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Atricle Dump - Clarity Marketing: Make Money Online by Knowing What You Want
How do we convince the business world that a good story holds more power and is more memorable than hearing and/or reading a descriptive paragraph that relates to an accomplishment, a procedure, a product, etc.? This became so evident recently when I was part of a committee judging nominations for the Regional Company and/or Organization with the Best IT (Information Technology) Training Program.There were several criteria that we were to grade. The nominees had been asked to write a 250 word paragraph for each of the seven criteria). Most of the criteria were straightforward and asked for descriptions. I could hardly wait, however, until we reached the final one: "Do you have any great Success stories?"You can imagine my disappointment to find that only one of the nine nominees told us a story. The others blabbed on about profits and accomplishments, etc. The one with a true and moving story -- about a young man who was helped by the training to get a job and a scholarship
Some may be creative and talented enough to get away with this, but I'll put my bet on "planning ahead" any day of the week, twice on Tuesday.
Here's a critical question: when building a house, wouldn't it require extensive planning and thought way, way long before one lays down that first cornerstone? There should actually be detailed plans for plumbing,electrical, roofing and the like. Brown tiles or Italian blue tiles? 3 or 4 Baths, even jacuzzis?
It's practically the Same with a website: know what you plan to put on your main landing page so that your visitors are
As if things can get any worse for the Federal Trade Commission these days now ICAAN wants to restrict the Whois Domain Name Data Base and the FTC says this will make it very hard to catch Internet Scams and Investigate Spammers. It is too bad really that the Federal Trade Commission is so utterly incompetent and has so failed in its mission to stop SPAM.It appears that they have a bunch of 23-year old investigators who operate above the law there. I have proof of this, so I can say it. Maybe this is why ICAAN cannot trust the Federal Trade Commission anymore, actually who can?Even the Federal Trade Commission CANNOT trust the Federal Trade Commission as two laptops were stolen with personal Identification on them from a party or parking lot in Scottsdale AR, although they will not tell the public the whole or full truth on the issue.Nevertheless 110 people had their financial information or personal identification stolen from there. So if the Federal Trade Commission cannot protect them
This not-so-obvious flaw is probably responsible for most aspiring internet entrepreneurs' cheating themselves of the rightful six-figure income they deserve. Or the reason they're not making as much money as they should be.
Of course, unguided online marketers may not know any better, but it's a website flaw nonetheless, albeit one easily corrected when noticed.
This is none other than trying to do everything with a website or a web page all at the same time. Webmasters/website owners guilty of doing this try to be everything to their website visitors all at once, as soon as the latter reaches their web page.
Done properly there may be room for combining some of these elements at a main home page (especially when your site is content-based), but more often than not this is not what you see happening on the 'net: it's sometimes more clutter than order, with no clear call to action for the web visitor.
You can't please everybody online, and websites designed around this premise will ultimately be ineffective on the long term.
Case in point: I recently came acrosss a website that wanted to push ten different marketing products at its home page, at the same time asking me to subscribe to its newsletter, fill out a survey form, download 2 free bonuses, click on its Adsense and Chikita ads, rate the site for "customer "friendliness", link to their site and visit its online partners.
Whoa! And I had barely gotten past the 1st page. And as a 'bonus', as soon as I clicked away to close the web page a pop-up comes up and asks "What's the single biggest reason you're leaving us without giving us a try?"
Truth be told, I could've given that pop-up box 12 reasons as to why I'm leaving, but in the end I kindly declined from submitting any response at all.
These cluttered, confusing website designs were probably borne out of good intent, albeit with terrible composition and ineffective presentation. As soon as website visitors "lose their way" upon arriving at these sites they'll quickly leave them.
And just like that, all your marketing efforts just got thrown out the window.
Aside from a website that takes forever to load, having one that's so confusing to navigate is right up the top of the list of "Top 10 Reasons Why Visitors leave websites".
So how does one get visitors to do what you want them to, without scaring them with so much clutter? Here's some advice, although you'd have to filter these guidelines to see if they apply to your site.
