How many times do we go to a website only to get shut out?  Something is not working correctly or there seems to be a little annoying bug running rampant in the system.  That website is your company’s one and only presence, the only place a user/viewer/shopper can see you and spend money.

Digg, for example, just got crushed and went offline because of this article, 10 Steps to Guarantee You Make the Digg Front Page.  At this time it has over 4000 digs.  It is also a very worthwhile read, for those interested.

As a seperate instance, Seth Godin makes a point in The really critical stuff that Amazon’s shopping carts have been down for the past few days.  To Amazon, that means about $9,000 a minute.  What would you possible tell stakeholders to explain that?  It is like, “Every single Walmart in the country not being able to open their doors because the locks are jammed. (Seth Godin)” 

When a company is in beta, it is expected to be greeted by errors occasionally.  They are learning.  And most of the time, these online companies are being started by people under the age of 25.  Once it starts making money though (or more to the point, getting investments) it needs to become very aware of its user’s experience.  Marketing dollars are not spared, why should development be?

tags: amazon, digg, development, business, websites, technology, beta

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