eVentureBiz Blog - Entrepreneurship and Succeeding Online

20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website

2008-07-15T01:56:51Z

We are trained where to look. So show us already.
Image by ℓú ℓαcєr∂α

The laws of the Internet (marketing-wise) are different from any other medium. Probably the most important thing to note about the Internet when it comes to marketing is that it is user-interactive.

In other mediums (newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, etc.) people have to read, listen, and wait for all the necessary information they are looking for come to them. On the Internet, however, this information is widely available and can be found by simply scanning and clicking. A wise marketer would take this information and use it to their advantage and apply it to their website.

Some websites create more sales than others simply because its design is designed around the human psyche. Simply having a website and throwing a bunch of content or products on there is no where near as effective as a well formulated (i.e. intentionally placing this and that there) and planned out website.

Once you know certain human behaviors you can design your product (or website) around them.

Let’s take a look at some typical human behaviors on the Internet.

Typical Human Behaviors Online - western part of the world

Read left to right.
Bright - yelling at you colors are not good for backgrounds or in large areas.
Short attention spans (especially online).
Scan web pages and don’t read every word.
Want information instantly without working too hard to find it.
People’s eyes get tired if they read a computer screen too long.
Read bold print (got me through college) / headings (size matters).
Scan links, buttons, and menus.
Don’t like flashing images.
Don’t like to feel as if they are being hit hard with advertisements (which is why the Web Hosting page of eVentureBiz looks different than most other hosting companies).
Prefer a font size they can read and are use to on the Internet.
Prefer bulleted lists for quick information gathering.
Will typically read short blocks of text (i.e. short paragraphs) more than they will read a large block (empty space on a website is ok).
The upper and left portions of a website typically get viewed.
Strange fonts are ignored.
Websites with a lot of free information and content keeps visitors on your site longer and the longer they are on your site the more likely they will remember it and buy.
Calls to action (telling your visitor what to do) work better and get more clicks than telling them what they can do.
People buy from places they trust. Give them a reason to trust you. Give them free information or something else that might help them to trust you.
Many people read the links at the bottom of the page.
Roman numerals are good for numbered lists (I’m bad about that one).
Advertising banners typically are skipped and not seen.
Other than blogs, website visitors like navigation links near the top of the page (most) and also the left.
For blogs, content is the most important thing to readers, therefore, blog readers prefer content on the left and navigational menus work better horizontal and/or on the right.
People scan websites in a F pattern.

I’m sure there’s more and I’m sure you can search the Web for an actual study taken. My knowledge comes from a) college, b) years of working with people and designing websites, c) reading case studies myself, and d) examining MY online behavior.

That last point I made, letter d), is something you should do yourself.

Over the next few days while you’re online, note to yourself where your eyes are drawn to on websites and examine your click-through behavior. Chances are you’re not the only one like that. Then go back to your website and see how people must be viewing your website.

Do you give them what they need in the key areas they scan? Do you tell them what to do and not just ask?

If you think about it, website designs are typical, just like a car is typical (that is, people are use to the pedals put in the same place, the steering wheel positioned to one side, etc.).

Over the years, websites have been designed much the same and therefore people are trained to view websites in a particular way. So give them what they want.

I also have posted more design tips you might want to consider in our forums. Here are two you might be interested in if you liked this post:

A Glimmer Of Hope For Those With Bad Credit

2008-07-13T20:31:40Z

Image by Douglas - westbound

Today in America we have a problem.

Gas prices are out of control, inflation is killing middle-America, and our housing market has fallen drastically. As a result, many businesses and individuals are forced to file bankruptcy and allow their homes fall into foreclosure.

For those of you with tarnished credit reports because of today’s economy, I want to tell you there is hope in the near future.

You see, today banks are going through rough times themselves and in order to survive past the next couple of years they will have no choice but to work with a large number of businesses and individuals with poor credit reports.

What I believe we will see over the next 2 to 3 years are new loan options and programs available for those with bankruptcies and foreclosures on their credit because of what’s happening today.

Not that I promote bankruptcy or allowing your house to fall into foreclosure, but if there was ever a time to do it, now would be the time as lenders will have no choice but to work with a high number of businesses and individuals with low credit scores in the coming years.

These programs won’t be around forever, though. Just long enough to deal with the masses of people who have filed bankruptcy or have a foreclosure on their credit as a result of today’s economy.

