What makes a website valuable?
 

I am trying to figure out how many people really know how to create a website that a customer finds valuable and satisfying.

A while back, this question was asked, and it was truly amazing some of the naive responses that were posted (prime example: "content is king" - something out of a 1999 cliche generator). Either this board is full of newbies, or the pros know better than to give away the keys to the kingdom.

If you want to know how to last in the business (first you need to know what business this is...), just check out some of the replies.

So, what do you think makes a website valuable?

The potential for money gains.

my guesses from the customer perspective would be::

relevant information

interaction

intuitive easy to use navigation

frequent updates

no BS...




but I could be wrong ?



:2 cents:



from my perspective must be the money

How much money it makes,, duh

content is king

Bookmarks tell everything about a site if it´s good or bad.... TRUE!

midgets :2 cents:

TRANNIES???

content is erm king:Graucho

Trannies convert like mad!

quality traffic?

Free chocolate chip cookies.

indeed!!!:warning

Incredible... no one mentioned anything like the following:

its all about traffic (eyeballs, impressions, clickthroughs, etc.)

getting advertising (banners, paid listings, popups, popunders, adware)

tricking the customer (bait-and-switch, misrepresenting the site's contents, improper billing, unexpected redirects, spyware)

treating the customer with suspicion (putting the burden on them to remember obscure logins, making it difficult to contact customer service, not telling them anything about who they are doing business with or who owns the company)

treating the customer with contempt (creating inconsistent navigation, difficult to use search, forcing flash animations, java-scripts, audio, and video on them without request)

Maybe it is only a matter of time before someone mentions these things as really making a website valuable to customers.

Let me ask this simple question,

Are you in this business to make yourself rich, or are you doing this because you genuinely have something to contribute?

the value/worth in ANY business is simply

1) the memberbase
2) the sales force...


how you acquire, keep and motivate those to stay onboard with your business is the trick...


:thumbsup :thumbsup

I don´t think you are a great webmaster... maybe a BIG looser using a hotmail account and a nice freehost with a big pop-up when enter your site...

Right?


:321GFY

there went your word of mouth traffic

oh and not to mention the legit bookmarks

and third party links to your site

I could be wrong ? maybe they like that shit? what do I know ;)


but yea, I was going to say surfers/traffic but I figured that was a given


you in it for some quick cash or the long term ? just a thought

This is strange...

maybe because it is Saturday, so only the internet pros are on the board, but...

these responses are actually coherent.

Let me add...

One thing every webmaster must know is what business they are in. Some people actually think they are in the porn business (or travel business, or legal business, etc.).

If you produce porn, you are in the porn business.
If you produce software, that people can use their web browsers to view (e.g. a web page, scripts, web applications, etc.), then you are in the software business.

I do not view a porn website any differently than a search engine website, or auction website, or travel website. Each is valuable because of the software they offer to customers. The more valuable the software, the more valuable the website.

is this going to lead to a spam?

...you guessed it!

I guess this is why it is so difficult to have intelligent and meaningful discourse on the web. As soon as it gets useful, someone wants to abuse it, or turn it into something negative.

Back in 1999, SPAM was really not an issue. There was loads of good content and none of that annoying garbage that makes using the web such an ordeal nowadays.

popups, popunders, java-script controls, browser hacks, adware, spyware, flash (yes, i am including it), viruses, worms, and on and on...

There was actually money to be made AND people actually listened to what you had to say.

Nowadays, because things have been so absued, no matter what your message is, people have been trained to expect the worst. A sign of the times, I guess.

In this kind of environment, anyone who says making money on a porn website is easy, is trying to sell you something.

There is no such thing as UNLIMITED demand. There is only so much porn the public can consume.

This bubble will burst just like it did for the non-porn web.

So, the question remains, do you know what makes a website valuable?