A long time ago I learned from some of the top Internet marketing gurus such as Tom Antion that ugly websites can attract a lot more traffic and make a lot more money than professionally designed websites. (Of course website designers wanting to charge you thousands of dollars for a website that will be a total waste of money don't want you to know this.)
Check out the number 2 listing on "Top 55 Retirement Planning Websites awards."
Incidentally, I designed the "Retirement Cafe" website using a cheap website design program that cost $175. I used that same program to design about 15 other websites, including the "Retirement Quotes Cafe". Not so long ago someone offered me $15,000 for the "Retirement Quotes Cafe" — I declined because I didn't want anyone messing around with the design. Ultimately, it's not how pretty the website looks that counts — it's the quality of the content that you have on the website that makes the difference and ends up making you the big money.
Furthermore in July the Washington Post mentioned the "Retirement Cafe" as one of the better websites in an article titled "Best web sites for boomers and retirees":
Again, I make the point that ugly websites can attract a lot more traffic and make a lot more money than professionally designed websites. The Washington Post states the "Retirement Cafe" is "Not as pretty and polished as some of the others, but packed with information and links . . ."
Incidentally, not that long ago Seth Godin, one to the top marketing gurus in the world, wrote a brief blog post about how pretty websites are often not as effective as the not-so-pretty (ugly) ones.
"Pretty websites ... are rarely websites that convert as well as unpretty ones . . . it's a mistake to also expect your pretty website to generate cash, to have the maximum percentage of clicks, to have the most efficient possible funnel of attention to action."
— Seth Godin
You can also check the Best Retirement Websites on the Retirement Cafe.
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