Tracksuit CEO

by Tracksuit CEO

The Tracksuit CEO doesn’t do websites

I have had several people lately, when they find out what industry I work in, ask me if I ‘do websites’. My unequivocal answer is that I don’t build websites, I destroy them…and replace them with a blog. In fact, there are very few websites that would not benefit from moving toward the dynamic content management style of a blog, while moving away from the static, faceless webpages we are so familiar with.

Working against the GeoCities Mindset

I remember when I was younger, in the early days of the Internet, my friends and I would ask each other, “What’s your webpage?”. And unfortunately, that’s the model that so many people are still working from; I call it the GeoCities Model. You design a welcome page with some information and graphics on it and it doesn’t change unless you change your address or you’re able to bribe your friend, the graphic designer, to make you a new logo. Your webpage is your greeting page (some sites still say “welcome” on them) and from here you have to click on links to get to any information of real value.

What about Flash intros? Flash intros look great, they can be slick and professional and compelling. But why would anyone want to come back to a website to watch a flash intro more than once? And why would anyone want to press “Skip Flash Intro” to get to a website that they need real information from? What a waste of time! Flash intros, no matter how well produced, are operating on the old GeoCities Model.

When did it all change?

Actually, it all changed right under our very noses. When the online shopping cart was first introduced, that’s when we witnessed the future of the web. The content management system that was used for shopping carts is very similar to the content management system that is now used for blogs. But instead of managing product information, the blog manages words, ideas and intellectual property.

And the blog put easy to install and update tools into the hands of non-programmers. My clients tell me they would like a website that is easy to update and I tell them they want a blog.

So this is my cursory introduction into how the Internet has changed. This week I’m going to be focusing on how you can replace most any website with a blog. The power of dynamic content has shown us that we need to change the way we look at the web.

Now, it’s time to “blog it out”!

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