Folder naming drill? /Affiliates/ or /partners/
We are creating our affiliate section. It is a simple task for us as our architecture is an integrated one. Now while creating this affiliate section, I was in doubt whether to keep it under /partners/ or /affiliates/.
Looks like a simple question, Isn’t it? This is a simple question but the answer can teach you many things about web. This is a one good example of “Conventions Vs Creativity” (I touched about it at Search Camp this year). Let’s look at this very carefully.
Learning some big lessons from this naming drill
- When you see /affiliates/ you clearly understand that it is about Affiliate programs but when you see /partners/ YOU NEED TO THINK, it can be a links section, it can be some technological or business partners etc etc. (Remember golden rules, “DON’t MAKE ME THINK”)
- People who mean to promote web marketing products through affiliates do search for web marketing affiliate programs but hardly anyone for web marketing partners. (Search engine friendly keywords, This also helps us understand that search engine friendly keywords and also user friendly keywords.)
- /affiliates/ is a subset of /partners/ .. if you need you can promote affiliates from /partners/ folder as one of the options.
- Lesson: Conventions are your best friends. The world has already spent enough money on teaching them about affiliates, affiliate marketing etc, now you can encash it by using the conventional word “affiliate”. (Using general conventions can simplify things for users.)
Conventions vs Creativity – Purple cows are not sell-able
If you have read the purple cow by Seth Godin, you will try to be creative at all point in time. It can backfire at times. Be creative only when you need to see attention. If you start selling “Purple cow” ads then it will bring wrong people to your company and the potential customers may just ignore it as they are more interested in “normal cows for milk”. So use conventions and creativity purposefully. If I am given a chance to choose between conventions and creativity then my answer will be “IT DEPENDS” (but in 90% of the cases I will go with conventions as I am a big fan of simplicity)