Website Baseball
Website Baseball - You’re Out!
By Bob McElwain
Note: Bob McElwain ran his highly successful Sites Tips and Tricks website for many years. When he closed the site to pursue other activities, he granted permission to reprint his articles. Some are very outdated now, but there are so many gems of knowledge that we decided to publish the enitre series on Smart Web Center, just as they were originally published.
Beethoven was a genius of the first rank. Even if you do not care for the kind of music he created, you probably agree it is great.
Fundamental to music is form. There are strict rules associated with each. To break the rules, is to break the form. The result will sound odd to the untrained ear. It will be broken, unacceptable to listeners who understand the form.
The true genius of great musicians is the creativity they demonstrate within the forms acceptable in their time. Beethoven faced rules as stringent in his day as Scott Joplin faced in his.
And It’s So In Baseball
“Strike three. You’re out!” cries the umpire. The form and rules which guide a baseball game are simpler to see, perhaps, but no less fundamental to the game than those of the sonata to Beethoven or ragtime to Joplin.
Form Also Rules The Web
The Web is as close as we can get now, to the wild, wild west of yesteryear. It’s exciting, exhilarating, and seemingly without bounds. And many believe it to be without form or rules. But they are quite mistaken.
I built my first website in 1992. While I was not aware of the rules back then, they were there. And the site failed almost before I got it finished because I did not follow them.
No, there will be no rehash of the rules just now. I will settle for one example. The human eye can not correctly register the image of red text on a dark blue background. It is a matter of physiology, not opinion. So why put red text on a blue background? While other rules may not be so soundly based, break them at your peril.
Commonalities Exist
Reasons for building a website differ greatly. Some are built just for the fun of it. Others are put together in hopes of making major bucks. Most fall somewhere between these extremes. But whatever the purpose, there are common needs among all sites.
If you want to cheer the NFL, you want visitors to hear your cheers, to support your efforts, and add their own. If you want to be the web authority on goldfish, you need visitors who demand your content and contribute to it, else your authority means nothing. And if you want to make bucks, you need visitors who believe in you, who buy, and who return to buy more.
What is common here is the need for visitors. The target varies with the purpose. If you’re cheering the NFL, you don’t want goldfish lovers (unless they also love NFL football). But all need targeted traffic.
Since people are pretty much the same the world over, what may offend or annoy one person, will likely do the same to others. That is, red on a blue background will offend NFL fans, goldfish enthusiasts, and potential buyers.
Beating The System
The way to win big time on the Web is to tenaciously follow the rules. And yes, there are lots of them. They range from those that dictate site design to others which guide a business to success.
Speak of joy, if you wish. Or sell, sell, sell! But do so within the constraints of the form. Whatever you present must flow from the form. Your creativity is tested within the form, not in violation of it.
Remember the battle for the home run record between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire? It was really something, that’s sure. But as great as these men are, they were out on a call strike three. Them’s the rules.
Your website may strike out too, even if you know the rules, and follow them. But if you don’t follow them, it will never come to bat.
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