Custom Coming Soon Page?

purple

purple

New member
When you buy a domain and are working on getting traffic brewing do you put up a custom "coming soon" page or a static page with some basic info and "more coming soon" or do you go from being non-existent to online overnight? Is any of these considered a better way of doing things based on page ranking/page crawling/directory submitting?
 
If you believe inthe sandbox theory, then it would be good to put up a page of any kind and link to it from another page that's already been indexed, so that the search engines become aware of the new site's existence as soon as possible.
 
We typically go with a different approach using the "Coming Soon" theory.

For example, for the launch of our new site, since it will no longer be catering to only software, but also design, media, and audio/visual entertainment services...

We're going with a contest, built around the date of launch. As such, we're using a very detailed flash animated countdown clock, and providing clues to win the contest, throughout the timeframe.

This gets people to come back over and over to get the next clue, gives them something to look forward to, and lets them know that something is "coming soon".
 
I put up my own website under construction notice when we first opened our website. Honestly I don't think it really accomplished a thing. For me it seems like you are either there open for business or you are not.
 
When a site is going to be lauched it should be ready to go right away. Under construction pages are a waste, except ANMMark's concept. If I see an under construction or coming soon I keeping going because I feel them unprepared for some reason.
 
We try :D

Something we always strive to do is be unique, but still traditional. Typically, taking a traditional idea and making it your own by doing something new with it.

It's pretty clear that a basic "Coming Soon" isn't going to accomplish anything. People see it as being unprepared.

However, the question comes in, "Well I'm in the middle of creating the site. The hosting for the site is in place, etc. How do I let people know we're there?"

If you feel the need to put something up, but don't have any new ideas....how about an contact method be listed. At least then, the people can contact you with questions, etc.
 
ANMMark said:
We're going with a contest, built around the date of launch. As such, we're using a very detailed flash animated countdown clock, and providing clues to win the contest, throughout the timeframe.

This gets people to come back over and over to get the next clue, gives them something to look forward to, and lets them know that something is "coming soon".
Click to expand...

Be interested to know how that works out for you. The contest idea to bring them back is clever.

Personally if i see an under-construction, or coming soon page, i'm probably never going to be back to see what was coming (if ever it does arrive).
There's no "incentive" to bookmark a page with no information on, the web's too large and awkward to navigate that I cant myself see the point of having anything there if you're not ready for visitors ...
 
We have actually used the method once before about 8 years ago, and it worked like a charm.....sorta.

I say sorta because we weren't expecting what happened lol.

We opened a on-site chatroom to have something of an "online launch party" (complete with DJ that streamed live).

Now, while this "party" was going on, we had a small countdown (not file resource intensive, because it was just a countdown). So we watched as more and more...and more people started showing up to the site. If I remember correctly, it was in the area of close to 1500 - 1800 people.

The clock hit 00:00:00:00, the lights flickered (so to speak), and "GAH! Everything went down!!!" It's because the launch intro was resource intensive and was a quite large flash animation, and close to 2000 people were hitting it all at once.

So the re-launch of our HOSTING services greeted current, new, and potential customers with an oops, "page not found".

Overall however, the idea created exactly the buzz we wanted. Most people understood what happened, and we ultimately signed up 600+ of the close to 2000 people that were there. This means we increased our revenue in one night an average of $6000 per month. Considering it cost us about $300 to pull it off...it's not a bad turnaround.

and this was all based on a "Coming Soon" page with a spin
 
Sounds like a cool idea - I have never known a company to do something like that.

What I tend to do is keep the old site running until the new one is ready to go live.

I really like the launch party idea - especially for an online company :D
 
I have never, and would not, create a domain live without a contact page or link of some sort. Its unprofessional and shady to say the least. I enjoy the great feedback you guys give me. I never think of things the same way as some of you with more experience.

But I feel since I already have people looking for what I will be selling on the domain and traffic from the blog it will be connected to I don't want to set up links that aren't clickable on the blog (marked coming soon or some such) or have the site live but not completely live (no ordering capability) while I finish off things. Based on how long my first attempt at page rang took I worry about loosing time between buying the domain and launching the page.

I have actually though about programming it to say something similar to "under contruction-prolonged due to" and then a changing upon refresh saying. So once it would say walking the dog, then making dinner, washing my hair, etc. I want as much up when I make it "live" as possible but I've got some learning to do with the shopping cart/e-commerce side before I can open it up for orders.
 
Rob said:
Sounds like a cool idea - I have never known a company to do something like that.

What I tend to do is keep the old site running until the new one is ready to go live.

I really like the launch party idea - especially for an online company :D
Click to expand...

Definitely, I don't believe in using a Coming Soon page.
 
Exactly! I can understand if you are new in the field or something, but when I see the full domain as "coming soon" I walk away too. I run away quicker when I see a site that is up and all their links are "coming soon". :uhh:
 
I do think ANMMark has the right idea. Customer interaction would definitely help them remember who you are and what you do. Just a blank page saying "under construction" seldom gets me to come back unless it tells me something about what is coming. Just a basic HTML page listing the sites purpose and/or products would be a good idea and would get me to come back and visit.

Chris
 
I like using coming soon pages but I usually fill it with information on what the website is going to be and the expected launch date. I have a contact form and a couple of links to my other websites so they can check out who I am
 
Political coming soon

A certain politician did a successful coming soon page. It was actually a relaunch. He was out of the current race and they did not only a redesign of his site, but a redesign of his entire political purpose (for the present). They advertised about the countdown to all those on their emailing lists and it created a stir, with many hoping for a big announcement on the day the unveiling was to happen. Sad to say it was a bit disappointing, but the effect of the countdown was certainly successful, in my opinion.
 
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