Have you noticed our homepage, StomperNet.com lately?

If you have been watching it over the past year, you have seen many changes. Some have been major changes, some minor. These changes are intended to get you our guests to notice the website, take action and to come back again.

Traffic is great, but traffic that comes, looks at your page for 5 seconds and leaves is not going to increase your income. You want your traffic to take notice of what you have to offer and to take action.

Additionally, you want your customers to actually want what you are offering and to be able to find it. Have you ever gone to a site and can’t find what you are looking for? Frustrating isn’t it! Well, with some minor changes to your website, you can help your visitors find exactly what they want without having to look all over the site.

You can also provide them with the type of look that keeps them there and focused on your site. But don’t worry… you don’t necessarily have to do a complete overhaul of your website to get that traffic. Read Vin Montello’s article below and learn exactly what you need.

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Design should never say, “Look at me.” It should always say, “Look at this.”

~ David Craib ~
401 Design Meditations: Wisdom, Insights, and Intriguing Thoughts from 150 Leading Designers

Increase Traffic with A Change in Website Appearance

aah… January will begin clean… empty… with so much promise. Like everything at school upon returning from summer break.

I used to love that feeling of a new school year.

On that day we all have hope; Hope that this year will be different.

The sprucing up of the school sets us up for a “shot at success.”

I’d like to give you a similar shot at a successful business year by helping you spruce up your websites for 2012.  A little bit of change can be enough to increase your traffic because it spruces up your website and people are drawn to that change.

So what kind of changes can you do that are major enough to cause your potential customers to notice but minor enough to not redo the whole site?

Add some pictures

If you don’t have any graphics or photos to help your page “sell,” then look to the royalty-free websites. There are a ton of these sites that will sell you professional photos and graphics for what amounts to a dollar or two per piece.

The little known secret is that some of these sites have thousands of graphics you can not only use royalty free, but ones you can download and use “free” free!

That means your site can take a giant leap towards looking more attractive and professional for less than 10 bucks… or in some cases nothing!

Try some strategic highlighting

A yellow highlighter can be your friend when trying to optimize your page for selling. The highlighter is great for “pulling” must see parts of your sales message out so even copy skimmers can’t miss them.

But… when highlighting, remember this phrase: “When you draw attention to everything, you end up drawing attention to nothing.” Put simply… use your highlighter sparingly!

Add (or change) Color

There are styles and trends in advertising colors that change from time to time. Not as often as fashion changes, but still something you should put some time into. That’s why I keep The Big Book of Color in Design on my desk at all times.

It explores how color can be a feeling or feelings.  While you may not think of black, yellow and cream as feminine they can be.  In fact you probably have seen that combination in the store if not at your home on a bottle labeled Olay.

But if you are trying to portray, like soothing, technological, rich, etc, you can flip to a section with that “feeling.”  Then you will get numerous examples with exact colors in the exact combinations… with the hex numbers you can punch right into Photoshop!

Freshen up your fonts

As with color, fonts sometimes fall in and out of fashion. We all know by now that the vast majority of time you want to use a sans serif font.  Serif – if you don’t know are those curly bits on the ends of fonts like Times New Roman or Courier.  Sans serif simply means “without serif.”

So… your website should probably use a sans serif font, but which one?

That’s when Google can be your best friend. Just search for “new fonts,” “font trends,” or things like that and you’ll find page after page of people who know better than either of us. One place I find myself going to find the newest trends in fontage (is that a word?) is www.fontshop.com/blog.

Consider switching over to WordPress

It’s getting to the point now where almost no one puts up static html websites anymore. Whether your site is a catalog site, services site or a standard sales letter, it can all be done inside the confines of a WordPress blog.

These days there is a theme or template for anything you want to do with your blog. Just search around for ten minutes and before you know it, your page is not only better looking, but more easily updated.

by Vin Montello

Vin Montello is a former Hollywood television writer that brings his 20 years’ experience as a story-teller, to every direct response sales letter he writes. Vin invites you to his wildly successful marketing blog at MarketingClambake.com. You can also learn more about him at MontelloMarketing.com.

