First impressions count.
Everyone knows that. It’s no secret. However, how many of us actually remember that and think about the first impression we make.
People make judgments about who we are, our character and how much they like or dislike us within the first few seconds of meeting us.
I have become increasingly convinced that the same is true of people who ‘meet’ us through visiting our blogs and websites.
Yesterday I made an amusing yet important error by making an incorrect assessment of someone though their website.
The website was www.yoursecretname.com a beautiful site designed by Gabe Taviano.
The site is set up to promote a new book my Kary Oberbrunner unsurprisingly names ‘Your Secret Name’.
I visited this site not knowing who Kary Oberbrunner is and immediately made an assessment that Kary is a woman who knows a lot about marketing books – and I commented as much to Gabe through twitter.
Gabe responded that Kary and he were having a good laugh because Kary is, in fact, a guy.
Ooops. Sorry Kary.
My best guess is that the female imagery on the website made me think that the author was, in fact, the woman pictured.
It made me wonder… What do people think about me based on how my blog looks? What impression do I give?
That’s probably something we’d do well to all think about occasionally.
What does your website say about you?
A question I ponder often – my blog really should be {this} restless TEMPLATE, instead of {this} restless heart…. If anything I suspect my site would say I'm slightly schizophrenic…
But seriously, when I'm browsing on the Web, that first look makes or breaks my decision to come back. Cluttered, dark templates are very off-putting, and I rarely revisit. The fresh, clean templates almost always capture my attention; I've been known to follow a blog just because I absolutely love the colors on it.
Kelly, your blogs are among my favorites for the impression they make. I've never told you how jealous I am. But I'll tell you now that your pages inspired me to take a class on website design. : )
Hi Peter! Your blog is very minimalist compared to most I visit. I like the clean layout. The color scheme, however, comes across as very sober and serious. This is fine, but the absence of color may put off some readers. But if that is how you like it, then do what satisfies you!
For my own blog, I chose blues because that color soothes. Also, in heraldry the color azure symbolizes truth.
Currently, my blog looks like an Indy car. My new blog, however, will be much more streamlined, but still a bit scattered and busy. Because that's me.
Good question! I have made changes on my blog based on feedback I've received.
My blog has changed so much. I wanted it to have pointers back to our church website, but still be its own entity. I don't know what it says about me though. I would love to hear what people do think though… Interesting. Thanks Peter. 🙂
… and you can get a second chance at a lot of things, but never at a first impression.
Peter, I like minimalist, and I like your blog. It is a bit understated, but I think that's preferable to the wrong statement or clutter. When I click on a busy, cluttered blog, I want to get off it as soon as possible. (Busy sites are used as examples of bad design in the websight class I'm taking.) I prefer to read cluttered sites in my RSS feed where I don't have to see them.
I dislike the Google templates I use, because they don't have the sharp, clean lines I'd like to project. I hope to correct that soon. I still have to figure out how compatible the Dreamweaver I'm learning is with WordPress.
The background on my blog changes with every season, so I guess my blog suggests that I am constantly changing. Which I am. I have more grey hairs than I did at Thanksgiving. A woman at Church commented that it looked like Bob was sitting next to an old lady. Hopefully that, unlike me, my blog is changing for the better.
I think my blog site says that I really like Swedish Fish.
My blog says: "This chick has the internet savvy of a brick wall."
*sigh* I'm hopeless.
Hopefully, I make up for my non-engaging site with extra-special content.
That's funny Peter. I thought Kary Oberbrunner was a woman too. I think the imagery on the website has something to do with it, but so does the fact that Kary is more often a woman's name and for me the word "secret" has some feminine undertones.
I learn more blog stuff every day from smart people like you, so I hope I pick the right things to use. I am trying to learn some styly things, enough so I can change the stupid template color orange on my blog, which is as everyone knows, the color of the University of Texas, completely not done by an Aggie Mom such as myself.
Great question. Assume people read my posts and think "man, she has a more questions than answers" which is true.
Lindsey – that's a whole lot better than people thinking "man, she thinks she has more answers than she really has…" 🙂
I'd love to actually meet you one day to see if the impression I've got of you from your blog and twitter is anywhere close to accurate!
My blog says "some geek did this and all she's been able to do is screw it up." If I knew who I was, it would have been a lot easier to pick a design. Therein lies the problem: random, searching, and I like the color blue. I guess rather than having it say WHO I am, I want it to say WHOSE I am.
Candy,
Your blog doesn't say "SOME geek did this", it says "THE geek did this" 🙂
Really good question to ponder over. Definately gonna have to spend some time thinking on this
Thanks, Gary.
Let me know what you come up with 🙂