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Pandering

Posted by whirbot 95 days ago (http://feeds.feedburner.com)

Category: Articles | Tags: Adventures in Web Hosting

If you follow my blogs, you already know I have a personal web site, www.words2u.net, which I am trying to coax into making money. Sadly, this personal site is not that appealing to people other than myself, and this limits its earning potential. The site is harassing me, its owner and designer, to pander to the perceived taste of my anticipated public, and is demanding changes. It tells me this is marketing, not pandering. Either way, once I decided the site has to earn its keep, it has taken a life of its own, and wants to go places without me.For example, my blog (blog.words2u.net). Originally a platform to vent, rant and rave, it has become politically correct (or rather, non-politically correct), because strong opinions might offend people. Now the blog is G-rated, and I have very little to say to it. Then there is the site design. Until today, the side bar, the navigational tool common to the whole site, was equally divided between my content and PmWiki's links. Content is diffuse - tracks include walks, short car rides and long trips; points of interest include malls, parks, dining spots, and so on. Only bus routes is a tight group (note: I have recently started adding categories such as 'stores' and 'miscellaneous' to the side bar). The home page spends valuable real estate to explain the site structure, because of its lack of intuitive segmentation and its use of Wiki links and GPS terminology (a GPS device captures tracks and points of interest). In order to be more appealing, it must relate to things that interest my presumed public. Which leads to another question - who should the site target? Tourists? Costa Ricans? Should I try and reach a particular demographic?To target locals, I have to use Spanish, which, considering my mastery of that beautiful language, is a bad idea. So for now, it has to be English speakers - tourists, expatriates, and educated natives. Further segmentation will have to wait till later.So what is a tourist, visitor or foreign resident be looking for in a web site? To find out, I looked at Fodors and Lonely Planet web sites, and print guides, as well as a bunch of sites from and about Costa Rica. I am going to pay them the most sincere form of flattery by breaking up my content the same way they do.I also plan to make more efficient use of the navigation side bar, and to use the home page to make the case for the site's uniquness, added value, and 'wiifm'.If you look at the site now, and visit again in a few days, you will see what I mean.