Domainers and Development: Tight Budgets or simply Bad Taste?
I’m often amazed at the type of content slated as “development” with the usual tags of “minisite”, “stores” and “portals”. Often a euphemism for graphic headers slapped on an interface that lacks intuition, those design atrocities are presented to domainers as money-makers that would beat parking and PPC revenue.
Stop for a second and think – why would any visitor click on the AdSense content you flaunt in those “minisites” when the rest of the content is so poorly and distastefully done?
Are domainers truly on a shoestring budget, or is it because nobody has taught them better?
The subject of taste in everything is related to one’s background, education and exposure to alternatives. When you’re shown a bunch of poorly done skeleton sites as the cheap, better alternative then you’re getting what you’re paying for.
Having been a web and graphics developer for the past 15 years, I simply shake my head at the acceptance of poor quality as a quick, economic solution to domainer needs. Quite often, domainers fall flat into the pitching trap of fly-by-night individuals with no design credentials, no portfolio and no ethos; because whoever tells you that money will be flooding your pockets when you slap that “minisite” onto your long-tail domain, is lying through their teeth.
What is the solution to this disease permeating through the domainer halls?
Simple: choose the top 5 domains from your portfolio and hire a professional for the job. Invest in a true design that delivers not just the eye-candy but also incorporates an intuitive user interface, effective call to action images and custom-written copy that wasn’t ripped off Wikipedia.
Lose the bad taste, gain from the experience of true developers that live and breathe what they do.
Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/acroplex
