Website don'ts….

Been a while since I’ve done this and after visiting a site, which I’m not going to name, I decided I wanted to do it again.

There are some things that are very annoying to the casual web surfer, or the bookaholic who’s searching the net looking for info on a cool new author she just discovered.  I know, because I’m a casual web surfer and a bookaholic.  Now these are just my personal peeves, but I’m not alone in having them.  I know cuz I gripe to others who have similar peeves.

Overly bright colors are harsh.  Flowery looking author sites are boring.

But some things are just like a death knell for my interest.  These come up and I’m pretty much gone.

Things like…oh, say…

  1. MUSIC.  Please…please…please…very few author website, no, very few websites period can have music on their site in a way that isn’t utterly annoying.  If I want to hear music, I’ll go to iTunes or plug in my iPod.
  2. RED font on a BLACK blackground.  BLACK font on a RED background.  BLUE font on a RED background.  RED font on a BLUE background.  I’m migraine prone.  Certain things trigger a migraine.  These color combos are one of them.  I see them, I don’t linger on the website long enough to click on an excerpt.  No book is worth a migraine.  (Migraines are fairly common…so this is something to consider)
  3. Graphic heavy pages.  I’ve got highspeed.  I’ve also got a short attention span.  If the page takes forever to load because it’s got ten bajillion, uber-cool covers, I’m not hanging around.  And if it is taking a page forever to load on my connection, there’s gotta be some serious large graphics on that page-can’t imagine how slow it would be for those on dial-up or DSL.
  4. Okay…up above I mentioned that overly bright colors are harsh and I was going to let it go at that but I mistakenly stumbled on a myspace page where the background is like…dayglo pink.  So bright I practically needed sunglasses just to look at it.  Can you imagine long I lingered on that page? Tops-two seconds.  So yes, while overly bright colors are harsh, dayglo pink now counts as a website don’t for me.

There are others, but these are the main ones.  Now I don’t expect people to take my likes and dislikes into consideration… *G*…although hey, I do love pretend the world revolves around me.  However, I think it’s safe to say that I’m not alone with having these pet peeves.  Since it’s prevented me from checking out the websites of some authors, chances are others have clicked away in simlar fashion.

Which easily translates to lost sales…so it’s something to consider. Off to take something for this ravaging headache now…