Web Design and “Above the Fold”
February 25, 2008
I’ve had a several clients over the years who were obsessed with having everything “above the fold” on their web pages. The practice of trying to cram all the calls to action, links and advertisements in the top 400 pixels of a page not only can result in a cluttered page designs but it also doesn’t take into consideration visitors natural reading patterns. When a user hits a page, the first thing they usually do is scan down (past blinking banner ads) to find where the content starts and then they quickly decide if they are on the right page. If they aren’t then it’s usually POW! they hit the back button. If you’re lucky they continue to read down the page. The ads, navigation bar and all the other clutter at the top of the page are completely ignored. Web browsers tend not to read everything on a web page from left to right starting at the top left corner and clicking on the first thing they see. This might have been the case back in the 14.4 dial-up modem days, but today pages load up a lot faster and users are a lot more savvy and economical with their web surfing time.
This morning Guy Kawasaki wrote a post linking to an article titled “Demystifying ‘Above the Fold’”. In it the author talks about placing links and advertisements at action points instead of jamming them all at the top of the page. If you think about your web visitor’s behavior patterns, there are a few key points where they pause to decide what to do next. This is where you need to offer calls to action. For the common scenarios above you might have success offering links to related content immediately to the right of the content’s starting point. That way if the user felt that they hadn’t gotten to the correct page, you have an opportunity to offer them something different before they hit the back button. You also have an opportunity to continue the story with engaged users by offering them calls to action at… GASP! the bottom of the page or part of the way through the content for when they’ve gotten the basic idea and are ready yo move on.
For a rude awakening about how people really read web pages, watch this eye-tracking video that Seth Godin put in a blog post about two years ago:
Wild stuff!
AOL Drops Support for Netscape (for real this time)
February 24, 2008
Last week, after extending Netscape’s lease on life for a month longer than originally expected, AOL finally pulled the plug on support for the Netscape web browser. When users upgrade to the latest version (9.0.0.6) they will be prompted to switch to Firefox or Flock. Netscape was first released over 13 years and can really be credited as the program that brought web surfing to regular people. Netscape started to drift into the back waters in the late 1990s after they were acquired by AOL and many people (including me) switched to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. I eventually drifted to use Safari and Firefox, but I’ll always have special memories of Netscape’s grainy ship wheel startup screen. Avast, R.I.P. fair, hypertext markup language rendering software. Ye served me well.
15 Questions about Internet Marketing in Cincinnati
February 24, 2008
Now that I’m back in Cincinnati, I’ve been trying to get the lay of the land again and figure out what’s been going on in the Internet marketing business. I put together a list of some of the questions I want to answer and post to this blog. Here’s 15 to get things started:
- Where are Cincinnati Internet companies putting their offices these days?
- Does Proctor and Gamble work with local Cincinnati companies for Internet marketing? (I’ve got a hint on this one.)
- Does General Electric work with local Cincinnati companies for Internet marketing?
- Does AK Steel work with local Cincinnati companies for Internet marketing?
- Who are some other Cincinnati Internet marketing bloggers?
- Are there local awards for Internet Marketing? Have local firms received national awards?
- What Internet marketing programs are offered at the University of Cincinnati?
- What Internet marketing programs are offered at Cincinnati State?
- What are kind of Interactive Design work is being shown by DAAP students?
- What are the top 10 advertising and marketing firms in Cincinnati and what are their 2007 financials like?
- What do Cincinnati sports teams have on their web sites?
- What do Cincinnati arts groups have on their web sites?
- Do any people in Cincinnati telecommute to other cities?
- Who is creating Cincinnati focused content on YouTube?
- What are some of the Internet technology user groups like in Cincinnati?
Stuff like that. I’ll do new posts as I figure them out. If you know any of these of the top of your head post a comment and let me know.
