Do poorly designed sites convert better?

[JohnH]

I'd take a simple design over a complex one any day. Usability matters. In terms of what the OP was asking/discussing I think the more simple the site the better the conversions. I take it on a page by page basis. Keeping it simple goes a long way, too many choices = poor conversions. Pretend like your visitors are "complete newbs to the web" and make it as easy as possible for them to convert.

So a poorly designed site might be a site with no side nav, minimal top nav, very minimal logo, and pretty much nothing but the content in your face.

VS a very nice designed site with all kinds of navigation, big fancy logo, colors everywhere, and lots of distraction for the eye.

Option 1 would convert way better imho. All other things being the same of course.

[pokerprop]

Again it depends on what the goal of the site is. If my goal is to get a player to register an account at Bodog and that is my full goal nothing more nothing less, a simple site like the one I referenced earlier converts best of all I have worked with.

Also to be clear I'm not talking about only for sites that leach off another brands keyword terms, I mean for all sites whether you're selling the best new toilet paper or trying to get someone to open up a gambling account the concept is the same. High quality content on a vast array of related topics linked together in simple format with a variety of blue text links. One that stands out on each page and a few that are subtle drops present through out the site. Different text same ad as far as where it directs them. This was the case in 1999 and it is the case in 2010.

Now if you're goal is to build a massive authority site, attract repeat visitors and build branding or to promote more than this is often no longer optimal.

One thing I want to make clear is I'm not advocating web spam. I see what many of you guys refer to as mini sites and we're not talking about the same thing. I get a lot of traffic from wikipedia and never once have edited or created a wiki page (though plan to start doing some at some point because I feel owe them now) this is because a great deal of research goes into the sites I make and the content is not simply rehashing the same old stuff over and over again on each page.

An after though there are a couple other keyword type websites where I might feel a more appealing flashy design would work better as well. Again it really depends on the goal of the website. Generally speaking if the goal is to convert for one specific thing then what I suggested earlier works best.

[3jokers]

It would be sad if that was the case.

[Tom]

A simple well laid out site usually will convert better than an overly graphic and artistic site.

Focus on calls to action and where you want to direct you visitor. Do not get them distracted by useless pictures or content.