By building effective conversion architecture, you can build a direct relationship with the customer—a relationship that can be monetized down the road by targeting marketing messages for relevant products of increasingly greater value. This is also the step where, unfortunately, many publishers slip up.
Category: Subscription Website Publishing
Subscription Website Publishing posts focus on how to build and operate a premium subscription website, including how to best align and repurpose your content, increase subscription orders, and best practices for subscription website architecture.
People use formulas for a reason, and the reason is that they work. An example is the “who else” formula for writing headlines—”Who Else Wants to Speak French Confidently and Fluently in the Shortest Possible Time”.
The headline, while not brilliant, shocking or hypnotically compelling, is relevant and attention-getting to those interested in learning French.
Having just conducted a mini-usability test this week with a very confused customer, I have website usability on the brain. We have some tests scheduled for the end of September that I just cannot wait another second for!
As many of you know, website usability is a hot issue in Web development, most likely because, over
Perhaps you’re confident of the words you must use on your website but not how they should be organized. Our usability expert, Roxanne O’Connell, likes to make that a job for a Card Sort Test. This test is especially helpful if you have a lot of categories or sections and you want to know how
As our usability guru, Roxanne O’Connell is fond of saying, the cardinal rule when deciding on which words to use to describe the various departments, sections and categories on your website is to ask, “What would a user call this?”
Not “What do the business people call this?” or “What does the boss call this?” …or
The Mequoda Landing Page Scorecard outlines the 12 characteristics a landing page needs to successfully close sales online. And to incorporate all 12 characteristics typically, at least for a consumer product, requires medium-to-long copy on that landing page.
But should you send your traffic directly to that long-copy landing page? Or will visitors be put off
A bulleted list of “secrets” that your product or service promise to reveal can sometimes be the strongest element of your online sales letter. In fact, the words copywriters most often use are practically a textbook lesson in how to create interest in a product.
“Executive Travel Guide”, or is it “eSkyGuide,” or maybe just “Executive Travel”?
Owned by American Express Publishing, eSkyGuide should have the backing to do this website design right. But upon analyzing their site, we realize we don’t even know what to call it.
Should we go by the URL? By the nameplate? The nameplate actually wasn’t much
The average user expects professional websites to be clean in appearance, rich with information, and intuitive in terms of navigation. In Mequoda terms, the aesthetics of a site should support its purpose and match the user mental model—or be appropriate for the people that the website serves.
When we review landing pages, it’s common for us to come across letter copy that’s competent but average, and there are many things in the copy that our copywriters would change.
For example, on www.26-Feng-Shui-Secrets.com, a landing page dedicated to selling a Feng Shui book, there is no bio of the book’s author. So we don’t
Every website we review seems to have the inevitable Achilles’ heel. And on most sites, no matter how successful their website design is otherwise, it tends to be their inconsistent use of blue hypertext links.
TechRepublic.com is an example of this. This is a bit of a disappointment for a site that does so many other
As webpages grow more complex and designers strive to provide impact and interactivity, loading a page can take longer and longer—even over high speed connections. Slow-loading pages will cause losses in the number of readers, page views and advertising impressions, and, as a result, losses in revenue.
We recently reviewed a membership website, www.ArtisticThreadWorks.com, that offers a free weekly embroidery newsletter called “Bobbin-Buzz”. We would consider this free email newsletter the Mequoda hub of this membership website.
For a needlecraft hobbyist, the offer is practically irresistible. Every week, the publishers of “Bobbin-Buzz” and ArtisticThreadWorks.com award one free email subscriber a $25 gift card
The “Content Freshness” guideline asks the question, “Is there a reason for the user to return frequently to the site?” The Internet is a 24/7 medium, and visitor attention and enthusiasm can be very short-lived. Research indicates that websites with a high update frequency generate more repeat visits per month per unique user. Therefore, websites
Offer a Benefit in Your Landing Page Headline
We love it when we find a headline on a landing page that actually offers a benefit and a subhead that backs up the claim. For example, this headline from the Videos by Darrell Crow Landing Page offers a clear benefit:
“Learn to Oil Paint Even if You’ve Never
The first rule of the Mequoda Internet Marketing System is to make it as easy as possible to start a customer relationship—and give something away. Don’t ask for the money right away. But BusinessWeek.com gives away volumes of priceless content without even asking for an email address in return.