quadrantONE – New Online Advertising Company Brings Together 4 Giant Newspaper Groups
February 22, 2008
The Tribune Company, Gannett Company, Hearst Corporation and The New York Times Company are announced that they are combining portions of their various online advertising businesses to form a new 17 person, Chicago based company called quadrantONE. quadrantONE’s plan is to offer large advertisers consolidated access to place ads on the web sites of local newspapers. I feel like this is definitely a move by the papers to position themselves better against online advertising giants Google and Yahoo, who are increasingly moving into hyper-localized content and advertising. Will it work? Who knows. I feel like Google and Yahoo’s strategy of hyper-localized advertising focuses more on content matching. Users see ads related to the content they are reading rather than the geographic area they are coming from. For large national advertisers, I feel like this method of user self-identification is much more sophisticated for determining demographic information and delivering targeted advertising. Heavy handed matching based on location alone can be very effect for smaller, highly location-oriented businesses like car dealerships and pizza delivery but national brands and smaller companies with broad reaches need to focus relating to people as they see themselves in the internet community not just their physical communities. For example, I know a lot of people who firmly identify with the New York Times though they have never been to their in their lives. Actually NYT is a bad example because the quadrantONE alliance considers it a national paper (along with USA Today) and it specifically will not be included in the deal. Hopefully will combine it’s strong location-based assets and a strong content matching technology to Google and Yahoo a run for their money.
World of Warcraft Hits 10 Million Subscribers
February 21, 2008
I read a post on Slashdot the other day that Blizzard Entertainment announced they now have over 10 million paying subscribers participating in their World of Warcraft video game world. Holy crap, that’s a lot of people! Just to put that into perspective New York City (the largest city in the US) only has a little over 8 million people. Another way to look at it, 2.5 million World of Warcraft players are in the US. The current population of the US is around 300 million, so a little under 1% of all US citizens pay $13-15 a month to play. More people in the US play W.o.W. than work as farmers. Madness! Last week I wrote a post about Second Skin, a feature-length documentary about W.o.W. players. So apparently the game is a pretty big deal and pretty fun… but I have the fear and I’ve never even signed up for a free trial account. I don’t want to get sucked in. At Clear Ink we did a lot of marketing work inside the Second Life virtual world and I know some marketing firms like Zeus Jones have sponsored World of Warcraft characters, so there must be some interesting marketing activities going on in there. Do you all think I should overcome my phobia, return to some of my high school Dungeons and Dragons roots and check it out?
Simplest Podcasting Service Ever
February 21, 2008
Dave Winer at Scripting News wrote a post on Monday about BlogTalkRadio’s simple new podcasting service. This is great stuff. I’ve worked on producing podcasts in the past and the day-to-day process can be cumbersome:
- Set up a recording session.
- Transfer the audio files to an editing computer.
- Post-production on the audio files.
- Convert them to mp3.
- Upload them to a content management system.
- Name and categorize the episode.
- Write a description.
- blah, blah, blah
This can be enough technical barriers to keep most people from recording episodes as regularly as they would like.
Here’s how BlogTalkRadio’s service works:
- Call 646-200-0000 from your phone (let’s say your phone number is 513-555-1234)
- Record your podcast at the tone.
- There is no step 3. People can now subscribe to your podcast at http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/5135551234
Of course this isn’t ideal for music podcasts that require a lot of special production (like my old Mark’s Monday Music) but this service is great for talk and interviews podcasts. Developers can also work with the api and feeds from the service to integrate into existing web sites. I’ll let everyone know if I try it out. It sounds awesome.
Eddie Monge and Andy Christensen
February 21, 2008
Good recommendations are one of the most important tools in job hunting. Recently I’ve received a pair of really great recommendations on the social networking site LinkedIn. I wanted to return the favor and tell you about two of my previous employees who are excellent web developers looking for opportunities in the San Francisco Bay area, Eddie Monge and Andy Christensen.
Eddie Monge
Eddie came to Clear Ink with a strong IT background and a strong desire to learn about Internet marketing technology, but he quickly blew us away with his ability to jump in and take on complex technical projects for large clients like Autodesk and Hewlett Packard. Eddie also has a strong ability to see the bigger picture and suggest tactics to make projects run smoothly and efficiently. He will be an asset to your organization.
Andy Christensen
Andy has a deep technical understanding and his background as an educator helps him communicate complex technical concepts to others. Andy supported Clear Ink’s IT infrastructure but also displayed a strong ability to take on web development projects for large clients like 24 Hour Fitness.
Feel free to contact me if you would like more information about either of these guys.
Woohoo! First blog post!
February 20, 2008
Hi folks, yesterday was my last day at Clear Ink. Today is my first day setting out as an independent contractor. I quickly put together this new site to show my work using WordPress.com and the Ambiru theme designed by Phu Ly. I plan to use this blog write about Internet marketing, similar to my old blog on Clear Night Sky, but probably with a greater focus on Cincinnati and surrounding cities.
Wish me luck, check back frequently and subscribe to my RSS feed.