STOMPER Speed Boost

To celebrate our 5th Anniversary,
we’re doing something extra special for you…

Secret Sauce Checklist

Website Changes that Create Sticky Traffic:

• Add pictures
• Highlight special text
• Add or change colors
• Change your fonts
• Switch to WordPress

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Income Continuity

Stompernet Blog

While I enjoy working on web design, learning how others implement web design is an essential part of my continuing education. No matter how much you know about any niche, there are always new things to learn. Plus, it’s always good to keep your mind refreshed on the essential basics.

The article below is a great refresher of what is current. But even though the basics are somewhat dynamic, they modify as technology and people change. Yet the core elements of sales pages remain constant.

You always want to follow the best placement rules and good copy. Images have been a part of it for years, but now in the visual era, videos have become commonplace.

You want to reach potential buyers where they are and all of these features need to be added to your web design. If you want to turn visitors into buyers, the design needs to tell what actions to take, quickly and easily. All pages should be designed around the customer, not you.

Adam Stonehocker has more information to help your product page look great!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“It is easy to fail when designing an interactive experience. Designers fail when they do not know the audience, integrate the threads of content and context, welcome the public properly, or make clear what the experience is and what the audience’s role in it will be.”

~ Edwin Schlossberg ~
Founder of ESI Design

4 Steps to the Perfect Product Page

By Adam Stonehocker, for Claim the Web

Your customer has navigated into a product page and is thinking about buying. What can you do to make sure that the customer purchases from you? Good content and information will make a big difference in conversion rates, but it’s important to focus on the right information. What information is found on a good product page?  Let’s walk through a few steps on how to create great selling product pages!

Step 1 – Keep it “Above the Fold”

Try to keep your content all in one easy-to-view page. The less scrolling that your customers have to do to investigate features and characteristics about your product, the better. Keep that “Buy Now” button in their view and always above the fold.

Many ecommerce sites now use a tab feature so that customers don’t get lost when scrolling down a page to find reviews, videos, color options and so on. This a great way to allow customers to keep their eyes on the product and the “Buy Now” button.

Step 2 – K.I.S.S. (Keep it Super Simple)

With product pages, less is more. Don’t clutter your page with paragraph after paragraph of descriptions, features and benefits of the product. Otherwise, you’re boring your customer! Keep the product description short and concise, organize your main selling points with bullet points, and make sure to label and organize common information like weight, dimensions, material (if applicable) and other common data related to your item needs to be organized and easy to see, not hidden in the text of a long paragraph.

Step 3 – Share with Social Media

Let your customers share your products on social networks! A simple tool like “add this” will greatly enhance your customer’s ability to show off their latest purchase. (Not to mention drive more traffic to your site.) If your current ecommerce software allows you to integrate social media into your product pages, make sure you turn the feature on, and that you link everything up to all your social media accounts.

Step 4 – Good Images and Video

Images and video are crucial to selling your products. Remember that customers cannot pick up your product, feel it in their hands, and hold it in front of them. Give them the next best thing: images and video. It’s great to have a static image of your item, but you also need additional images to show different angles of the product or to show the item in action with a lifestyle photo. Any video that can show the product in action or illustrate all the features and details of the product is essential.

If you have the right amount of content, you’ll keep your customer thinking, “Buy now!” And when you show the customer amazing pictures and video, you will see your conversion rates and sales increase.

Now that you’ve got great product pages, your customers are more inclined to purchase from you, rather than go check out the competition. Start to implement these 4 simple steps, and you’ll see your conversion rates increase and receive far less phone calls with people confused about the product that you’re offering.

STOMPER Speed Boost

To celebrate our 5th Anniversary,

we’re doing something extra special for you…

Secret Sauce Checklist

4 Web Design Tips to Convert Visitors to Buyers

• Remember to keep it “above the fold”
• KISS Keep it Super Simple
• Let them share it with Social Media
• Always use good images and video

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Setting Up Systems & Automating Them

Faculty Office Hours Next Week:

WEDNESDAY November 16, 2011 ~ 2 pm Eastern

“Strategic Thinking – Clarifying Your Thoughts” with Judy Whalen

Strategic Thinking helps you to explore options, get clarity and make good decisions.

