Photography: Nooooooo by fabbio

This is the second post in a series on the ‘Simple Web’ philosophy I subscribe to. It’s a philosophy of completing only the actions that grow your site and cutting out those that don’t. You’ll get the most out of this post by reading the introduction to the series, followed by its second part on creating a gripping site.

Once you’ve created gripping content and a gripping environment for it, the next step is to construct a site that resonates with your reader.

You might have the most clickable headlines in the world coupled with a flawlessly simple and usable design, but if your ideas don’t resonate, it won’t count for much.

Resonance is a prerequisite for every reader action that works to grow your site. The behavioral flow is: entry — grip — resonance — interaction — talk, and resonance is arguably the most important link in the chain. Readers won’t interact with the site if they don’t resonate with it. Readers won’t talk about it if they don’t resonate with it. But a reader can talk about it without interacting, and vice versa.

In other words, resonance is key. In this post, I want to show you how to create a site with the resonance of a bell.

What is resonance?

Resonance is not the same as agreement, or even disagreement — though it may involve either. Resonance is understanding followed by an internal reaction.

Content with this resonance is at first understood, but what happens after is more unpredictable. Does it link-in with feelings of self-confidence, or feelings of inadequacy? Does it make a point the reader has always felt, but never been able to articulate? Does it arouse emotions? Approval? Amusement? Does it seem as if the information will contribute to ‘being better’ at something?

Any kind of understanding and internal reaction is resonance, whatever form it may take. Understanding alone is not enough. Your words must mean something to the reader. When I tell you “The sky is blue,” you certainly understand, but it won’t resonate because it’s old knowledge.

Building a design that resonates

1. Create an About page that resonates. Don’t simply list the topics you write about — explain your core message, your mission statement, and what you hope to bring. Make sure it’s something no-one has seen before.

I’d argue that there are two types of resonance: resonance with a general message and resonance with a specific one. A reader might resonate with the idea of making money online, but how can you be unique enough with your mission statement that the reader will also build specific resonance with your site alone?

2. Create a design that resonates with your message. Once you’ve worked out your unique message and mission statement, take some time to think about how you could use your design to further that message. For me, it’s incredibly important to have a simple, minimalist design because simplicity is something I often advocate. If my design were messy and cluttered, my calls for simplicity wouldn’t resonate at all.

To extend the make money online example earlier, a blog I think does this particularly well is Dosh Dosh. The site has built itself around approaching the topic in a friendly and fun way, and the design reflects that perfectly. Does your design suit your message?

3. Do the words and structure resonate? It’s easy to forget, sometimes, that your design and navigation is hinged on words and expressions you can change, and structures that can be rebuilt in different ways. Can you mine opportunities to resonate from these elements?

Repairing a design that doesn’t resonate

1. If your design says “I’m not serious”, rebuild it. If it’s messy, cluttered, sloppy, or jarring in any way, your design is an obstacle. It’s what your content comes clothed in. If your content is badly dressed, it appears less trustworthy and informed.

Wordpress users are spoiled for choice when it comes to gorgeous, easy-to-use themes. There’s really no excuse for a bad design.

2. Fix elements that say “I’m in this for me.” Nothing spoils the resonance of a blog that tells the reader “I’m doing this for you” like ad placement which impedes usability.

In-text advertising, or blocks of AdSense within blog posts, say: “This content comes at a cost.” This loss of resonance will be crippling in the long-term.

A simple, suggested solution: less ads + less clutter = less ad-blindness + more clicks.

Build content that resonates

1. Focus on clarity. Your idea might be a great one, but it won’t mean much if readers can’t understand it. I’m a firm believer in the principle that even complicated ideas can be expressed in simple terms if enough care and attention is put into the process.

Readers won’t resonate with your content if its meaning isn’t clear to them. What you think is over-simplification is probably just right; after all, you already understand.

2. Does it bear resonating qualities? These might include: the promise of self-improvement, new but welcome knowledge, humor, interesting facts, a powerful story, or any other qualities likely to elicit an internal reaction.

3. Another option for resonating content: does it articulate something your readers already believe? We spend so much time trying to avoid stating the obvious but, strangely enough, those that do are often rewarded.

What seems like common sense often seems to others like material worthy of the front page of Digg. People have a lot of opinions and beliefs and little time to express them. They tend to reward those that express what they’ve been thinking but haven’t had time (or the desire) to say.

You can bet that the Miss South Carolina video was most popular among those who already had certain views about blondes and beauty-pageant contestants. It’s why articles discussing why StumbleUpon is so great do well on StumbleUpon, or why articles about Digg’s greatness do so well on Digg.

In short: people like to see their own world-views reaffirmed.

4. Is it what the reader has been looking for, but didn’t know it? Often content with the potential to become wildly popular is content that taps into a want or need that has not yet been acknowledged in the niche.

Some suggestions on how to pick these up: participate in forums and scrutinize comments on sites in your niche, including your own. You may be able to pick up a problem others have as yet been unable to solve. Another strategy is to look inwards: what is the most important unanswered question you want answered? The next step is to answer it yourself.

5. Pick a voice that resonates. A humor blog begs for informal language, an authority blog begs for great spelling, grammar and expression, a copywriting blog begs for crisp, lyrical writing. Is your voice betraying your message, or resonating with it?

Repairing content that doesn’t resonate

1. Listen to comments and feedback (or the lack thereof). If it’s clear that readers don’t understand, or have misunderstood you, I’m sure it’s tempting for some to believe that the ‘right’ reader would have understood. Not so. If readers aren’t resonating with your content, the cause almost always lies in your own practice. How could you have been clearer? How might you have expressed things more simply?

2. Put readers first, social media second. The real reason why Digg-bait and link-bait are almost dirty-words is that they imply content which puts in-bound links before readers. The mind of the author can be seen too clearly, constructing each sentence, bullet-point, link and screenshot for maximum social media impact.

In truth, link-bait articles are often really valuable to both readers and social media users, but it’s the sense of self-interest behind them which gives them a bad name. The key is to write content addressed squarely at readers, while simultaneously having the capacity to resonate with social media users, too. It’s tricky, but you can get better at anything with practice.

3. Minimizing content with little resonance. ‘Thanking your sponsors’, paid reviews of products we could all do without, and badly presented link-round ups are all examples of content with little chance for resonance. Before hitting publish, ask yourself: does this have more value for readers than it does for me? If not, question whether the content is worth publishing.

How this ties into the ‘Simple Web’

Every word that doesn’t resonate is wasted. Like cotton wool around a bell, the elements of your site that don’t resonate will counter-balance the resonance you do achieve. Once again, there are no zero actions.

There is a tendency to think that elements which don’t resonate, but don’t impact on the resonance of other elements, are harmless — that it doesn’t matter whether they exist or not. Surely this is the logic behind self-serving posts, or self-serving advertisements.

The ‘Simple Web’ philosophy doesn’t accept this. What adds nothing to your site also hinders it. It’s an action you could have spent elsewhere. It works against the resonance you’ve achieved.

Will your next action be +1, or -1? Refuse to accept an internal ‘neither’. Your site and your own actions will be sleeker, more focused and more effective because of it.

In the third post in the series I’ll be explaining how you can ensure every inch of both your layout and content encourages interaction from new and regular visitors, and how you can eliminate -1 and zero actions in that area.