June 2006 Archives

I was talking with Laura the other day about dynamic websites. Ever the aesthete with an eye for color and focal points, she said, "Aren't those sites really just a bunch of words?"

She's right to a degree. I have seen alot of dynamic website pages that don't have a boss. In other words, nothing draws your attention. There is no focal point. They are content heavy, pulling data from databases, and pouring it onto the page ad infinitum. Blog sites can be a little that way, lots of reading, lots of links, low on visuals, right? The problem is nothing is the boss, there's no focal point, nothing to draw attention. And here's the bigger question. Who has time to read all that anyway?

When it comes to navigating a website or a blog, I'd much rather see my way through with images and graphics, than read my way through with content alone. Is anyone with me?

Great content is wonderful, but content alone does not a great website make. I like the trends we see in website design, fresh colors, lots of white space, large fonts, etc. For examples, visit http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm, a site dedicated to the basics of great web design using css, hand coding, standards, etc.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my eBook, The Insider's Guide to Web Marketing, and in the process, I've been looking for landing pages with examples of great web design. I started with award winning sites but found quickly this is the wrong track to pursue. Apparently, anyone can start and awards program and give away awards, and many of the award winning sites I found were, well shall we say, less than noteworthy.

Not all award giving sites are created equal, however, a few notables (in my humble opinion) are webbyawards.com or ultrawebaward.com . These sites featured several sophisticated flash sites. To be honest, I prefer the clever, visually catchy and functional website samples featured on cssbeauty.com or stylegala.com.

So my point, and I do have one, is a hard-working content rich site can also look good with the use of carefully planned and consistent graphics. Content is great (especially for search engines), but something has to be the boss. Let your graphics be the visual leader and your content will follow.

What do you think?

I saw a story on the news the other night about the people who live on the street leading to the College World Series in Omaha. I guess many of them turn into entrepreneurs overnight as they offer parking space, food, drinks, garage sale items, etc. to a steady stream of baseball fans. Good thinking, huh, after all the three most important rules of retail business are location, location, location.

You can apply the same concept to draw people to your website by hanging an ad on search engine space where there’s alot of traffic (just like the traffic headed to the world series). Advertising programs like Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter are two choices you have in setting up shop. Here’s the short version (really short) of how it works.

First, you identify your targeted keywords. Next you compose your ad copy including title, content and url of the landing page. Finally, you set your budget of what amount to spend per day, and with the final click, you’re good to go.

I love this type of advertising because you have so much control over spending and keywords, and you can see and analyze traffic to maximize your ad’s profitability.

Have you used either of these ad programs for your website? Talk to me. Let me know what you think. For more info, drop me an email.

I have to admit I really dislike those long sales pages, you know what I'm talking about, right? They generally start with a big headline, or the date and "From the desk of...", etc.

I know the purpose of long copy without reading any of it -- to sell me on the value of the product, which I generally can't find until I scroll (and scroll and scroll) clear to the bottom. And sometimes the value is not even there, I have to make another click to find it. Sigh.

Oh well, I think I am going to have to get over it, or get used to it, because the truth is, long copy wins over short copy every time. How do I know? I've been reading up on this topic for my soon to be released eBook for coaches, The Insider's Guide to Web Marketing. What I've found may interest you, so I'll share a short bit of it here.

When it comes to sell pages for your products, the experts at marketingexperiments.com say long copy outperforms short copy by as much as 40.54%. That's a ton. The folks at marketingexperiments.com conducted three separate research tests on long vs. short copy and found the same result every time, long outperforms short.

Why should you care about this? Because, in the coaching business, part of what will make you successful is being able to package your intellect and expertise in the form of ebooks, audio, eclasses, etc. And to be able to sell these products, you will most likely need a sell page on your website.

With that in mind, here is a summary from marketingexperiments.com of the top ten guidelines to keep in mind when evaluating your copy:

-Testing is really important. There are no universal rules about the length that will pull best for you. Test and retest until you are satisfied.

-Generally speaking, higher priced products warrant longer copy. In other words, the more you are asking people to spend, the more information you will want to share.

-Information products often benefit from longer copy. This gives you ample opportunity to demonstrate the quality of the information.

-Quality is key. High quality short copy will outperform poorly written long copy every time.

-When testing your copy, make sure you control the other variables like site design, layout, graphics, etc. Those variables should be the same on each page you are testing.

-Utilize an A-B split test (more info at http://splittestgenerator.com/, http://splithit.com, and http://profitinfo.com/catalog/v4/ )

-Copy should be only as long as necessary to get the job done and no longer. Keep your primary goal in mind.

-Use bullets and numbered lists whenever possible to break up long passages of text.

-Use testimonials. Descriptions from satisfied users are more credible than your own description.

-Gain trust from the skeptical consumers (more info on Transparent Marketing here http://meclabs.com/cgi-bin/pl/pl.cgi?mtm ).

Are you convinced yet? I'm going to be speaking about creating products on a call for coaches in a couple of weeks. Send me an email if wanna know more.

I read a great editorial by Janice Gilmore yesterday titled “Make the most of your days on Earth”. I wanna share a short exceprt, I hope this is encouraging to you who give it all for your business whether it’s coaching, teaching, training, speaking, whatever. This excerpt talks about how we can affect children but I think it applies to everyone with whom our lives intersect. Readers, you are leaving a mark in the world and the work you’re doing is important. Be encouraged!

Long after we are gone, the effect of spending time and helping children to shape postive values lives on. A relative, friend, pastor, teacher or mentor can have an immeasurable effect on a child. God didn’t put us on this Earth to be stressed, miserable and weary. He gave us a guide, the Bible, to help us to use our time wisely and live a joy-filled life. Each day is a new opportunity to enjoy life to the fullest. When hearing how many days we have on Earth, it makes us realize we must purge things in our lives like we do our closets. Getting rid of useless clothes and worn-out shoes can leave us room for worthy things. When we touch other people’s lives positively and use our time for good, the days on this Earth may be few, but oh so mighty!
source: Omaha World-Herald, May 30th, 2006.