Every part of the page—particularly the homepage—must be utilized to facilitate the strategic objectives of the site. Using marketing quadrants to build relationships and communities among users, or to generate brand-related revenue is the sign of a well-designed site. The site’s primary objectives—site navigation, internal and sponsor-driven advertising, and, of course, content—should be appropriated effectively
Landing Page Design: Always Test Graphics
The Taguchi method of landing page testing identifies the following factors or variables that are worth testing on any given landing page:
The key to persistent navigation is to help the user find anything on the site, fast. No clicking about, desperately hitting the back button. Make it clear where they are, and how to get somewhere else. Even with deep layers of content, multiple topics and content formats, covering three continents—Forbes.com answers this challenge. The navigation
Getting the design of your website right often proves to be a daunting task. The development costs alone for creating a website with a unique value proposition can be staggering. Our inside joke on that is, “How do you create a $10 million Web business? Start with $38 million and work your way down.”
Wouldn’t it
The ultimate goals of website readability are to make the site inviting, the format clean and well balanced and the experience pleasant. Here are five graphic tips for improved website readability.
One of the Internet’s leading online publishers tested a simple technique for increasing his email newsletter signups and saw a very impressive lift as a result.
The leading publisher is Andrew Palmer, Director of Ecommerce and Web Marketing for Agora Financial. Andrew calls this technique the “Free on Free” offer. He shared the details of his
When browsing websites, there are a few common affordance issues that make it hard for a user to comfortably travel around a site.
Use a free keyword generator such as the Overture Keyword Selector Tool to find out the best words to use. Enter a word to find out its relative popularity ranking on search engines. The added bonus is that key phrases and words that the audience understands will also improve the site’s ranking on search engines,
Internet Explorer, the pundits tell us, accounts for up to 95 percent of all Web browser traffic. So why should we care about that small minority of surfers who prefer alternative browsers such as Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari?
The strategy of the ConsumerReports.org homepage is very clear in differentiating Paid Content from Free Content. Here are some tips to adopt from their successful membership website:
If the user is expected to execute an action, use a button with a clear, unambiguous label, placed in a logical location for the desired outcome. Text links should be underlined and change in appearance once the user has visited that page.
Mequoda has previously covered the Boston Common Press’s media network in America’s Test Kitchen Media Network Case Study by Jane E. Zarem. The membership website (and print magazine) Cook’s Illustrated is an important part of the business strategy. With 80,000 paid online subscribers, this site’s recipe is worth a try.
The primary requirement for a site owner is to understand the site’s overall goal, the important tasks the user expects to complete on the site, and the ease and urgency with which that can be accomplished satisfactorily. Most users are not going to just browse around a site—they want to get in, do what they
Landing Page Optimization Tips from ThePowerofPositiveHabits.com
Perhaps you think self-help gurus such as Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, Tony Robbins and John Gray are a godsend to troubled Americans. Alternatively, you may believe that many motivational speakers and their how-to books and other quick fixes often eradicate personal responsibility and do more harm than good. Either way,
Website Design Tips From MarthaStewart.com
You almost can’t have a dinner party without someone making a “Martha Stewart” comment at some point during the evening. Beyond being a mere household name, Martha Stewart has become synonymous with home decorating, cooking and gardening-bringing beauty to all things domestic. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc (MSLO), is an integrated
Persistent navigation is the simple concept of ensuring that the navigation to complete an online activity is the same experience each time that the user returns to the site to pursue that activity. Five years ago this was a real problem, as site navigation changed frequently. As a result, the user was constantly lost or
We are back now with another offer from her highness, Alexandria Brown, “The Ezine Queen.” “The Queen” has brought you into her kingdom earlier by selling you her ezine course. This is good. This is how you get folks into your funnel. NOW, Ali is joining other Internet Marketers and upselling them to a hands-on
Knitter’s Review is a six-year-old site run by a small group of enthusiasts. Their story in the About pages tells of publishing veteran Clara Parkes, who left the rat race where she produced large scale websites and escaped to the peace of rural Maine to focus on doing something she loved. She has two compatriots
The Mequoda criteria for community building expect visitors to feel enthusiastic and loyal to the site. Are they inspired with feelings of belonging and encouraged to contribute?