Having trouble figuring out the next steps?  Not sure which way to go or what decision to make?  Join Judy as she shows you how strategic thinking can give you clarity, direction and confidence to pursue that direction. StomperNet Members Register Now

Upcoming StomperNet Public Webinars:

THURSDAY November 17, 2011 ~ 7 pm Eastern

“Setting Up Systems & Automating Them” with Dr. Lisa Lang

In this webinar, Dr Lisa will share the automated process they use to automatically generate leads.  She will share all the details of what they do, what technology they use and all the specifics.  Bring your questions about how you might get started with an automated system!

Register Now

Have a Question? We Have ANSWERS for YOU

“StomperNet Open Forum” Fridays at 11ET

We know everyone has questions about their business or different stumbling blocks. Well we invite you to bring them to the table during our Open Forum. With the combined training and experience of our Coaches you will get the direction you need to get you back on your road to success!

The next StomperNet Open Forum Call with our Professional Coaches happens next Friday at 11am EDT and we hope to see you there! These calls are intended to be live Q&A sessions and playback will not be available.

Let us know your thoughts on today’s issue.

Post Your Comments Here

Stompernet Blog

By Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz

As the worlds of web design and SEO merge ever closer, we’ve been seeing design-specific elements produce a positive impact on SEO for the sites that employ them. It’s terrific news for SEOs who love design and are capable of, and passionate about, making it part of their repertoire.

It’s also great for designers who find that, as they evolved from Flash designs to machine-readable CSS and separated markup from content, they’ve earned more links and more organic search love.

In this article, I’ll walk through examples of those design practices in use, and describe how they can help improve your opportunity for organic search rankings and traffic.

#1 – Designing That Elicits & Conveys Emotion

A phenomenal article from Aarron Walter of Mailchimp on ThinkVitamin.com – Emotional Interface Design: The Gateway to Passionate Users – deeply explores the trend of designers using their talents to imprint emotion on users. Personally, I love this practice, and professionally, I see it as incredibly valuable for SEO, too.

Rather than simply providing a user with information, these sites attempt to convey a sense of the companies, products and services they represent, in a tangible way.

For McMiller’s Sweets; on the left, the website expresses the brand’s humor, whimsy and obsession with their product. I only wish I could buy online – there’d be a few boxes headed for the SEOmoz offices right now.

On the right Box.net, an enterprise-focused software company, aims to achieve an air of simplicity and a feeling of the ease that comes from using a basic consumer application, but targeted at a business audience. Their redesign has me convinced – it’s light and airy, it’s up in the clouds (perhaps a double-meaning since they host in “the cloud”) and it even calls out the “sexiness” of the application.
When users are emotionally invested in the websites they visit, they’re more likely to:

• Link
• Share
• Contribute Content
• Participate
• Remain Loyal
• Invest in the Experience
• Browse more Pages

All of these have either first or second-order impacts on SEO in a positive way.

#2 – The Scroll-Triggered Call-to-Action

Sometimes you don’t want to overwhelm content with calls-to-action… at least not until you’re fairly certain your visitor has finished reading. That’s where the brilliance of the scroll-triggered call-to-action comes in.

Browse any article on the New York Times website and you’ll see this behavior in action, driving you to read the next article in the series only after you’ve reached the bottom of the current piece.

It’s great for boosting page views, but also drives more awareness of those pieces, improving links and driving up visibility for previously less-well-publicized works. My guess is that clicks are quite high.

In the next example, the blog.OKCupid.com leverages precisely the same tactic. This case might be even more brilliant. After wrapping up a remarkable article about what statistics tell us not to do in online dating, my first instinct is to share the piece with some single friends. OKCupid’s flawlessly timed dropdown overlay synchs with this internal compulsion and makes it easy to tweet, like, stumble or buzz away.

Scrolling + triggers = more browsing, more awareness and more sharing (and I think the potential applications for SEO are far greater in quantity than just what’s been shared above).

#3 – User Badges

If your users are passionate about your site and their experience or participation, why not make it easy to share?

For years, sites have been offering users the virtual incentives of points, badges and status to encourage greater participation. Andrew Follet from Concept Feedback authored a brilliant piece analyzing this precise behavior and exposing some terrific examples.