Now one day I’ll see a report on the news telling us how new loan options are becoming available to accommodate for the large number of people and businesses with low credit scores and think to myself - I said it first on my blog. I knew it! But I didn’t have the audience NBC News has to be credited as the first to report on this.

I say this because a week after I wrote my article, Gas Prices and Product Costs vs. Service Costs, NBC Nightly News did a report which basically said exactly what I wrote in my post. Good thing I don’t blog for fame ;).

50+ Wordpress Plugins & Hacks Candy Store

2008-07-11T15:01:05Z

Turning Wordpress Into Your Own

Image by ShadowKris

Wordpress is my chosen blogging platform. Since I’ve begun my blogging journey I’ve come across many great plugins and customizations that other Wordpress users have created.

All our web hosting plans come with easy to install scripts, one of them being Wordpress.

There are plenty of similar plugin and hacks list out there like this one, however, I’ve been asked by a few of our customers which plugins I use and where they can find some more great mods. Therefore, I created the following list.

By the way, the list is ever going and does not end with this post. I’ll continue to add to the list in our community forums. If you have or know of other plugins that you like, please post in the comment section, thanks.

* next to the number denotes plugins I use

1. Create A Custom Landing Page
Instead of displaying your most recent posts as your blog’s home page, create a landing page that shows whatever you want.

2. Formatting Images For Your Feed Reader
Show images correctly in feeds.

3. Embed Google Ad in First WordPress Post
Place an ad after the first post in your WordPress blog main page.

4. Display Your Most Popular Posts Plugin
A plugin that will show your most popular posts in your sidebar.

5. Word Count Plugin for WordPress
Counts and displays the number of words and images.

6. Display A Stripe Ad At The Top Of Your Blog

7. How to Put Your Best Content Forward
Two ways to put your best content in front of other posts.

*8. Ban Users From Your Blog Plugin
Ban users by IP, IP Range, host name, user agent and referer url from visiting your WordPress’s blog.

9. Creating a Print Stylesheet in WordPress
Shows how you can create a clean print of your blog articles for your readers.

*10. WordPress Blog Post Print Plugin
Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

11. Display Twitter Messages In Wordpress
Customize the Twitter message displayed on your blog.

*12. Separate Wordpress comments from pings and trackbacks
Very useful for keeping your comment section human chat flowing. See an example in my blog post here.

13. Create a poll plugin
Adds an AJAX poll system to your Wordpress blog.

14. Moving a Static HTML Site to Wordpress
How to move your .html pages over to Wordpress and keep the same web address.

*15. Create a custom login page

16. Create a Wordpress Sticky Plugin
Adds a sticky post feature to your WordPress’s blog.

17. Add Related Posts To Your Feed

*18. Random Posts Plugin
This plugin displays a list of posts chosen randomly from your blog.

19. All in One SEO Pack Plugin
Probably the most popular plugin of all time. However, if you’re looking for a program like this, I suggest taking a look at #35 down below. I prefer that plugin over this one as it automates a lot of the seo functions for you.

*20. Secure Contact Form Plugin
The contact us form we like here at eVentureBiz. Has an easy reCapatcha image verification to ward off spam.

*21. Highlight author comments in Wordpress
When commenting in your comment section, here’s how you can highlight your comments.

22. Customize Your 404 Page
Create an Error 404 page the way you want it.

*23. Sitemap Generator Plugin for Wordpress
Generate a site map for your Wordpress blog. See our blog’s site map as an example. We have it set to only display posts, not pages.

*24. Collapsible Archive Widget
Again, see our blog’s sidebar for an example.

*25. Lucia’s Linky Love Plugin - remove the “nofollow”
We all know incoming links to your site is good. This plugin will remove the “nofollow” tag after commentator’s links in their name after they comment however many times you set for.

*26. CommentLuv Plugin
Adds a little note at the bottom of a commentator’s comment in your blog that tells everyone what that person’s last blog article was. See our blog’s comment section as an example.

*27. Post Teaser
Post Teaser generates a preview or “teaser” of a post for the main, archive and category pages, with a link underneath to go to the full post page. This is also good because it’s what Googlebot likes.

28. Recent Comments Plugin
Display recent comments in your sidebar.

*29. Similar Posts Plugin
Display a short list of similar posts at the end of an article. Great for promoting other articles you have written but are buried in your archives.

*30. WP-Cache
Speed up your blog by caching your posts.

*31. Wordpress Automatic Upgrade
The easy way to upgrade your Wordpress blog to the newest version.

