Mequoda Founder and Membership Website Expert Don Nicholas announced today the release of 5 Deady Membership Website Mistakes, a free eBook available at the Mequoda Daily, a free website and newsletter about best practices for Internet marketers, publishers and designers.
Category: Articles
The Mequoda Internet Hub is the heart of a high-performance Internet Marketing System that is fueling extreme growth for the handful of savvy information marketers that have one. Here are some lessons learned from analyzing more than 20 existing Internet Hubs and then designing and building six Mequoda Internet Hubs for a variety of publishers.
Learn how one special-interest consumer publisher increased his magazine circulation with a simple change to the page footer on every page of his print magazine.
As webpages grow in complexity, page load time can take longer and longer and translate into a loss of readers, page views, advertising impressions, click-throughs and ultimately revenue. What can you do to create great webpages and fast page load time?
America’s Test Kitchen Website, a Network Hub Positioned to Extend Visitors from the Television to the Web to the Printed Word, Demonstrates Extraordinary Website Architecture in Satisfying Users’ Need for Added Value and Publisher’s Desire for Additional Revenue
While some Internet marketers use a single source to acquire new customers, others use an intricate Internet Marketing System of up to 13 programs to increase website traffic. What’s driving your Internet Marketing System?
Discuss the online publishing job responsibilities, key metrics, goals, objectives and activities for the managing editor of a vertically integrated new media organization
While humans are humans, age is a major consideration in designing usable websites that will allow the targeted users to have an efficient and fulfilling user experience.
Understand how to use the Motoricerca Keyword Density Analyzer to calculate true keyword density (KD) and how KD varies for two- and three-word keyword phrases that are your best opportunities to improve your search engine rankings.
Discover how information-marketing guru Fred Gleeck uses a steady stream of mass-market soft cover books to drive subscriptions to his email newsletter database and the online media network for his vast array of information products and services.
Learn how one publisher redesigned his website navigation to make his site ultra-search-engine-friendly and dramatically increase search engine traffic.
Learn how one publisher added simple user testimonials and increased landing page conversion rates by 23 percent.
Discover how one special interest consumer publisher uses low-priced eBooks to increase the lifetime value of his email marketing database by 59 percent.
An eBook author and publisher I met at a recent Internet marketing conference is a big fan of a simple $97 software program called eCover Generator that makes eBook covers, software boxes, CD covers and covers for just about any other information product you can name.
Discover how one publisher was able to increase landing page conversion rates 23 and 27 percent by re-purposing his direct mail sales letter copy.
Learn how one information marketer used a two-step program to sell a three-day, $3000 seminar through his affiliate marketing network.
Ever wonder if the color of your order button impacts click-through rates and conversion rates? The short answer: order button color does matter. Discover which color order button lifted response for one publisher by 27 percent!
Having a heart attack is a life-changing event. Recovery rates are good for those who make the right changes to their diet and exercise program, and who learn to manage the stress of day-to-day living. The changes are information driven and require education, motivation and commitment. One health publisher we know provides a number of
I’ve seen three sets of test data in the last month that demonstrate the power of urgency for driving readership and email newsletter click-through rates. In each of the three tests, the email newsletter subject line was changed to reference a current news event by name, versus a more generic version. Click-through rates and site
After 11 years of website design testing, I’m still amazed at the long list of simple website design changes that can increase click-through rates overnight. With a simple advertising design change, one publisher I know recently doubled his information product sales by implementing a design change to increase click-through rates.
While many publishers assume that giving away a free email newsletter should be enough to maximize visitor traffic conversions, others treat their free email newsletter marketing programs like any other serious direct response program. Over the past 10 years, I’ve seen free email newsletter publishers test creative, placement and premiums to boost conversions rates. One
Whether you call them webinars, web seminars or virtual seminars, these online events have become a successful information product for many special-interest publishers. Web Seminars Are A Welcome New Information Product Format. While Revenues From Webinars are Modest, Margins Are High. Web Seminars Are Now Widely Used by Both B2B and B2C Publishers.
My brother-in-law, Randy, is always amazed at the website design elements I test when creating new sales letter landing pages. He thinks, that after running the test once or twice or a 100 times, I should just know the answer. When I’m trying to increase landing page conversion rates, there are times when I conclude
Bristol, RI – August 17, 2005—Over the next 52 weeks Don Nicholas, a Leading Expert on Internet Marketing Strategy for Publishers, Will Share 144 In-depth Case Studies—Absolutely Free
Building a targeted, opt-in free email newsletter database is job one for website publishers who use The Mequoda System. The size of your controlled circulation email newsletter, and the revenue per subscriber, per year are the key metrics that drive your top line revenue. A very methodical publisher who was creating her first co-reg lead
In the past few months, I’ve seen results from three different magazine publishers that have each literally turned their source mix on its head. For each of them, a simple online order form that costs them almost nothing has rocketed their website to the top of their print publication’s source list. The website design trick
While chatting recently with the publisher of a large, circulation-driven consumer magazine, I was surprised to hear that until about 18 months ago, they had made no effort to generate organic search engine traffic for their very successful free companion website.
