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Hi Linda,
Wow - you really know how to get me going!
Now, where do I start?
The first thing that turns me right off is a very badly designed webpage. I don't mean a very plain or even necessarily boring page (mine certainly are neither flashy nor exciting).
Peter has given an excellent example of a very poorly designed page in his post. If I see banners everywhere, large graphics, tiny scroll bars, very little, if any text, and have to scroll way over sideways to see the whole page, I'm outta there!
(Some people ask me why my pages are so narrow - on a new, high-res screen, many of the pages I've created appear skinny - the reason for that is that they are set to fill the narrowest of the most commonly-used screen resolutions without scrolling sideways. I sometimes set the screen resolution at 100%, but that can cause some wierd problems in some browsers unless you're really careful)
Anyway, I digress...
Spelling and grammatical mistakes really turn me off. I will sometimes overlook a few possible typos, as everyone makes those, but not a page full of mistakes. If I see that, I'm gone.
A site that instantly assumes that I'm a newbie and promises that it will make me an instant expert is a huge turn off. One word - scam!
A page that goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.... If you're trying to sell me something I'm interested in, let me have it! If I'm not interested, no amount of freebies, hype, yellow highlighter, testimonials, etc., are ever going to convince me to buy - but they WILL convince me to click away. It never ceases to amaze me that so-called "gurus" or "marketing experts" are so long-winded on their sales page.
If the site is using what I call "Shock Value" to try to keep me there has lost me instantly. (The Rich Jerk is a prime example - what a jerk!) Incidently, you can get the same information as what that site is selling for under 15 bucks without all the hype and insults from a very nice lady who makes plenty of money without being a jerk.
I HATE ActiveX Controls and plugins. I will ONLY overlook them if the link has been sent to me by a friend, but they annoy me something terrible. I run my browser security to block ActiveX (as they can be dangerous) and hate the prompt that pops up every time I hit a page with ActiveX controls. I don't know how many times my browser has crashed because of these things.
If a free webhost is being used for a program that is being hyped as being a real money maker, I won't even look at it. If it's not making enough money to by a domain name ($7.95) and webhost ($30 per year with registration) then it's not going to make ME any money, either.
Basically, if a site is easy to navigate, tells me what it's about right away in clear, clean, error free text, and is something I'm interested in, I'm going to look at it.
However, if the site tries to beat me into buying, impress me with doodads, flashing lights, loud music and hype, I'll be leaving quickly.
Thank you for letting me rant, Linda!
God bless,
Dave
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