Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) - Ugly Websites That Went Viral

When we were looking into creating a website to sell random products. We had in our head the idea the site had to look sexy to generate sufficient traffic and sales. It had to have all the bells and whistles and we were willing to pay for someone to build it.

We checked out websites and compared designs. Amazon and most other top end online retailers had nailed it. You could purchase anything in one click and photos and keywords made it clear on what you were buying. Easy – we just take these winning formulae and starting selling?

Then we started thinking more about this. How did these sites start?

Facebook has evolved into being an amazing and versatile application. However it wasn’t always so pretty and powerful. Before it went viral how did it look?

Then you check out Craigslist and PlentyOfFish. Not exactly websites likely to be hanging up in your local art gallery.

Moving on from appearance, how did these websites function? How do they still function? Again, Craigslist is a pretty basic website. Even Twitter is relatively simple. Sure magic may happen on the back end in the server room, nevertheless they are not overly complicated on paper.

A great website we stumbled upon compares pretty and ugly banner adverts. Surprisingly the ugly banners had more clicks. Go figure?
http://www.mrgreen.am/affiliate-marketing/the-ugly-truth/

Another blogger that talks about landing pages raises some smart design concepts:
http://www.workhappy.net/

When thinking about your future website – consider simplicity?

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You might also enjoy:
+ The Startup Dictionary – Learning the Lingo #3
+ Learning From Other Startups – 6 Real Life Stories
+ Startup Myths – I shall not be fooled again by gurus
+ The Bootstrap Challenge – Walking the Talk

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