Re: Web Page Stickiness

**"* P* L* <t*@spamfodder.com>**

> I talked with a fellow listserv member about ten days ago about
> attracting and retaining visitors to a website.  He said that the home
> page should be "sticky," with elements such as flash presentation or music
> to keep hoppers from leaving.  That made perfect sense to me.....until
> I started putting together a new website.

I agree with others about this -- skip the animations and sound.
If they're a critical part of the message or site (a flash application
to design a landscape, etc.) then sure...  But using flash as a hook to
mask a lack of content is just annoying.  People quickly recognize it
for what it is -- fluff -- and will be turned off by it.

Another thing to keep in mind is screen size.  Developers were falling
over themselves with joy when studies showed that the average screen
resolution was 1024x768 since they suddenly had a lot more real estate
to play with.  But that's changing again...  Think iPhone.  It has
a screen that's 480x320, so large images or wide blocks of text will
be difficult to read.  Many sites are even unusable on my Nokia N800
(800x600 resolution).

The best thing that you can do for a Web site is to keep the content
fresh.  Make regular updates and set up an RSS feed to notify people.
Many desktop applications, Interet tablets and portable devices will
check for RSS updates and notify readers regularly when there's a change,
so you don't need to advertise your new content.  Once they sign up to
an RSS feed, you likely have a return customer who will visit any time
that something new is put up.

Chris

http://www.bonvivantnursery.com/                     Bon Vivant Nursery
http://www.hort.net/gallery/      4135 online plant photos and growing!
http://www.hort.net/gallery/date/2007-07-01/       The latest additions
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