A writer and publisher I know was making a good living with his simple, advertising-driven website. His topic is hot and his content is rich in keywords. His site includes about 3,000 pages of content and through a combination of Google AdSense ads and a few select affiliate deals, he’ll do about $1.2M in revenue
Webpage path analysis for a large advertising-driven consumer website revealed that there was a problem with website usability. Users were bypassing the “browse by category” website navigation in 85 percent of user sessions. Website usability testing revealed that the users were using search to look for reports and articles, instead of using the left column
I received a call from a publisher who had recently gotten very aggressive about building an email database by offering website visitors a free email newsletter. It seems that the conversion rate for new sign-ups was running seven to eight percent and he’d built a list of more than 300,000 active email subscribers in less
The publisher in charge of website branding and increasing targeted website traffic for websites published by a mid-size, mid-western media company was contemplating what to call his new Mequoda Editorial Hub. The Hub was to be an interactive brand extension for one of his well-known magazine brands. For example’s sake, let’s say the magazine is
Strategic Intent is Perhaps the Most Important of the 14 Guidelines. If Users Can’t Figure Out Your Website, They Not Only Leave Quickly—They Won’t Come Back.
Two of the publishing industry’s leading membership websites, Internet Media Review and SWEPA (Subscription Website Publishers Association), have merged to create the Mequoda Library, the interactive resource for building better websites. The Mequoda Library (www.Mequoda.com) went live on June 3, 2005. (Jump to FAQs)
he Mequoda Landing Page Scorecard™ encourages you to score your own landing page using each of the 12 Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines, add them together and arrive at a cumulative score. The goal is to emphasize the importance of effective landing pages that sell. Your landing page should achieve respectable scores in all areas, rather
In this exclusive Mequoda interview, Satch Reed explains his popular subscription website that’s dedicated to antique car restoration. It’s also dedicated to making money for its publishers.
Over the years, Holly and Larry Pike have each had numerous careers, but they eventually quit their jobs to become full-time online entrepreneurs. Today, as husband and wife, they own and operate a subscription website for needlework hobbyists that ought to be the envy of every membership website publisher.
Member sites are hot! As more subject matter experts and information entrepreneurs begin online publishing ventures, the demand for automated content management software continues to grow. For the second time in a month, a Mequoda member has introduced a product to help membership website publishers manage their online content.
A Great Landing Page is a Sales Letter that Establishes Rapport, Heightens Desire for the Product and Prompts a Purchase Decision
Webification is the Most Efficient Use of All the Multi-Media and Interactive Technology Available, Without Letting it Outshine the Sales Message on Your Landing Page
Capturing Your Visitor’s Email Address on Your Landing Page Allows Opportunity for Follow Up, Significantly Increases your Conversion Rate and Gives You a Chance to Grow Your List
Adding User Testimonials to Your Landing Page Increases Conversion Rates, as they Comfort and Reassure Your Customers that Other People Have Bought and Been Very Satisfied with your Product or Service
The Only Sure Way to Know How Many Links to Place on Your Landing Page to Increase Conversion Rates is to Test the Variations and Go with the Winners. Links and buttons are the vehicles that allow a prospect to navigate your landing page. Your objective should be to make them as easy as
When Writing Landing Page Copy, it’s Important to List all Benefits and Avoid Using Jargon and Terms Not Commonly Understood by the User
There are a Few Common Factors that Contribute to Improving Landing Page Readability—Notably, the Choice of Typeface
Few Things Destroy the Credibility of a Landing Page More Quickly than Content that’s Out of Date. Remember to Keep Things Fresh and Always Offer an Urgent Reason for Visitors to Buy Now
If your Landing Page Loads at Anything Slower than the Speed of Instant Gratification, you Run a Serious Risk of Losing your Customer
The Key to Creating an Aesthetically Pleasing Landing Page is to Know your Target Market and Create an Appearance that Conforms to your Visitors’ Mental Model
If You Get Everything Else Right and Blow the Order Mechanism, your Sales Letter Landing Page will Almost Certainly Fail.
Successful website publishing in 2005 means creating happy users and healthy profits. Without both, no website will exist for long. All of the successful website publishers we’ve studied have one thing in common: a consistent management system for achieving success that includes a number of key behaviors that are repeated over and over to become
Veteran Comedian John Cleese—best know as the creator of silly walks, The Ministry of Silly Names, Fawlty Towers, and innumerable Monty Python sketches—has launched a very silly subscription website for his fans.