Be guided by the general idea of lessening all the "noise", letting the visitors (target market) get to the "meat" of the website, allowing them to experience or absorb that which they really came for.
TIP#1:Use of pen and paper
Use the two above and Plan a website way ahead of actually creating it. Oddly enough, a lot of aspiring online marketers or webmasters still miss out on doing this step. Their impatience sometimes gets the best of them, which is why, rather than sit down and plan the actual website structure they immediately use their html or wysiwig editors and construct their websites "on the fly".
Some may be creative and talented enough to get away with this, but I'll put my bet on "planning ahead" any day of the week, twice on Tuesday.
Here's a critical question: when building a house, wouldn't it require extensive planning and thought way, way long before one lays down that first cornerstone? There should actually be detailed plans for plumbing,electrical, roofing and the like. Brown tiles or Italian blue tiles? 3 or 4 Baths, even jacuzzis?
It's practically the Same with a website: know what you plan to put on your main landing page so that your visitors are i
What do you do with junk mail? Are you like me? I toss this stuff without opening it – unless I see some benefit. Publication editors do the same. They toss news releases that don’t demonstrate a benefit to their audience.What’s the difference between a release that gets used and one that hits the editor’s circular file? Here are seven easy tips for writing releases that get picked up rather than thrown out.1. Make sure it’s newsworthy. What’s newsworthy, you ask. To be newsworthy your topic needs to be timely, of interest to the publication’s audience, benefit-oriented, and substantive (that is, not self-serving, hype or fluff.)2. Write a powerful headline. The headline is what will pull in the editor or leave her/him cold. Keep it short and descriptive, but make it interesting.3. Use journalist style. Editors are looking for the facts, not fluff. Be sure to include the essentials: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.4. Keep it brief. Editors are pressed for ti
Done properly there may be room for combining some of these elements at a main home page (especially when your site is content-based), but more often than not this is not what you see happening on the 'net: it's sometimes more clutter than order, with no clear call to action for the web visitor.
You can't please everybody online, and websites designed around this premise will ultimately be ineffective on the long term.
Case in point: I recently came acrosss a website that wanted to push ten different marketing products at its home page, at the same time asking me to subscribe to its newsletter, fill out a survey form, download 2 free bonuses, click on its Adsense and Chikita ads, rate the site for "customer "friendliness", link to their site and visit its online partners.
Whoa! And I had barely gotten past the 1st page. And as a 'bonus', as soon as I clicked away to close the web page a pop-up comes up and asks "What's the single biggest reason you're leaving us without giving us a try?"
Truth be told, I could've given that pop-up box 12 reasons as to why I'm leaving, but in the end I kindly declined from submitting any response at all.
These cluttered, confusing website designs were probably borne out of good intent, albeit with terrible composition and ineffective presentation. As soon as website visitors "lose their way" upon arriving at these sites they'll quickly leave them.
And just like that, all your marketing efforts just got thrown out the window.
Aside from a website that takes forever to load, having one that's so confusing to navigate is right up the top of the list of "Top 10 Reasons Why Visitors leave websites".
So how does one get visitors to do what you want them to, without scaring them with so much clutter? Here's some advice, although you'd have to filter these guidelines to see if they apply to your site.
Be guided by the general idea of lessening all the "noise", letting the visitors (target market) get to the "meat" of the website, allowing them to experience or absorb that which they really came for.
TIP#1:Use of pen and paper
Use the two above and Plan a website way ahead of actually creating it. Oddly enough, a lot of aspiring online marketers or webmasters still miss out on doing this step. Their impatience sometimes gets the best of them, which is why, rather than sit down and plan the actual website structure they immediately use their html or wysiwig editors and construct their websites "on the fly".
Some may be creative and talented enough to get away with this, but I'll put my bet on "planning ahead" any day of the week, twice on Tuesday.
Here's a critical question: when building a house, wouldn't it require extensive planning and thought way, way long before one lays down that first cornerstone? There should actually be detailed plans for plumbing,electrical, roofing and the like. Brown tiles or Italian blue tiles? 3 or 4 Baths, even jacuzzis?
