Why do people still have to think about web sites as if they were print catalogues that you send in to print and than have to live with "as they are" until you get rid of the supplies?

Web sites aren't static. We can make improvements every single day ... and we should make improvements as much as possible if our sites are sales oriented.

But most web site development processes don't start like this.

The usual scenario involves heated debates on what the web site should include and how; how it should be structured; how it should be designed; what content it should have etc.

The strongest vote usually wins.

But it doesn't have to be like this.

Unless we know specifically what our visitors are like and how they react to everything we put infront of them on the web, there are many variations on what might actually pull best.

So, instead of losing time arguing about web site development, we should rather put together a list of things we want to test.

Instead of thinking what we want to "write in stone", we should be thinking about what we are going to try out to see what works best in the end.

Always test.

If a sales letter performs badly, you replace it.

If the new sales letter performs better than your all-time winner, you go with the new one.

Why not do the same with web sites?

Never asume you know best what's going to pull, and most definetly don't start out from the "this is how it must be, period" position.

In reality, no one can know 100% what's going to pull best.

That's why we test.

And then test again.

And improve our approach with every test.

Sales oriented web sites are not print catalogues, but rather dynamic sales letters than we can improve continiously.