Coming Soon Rules

January 18, 2005

Half way through January and I am finally catching up. Having just returned from a meeting with a client in New York City, and I would love to do something like Doug has done with his photos, but until that happens here are two photos from the trip, Pigeon in the way and Times Square—the real life version of banner advertising overload. Moving on, I can’t believe that it has been over ten years now since I have been introduced to the ‘world wide web.’ During these ten years there has been one page that I consistently run into on the web, that is the “coming soon” page. I am sure we have all made one, visited one, visited it a week later and it’s still there. I know I have made several. When it comes down to it, those pages are pretty useless.

Why are the “coming soon” pages useless, and let me clarify, I refer to the pages that only say “coming soon” or “check back soon”? Number one reason, is that the visitor doesn’t have any idea how long that page has been up or when to expect to check back. Second, why offer a link to a page that doesn’t have any worth while content.

The Rules

I have come up with a few rules for the “coming soon”.

1. Give your coming soon page a deadline. That is, let the visitor know when you plan to update the page. For example, “Coming soon later this January”, or if you have a deadline use that, “Coming this Friday January 21, 2005.”
2. If the page is devoid of any content add a graphic mock-up of what plan on the page to look like. (see example)
3. Add some more content on what to expect, a quick tutorial, a marketing blurb, photos of your dog—not really.
4. Consider offering a RSS feed for that page, so when it is updated people subscribed to it will know.

Setting a definite expectation for the “coming soon” page will help reduce frustration, confusion, and annoyance.