We’ve noticed an interesting behavior as it relates to user badges as well, and it’s spurred me to whiteboard the following chart numerous times for those who have online communities considering SEO.

The lesson? Make great communities, encourage participation and reward your users with badges that will make their sites look good. It’s the online equivalent of giving out high quality, well designed t-shirts – fans won’t just wear them to bed; they’ll actually show off your brand.

#4 – The Animated HTML Multiheader

I wrote about the multiheader a long time ago, and the evolution of design has made them tremendously more compelling and useful since then. Case-in-point, Unbounce, who has 5 different messages/features on their homepage all accessible to engines and all part of a single multiheader.

The advantage is two-fold – more content on the homepage that’s accessible to search engines (thanks to clever CSS/HTML usage) and everyone who links to any one version is concentrating the link juice singularly on the home page. In some cases, that could cause problems, but in others, it’s a great opportunity to leverage design to focus the links you acquire where you need them most.

BTW – Speaking of Unbounce, If you have yet to read Oli Gardner’s 12-Step Landing Page Rehab Program, you’re seriously missing out.

#5 – Sexy, Embeddable Infographics

Infographic linkbait is certainly all the rage these days, and I think it’s a well-justified trend. The brilliant part is that you benefit by producing the infographic and other bloggers benefit by sharing it and attracting views, attention and links of their own. So long as the embed works seemlessly and the infographic is compelling, you’re off to the link acquisition races.

Some examples I enjoyed came from Smashing Magazine, who put together this piece on programming (and the how-to behind it’s creation).

As with badges, the “beauty rule” applies – the sexier your infographic (and the most interesting/useful/compelling the content), the higher adoption will be.

#6 – Designing Around Illustration (with CSS)

It used to be that I’d see a website built around illustrations and artistry and shake my head in sadness, knowing that the beauty of the UI was unlikely to be experienced by anyone except those coming via type-in. Today, with the amazing progress of CSS, sites like CarbonMade.com can have their design cake and eat their SEO, too.

Google’s “text only” cache shows every word you can see in the screenshot – we’ve come a long way indeed. And, darn it if that design doesn’t make me want to just climb a mountain and jump off a cliff into an octopus-filled lake below… errr.. make an online portfolio (yeah, that’s the one!)

#7 – Creative Content Formats Unleashed

Sometimes, you visit a site that stands out from everything else you’ve seen on the web in the past. Historically, many of those sites have also been tragically obscured from search engines. Nowadays, a new breed is emerging, showing off massive creativity, brilliance in design innovation and a compelling combination of link-worthiness and search-accessibility.

A few of my favorite recent stumbles into this realm include: shopsanctuaryt.com and heartdirected.com – a great place to find more remarkable creative formats, though lacking the machine readable content to be an SEO example itself.

It’s a great time to be on the web, thinking about SEO, design and the brilliant things that can happen when they overlap strategically. Here’s to hoping that more of us who invest in organic search traffic will bolster that task with the power amazing design can bring. It’s not just more links – it’s greater engagement and a higher liklihood that sharing of all kinds will occur. However the search engines evolve, you can be sure this is the type of behavior they’ll seek to reward.

PS. If design inspires you, I’d recommend checking out Drawar and Six Revisions list of 10 Fresh Galleries for Inspiration

Rand Fishkin is the CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz, a software startup focused on simplifying SEO and sharing it with the world. He co-authored the Art of SEO from O’Reilly and was named among the 30 Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30 by BusinessWeek. Rand has been written about it in The Seattle Times, Newsweek and the NY Times among others and keynoted conferences on search around the world. He’s particularly passionate about the SEOmoz blog, read by tens of thousands of search professionals each day. In his minuscule spare time, Rand enjoys the company of his amazing wife, Geraldine. Contact him at rand@seomoz.org.

