When I got into this web stuff using all the latest cool effects were the craze. Animated gifs lit up every page with Photoshop styled text all over the place.Things have settled since then. People started to realize being practical and focusing on usability made more sense. In the internet marketing world I have one gripe. Not all but the majority of niche sites/affiliate sites are ugly. This bothers me coming from a design background.

Okay, okay, I've read all the books that tell you to write big red letters, etc. etc. But really? Will people only buy the product if your page looks like a 10 year old did it? I think WA is the perfect place to reverse that trend. Here at WA we promote content over stuffing your page with affiliate links. Jay (magistudios) said to some effect in his case study webinar "you have to trust your content, just one link is all you need." Well, I agree. If your readers read your review they should be convinced this is the product for them. It doesn't matter what crazy huge red letters you have. I know, I know, you might be thinking well it doesn't matter if your site looks good either. I agree and disagree.

I believe that some, let's say 50%, of the population couldn't care less what your page looks like. Then there's the other 50% (including myself), if your site doesn't look good aesthetically I won't buy your product. So why not lure all 100%?

There's also the matter of "its much faster to just slap something together", I agree it is. However, I have two responses to that. #1, is it really as usable as a well designed page? #2, do you take pride in what you put up?

I know we're all in it to strike it reach. But personally, I have a good job, even if I didn't have that job I have a good business being a designer/developer, I like to take pride in what I do. I personally, use my handle "Sielke" for everything I do online. Why? Because I believe in name recognition. I believe in building myself as a brand. I want to build a reputation where if I recommend a product, you know for damn sure I've used it and I support it 100%.

And really, good design is about usability and comfort. You go to certain pages and you KNOW it's a sales page. I want my readers/customers to feel good about reading my pages. I want them to seek me out because I have an easy and familiar site every time.

Another point is that a lot of internet marketers just don't have the design skills or knowledge. Well, it's not as hard as you think. You can use many of the free themes out there or even premium themes. Maybe tweak it a little so that it because a trademark of your sites and then re-use it over and over, you still crank sites out quickly and you have a well designed and personalized theme just for you. Sound good?

Sorry, I know my posts have been a bunch of rants but I find that by ranting people like to tell me I'm wrong, and if they can back it up I can learn something from them. What do you think?