Good means effective. Doing the job it’s supposed to do. It does not necessarily mean “attractive.” Advertising is about selling, not art.

Good point, though. Because there is a big disconnect on this point sometimes.

“Depends what you mean by the word ‘good.’”

Ted: Drudge may be an example of function over form. If you’re into news or politics, Drudge always delivers something interesting. Frankly, I think its ugliness is part of the appeal. Nothing else looks like this.

But to your point, it seems like ugly almost always wins in DM.

Maybe its the power of content over appearance. Or copy over design.

But back to the Drudge Report, all of the underlining makes it hard to read for me. It’s overkill. It discourages scanning because most people aren’t use to reading with that much underlinEd copy.

Of course, it may be unavoidable if every sentence is linked. The Internet protocol for linked text requires underlining.

So one has to ask. Could the site perform better with a modified layout? One wonders if they got there through testing. Or is it even worth testing such a big winner?

Entrepreneurs like Drudge find a way to break the norms. And the end result is not always pretty. But people buy for reasons that transcend beauty or immediately recognizable logic.

More and more I’m coming to see that anything below about a scroll and a half is wasted.

In general, probably because of sites like Drudge, the browser won’t scroll much but will click.

Why? It’s easier. And easier wins.