Build Your First Website in 20 Minutes
by Bryan Azorsky

FLV

Stompernet Blog

The key to more sales isn’t always getting more traffic. Sometimes, just improving conversions on your existing traffic is enough to produce staggering results. In this article I am going to share some simple design tactics that will explode your business, just by turning more of the visitors you’re already getting from browsers…into buyers! All you need to do is master some tried and true, old-school direct response design tricks. I am going to cover three of them right here in this article. So let’s get right to it, shall we?             StomperNet Design Tactic #1: Understand F-Patterns Several eye tracking studies have revealed that most website visitors don’t read website pages the same way they read books or magazines. That is, top to bottom, left to right. Instead, website users tend to read pages in an F-Pattern… That is, they read in horizontal “sections”, and read less and less of each line as they read down the left side. Here are some examples: Notice the pattern? Although it’s more pronounced on some pages than others, it’s still unmistakable. So how do you apply this to Sales, Squeeze or Landing pages? Here is an example of a page I designed recently for a launch: PPC Classroom Sales Page, February 2009   Notice how much attention I paid to F-Patterns as I laid out the most important elements of the page? Starting at the top left, the first thing people see is the company logo (My clients were building a long-term brand with this business, so this was important to them. Then, as you “F-Pattern” the rest of the page – notice what sticks out… “Discover the secrets”… “Interactive eLearning system”… “Claim your Free DVD”… “Proof Positive”... These four things (along with the logo) were the five most important items we wanted to communicate with the entire page. The platform (the eLearning system) was a huge selling point, and the Free DVD was integral to the offer… And the entire offer hinged on the massive proof that we had from students who had previously taken the course. So of course “Proof Positive” is in the headline. (By the way, this page converted well over 12%… And I bet my bottom dollar our close attention to F-Patterns was partly responsible for the massive conversions.) Here is an example of the exact opposite: (Some random site I found on the Internet… YIKES!)   It looks like an e-Book threw up on this page. What happens when you F-Pattern this page? Nothing! You get the word “Congratulations!” This page is simply too busy and too poorly designed to work well. The bottom line here is that understanding F-Patterns can make a huge difference in your page conversions. Just keep the following in mind…users won’t read your text word-by-word. You need to make the first three-five words of each focal point really, really good. The first two paragraphs should state the most important information. Make sure to start subheads, paragraphs, and bullets with enticing words that users will notice when scanning. StomperNet Design Tactic #2: Give People What They Are Used To. Famed Madison Avenue Advertising Legend David Ogilvy once said: “The eye is trained from an early age. Move away from what the eye is used to, and you stop readership.” I couldn’t agree more, and all my testing and tweaking over the past three years has proven it time and time again. You have to meet people where they are and give them something they are familiar with. And in many cases, this means building an “Internet Marketing” looking page… Even if it’s NOT a sales letter. Build your blog posts, and content pages the same way, too. Create your product content in the same format. People are trained to read bigger, bolder words… so make your headlines bigger and bolder. Make them red, too… so they stand out (More on the color Red in a minute) from the rest of your text. Give your sub-headlines and paragraph titles a bit more emphasis than your regular body copy… And use plenty of whitespace so your page doesn’t look crowded. Keep is simple and create a familiar hierarchy with your content. When it comes to font use, I suggest you use Sans-Serif fonts for your headlines and sub-headlines, and Serif fonts for your regular in-line body copy. Sans Serif fonts are fonts without those little doo-hickeys on the tops and bottoms of the letters. Serif fonts have the extra little “embellishments. So for headlines and sub-headlines, use fonts like Impact, Tahoma Bold, and Helvetica Bold. For your regular in-line body copy, use Serif fonts. Serif fonts have been used in print for years (Magazines, Newspapers, books) and have been proven to create higher readability. This includes fonts like Courier New, Georgia, and Times New Roman. StomperNet Design Tactic #3: Use Colors! Most marketers throw a couple outsourced “mini-site” graphics on their page and hope for the best. But not you, my fellow readers.  