8 ways to enhance your Web site

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Annual, 1997 by Thom Forbes

The most brilliant magazine-industry people I've known lift other people's ideas so deftly that the marks never know their pockets have been picked. In that spirit, we can benefit from an examination of the fat billfolds to be found on wizards strolling around the Web.

1. Link to competitors. In the old order, the question was, "Does Macy's tell Gimbel's?" Now, it's "Does Time link to US News?" It should (when appropriate) because sometimes the best thing you can do for your readers is to let them know what your competitors are doing, says Luis A. Hernandez Jr., the editor/publisher of Motorcycle Shopper. Hernandez provides links to every motorcycle resource he's aware of on the Internet. He also runs news items with hotlinks about a direct, if "friendly;" competitor, Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader. "A prime directive in business is to serve your customer. You can't always do that these days without mentioning your competitors," he says.

2. Make issues downloadable. Everton's Genealogical Helper Online Edition allows users to download each issue. This concept short-circuits the Web's most compelling benefit because it prevents users from hyperlinking to outside pages. But many surfers welcome self-contained information, and once a publication is offline, a person can check it at will. Finally, it can be a money-saver for users who pay for Net access by the hour. But bear in mind there's no way to measure offline exposure to advertising.

3. Offer a digital potpourri for the masses. The Kansas City Digital Publishing Co. asks its readers to seed cyberspace with its several versions. It provides its infoZine not only on the Web, but also in downloadable editions tailored for the Macintosh, for PCs running with rudimentary 256 processors and for Bulletin Board Systems that don't have graphical capabilities. It proclaims itself "Multi-BrowserEnhanced," poking fun at sites that look great when viewed by Netscape's Navigator but are unintelligible to other browsers.

4. Be easy on the eye. The typography seen on the Suck and (HotWired) Flux pages reinforces a point that was first made to me by a crusty compositor at the Daily News back when type was metal and an art director's layout was a bit too fancy for his taste: Narrow columns are easier to read. It's hard to resist quick-but frequent visits to these sites, which go against the Web convention of running type clear across the screen.

5. E-mail should be HTML-encoded. By the time you read this, NetGuide Now! should be offering its weekly e-mail tipsheet in HTML format. Users can save the e-mail as a .html (Mac) or .htm (PC) file, load it locally on their browsers, and click their way to the recommended sites. Others have been offering this feature for some time.

6. Don't drop http://. Some people are beginning to drop the http:// when they write out Web addresses. Don't. First, not all addresses start with http://. Second, it thwarts e-mail and newsreader programs that automatically launch browsers when they click on a URL. Third, it forces people who cut-and-paste URLs to their bookmarks to type in the http:// anyway.

7. Attention service magazines: Much of the hoopla has been about multimedia applications such as Hot Java and Shockwave, but much of the substance has been the appearance of comprehensive, searchable databases. Regional magazines that run listings and reviews ought to keep tabs on these sites. Two of the best are MetroBeat and The Digital Dining Directory.

8. If you've got it, flaunt it again. Everybody's got the message that Web content needs to be original, and that shovelware won't work--right? Not always. Check out vintage Popular Mechanics issues at the magazine's PM Zone site. Or take a look at stories like "Ideal Husbands," or"School Girl Fancies" in the January 1850 issue of Godey's Lady's Book, posted by Electronic Historical Publications.

Now when is Fortune going to put up some of those great stories--and ads--from the 1930s?

Thom Forbes has written extensively on interactive communications.