Websites that encourage a feeling of belonging among users, that offer mechanisms for being involved in the site and that motivate them to become involved are good at community
s there any married person reading this who has not, at one time or another, had a huge fight with his or her spouse? Of course not.
And with half of all marriages ending in divorce, the market for the marriage advice Amy Waterman is selling on her SaveMyMarriage.com landing page is enormous.
In this landing page
Reader’s Digest is so well known and widely read that almost everybody has picked up a copy at some point in their lives. Founded in 1922, the family friendly, feel-good favorite is also the flagship of a billion dollar public company. The Reader’s Digest is the largest-selling magazine in the world, and the company uses
Website success depends largely on providing an incentive-i.e., a free email newsletter-to encourage visitor registration and an email address. Acquiring those email addresses is the first step toward creating lasting relationships with site visitors. If a website does not attempt to capture the visitor’s email address, the individual may never revisit and the relationship is
Perry Marshall is something of a Renaissance man—engineer, advertising copywriter, technical writer, marketer and philosopher.
Among Internet marketers, he has ascended to the rank of high priest of Google AdWords. As one of the world’s leading specialists on buying search engine traffic, he has published a very popular how-to book, conducted high-ticket seminars and is a
The Hub for Internal Communicators is a membership website with research, information and tools for communication professionals. The product and the audience are identified in the tagline: The most comprehensive resource available for employee communication professionals.
Produced by Melcrum, an information and research company with offices in the UK, North America and Australia, The Hub for
Publishing on the Internet is different from publishing a book, magazine or newspaper. And it’s different from presenting content/products on TV, at a live event or in a brick-and-mortar store. The Web is a unique medium that, unlike a printed page, TV show or live situation, puts no constraint on content length in order to
With the demand for information about illness and health, it’s not surprising that many physicians and traditional publishers have teamed up to begin online newsletters that address these issues. Many of these publications are highly specialized and focus on a single topic or ailment.
Others take a shotgun approach and attempt to address the public’s infolust
Woodcraft Supply Corp. is a leading seller of woodworking tools. The company has been around for 75 years and sells via retail, online and in over three million catalogues globally. Expanding the woodcrafting empire, the company publishes a magazine, licenses franchises, offers classes with certified continuing education credits and acts as a trade organization for
Usability and design are two key factors in publishing great websites. You may have a clear strategy and great content, but if your site is unusable and unattractive, it will be difficult for users to find what they’re looking for, difficult for you to get users to do what you want them to do and
When a first-time user lands on your homepage—or any webpage, for that matter—it should be immediately obvious to that user, by simply scanning the screen, what can be accomplished, seen or found on that site and/or that page. Clearly and prominently focus on the action(s) that you want them to take and that they expect
In business it’s location, location, location. And of course online, it’s your list, list, list. Back when there was no Internet, the only way to communicate with your prospects or loyal customers was to contact them through mail, fax or phone.
Today, anyone with an online presence that has an in-demand product or service can set
WineEnthusiast.com is an online catalog that offers a comprehensive selection of all things wine related. The only thing the site doesn’t offer is wine. But that’s just fine, as the publishers of this site depend on a motivated visitor who is enthusiastic enough about wine to want the very best in wine accessories.
This site is
There is no mistaking the current success of Craigslist with their extremely basic website design.
Craigslist (CL) was a simple community classified site started in 1995 by Craig Newmark. The originally-non-profit site was incorporated in 1999. There are 190 versions of the website—localized by city—throughout the world, featuring free classified advertisements (jobs, housing, for sale, services,
Even before the Internet took over our lives, there were marketers who made a great living offline promoting their products and consulting services.
One man, speaker/copywriter/consultant Dan Kennedy, was someone who took this “old school” knowledge and parlayed it into a strong cyberspace presence. The copywriters on my team have studied Dan Kennedy’s work and he
Brevity is the soul of wit, according to the Bard. And all the more so online. So of course, someone created rules for you to follow when writing for the Web. OK, so maybe they are more like guidelines than hard and fast laws of cyber language. That said, here is what you want to