SET RANT ON

Oh boy, here we go again...  This is ridiculous!  A friend passed me a link to check out a tool called EZSQL.  So I clicked on the link, and much to my surprise, my browser window was automatically resized from about 2/3 my screen size to fill up the ENTIRE screen.  GRRRR!  Don't mess with my settings!  Now I haven't even seen your product yet and you have made me angry with you.  What were you thinking?!  I run my screen at 1280x1024 on a 19" screen.  That's a LOT of real estate to be messing with!  And the site was mostly dead white space!  Now there's not even a chance of convincing me you had a good reason for this abuse of my computer.

OK, I cooled down just a little, figuring my friend sent me the link, I should at least check out the product.  Hmmm... several blank pages, a few images, and hey, a feedback form.  Well, might as well let the proprietor know that he didn't leave a very favorable impression.  But wait!  What's this?  The TINY comment box is barely able to display 3 or 4 words across and 3 lines long.  So now you're irritating me by making it hard for me to read my own writing in your feedback form?!  You have GOT to be kidding me!

I'm sorry, but I am NOT going to buy anything from you.  I don't care how cool the product may or may not be.  You have blown it.  First impressions count!  And yours was LOUSY!  And so was your last impression.  Forget it!  Good Bye!

SET RANT OFF

In this day, if you're going to put up a web site to market your product, it doesn't have to be a dazzlingly brilliant design, but it certainly shouldn't tick off your prospective clients.  And blank pages?  Suppress them until they're useful.

I debated for a while whether to even include a link to the offending web site, I was so irritated.  But alas, someone will undoubtedly ask for it so they can see for themselves, and I guess that is the spirit of "conversational marketing" as Scoble calls it.  So it's there.  And hey, maybe the owner will read the feedback I sent (yes, I really did submit the feedback, and even gave my email address so he or she can respond) and fix up the site.  Maybe this will turn out to be a fantastic marketing site and win awards some day.  But they lost at least one sale, and even worse, the opportunity to get an early endorsement or a glowing review of their product, assuming it's better than the web site was.

Try again.  Do it better next time.  Failure isn't fatal unless you choose to stay there.  So get up and try again.