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The Pages System |
April 09, 2007 1:58pm |
One of the biggest ideas we had when we were making Ekaweeka pre-launch was the pages. Ekaweeka was supposed to be a website creation tool and custom pages came hand in hand with that. Right off the bat we noticed people weren't using it, there was too much freedom or something. But some had suggested that they wanted to be able to make a "press page" that looked just like the rest of their pages, which made sense, instead of making them figure it out, we could have every custom page start out looking like the other pages but with a space where they could fill in the content and make a page relevant to their business; such as a "press page".
But time has passed and aside from a few people we're still not seeing very much use of the page system. My next hunch is that we need to make pre-made pages that can be added optionally - like "add a press page". If that sounds interesting to anyone - let us know we'd love your feedback. |
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April 26, 2007 11:11am |
Thomas
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KC:
A few months ago I had a conversation with one of my friends. I was explaining what Ekaweeka was to her. She loved the idea of an easy website creation tool, she suggested she would be much more likely to get through any website creation process if there was a guided setup or wizard much like the tutorial you speak of.
It is a shame that more people haven't recognized the benefit of the additional pages, and I should disclose that it isn't a total bomb. Something like 5% of the users have taken advantage of them which could be plenty in some businesses. I know some of Google's coolest projects in development get much less then 5% usage out of all their users and those projects are considered "hot new technology".
So maybe my tone was a little dark. What can be said for sure is that the pages aren't required to increase ones visibility on the web through use of Ekaweeka. Ekaweeka has incredible SEO considering its size and stage in life. Many of the users have told me they were astounded to see that their EkaPage is their #1 or #2 google result, not their myspace page, not their blog.
I think the pages will most likely get a second wind at some point when we reach a larger volume. Just as the number of customized MySpace pages started ballooning when the number of stylesheet knowledgeable users rose. There could be a bell curve and the masses just haven't noticed the advantages yet.
Either way I really appreciate your take on the circumstance. |
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April 26, 2007 10:46am |
KC
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I'm a real "newbie" on ekaweeka but from the small contact I've had with it, I think it has massive promise.
Everybody's trying to get noticed on the Web, but you have millions of competitors equally keen to attract the attention of every user.
But most pundits say that visibility is markedly increased if you can keep posting away at your blog, even in the early days when only a few people are reading your thoughts and comments.
And its good to have some standard web pages, so that people who find you through your blog can link there and find out more about you and your products.
So ekaweeka could be a fine portal for businesses who want to pursue this avenue to increasing their visibility on the Web.
As all the necessary features to do this appear to be in place at ekaweeka, then its a pity that this blog entry (The Pages System) seems to suggest that a key feature is woefully under-utilised.
There may well be extrinsic factors that are the primary cause of this (e.g. all ekaweeka users are reluctant to put material on the pages; or are too busy at the easel or kiln creating products to have time to deal with Web visibility) so any efforts made by ekaweeka to tweak the pages or try to make them easier to fill, may not result in greater take-up - we have to be prepared for this.
However, for those who do agree that it is important to improve their Web visibility, and who do want to follow this avenue, then I guess some kind of guided tutorial might be useful.
To find out who these people are, and to get their feedback on how useful they found any future tutorial, then I wonder if it might be appropriate to form some kind of "special interest group" (often shortened to "SIG" in other organisations) on ekaweeka - "promoting your business on ekaweeka SIG" I guess it could be called.
However, I suppose we'd also have monitor standard Web metrics to see if their efforts to put more information about their business, themselves and their interests on ekaweeka pages and blog DID actually raise their Web visibility - do we need to brace ourselves for possibly a let down? It is a bit scarey, but I definately think it is worth considering further.
And also I think it would be worth assessing how having a presence on ekaweeka might assist a standard, stand-alone website.
This could be quite a big project, but if the pages aren't being used much, and they could conceivably assist your business's web visibility, then a major marketing opportunity is being lost, and a major feature of ekaweeka is being sorely under-utilised.
Fixing both helps you, your business and ekaweeka - is this a win - win -win situation? |
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