A coworker of mine who is familiar with the IGotNewsForYou project recently sent me this link: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Website-Development/The-Surprising-Truth-About-Ugly-Websites.html It's an article about the fact that "ugly" websites are actually quite popular and successful. It makes note of some obvious choices: Craigslist, Ebay and Drudge Report -- but the focus of the article is on an online dating site called Plenty of Fish. I'm sure Plenty of Fish is getting a lot of traffic from this article, but that's fine with me. I've never used an online dating service, but I've heard success stories, so why not right? And as long as you don't get a stinky fish...anyway, I digress. So why does "ugly" work? Well the article claims a few things. For example, it says that ugly sites are often trusted more by your regular consumer online; the person that doesn't trust the super slick site, the non-uber sophisticated consumer that wants to feel like they're dealing with real people and not mega corporations trying to scam their butts. It also talks about the fact that many "ugly" sites (and I continuously seem to be putting ugly in double quotes because ugly is still subjective) are very often easy to use, and ease of use (or function over form) almost always wins the day. It's an interesting story. Apparently Plenty of Fish (which is free to join) makes $10,000/day from AdSense alone (the Google ads you see on their site). I really have a hard time believing that, but even if the number is half that, it's still quite amazing for such an ugly site. While perusing a long-overdue list of blogs that I try and read regularly, I came across the same article with a brief analysis at Escape Velocity. The author of this blog points out that it may not really be that ugly sells, but that ease of use or simplicity can sell. But certainly there are plenty of very fancy/beautiful websites that sell too, so using one example of an "ugly" site and showing that it sells shouldn't cause everyone to redesign their website tomorrow. Still, it does show that it's possible to make money online without having the slickest site around, using the latest technologies. There are millions and millions of people online that don't know what AJAX, CSS or even HTML mean. These people don't necessarily care that your site sings songs and dances jigs; they care about finding what they want, quickly, with minimal hassle, on a site they feel they can trust. I think IGotNewsForYou will provide people with a comfortable, straightforward style. The design isn't what I'd call "ugly", but it's definitely simple. I've used style techniques from sites that I admire, sites that I consider effective. The content is basic, and the steps you need to take in order to get the goods are few and obvious. So let's hope "ugly" does sell, and people tell me "IGotNewsForYou.com is ugly!" (while they're spending money) (Technorati Tags: drudge report, ugly sells, escape velocity, ebay, craigslist)