Comments on: Turn an Error into an Opportunity (Commercial ‘404′)

By: Nichola

Nichola — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:51:12 +0000

Oooh! David. That is a great idea! I agree it could be easily gamed; however setting up a rule for errors navigated to as opposed to entry point could weed some of that out. Thanks for that!

By: David Whitehouse

David Whitehouse — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:42:07 +0000

Even better, go one step further and offer a 5-10% discount code on the 404 page – open to a small amount of misuse, but on the whole a good idea, prevents people leaving.

(Not my idea though, Seth Godin’s – clever chap).

By: What Is Conversion Rate Optimisation | The Media Flow | theMediaFlow.com

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:11:27 +0000

[...] 8. Make sure your error page is commercialised. [...]

By: Nichola

Nichola — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:56:22 +0000

@Dean – I’m really pleased you found this to be helpful, when there is already a lot of good examples out there. I like your tongue- in-cheek examples and think they fit the tone of voice of the sites on which they are found (or rather ‘not found’) perfectly!

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:00:14 +0000

Great advice, i know Joost put up a great article at the beginning of November to aid Wordpress 404`s : http://yoast.com/404-error-pages-wordpress/

Some of my fave 404`s:

http://www.catalyststudios.co.uk/404
http://www.fudgegraphics.com/404

and

http://www.sitesketch101.com/404-error

By: Nichola

Nichola — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:14:04 +0000

@Sarah

Good point and nice examples

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:19:14 +0000

Depending on the website and if you can get away with it, it’s sometimes nice to have a slightly fun or quirky 404 page – particularly as it may act as link bait and therefore raise the profile of your site.

Personally, I rather like: http://www.dazeofourlives.com/404.htm
and
http://www.orangecoat.com/404