I'm supposed to ask you, first

Happy Friday,

A business article I read this week said “creators” should never create anything without making sure it’s what people want. Survey, survey, survey, he said.

There’s some merit to that.

But still. All I could think of was Henry Ford saying if he’d asked people what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.

There’s some merit to that, too.

One of the companies I work for wants to do a survey and I’m cringing a little bit. Know why? Because they want to offer a cash gift for responding. And I get it. When you offer people cash for responding, they’re more likely to respond.

Problem is, when they’re getting money to respond, people tend to try say what they think you want to hear. It’s a lose/lose, really. Because if you don’t offer a perk, only the fringe dwellers respond. The die-hard fans. And their replies aren’t any more indicative of the general outlook.

A company I almost worked with years ago developed a product they’d made after doing a survey. No one bought it. Even all the people who responded to the survey and said yes, they would buy that. They just said what the company wanted to hear.

Then there’s the people who take surveys so they can get some frustration off their chest. If there’s even one open text field - wow. Earful.

Maybe you can tell I’m working on a project? I’m supposed to ask you, but I didn’t. Instead, I used my eyes to guide me.

Quite some time ago, I wrote a story (on Medium) about mistakes authors make on their websites. Everyone makes the same mistakes. Even Pulitzer winners make the same mistakes. Then someone asked me to write about “good” author sites.

So I started looking for good author sites that hit all the buttons a websites is supposed to hit. So far, I’ve found two. I wish I was kidding.

Know why that happens? Because usually, marketers aren’t designers and designers aren’t marketers. If we built houses like we build websites, some would be built without plugins, or toilets, or faucets. But wow, look at that circular staircase!!

I’m going to be looking for case studies when I get this thing done. It’s close, but not there yet. But for now, I have a question for you.

If you’re a writer and you have a website — is it working for you? As in, does it go into the world and find your readers for you so you don’t need to spend your time running around the internet hawking yourself?

If not, why do you think that is? Just curious.

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More reading

• Can Someone Please Change The Error Code? I’m Getting Flashbacks

• If You’re Sick of the Nonsense, This Is For You

• $125,000 Writing Challenge Pays $5K to 25 Winners, Not Just 4. Lol. Sorry.

• They Say Marilyn Monroe’s Mother Was Insane. I’m Not So Sure.

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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! Did you know if you click the heart or leave a comment, Substack gives you stars for being a responsive reader? You can’t see them, but I can. They make me smile when I see them. Weird, but true.

xo,
Linda