Wednesday April 9 2:35 AM
Welcome to another installment of Radical Transparency Theatre. The good news is that our little blog endeavor has increased traffic over 600%*! That's right, based on a pure statistical analysis of page hits, in less than a week the 3232 Design Blog gained six loyal readers. That's you! The real question is, are page hits a good way to measure the success of your website? That all depends on what you're trying to do. The ultimate goal of the website should guide your decision, and page hits are only one measure. If your site is a content destination and you sell ad space, then page hits are a great measure. If you are a restaurant and you sell plates of food, then page hits won't tell you as much.

There are several secondary goals of my website, including being a contact point and providing contact information, driving traffic to other sites I've created, and eventually winning design and design criticism awards to increase the stature of 3232 Design (and you six will be the first to know when that happens). But these secondary goals really just enforce the main goal: to entice a potential design client to pick up the phone and call me, or send me an email.

If this goal is not satisfied, the site cannot be considered a success. It's fortunate that my time frame to reach that goal is longer than a week. I'll know it worked when I get that call and they tell me that they simply must have their project designed by the guy who made this site. Since I know how much my site cost to produce, I should be able to calculate the ROI (return on investment) of the redesign based on how much money that call and all the others bring in.

In the case of our restaurant friends, measuring success is not as obvious; sometimes the return can't be measured in dollars alone. You might consider it a success if customers stop calling to ask when your restaurant is open. Page hits can help you measure success by telling you how many people are looking at your menu, or you can ask a random sampling of your customers if they've seen your site and how helpful it was to them.

In other cases it may be helpful to examine your competitors and measure your success against them. Is your site easier to navigate? More informative? Easier to Google?

When the day comes that my site pulls in hundreds of loyal readers a day and several calls from potential clients each week, I'll remember you first anonymous six people fondly. Maybe I'll make you t-shirts that say "I was here first!" They'll be collector's items that you'll cherish forever, or until you sell them on eBay for a hefty profit.

I suspect it will be very difficult to prove you really were here at the beginning if the six of you don't start posting more comments soon.

* No calculators were harmed in the production of this statistic. Or even consulted.