caveman - 10:48 pm on Jan 11, 2005 (gmt 0)

Aw geeez mb, I keep trying to make jokes, and you keep making insightful, useful posts. Makes me look bad. ;-)

> I hear that's a song you can sing?
Say, were you present when I did my falsetto impression of Smokey Robinson at the last PubCon? Don't remember.

Anyway, you make a great point. Persuasion. That's what it's all about, certainly for most business oriented sites. And even info sites would do well to keep this in mind.

Personally, I think the Web could be 50% better in short order if site operators started thinking: "Now, who is my target user exactly, and what is s/he looking to learn or accomplish when arriving at my site. Quite different from starting at: "I have a great idea for a site...." and getting to the user somewhere around the first site upgrade 18 months later.

I was listening to a couple of Web guru's the other day, talking about how they made their millions. The smartest thing I heard them say had to do with their basic approach: Find a *passionate* target market, figure out what they already want to buy, and offer it to them in a way that they easily understand.

Great sites never start with the site; they start with the user.

Rupert Murdoch understands this as well as anyone, regardless of what you might think of his offerings. :-)