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Web users form first impressions of web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second), according to Canadian researchers.

OK, so we need to make good first impression. That should not be news to anyone. My mom told me that.

Hmm. Maybe we need to be told such news over and over again. I’m thinking my mom probably had to tell me more than once that you only have once chance to make a first impression.

Which makes you wonder. In the Internet world - how long does it take until we forget the first impression?

I think a very important question is “What happens after you have made the first impression?” How to you keep your readers coming back for more?

You might remember how Liz at successful-blog.com helped me find a way to solve my Technorati problem… well, I thanked her and left her blog.

Then I wrote about my experience and Liz called me a SOB! The funny thing is that I only found out thanks to … Technorati showing links to my blog.

In the comment section to Liz’s post there was a discussion going on. It was partially on the value of the SOB list. It was also partially of a nature that Liz asked the commenters to take the discussion off-line.

I thanked Liz and, kind of as a response to the discussion going on, mentioned that I had not fully figured out her business model.

Roar Says:
February 21st, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Hi Liz. I just noticed my SOB. Thank you so much. While I’m still trying to figure out your business model I must say that your blog helped me solve one of my problems. So, because of your SOB list I found help for my Technorati problem.

Thanks, Roar

Liz followed up and we ended up exchanging some e-mails on what I was wondering about. From our conversation, and my later thinking about this issue, I’d like to share a couple of points.

Value

As bloggers we must show our readers we give them something of value. It could be information or an emotional impact. Without being able to easily see the value proposition, a reader is not that likely to come back to a blog.

Trust

Our readers need to be able to trust us. Without some kind of trust it will not matter if our content is great!

Usability

Our valuable content, presented in a trusted way, must be easy to find

Key Message Positioning

Your key message, the essence of your “About” page must be visible at all times

In Liz’s case her blog is full of blogging tips. But I had not seen that. When looking at her site, I had not found this referenced in the About section. And with a discussion about her SOB list making me think that there might be little value here, why should I come back?

Liz convinced me that she is serious. She convinced me I can trust her content. I suggested she make it easier for people to find out. I also suggested she change her SOB requirements to increase the value to me as a reader, and that she should add descriptions to the SOB list to make it even easier for me to understand her choices.

Since then Liz has posted some really good references to similar blogging ideas. She talked about understanding your customer:

First impressions tell customers that a business understands who their customers are and that the business knows what their customers are looking for.

Since, in her Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist post, she has shared some great editing ideas.

It looks to me that “keeping the attention” boils down to making it a customer experience worth coming back to!

roar at roarweb dot com

Technorati Tags: first impressions, successful-blog.com, Technorati, value, trust, Usability, blogging tips, customer experience, roar, roarweb