretty sure that its the content of the blog.

Now, I'm not saying that design doesn't play a big role, so don't get me wrong. I believe that a design of a site is essential in 'first impressions', but after that it's just content. Thats all people look at.

An interesting thing that I've realized untill now is that according to my knowledge (a.k.a. guessing abilities) chances are that 70% of the people in this world aren't tech all that savy savvy. Although this might change it is not like that right now. And due to this, people might not be aware of the trends that make a good design (i.e. have different views on what makes a good design). So, my point is that since these people don't really don't know about a design, chances are they don't care about it either (like ebay and Myspace.com- people still use them to this day).

So the only thing that it comes down to is content and perhaps readability (probably the only part of design that us web developers/designers need to be aware of). Which would mean that you can still have a great site, without a great design, provided that you have great content.

I don't say that ugly sells, content sells. So I think the most important thing that web developers (or people who want to start up a web site for that matter) need to do is put the readers first, just like Donald trump's dad (according to what he said on apprentice tonight- his dad talked to the people who were going to use the building and know about their needs). This way they can focus on the content (i.e. priorities of the people) without worrying much about the design in order to create a successful site.

If you disagree, feel free to use the comments section to prove me wrong! However I'm quite sure that you are going to agree with me.

---

Got a question, tip or comment? Send them to beyondteck+question@gmail.com and we'll try to answer it in a blog post!