Website Design - Why Clones aren't Profitable
- By Cheow Yu Yuan
- Published 04/7/2011
- Web Design
- Unrated
When it comes time to setting up a new website you can just look around for a design already in use that you like and copy the design, right? If it is working for someone else than chances are it will be just as profitable for your own website. This is the logic that some people take when it comes to designing a new website, but it isn't the best way to go.
When you copy the design of another website you aren't allowing your site to take on its own personality and flavor. You are stifling your own creativity and reducing the quality of your own product. You are also forcing the unique content of your own site to fit a mold designed for someone else. This is like asking a woman who just had a baby to wear the blue jeans of a ten year old girl. It just doesn't work well.
Your Own Space
You need to create your own space when you set up a new website. The websites you see already in existence are successful partially because they were designed for their individual needs. The most successful sites are custom designed to incorporate all the features that particular business or niche requires. Web designers are masters when it comes to creating individual space that reflects the type of content being presented.
You need your own space if you want your website to be successful. The designs features you see implemented on other sites can serve as valuable inspiration when coming up with ideas for your own design, but you should never completely copy the design of another si
te. That won't reflect your own needs in the long run, let alone the fact that karma may come back to bite you in the end.
Types of Website Designs
There are just as many potential website designs as there are reasons for putting up a website. Even if you are looking at other websites serving purposes very similar to what your site will serve, there will be elements that you need missing and elements present that you don't need. No two websites should ever be exactly the same!
As a side note: you don't want to be the same as someone else. You don't want to blend in with your competitors. You want to stand out! The only way to do that is to have a custom website designed just for your own needs.
Back to the main point here: the purpose of your website and your target market will determine the features implemented into your website design. Every feature should be there for a purpose and everything should flow together so moving from one page to another is simple and quick. You don't want readers searching endlessly for what they want so everything has to be laid out perfectly for every feature.
This means a website selling ten different categories of products will have a very different design from a website selling and promoting just one product. Even further, a content site that doesn't aim to sell anything at all will be set up in yet another manner. The design features for each of these sites will need to be custom made to ensure they meet all the needs of the customer (that's you) and the reader or consumer visiting the site (that's all the traffic you will hopefully win).
When you copy the design of another website you aren't allowing your site to take on its own personality and flavor. You are stifling your own creativity and reducing the quality of your own product. You are also forcing the unique content of your own site to fit a mold designed for someone else. This is like asking a woman who just had a baby to wear the blue jeans of a ten year old girl. It just doesn't work well.
Your Own Space
You need to create your own space when you set up a new website. The websites you see already in existence are successful partially because they were designed for their individual needs. The most successful sites are custom designed to incorporate all the features that particular business or niche requires. Web designers are masters when it comes to creating individual space that reflects the type of content being presented.
You need your own space if you want your website to be successful. The designs features you see implemented on other sites can serve as valuable inspiration when coming up with ideas for your own design, but you should never completely copy the design of another si
Types of Website Designs
There are just as many potential website designs as there are reasons for putting up a website. Even if you are looking at other websites serving purposes very similar to what your site will serve, there will be elements that you need missing and elements present that you don't need. No two websites should ever be exactly the same!
As a side note: you don't want to be the same as someone else. You don't want to blend in with your competitors. You want to stand out! The only way to do that is to have a custom website designed just for your own needs.
Back to the main point here: the purpose of your website and your target market will determine the features implemented into your website design. Every feature should be there for a purpose and everything should flow together so moving from one page to another is simple and quick. You don't want readers searching endlessly for what they want so everything has to be laid out perfectly for every feature.
This means a website selling ten different categories of products will have a very different design from a website selling and promoting just one product. Even further, a content site that doesn't aim to sell anything at all will be set up in yet another manner. The design features for each of these sites will need to be custom made to ensure they meet all the needs of the customer (that's you) and the reader or consumer visiting the site (that's all the traffic you will hopefully win).
Cheow Yu Yuan
# 1 leading Singapore web design agency. Check out Interactive@OOm now.
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