Michael Cheney - behind the I.M. curtain

A lot of us get so caught up in running our own businesses
and websites that we forget to take the time out to actually
browse the web any more! Remember what it used to be like
just to float around from one website to the other enjoying
the scenery?

Well - every once in a while you should take half an hour
out of your day to do just that. Float around the web and
see what you can learn from other people’s websites. Peer
over their garden fences, knock on their door and run away -
maybe loiter outside their window for a while to see what
happens.

It’s amazing what faults you can find and learn from to
improve your own website.

"We are expert copyriturs, honestly"

Take this example, from a copywriting website, this is
REAL:

"Copywriting. You release written by an experienced
media relations professional."

"You release"?  Doesn’t give you much confidence if they
don’t even check their own site for mistakes does it?

"The Most Useless Homepage In The World?"

Imagine all the types of visitors coming to your website.
Imagine all the questions they have in their mind.
Imagine all the things they are hoping to find on your
homepage and website.

Now imagine you’re a large company and that thinks it is
above the usual principles of web design. What do you do?
You give visitors to your homepage as little information
as possible, that’s what:

http://www.prweek.com
http://www.virgin.com
http://www.coke.com

"People Don’t Have Flash Intros Any More, DO THEY?!!"

Yes, my friend, I’m sad to report that they do.  Some of
them take so long to load you could have created an entire
website from scratch in the time you wait for them to
appear.

http://www.putterills.co.uk
http://www.italianhomedecor.com
http://www.terrascape.gr (check out the sound!)

Happy browsing!