Headlines: Your Big OpenerWritten by Martin Avis
The headline is probably most important thing on most important page of your web site.Yet far too many web designers ignore its power and simply put up a meaningless statement: "Welcome to my site." If your headline doesn't grab attention in a fraction of a second, chances are that visitor to your site will fail to read any further - and click away. Powerful headlines should include as many of these elements as possible: * Personal - use 'You' and 'Your'. * Direct - if you are making a claim, make it clearly. * Convincing - don't over claim: people aren't fools. * Intriguing - good headlines make you want to know more. * Emotional - if you can touch a reader's positive emotions, they won't be able turn away. Emotions capture imagination. One of most famous headlines of all time had emotion by barrel-load: "My friends all laughed when I sat down at piano. But when I began to play..." * Benefit driven - good headlines say what product will do for you, not how. * Pose a positive response question - questions in which only sensible response is yes can be very powerful: which of these would make you read on - 'Would you spend $1 to save $100?', or, 'Would you like to invest in our plan?'
| | Building a Successful Web Site: What NOT To do:Written by Marc McDonald
These days, there's no shortage of "how to" guides and articles out there that purport to explain what one must do in order to become a successful Web site owner.If you want to build a successful site, however, it's equally important that you also learn what NOT to do on Web. Most experienced Webmasters are aware of a number of major no-nos to avoid. Examples include having a welcome page that takes forever to load. Or designing your site to accommodate only one type of browser. However, there's a number of lesser-known, but still common, mistakes that many Webmasters consistently make. These include: 1. Not paying close attention to your visitors' feedback. Although many Webmasters don't realize it, feedback from your visitors is one of most important sources of information you have, if you're serious about building your traffic. If a visitor has taken time to E-mail you, you should carefully consider anything that he or she has to say, whether it's positive or negative. True, if you've worked hard on your site, it can be annoying to have a visitor write in and criticize aspects of your site. But rather than feeling slighted, you should make most of such feedback. I've found over years that many of most valuable and useful features and changes on my sites were inspired by visitors' comments and critiques. 2. A second common blunder that a lot of site owners make is trying to build revenue before they've built a sizable, loyal audience. This is a bit like putting a cart before a horse. If you're trying to build your traffic, you severely damage your prospects by focusing too much on revenue side of your operation at outset. If your site isn't established yet, and you don't have a loyal, growing audience, then it's important to minimize your focus on making money. For example, you shouldn't be plastering banner ads all over your site---or pestering your visitors to sign up for an affiliate program. In short, forget revenue: at least at outset. Instead, focus exclusively on promoting, developing and fine-tuning your site. The fact is, once you have built an audience, revenue will inevitably follow.
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