*** WARNING! Click the Image at Your Own Risk! ***

Too many websites are like Muzak; kind of safe, kind of boring, kind of forgettable. None of these terms apply to Ling Valentine’s LingsCars.com. It’s busy, crowded, eye-achingly garish but, in a train-wreck sort of a way you can’t help but be drawn in by its break-every-rule-in-the-web-design book approach.

And with a reported 500+ links on the home page alone it’s impossible not to find something to click on.

Does it work? Apparently pretty darned well. Ling is reported to be one of the leading car dealers in all of Britain (where she’s located) and draws in over 70,000 unique visitors a month.

By the way, I was introduced to Ling and her crazy site by this post at Ninja-nerd.com: Website Atrocity – Things you Should NEVER do to your Web Site.

Three Things You Should Do

I recommend that you …

1. Take a trip to http://www.LingsCars.com. Don’t just pop-in, say ewww, and bounce out. Scroll around. Click a bit. Take a real tour.
2. Read the Website Atrocity post AND read all the (65 as of this writing) comments. You’ll see some real gems, most agreeing with Ninja-Nerd Daiv Russell’s view of ‘atrocity’ but a few contrarians (me included) who wish we were bold enough – and creative enough – to be as ‘bad’ as Ling. By the way Ling Valentine – in the digital flesh – posts a couple of must-read comments herself. Very cool.
3. Weigh in with your take. Come back here to comment or leave your views at Daiv’s place but make sure you add your voice to a very interesting debate.

Oh, and if you’re aware of any other sites that are successful despite their flaunting of accepted web design dogma, throw a shout out to them as well.