I am constantly blown away by the tools technology makes available to us. Crazy things are possible – sending money instantly between bank accounts, navigating using GPS, robot investors, etc. etc. Crazy stuff.
As an online business owner, I have more ways to examine the health and effectiveness of my business and marketing than ever before.
One of my favorite tools is an analytics product called Inspectlet. I found this when I was building Tixers several years ago, and it’s incredible.
Inspectlet embeds itself within the code of your website and records user activity on your pages. You can literally watch a recording of how someone interacted with your website, view heatmaps of where their attention lingered, and more.
I installed it on jayclouse.com and unrealcollective.com months ago, but didn’t take a look through the recordings until yesterday.
Why?
Because it sucks to know. It sucks to watch recording after recording of someone coming to your website only to scroll past everything and bounce within a matter of a few seconds.
But this isn’t unique to me – this is just the way attention on the internet works. Most people will bounce after a short amount of time.
But there is incredible insight to be found. You learn where people are drawn in, what they skip over, what aspects are annoying, and where people ultimately leave the website from. It’s a truly powerful way to hone your messaging and design.
But it still sucks. It still feels like getting punched in the face.
That’s how good products are made. You start somewhere, you get punched in the face, learn from your mistakes, get punched in the face some more, and so on. Nobody nails it on the first try.
So in a world where we have tools to make getting punched in the face more readily available, we need to be brave and use them. Some people will like your work, and some people won’t. It’s not for everyone!
You need feedback. If you’re not willing to take feedback, to get punched in the face, you will not succeed.
So when you’re getting punched in the face, just know that it’s worth it.