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The 70 Percent principle – get the web site up even if it is not 100 percent perfect

The following article comes from a web site I use, http://www.psychotactics.com/blog.

Article: The 70% Principle: Why You Never Get Projects Off
         The Ground
http://www.psychotactics.com/blog/art-70-percent

===============================================

Have you got eleven seconds to learn a simple principle?
A principle that will radically change the way you do things?

You do, don't you?
Ok, tick, tick, tick....here's the principle.

==========================================
It's called..um...the 70% Principle
==========================================

So what's the 70% Principle?

If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing 70% right.
You can always come back to do the 20% later.

Yes, read it again, and no, the math isn't wrong.

If you're going to build a website, a 70% effort is fine.
If you're going to do a presentation a 70% effort is fine.
If you're going to bake a cake, for that matter...do you need
all the ingredients? 

The perfect cake? With all the perfecto ingredients?
Or the cake with '70%' of the ingredients?

The 'perfect' wording on a website?
Or the '70% perfect' wording on the website?

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And nope this isn't a case for mediocrity
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No one is telling  you to do crappy stuff. No one's
saying that you need to keep your project unfinished.
But in the quest for perfection, most of us never start.

The 70% principle is about getting your best effort
out and into the hands of your clients. That you don't
need to start off with a 100%-kaboom-wow-start.

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So let's tell you about our 'who pushed me?' start in 2002
==========================================

We started Psychotactics,in the year 2002, with a 16 page booklet.
We called it the 'Brain Audit.' And indeedy-doo, it started
with just 16 pages. Those 16 pages, we cheekily sold for $20
or thereabouts. 

And you know what? 

We weren't trying to keep the pages down to 16 pages, but we
certainly weren't trying to pad up the contents of the book either.

The 16 pages of information were all we knew at the time. And yes,
we could have made it 100% perfect, but decided to put our 70%
effort out anyway.

==========================================
Did I say, put it out? I meant, I got 'pushed'
==========================================

You see, I wasn't keen to sell the Brain Audit. I wanted to get
the e-book just right. But I was forced into putting it on the
market.

I was forced to putting it on a sales page, by another marketer who
promised to promote the book to his audience.

==========================================
And he never did promote the book
==========================================

I reminded him. Gently. Then became a bit of a nag. But that
promotion never, ever happened. What did happen was that the
'Brain Audit' began to sell. 

And as it turned out, I was able to add the next 20%,
and the next 20%, and the next 20%.

==========================================
And yes, the math still adds up
==========================================

Because all along, that 'so-called incomplete' product was selling.
And when you think about it, which product or service of yours is
ever complete? 

As your knowledge grows; as your customers ask more
questions; as you apply the concepts in different ways, your
product
or service gets better all the time. 

And today, the Brain Audit is a comprehensive document that not
only helps you understand how the customer thinks, but is also the
basis for being a member of 5000bc; for doing any of our
courses like the copywriting course, product-creation course.

What started out as a 'who pushed me?' product, now helps us get
thousands of customers. And helps us grow our business considerably
from year to year.

==========================================
Kinda like the iPod, you see
==========================================

When the iPod came out at first, it was just 10GB (yeah, pathetic
ten gigs).

Then it went up to 30GB. And hey, we got video too. Then
whoopsy-doo, it was 60GB. And uppity up it keeps going, both in
size, features and ease of use. 

Where's the market for the perfect iPod?

There's no market for the perfect product or service. The product
or service that your customers want, is the product or service you
have now.

That 70%-perfect product/service, will do fine for your customer.

==========================================
How can I be so sure?
==========================================

Could this article have been at least 30% better?
Couldn't I have found more examples? More case-studies?
Put in more details, perhaps?
Tweaked my words just so to make it richer, more vibrant?

==========================================
Sure I could. But you've got the point, right?
==========================================

If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing 70% right.
You can always fix the 20% later.

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Product Offers: Links you should visit
===================================================
1) "I received more response from my direct mail and email
advertising than I have in the past."

I would recommend the Brain Audit, because it lays out a
successful approach that I was immediately able to apply,
unlike all the other "systems" I've invested in the past."

Becky DeGrossa, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Judge for yourself
http://www.psychotactics.com/brainaudit

2) The Sec'ret Life of Testimonials:How and Why you need to
use testimonials as part of your strategy.
http://www.psychotactics.com/testimonial_secrets

3) Find Out The Psychological Sec'rets of Compelling Websites...
http://www.psychotactics.com/website-secrets

4) New Product: Do you want to put some sanity into your design
even  though you are not a designer? Have a look at
http://www.psychotactics.com/design-clarity

©Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.

- Article reprinted with thanks, written by Sean D’Souza http://www.psychotactics.com.

I shared this with you because as time goes by I realise more and more, I am not perfect and I do not pretend to be.  I try harder ever single time and to keep a client is in the long term cheaper than finding new ones.

Misunderstandings can be cleared up but only if the client is prepared to work on it with you.  How far are you prepared to go to keep that client happy is the question.

I promise to keep trying with you.  As the article says, don’t wait too long or you could lose out.

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What is design, UI and UX.

What is design, UI and UX.

UI or User Interface Design is where the users point of view is first and foremost. In my humble opinion, this is most important. How is the user going to use your web site, what steps are they going to find the easiest?

How do we make your web site the stickiest, to keep those users on your site, not bouncing off into the wonderful world of someone else’s web site.

User Experience is an extension of user Interface design where what the user wants is thought of first and engineered into the product rather than some engineer working out cool tech ways that make your eyes water, but you just cannot see what to do next engineering.

To see and example of this conundrum have a look at tumblr.com and Posterous.com

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Design Conflicts With SEO – Part2

Design and Search Engines- conflicts that arise out of a different point of view

Part Two – How To Use These Profiles

User profiles according to wikipedia user profiles means that there are four main personality types you have to build for as a starting point.

  • Visual
  • Auditory
  • kinesthetic – touch
  • Accessible
  1. Visual
  2. The fact that colour attracts the human eye is undeniable for the visual world most live in, red being the most demanding – “look at me ” colour.

    The vibrant, viral nature of the use of colour can attract the right kind of client for your business. I normally advise first time web owners to choose a colour they like so that they can attract the people who are most like them.

  3. Auditory

    Simply put it means that some people only truly respond with the presence of sound. They feel the sound before they see the image or colours and so look for what they hear that feels so good or familiar or trustworthy.

  4. Touch

    Almost the most powerful selling tool out there, however on the web very difficult to apply, yet

  5. Accessible

    Accessible is an almost unquantifiable item – but is a legal requirement in many countries such as United Kingdom,USA and South Africa. But most of all when a web site is accessible to all more people will use it, even if they do not know why it feels easy or right to do so. If your web site is built to be accessible then mobile phones, by far the largest market to sell to anywhere with over 70million handsets in the Uk, 120Million in the uSa and 9 Million ins South Africa that are internet enabled, why wouldn’t you want a piece of that action?

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Design Conflicts With SEO

Design and Search Engines- conflicts that arise out of a different point of view

Pure Design Ethos

In some circles Pure Design Ethos means only designing with images as that gives total control of the look and feel.
Images are worth a thousand words
The problem with this is the proliferation of devices and search engines that cannot read images, much like a disabled person.

Pure Search Engine Ethos

All text and no images. This makes for a very dull web site as for web user profiles that means that there are four main types you have to build for.

  • Visual
  • Auditory
  • kinesthetic – touch
  • Accessible

Strictly speaking the last one is in a class of its own but is essential so I have added it to the list.

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