
The economic logic of some amazingly awful websites - dredmorbius
https://ello.co/ferdiz/post/P3wjS7HVW0Zq-7qdRMyVeA
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JacobAldridge
I like this observation, and I would add one other: the site looks cheap ...
implying to those target clients that the final product will also be a bargain
worth their effort.

Off now to source a previous article on Indian supermarkets and this finding -
the owner found cleaning displays _less_ increased sales as customers
correlated 'lower care' with 'lower prices'.

[Edit: Alas, it's behind the WSJ paywall -
[http://www.wsj.com/article_email/SB118651168871890705-lMyQjA...](http://www.wsj.com/article_email/SB118651168871890705-lMyQjAxMDE3ODA2ODUwMTgxWj.html)

Here's an OK synopsis [http://www.retailcontrarian.com/2007/08/bright-
future-f.html](http://www.retailcontrarian.com/2007/08/bright-future-f.html)]

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nasalgoat
I worked in the adult industry, which is famous for absolutely awful site
design. But the thing is, when we tried doing up to date, clean design, sales
went down.

People _expected_ the sites to look gaudy and tasteless and when they weren't,
they went elsewhere. They didn't trust the well-designed site.

~~~
dredmorbius
This was shared on my G+ post on the topic.

Note that it discusses pr0n though there's no nudity / sex acts portrayed
IIRC.

"Things You Learn Designing Porn Banners for a Living"

[http://www.vice.com/read/this-girl-designed-porn-banners-
for...](http://www.vice.com/read/this-girl-designed-porn-banners-for-a-living)

 _In the beginning, I sent my banners and the trafficker told me, “it’s too
pretty. The picture needs to look homemade”. He introduced me to this amazing
keyword: “amateur”. It opened up a whole new world of pictures I could use! I
had no idea. When I started, I didn’t know the genres._

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kerrsclyde
Great observations.

I’ve seen this with clients competitors, what may look terrible to me as a web
site developer looks entirely different to a non-tech customer. Advertising is
not 100% science and small businesses are not faced with the same branding
constraints big business is.

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dredmorbius
NB, credit to pointing out Ling's Cars goes to a throwaway HN user:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8641423](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8641423)

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jhgg
Go to the home page and view source. Some pretty intense ASCII art.

~~~
xyzzy123
There's also a great easter egg in 'var cookies', under the complaint about
the EU cookie laws...

[http://pastebin.com/SPwWz0qF](http://pastebin.com/SPwWz0qF)

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serve_yay
A few minutes ago I clicked on a NY Times article and my screen was completely
filled with an ad for Sothebys. How awful is Lings Cars, really?