It's practically the Same with a website: know what you plan to put on your main landing page so that your visitors are
When you have free time, do you find yourself reading up on your industry? Do you brainstorm ideas on how to improve your company's product, service, or customer experience on the weekends? When you wake up Monday morning, are you excited to start your day?For the vast majority of people the answer is no, because they work for someone else!As a purely unscientific study based on my personal experience interacting with hundreds of people at dozens of companies, I would estimate that about five to ten percent of people at any given company truly love their job. Keep in mind, most people will never admit to you (or even themselves) that they aren't passionate about their work. They could be in denial about it, be completely unaware that something better exists, or have convinced themselves that where they are is perfect because admitting otherwise would mean they'd have to change! Get to know someone well enough and this embarrassing truth very often will come out.Of course, keep in min
Whoa! And I had barely gotten past the 1st page. And as a 'bonus', as soon as I clicked away to close the web page a pop-up comes up and asks "What's the single biggest reason you're leaving us without giving us a try?"
Truth be told, I could've given that pop-up box 12 reasons as to why I'm leaving, but in the end I kindly declined from submitting any response at all.
These cluttered, confusing website designs were probably borne out of good intent, albeit with terrible composition and ineffective presentation. As soon as website visitors "lose their way" upon arriving at these sites they'll quickly leave them.
And just like that, all your marketing efforts just got thrown out the window.
Aside from a website that takes forever to load, having one that's so confusing to navigate is right up the top of the list of "Top 10 Reasons Why Visitors leave websites".
So how does one get visitors to do what you want them to, without scaring them with so much clutter? Here's some advice, although you'd have to filter these guidelines to see if they apply to your site.
Be guided by the general idea of lessening all the "noise", letting the visitors (target market) get to the "meat" of the website, allowing them to experience or absorb that which they really came for.
TIP#1:Use of pen and paper
Use the two above and Plan a website way ahead of actually creating it. Oddly enough, a lot of aspiring online marketers or webmasters still miss out on doing this step. Their impatience sometimes gets the best of them, which is why, rather than sit down and plan the actual website structure they immediately use their html or wysiwig editors and construct their websites "on the fly".
Some may be creative and talented enough to get away with this, but I'll put my bet on "planning ahead" any day of the week, twice on Tuesday.
Here's a critical question: when building a house, wouldn't it require extensive planning and thought way, way long before one lays down that first cornerstone? There should actually be detailed plans for plumbing,electrical, roofing and the like. Brown tiles or Italian blue tiles? 3 or 4 Baths, even jacuzzis?
It's practically the Same with a website: know what you plan to put on your main landing page so that your visitors are
Many new freelancers who start out in their first projects have the unfortunate tendency to go in over their heads. I know for sure since it happened to… yours truly. I’m sure most freelancers can agree that when first starting out, they worry more about how you will find your next projects instead of focusing on the one they already have. Well, I happened to have found a quick project and upon looking at my qualifications, my employer thought it would be good to hire me for a different, longer term project. A freelancer’s dream, right? At least I thought so. It was my very first project and I thought I hit a home run at my very first at bat. Now, I’m a computer programmer/web developer, but I’ll spare the gory techie details for those of you not in this field. I started out being given usernames, passwords and my project assignment, uploading and installing certain website components. There were no other instructions and only the expectation of me to have them installed within a week.
So how does one get visitors to do what you want them to, without scaring them with so much clutter? Here's some advice, although you'd have to filter these guidelines to see if they apply to your site.
Be guided by the general idea of lessening all the "noise", letting the visitors (target market) get to the "meat" of the website, allowing them to experience or absorb that which they really came for.
TIP#1:Use of pen and paper
Use the two above and Plan a website way ahead of actually creating it. Oddly enough, a lot of aspiring online marketers or webmasters still miss out on doing this step. Their impatience sometimes gets the best of them, which is why, rather than sit down and plan the actual website structure they immediately use their html or wysiwig editors and construct their websites "on the fly".
