I recently took a "week off" to move. I put this in quotes because I have never worked so hard or seen so little of my family in all my life! To make matters more difficult, my wonderful wife is pregnant, which (for the poor dear) means a lot of sickness and other details that would not be appropriate for this post. Suffice it to say that, try as she might, she has not able to be much help in this process. We've moved before but not since we were newlyweds when we didn't really own anything. The stuff that did belong to us could pretty much fit in my 1997 Mazda Protege'. We are at a considerably different stage in our lives now. I knew we had a lot of stuff, but I didn't know that almost all of it belonged in the kitchen!
This got me thinking about websites, of course. (I hadn't worked all week; I was going through withdraws.) We've talked before about some of the similarities between building a house and building a website, but there is more to be explored. Websites are often very disproportionate. Business owners and entrepreneurship might be tempted to try to even this out, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's probably a good thing. Here's why:
Redistribution is Not the Key
In My House
In our new house we have less kitchen and cabinet space than in our old one. Don't get me wrong, the kitchen is better, and the sink is actually my favorite part of the house. Nonetheless, the amount of kitchen storage space is less. This has required a little bit of creativity on our part, but we're making it work. It would not, however, be appropriate to start keeping kitchen things in other parts of the house. The rice cooker doesn't belong in the playroom and drinking glasses don't belong in the garage. (Which is where I finally found those boxes, respectively.) Why not? Kitchen things belong in the kitchen.
On My Website
If you peruse my website a bit you will see that I have a several categories on my Blog page, far more than my About Us page. If you were to drill down further, you would find that I have far more articles that fall under the Website category than under the Free Stuff category. It would likewise be in appropriate to move some of the website articles to a category like Advertising. Why? Website articles belong in the website category.
Uniformity is Not Helpful
In My House
OK, so maybe I shouldn't scatter kitchen things throughout my house, but maybe I need to even things out. I need fewer things for the kitchen and more things for the foyer, right? Clearly this is not the case. The truth is, both we and our guests spend a lot more time in the kitchen than in the foyer. The foyer should look nice an welcoming, but we don't want our guests to linger in the doorway. We want them to come in, feel at home and (more times than not) enjoy a good meal or a tasty treat while talking, playing a game or watching a movie. For all of this, the kitchen becomes a pivotal room in our house. The kitchen is what allows us to live and entertain the way we want. More time, more benefit, more stuff.
On My Website
When I first started blogging, I had hopes of paying an equal number of posts per category. I soon realized that my interests were not equivalent in each categories. Honestly, that's even good. Not all design topics will generate the same number of clients or same amount of revenue for me. It could actually hinder the business generated by my blogs if I spent too much time talking about that which doesn't make me much money at the expense of talking about my more profitable areas. More business, more benefit, more stuff.
Where Your Treasure Is
Where your treasure is, there you're heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there your time, efforts, energy and resources should be also. Put the bulk of your development behind the areas in your business that have the greatest return on your investment. This does not mean you should ignore the supportive areas of your site. It merely means to give them the appropriate attention. Put your stuff in the kitchen, not the foyer.