http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/01/39-marketers-1200-websites-to-steal-from.html
Posted by Denny Hatch
Marketers: 1200 Websites to Explore!
To find 1200 live websites:
So you're thinking of designing and launching a website. Or maybe you have one.
What's strong and what's weak?
What's wrong? What to tweak?
When Peggy and I launched the WHO'S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and Archive service in 1984, it was based on the dictum of Dorothy Kerr, then Circulation Director of U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT.
"Steal Smart"
"To be successful in direct mail," Kerr said to a group of copywriters, "you have to see who's mailing what, track what mailings are coming in over and over again (which means they are successful) and then STEAL SMART."
Same thing if you have a website—or are designing one: STEAL SMART!
The Story of the Square with 1200 Websites
In 2005, Alex Tew was a 21-year-old spiky-haired Brit who found himself accepted into a program of business management at Nottingham University. The tab for the first year was $7,000, which Alex didn't have. And he did not want to go into debt.
"His thought processes went something like this: what it he set up a website called www.milliondollarhomepage.com which contained exactly one million pixels (tiny dots that make up an image on a screen)? What if he then used that page as, in effect, an advertising noticeboard where advertisers — mailing from the US — could buy space at $1 (60p) per pixel?"
When Tew's site sold out with more than 2,000 ads, he went live. It took off like a rocket, getting 200,000 visitors a day.
Think of it! With his first attempt at starting a business he acquired more than 2000 customer that paid him $1 million! Stunning!
Tew Caused a Stir on Both Sides of the Pond
• It was unlike anything ever before seen on the
Internet.
• It was fun. Mesmerizing.
• Pass you cursor s-lo-w-l-y over the face and up
pops mini-subject lines describing each ad.
• A hodgepodge—utterly involving.
• "Neatness rejects involvement."
—Lew Smith, EVP Wunderman Worldwide
• "UGLY WORKS!
—Bob Hacker, Seattle Direct Marketing guru
• "I bought pixels there and then. The results for us
were amazing. We used to get 40,000 visitors a
• 14 years later, I believe you will find it a valuable
tool for quickly comparing websites and getting
ideas.
Alas, Tew Took His Million Bucks and Walked.
The Bad News: Over the past 14 years, many of Alex's live websites have gone kaput. I estimate about 1200 websites still exist on this landing page.
As you prowl over it, here's a sampling of what you'll find:
As you prowl over it, here's a sampling of what you'll find:
The Good News: Tew's baby is still a digital marketer's dream. Where else will you find 1,200 websites within one neat 8-1/4" square to click on, to study and to steal from?
Some are terrific, others are terrible. For this reason I urge you to soldier on. You'll never find this many ideas in one small space.
About Digital Marketing and Website Design
Nothing like the Internet has existed for marketing ever before.
When you persuade customers or prospects to click on something, you have the unbelievable power to steal them away to be instantly transported deep into your private world.
You can use color, motion, sound, laughter, tears, sex, hope and dreams.
Example: A Fascinating Website in Tew's Square!
Okay. Peggy and I have been very happily married for 48 years. I am emphatically NOT into dating.
However, this is a terrific website because it is:
1. Immediately obvious what this is about.
2. Immediately obvious who it's for.
3. Immediately obvious what it will do for you.
4. Immediately obvious and easy to get started.
Below: A Mousetype Ho-Hum in Tew's Square
What is Oblada? Who is this for? What does Oblada do? What will this website do for you? How do you respond?
Takeaways to Consider
• Nothing like the Internet has existed for marketers
in the world ever before.
• When you persuade customers or prospects to click
on something, you have the unbelievable
power
to steal them away to be instantly transported
deep into your private world.
• On the Internet you can create magic—or dreck.
• Alex Tew's milliondollarhomepage was 3 things:
1. Involving and fun.
2. An extraordinary resource for serious marketers
to study what others are doing on the Web.
3. A disgrace in the noble field of direct marketing.
• Alex Tew took his money and walked.
• He betrayed his loyal paying customers, leaving
them high and dry with what is becoming a
metastasizing cancer that makes them all look like
losers.
• Tew owes it to his paying customers to keep the
site alive and vibrant.
• When a customer's website goes kaput, it should
be deleted from the grid.
• In it's place should be a patch of blank pixels with a
sign than says: AVAILABLE. MAKE AN OFFER!
• Tew's scheme could be a perpetual moneymaker.
• "You become responsible forever for the things you
have tamed."
—The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
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