Some may be creative and talented enough to get away with this, but I'll put my bet on "planning ahead" any day of the week, twice on Tuesday.
Here's a critical question: when building a house, wouldn't it require extensive planning and thought way, way long before one lays down that first cornerstone? There should actually be detailed plans for plumbing,electrical, roofing and the like. Brown tiles or Italian blue tiles? 3 or 4 Baths, even jacuzzis?
It's practically the Same with a website: know what you plan to put on your main landing page so that your visitors are
As a new forum administrator myself, I'm sure that my frustrations are shared among my forum comrades. You've gone through the trouble of registering a domain, picking a host, installing the software, tweaking the coding, and advertising your site. All these things cost money, and you attempt to make use of tasteful advertising in order to offset those inital costs. However, one thing is lacking: a community."Well," you reason, "I am advertising my site, after all. It's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing except for hoping that people visit my site and join my community." But still, the people do not come. You've read articles on the internet that suggest to offer contests, prizes, and other rewards to get people to join your community -- your baby. But still, the people do not come. In the back of your mind, you want people to participate in your community because they want to -- not for the prizes. In other words, you don't want "to buy" your community. You want a real community. You've created
Some may be creative and talented enough to get away with this, but I'll put my bet on "planning ahead" any day of the week, twice on Tuesday.
Here's a critical question: when building a house, wouldn't it require extensive planning and thought way, way long before one lays down that first cornerstone? There should actually be detailed plans for plumbing,electrical, roofing and the like. Brown tiles or Italian blue tiles? 3 or 4 Baths, even jacuzzis?
It's practically the Same with a website: know what you plan to put on your main landing page so that your visitors are immediately made aware of what you and your site are about, and where you want to lead them as well as what response you hope to get from them.
With planning, more gets done in less time with fewer untoward surprises, with definitely a more significant probability of success.
TIP#2:Tit or Tat? You Decide, but Decide Fast.
This requires decision-making. Are you building a mini-site or a full-blown content-filled authority site? Are you providing a free ebook and asking them to join your newsletter as part of your list?
A minisite is composed of 3-4 web pages and is single-minded in the response it aims to get from its web visitor. When pushing a sale, for instance, its main page is filled with elements (headline, testimonials, proof of earnings, guarantee, video proof,etc) that are devoted solely to closing the sale of the product pushed.
There's not much clutter or external linking elements that can inadvertently bring the visitor to another location or website, save the main page itself.
Even with a content-filled site, this single-mindedness of purpose can be adopted. Is your website devoted to simply giving valuable, free content, or is it primarily a membership site for exclusive members, in which case your sole objective would be to recruit sign-ups.
Whatever form your website takes, it should abide by one objective or the other, not both at the same time. You're either giving away free info or asking for paid memberships. You're either asking them to buy a single product or not. You're either asking them for their information (name and email address) or not.
In reality there are combinations that can be done, such as a salespage with a primary purpose of selling a main product, but has a secondary purpose of requesting for information you may be able to use for follow-up. Still, the primary purpose is what drives the website and the form it takes, not the secondary purpose.
TIP#3: Use white Space and provide easy navigation
Website visitors sometimes feel overwhelmed with too much graphic and link elements present in a website. To put said visitors and potential clients at ease some webmasters have become very creative in using large white spaces in their websites in order to break it up into "chewable clusters" that are visually easier to digest.
The more space (in this case "white space") there is in a website, the more breathing room some visitors seem to have. The layout of your website may or may not benefit from the use of white space, but it this is a choice you may have to make depending on your topic or website theme. It's nice to know, though.
Finally, one of the first things visitors look for in a site is a definite navigational system they can utilize to go explore the site. The easier to locate this navigational section, the better.
Research has shown that the upper left section of a website is one of the most frequent places the human eye views when visiting a web page. It's called a "hot spot", and using this spot as your website navigation section or sitemap section has been known to yield very productive results.
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