Visually Impressive vs. Profitably Impressive Websites
B2B copywriter, Bob Bly has a brilliant post on his blog about what sells on websites: Eye-popping design or Basic design and kick-arse copy.
This is a huge debate between web designers and business development folks in most companies. Web designers sit in front of their computers Monday to Friday, busy designing more and more amazing images and technical feats but the business development folks are actually accountable for the sales made on the website.
On this post you will also see several responses from different perspectives, so you can make an intelligent decision about whom to put on your next web project: A designer (and artist) or a marketer (a scientist)