Because you’re about to understand the unlimited power of using the correct colors to market your products. You see, colors create immediate subconscious reactions in people. Some colors set off warning bells, others trigger the libido, or even make you feel safe. And just like with well-written copy, you can often use color theory to slide right in under the radar and get into your prospects minds to influence their buying habits. I know, I know… You might be thinking “That sounds creepy” but I assure you it’s not. You will simply have an edge because you understand how people tend to react. Take Blue for example: Blue is, obviously, the color of the ocean, and also the sky. It should come as no surprise then that Blue is proven to work well when promoting air and sky products (airlines, air conditioning units, fans, air filters, etc. etc.) and also water and sea products (cruise vacations, water filters, boats, bottled water, etc. etc.) Blue is often associated with depth and stability. It automatically evokes emotions of trust, security, intelligence, peace, and loyalty in people. On the other hand, avoid blue when promoting food and cooking products. Blue suppresses the appetite. Red is often associated with passion, desire, war, danger, strength, power, and love. Are you surprised that Red works well in the dating and seduction niches? You shouldn’t be. Red also works well with products like energy drinks, automobiles, and items related to sports and action. Most traditional designers (Print designers, for example, working in design houses or advertising agencies) understand Color Theory… But the average person who puts up a blog or website most likely doesn’t know these things. They might put up a blue cooking blog and never understand why they aren’t getting sales. It’s because of color. Want some more examples? Bright yellow is an attention getter, which is the reason taxis are painted this color. When overused, yellow can have a disturbing effect. Tests show that babies cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; which is why this combination is often used to issue warnings. Men tend to see yellow as a lighthearted, ‘childish’ color, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men. This explains why you don’t ever see Yellow in high-end watch advertisements, or advertisements for expensive cars. I could go on and on about color use, but it’s probably about time for me to wrap things up. Here is a short list of common emotions associated with other popular colors: Black – Power, class, seriousness, drama, sophistication, and boldness. (Prestigious products) White – Purity, peace, cleanliness, freshness. (Great for medical products and weight loss products) Purple – Sophistication, royalty, mystery, spirituality. (Great for Yoga products) Green – Freshness, safety, growth, vitality, calmness, prestige. (Great for Drugs, Medical products, and Nature and Natural products as well. Use Darker Green for Financial or Make Money products) Orange - Enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success. (Works great for toys and puzzles.) Hopefully this quick look at color helps you start thinking about these things when you design your marketing collateral. Keep in mind that this is only a rough guide: There are hundreds and hundreds of books about the psychology of color and how it affects buying habits. I will include some additional resources at the end of this article for you Stompers who want to learn more. Summary Pay close attention to where you position things on your pages. Follow an F-Pattern with your layout to make sure the highest number of people possible sees your vital information. Use fonts people are familiar and comfortable with, and above all else make sure your creatives are easy for people to look at and consume. Use colors that create positive emotions with your audience and frame them towards buying what you are offering. Resources Renowned web usability expert Jacob Neilson has published some excellent research on F-Patterns  for you Stompers who want to learn more: http://www.useit.com/eyetracking To learn more about fonts and typography without getting bored to tears, Erik Spiekermann and E.M. Ginger’s “Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works” is a great place to start. Interested in Color Theory? I recommend starting with “The Elements of Color” by Johannes Itten and “The Art of Color” by  Johannes Itten. Both are excellent books and can be found on Amazon.com. One last tip. Buy some comic books! Comic book writers and artists are experts at capturing complex ideas in very few words and limited space. It’s a great way to study how to market to today’s attention-fragmented society. Enjoy this Article? Get an entire Trial Issue of “The Net Effect” (plus a special free bonus!) for only $1

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Stompernet Blog

First off, I just want to wish you a healthy, happy, and safe Holiday Season!

It’s Christmas in my home, but whatever you’re celebrating this time of year… I hope it’s a peaceful time for you.

Now with the formalities out of the way… I hope you enjoyed our “Scrooge” video…

And I really REALLY hope we surprised you with our Stomper Scrutinizer software. I will admit, we tried to throw you off a bit and make you think this was going to be some big high-priced Product Launch…

After all, it’s more fun playing Santa Claus when no one’s expecting it!

In any case, let us know what you think and what kind of results you’re getting from Scrutinizer…

Happy Holidays from Andy Jenkins and the whole StomperNet crew!

Post a Comment

Stompernet Blog

OK, folks… sometimes I worry about giving you TOO much new information in these videos – but we had a LOT of ground to cover.

This is some critical stuff – it doesn’t matter how much traffic you get if you can’t get that traffic to convert. And if your design is all messed up, you aren’t going to convert.

So let me know what you think… join the conversation here by leaving a comment or question on the video. If you haven’t already, you can see the video here.

As you can tell, we are reading (and responding) to your comments…

Best,
Andy

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Stompernet Blog