David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

Here's a tip you can learn from the music industry. With each new release of a site, make sure you are moving forward. Standing still adds no value to your site, no value to the user experience and will not help you climb the search engine rankings.

Today's lesson comes from Rhianna, Akon, Michael Jackson and Manu Dibango.
 
The Beginning

Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango (1972) is dubbed as one of the first Disco tunes, peaking at number 35 on the US Billboard chart in 1973. "Mama-ko, mama-sa, mama-ma-ko-sa" are the lyrics used throughout the song.



In web terms, this is your version 1.0. This is your base site that you have launched. It could be about anything. It could do anything. The point is that you have a base site. Something to work from.

Version 2

Roll on 10 years and Michael Jackson releases Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (1983), featuring the lyrics "Mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ma-koo-sa" from Soul Makossa by Manu Dibango.



In web terms, this was something different, with the familiar core. From version 1, you should have realised what works and what doesn't. Anything that doesn't work should be booted out or relegated to a smaller segment. Anything that proves popular should be accentuated.

Version 2.1

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008 is a collaboration between Michael Jackson and Akon and is not too dissimilar to the original.



In web terms, this represents the tweaks needed to make sure version 2 works properly! Relatively speaking, it is easier to develop Version 1 into 2 rather than transforming Version 2.0 into 2.1.

Version 3.0

In 2008, Rhianna releases Please Don't Stop The Music, sampling Michael Jackson's 1983 hit. Just like Michael Jackson's song, the familiar undertones are there but it's something significantly different.



Now compare Rhianna with Manu Dibango. Miles apart. But if Manu had been able to see the potential for future music, there was nothing stopping him write an identical song to Rhianna. Granted nobody would have bought it as it wasn't the vibe back then unlike now.

But the point still stands. You have to develop incarnations of your sites in order to make more money, perform better in the search engines, etc. You can install tweaks and mods (version 2.0 to 2.1) and not see too much difference. You could jump from Version 2 to 3 and see a significant difference.

The moral to this tale. Singers are constantly evolving. What was a hit in 1972 would flop today. Similarly what is big today may only have been discovered after playing around with an old version. Don't be afraid to experiment and track what works and what doesn't. You'd be suprised.