Before we look at who (or what) you should be provoking, let’s be clear about which usage of provoke we are intending.
Below are a few definitions for provoke that can be found at dictionary.com.
- to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex.
- to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity)
- to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action.
- to give rise to, induce, or bring about.
The form of provoke that is intended in the expression “Before you promote — provoke” is all of the above except for #1 — stir up, arouse, call forth, incite, stimulate to action, give rise to, induce, or bring about.
And who should you be provoking. First yourself, then a few friends, then hopefully your target audience.
Before you promote a website — or web page — you need to incite yourself to really, really look at the site and make sure it does one very important thing. If your website does not do this one very important thing, then you should not be spending money to promote it.
What is this very important thing? In a minute, I’ll tell ya in a minute.
But first, let’s look at this issue of provoking a few friends. What is that all about? Simple, before you spend money to promote your website you must provoke a few friends into looking at the site, really looking at it. Not saying they will look at it later, then watching some youtube clips. They really need to look at it. Will all the friends you ask actually look at your site? No. But, you must get at least a few people to look at your site and give you a little feedback.
What is the feedback you want from these few friends you have provoked into looking at your website? You want to know if your website accomplishes that “very important thing” mentioned above. Can your friends tell you this? No, probably not. But they can jabber on for awhile; and, if you listen carefully you might be able to glean from their feedback whether or not the said “very important thing” is being accomplished.
So what is this “very important thing?” Here it is. Does your website provoke readers to any action? Does it incite them? Does it stir them up, arouse them, stimulate, or call forth any action? If it does not do this, do not waste your money on promotion. There is no reason to promote a website that does not provoke some action.
That action can be contacting you for more information. That action can be making a purchase. Or that action can be clicking on a link that takes the reader to an affiliate program. But it needs to be something.
By the way. You may have noticed a lack of provocation to action in this blog. This blog is not designed to provoke an action. The information brought forth in these pages is for the benefit of my clients. When I get a question from a client, and I feel the answer to that question would benefit others, I post my response here. Admittedly some things fall into the category of “products of work in progress” and can’t be shared. But for those things that can be shared, this is my way of handing out homework.
