Insights from Nebo

People like to joke that the only real constant in life is change, but change has an interesting way of affecting people that often results in resistance. This resistance usually comes from a fear of disruptions to established patterns, jobs or power. At the time of any technological advancement, there are always skeptics who adamantly say they’ll never accept change because of concerns over health, freedom and security.

But these days, it’s hard to imagine life without the technological innovations we once feared. It’s also difficult to understand how society was so afraid of the “scandalous” advances that now seem normal and, arguably, indispensable. It begs the question: what technology do we fear today that may become the norm tomorrow? And will our tech-induced anxiety stand in the way of our advancement?

When the band the Eagles broke up in 1980, co-lead singer Don Henley famously sneered that the band would play together again “when Hell freezes over.”

Well, for many years if you mentioned email marketing to anyone at Nebo you’d most likely be met with a response like, "Email marketing is the digital equivalent of junk mail. We don't do email marketing."

Taking a step back for a second, most everyone can agree that email marketing is an incredibly effective and useful tool. But with this, I’d also bet that most everyone can also agree that a whole lot of email marketing does in fact, well, suck. Just like junk mail.

While we felt this way for all the same reasons most folks do — spam, unsolicited blasts, lists we never signed up for, etc. — our issue actually went a level deeper.

In the legacy of the Nebo blog, there is one post so widely reviled, so deeply loathed, that we dare not speak its name. We refer to it only as: “The Pokemon Post.”

Within moments of its publication, our Facebook was flooded with angry comments — comments that had nothing to do with the post itself. It was clear that while many had commented, none had read.

Why is this post so criminally vile? It must be because people hate words. If only we could do away with reading, perhaps the masses would love us once again.

And so we set out on a mighty mission. A battle to overcome humanity's hatred of words, to save the reputation of the Nebo blog, and perhaps even to revive a once-beloved AR craze.

Here it is again — no reading required. (But if you're into that sort of thing, here's a sentence-by-sentence translation of our all-emoji post.)

If I had to describe me as a kid, it wouldn’t exactly be flattering. Men/boys who were as scared of things as I was would typically have been described with the very unfriendly term for a scaredy cat.

I was scared of pop-flies (and had the hit to the face to show for it.) I was scared of heights. White-water rapids, as well as six-inch drops in calm rivers. Roller coasters. Talking in class (and its next stage of terror, called public speaking.) Takeoffs and landings, to say nothing of turbulence.

And as I got older, the challenges and their related concerns simply grew.

But then in my mid-20s something magical happened. Well, to be specific, something magically terrible happened: I got divorced.

What is the main goal of a website?

To give people what they want as quickly and as easily as possible.

Users are always looking to do something, whether it’s finding information, killing time, being entertained, purchasing a product or staying up-to-date with the latest news. So how do we help people reach their goals? At Nebo, we combine SEO and UX.