Blog 3 - Matty P's 7 C's

Few of us, unless in the industry, truly understand the schematics and design strategy of a successful and profitable web page. We go about surfing our web, checking our email, and purchasing our items without knowing, and possibly caring what actions the marketer took to get you there. Centsports.com is an online gambling site based on advertising and community. The user pays nothing out of their pocket because they watch ads from various businesses in exchange for a small amount to bet with. For this blog, I will discuss why Centsports.com does a second-to-none job at accomplishing what most call “the 7 C’s of web design.”

1) Context – or the layout/design of the page. Centsports.com uses colors and layout that most monitors have little trouble displaying. Research shows that a dark background [somewhat like this blog, ironically] will not display as sharp as it could with a high definition monitor. This means older screens may have trouble. Centsports.com alleviates this by using the color scheme they do.

2) Content – or the text, pictures, and audio/video aspect. Their logo is easy on the eyes and the text is informative. They have directions easy to follow for new users and just enough advertising to keep veteran users from becoming annoyed.

3) Community – or the user-to-user part. Centsports.com keeps the people talking by allowing your friends to comment on your bonehead bets. Even better, if you sign up a “crony,” you will earn 5% of their winnings – paid by the advertisers for life.

4) Customization – or personalization. Centsports.com allows people to display their bets on facebook.com to show how well they know sports. This feature proves useful because people are personalizing their facebook account with this business – creating, if nothing else, buzz.

5) Communication – or site-to-user. A good web site should allow the users to contact the webmaster at any given point. Centsports clearly displays the “contact us” link possibly easing people’s minds.

6) Connection – also known as linkages to other sites and vice versa. As mentioned before, Censports.com uses the advertising e-business model based on community. Skyscraper ads frequent the site along with very modern animated and filmed scroll-over’s. Further, facebook.com, as written above is at the top of the screen making it easily taking the helms to other sites.

7) Commerce – or the commercial transactions. I already mentioned how the site makes money; but what about the user? Once you reach $10 you can cash out – filling your own pockets and leaving you with a sense of accomplishment by taking nothing, and making it something.

All in all, Centsports.com accomplishes the 7 C’s just fine – making me consistently come back.

update: 15 Jan 2010
current Centsports.com balance = $120