The world wide web is the largest source of media known to man.
With endless possibilities of posts on the internet anyone from
businesses, to teenagers at home, can post up anything on a website or
even build a website themselves. However, with such a variety of posts
on the internet, its hard to think that most of us usually have
"go-to" sites that we trust and that are known internationally. How
does one make a website that is so trusted and so popular amongst
many? Brian Clark writes in
http://scribeseo.com/downloads/How-to-Create-Compelling-Content.pdf,
that the best way to make a successful site is to make one that is
targeted towards a large amount of the population's interest. Clark
states that "...one survey shows that search is the most common online
activity, after email". By being able to target a topic that would
interest a variety people, a successful post could then create
compelling tags and sources in order to rank higher on the lists of
search results. Search engines such as Google, or Bing could then
easily help in portraying your site as a valuable asset in research
for whatever it is that one is searching. By providing a clear,
focused point with a broad list of key terms that one would search,
the website could then be a contender for being a top hit on the
internet.
The second article by Zandt, describes her personal opinion on
what is means to make a successful website. Zandt describes how with
society quickly evolving based on a world wide web, many are turning
to social networking as a means for information. Major companies such
as twitter, facebook, and other blogging sites are one of the biggest
websites to date. With millions upon millions of users, we can begin
to think about what exactly makes a social networking website so
popular. Zandt reinforces the idea that the web is slowly becoming
less and less of a business driven source of media, and more of a
source that is controlled by the readers themselves. Along with the
changing leaders of the source, one must follow the change in "rules".
What I mean by that is that with social networking becoming more of
the norm, meaning that more and more internet sources are written as a
self- expressive art form, rather than in a formal business format. More and more readers are lured in to an article when one is esxpressing their opinion rather than in a factual article. Zandt provides the examples of wikipedia, a user edited internet encyclopedia as an example for a website that is primarily successful based on the words written by users rather than through a company. Zandt also refers to the popularity of Facebook and Twitter as examples of a more socially driven internet world. We see millions of users a day spend a large portion of their time on these websites constantly reading updates of their own network users.
Being a web user myself, I find that both of these theories are used frequently across many websites. Some of my favorite websites actually include both Clark's keyword search method, and also uses Zandt's social network method of writing. A website that has a blend of these methods is www.flotrack.com. Flotrack is a website that informs users about updates and news from high school, collegiate, and track races all over the world. The website started out as relatively small, however lacking several sponsorships, depended largely on the updates that users themselves would post on to the web. Through the updates that the company provides, and through those that users upload, a much larger user oriented variety of news.
A website that uses the same methods of user attraction is www.tumblr.com. Again, this website uses a largely user uploaded data interface. With majority of the data on the computer being uploaded and shared with the very own users of the website, a huge population comes to the website knowing exactly what they want. Often, many viral videos or images aer also shared and re-shared upon each user. The chances that the website automatically follows the viral trends of society are also much more likely than other websites that may not be constantly updating.
On the other hand, we have websites that are not quite as successful. Websites such as www.armorytrack.com would be a good example of what a unsuccessful version of Flotrack would look like. The company sticks solely to updates that the company funds, and therefore misses a large portion of news that people may look for in the running community. With such a limited audience, armorytrack.com does not appear on a google search list quite as quickly as Flotrack does, going against Clark's suggestions for successful internet writing.
As for tumblr.com, we see its predecessor, myspace.com as being the less successful (currently) version of blogging. The myspace era ended shortly after social networking became much more customizable and therefore much more personal than the previous version. With tumblr and facebook having a much livelier GUI than these two, a user would be much more attracted to staying on the site rather than moving away quickly. The tumblr and facebook networks allow for much more of your personality to be displayed through your profile using a user friendly system rather than to simply have your "identity" as a profile.
Although there are no strict rules for making a succsessful internet page, or for successful internet writing, Zandt and Clark agree that one of the major focuses of writing a great internet page depends on the audience you're attempting to target. Your topic must matter to a wide variety of people. Your topic shuold also be easily accessible, and clarified for those that are trying to reach out and learn more about your topic.
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