All great websites have one thing in common, they have unique and interesting content.
Craigslist and Google have proved that it doesn't take flashy overpowering designs to be successful. Their success comes from their ability to help their audience solve problems.
One of my favorite websites that I believe does an excellent job of keeping me coming back for more is Sweetmarias.com. They don't have a flashy website, but they do provide content that is useful to the DIY Roaster. They produce passionate, well written content about the products they sell. Truth be told I bought my roaster from sweetmarias.com. Because of their confidence and encouragement, I ended up buying a roaster from them anyway, despite the fact that it was out of stock. I was told that for an entry lever Roaster it would be pretty tough to mess up the coffee. They basically educated me on how to roast my own coffee and provided me with the information to talk intelligently about what I was actually doing.
The next step for me was to buy Green coffee. I thought I could find a wholesaler online that would offer great deals on the different types of coffee. After I did my first search, I ended right back at SweetMarias because they far out weight the competition.
I was blown away with the level of information they shared about each of their beans. It was like reading a guide for a fine wine. It gave you the chance to join in on their passion for coffee. Needless to say, I feel like more of a coffee lover after I was done roasting some of their beans. .
Although I do think that SweetMarias could benefit from a well thought out design for their site, in the end the design isn't the most important part. It's the content! SweetMarias.com does an excellent job transferring their passion for coffee to their website using their content, instead of an incredibly intricate design.
If I was a part of the their marketing team, I would suggest slowly rolling out incremental design updates. By creating a new, user centered design, it will keep the current users engaged while attracting new users to the content filled site. They have the potential to be the industry leader in the look and feel along with their already amazing content.
Well done Sweetmaries.com, well done!