32. Disguise email addresses from spambots
Feel free to display your email address with this plugin which stops spambots from recording your email address.

*33. Automatic Wordpress database backup plugin
Get regular backups of your blog sent to you via email with this plugin.

34. Top Commentators Plugin
Display your top commentators names in your sidebar.

*35. Platinum SEO Pack
In my opinion this plugin is better than the All-In-One SEO plugin. This one will automatically generate META tags for you based on what you write as well as automating other things.

36. PHP ImageManager + Editor
The ImageManager provides an interface for browsing and uploading image files on/to your server. The Editor allows for some basic image manipulations such as, cropping, rotation, flip, and scaling.

37. Sexy Comments Plugin
Make your WordPress comment section resemble a forum style discussion.

*38. Quicktags Plugin
Quick and easy buttons for commentators on your blog.

39. Post Footer Wordpress Plugin
Automatically add any custom paragraph, html code, ad code, technorati tags and/or related links list to the end of every posts.

*40. Bad Behavior Plugin To Fight Spam
Bad Behavior acts as a first line of defense for fighting spam. It works even before Askiment sees the spam. In my experience, it has greatly reduced the amount of spam that reaches my Askiment filter.

*41. Akisment Plugin To Fight Spam
Akismet is a must for fighting spam if you have a WordPress blog. If you don’t have it, get it!

42. Adsense Deluxe Plugin
The easy way to insertion Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network ads to your posts.

43. Adsense Inline Plugin
Easily insert Google’s AdSense ads inside the content of your blog post.

44. AdSense Widget for WordPress Sidebar
Insert Google AdSense in your sidebar.

45. AdSense Earnings Plugin
Display your AdSense earnings within your WordPress admin panel.

*46. Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator for WordPress
This program will generate a sitemap for Google to crawl and index your blog better.

*47. One Click Installs Plugin
Makes installing and uploading of plugins easy.

48. PlugInstaller WP Plugin
Another program that makes installing plugins easy. With this plugin you can install a new plugin directly from te plugin site.

*49. Maintenance Mode Plugin
When upgrading your blog or doing any sort of maintenance that will cause your blog to go down for a bit, this plugin lets you customize a landing page for visitors during this period.

50. Sociable Social Bookmarking Plugin
Add social bookmarks to the end of your posts.

51. I Love Social Bookmarking Plugin
A simple drop down menu of social bookmarks for a cleaner look.

52. Share This Plugin
A drop down social bookmark plugin that also allows you to email and post.

53. Social Bookmarks 3.2
Allows for drop down or display of your social bookmarks.

54. Hack Up Your WordPress Theme
An article which shows a bunch of code snippets you can use to customize your theme to do what you want.

55. iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme
automatically reformats your blog’s content for optimized viewing on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.

56. Wordpress Security Tips and Hacks
Some great tips on protecting your blog from hackers and unwanted visitors.

57. Filosofo’s Wordpress Gravatar Plugin
The plugin fixed my issue of not being able to get gravatars to work with my blog. If you’re looking to put gravatars on your site in the comment section, Filosofo’s code is well written.

Adding The “Cool Factor” To Your Website

2008-07-03T23:49:47Z

As a web development company, we love hacking up programs like WordPress and phpBB and transforming their generic layout to our own, even if it’s only parts used by us.

I stumbled upon a website called Binary Moon the other day and found a great plugin for WordPress that lets you customize your login page.

Looking to the image on the right you can see what I came up with (click image to see the actual page).

Most people will never see this page since I don’t have many guest bloggers write articles, but that could change one day and it would be nice to send them to a branded login page.

I also like the fact that someone would go to our login page and think, cool!

We try very hard here at eVentureBiz to make sure our website has a cool factor to it. When I see our site I like to think simple and futuristic. I want people to see our site and say, “Yup, that’s who I want to design my next website.”

Do you like hacking up your factory-issued blog or website template? Do you like adding a coolness factor to it?

If so, what have you done? Maybe you want to but don’t know how? Remember we have a community forum where you can ask for help.

Real Estate Challenge: Which Is A Better Investment - Owning or Renting and Saving

2008-07-02T18:32:34Z

Image by thinkpanama

John sits in his cushioned chair, takes a sip of his steaming coffee, and tells himself “I will try to keep an open mind and see the logic to Justin Ewers of U.S.News latest blog article reprinted in the Yahoo! Real Estate section.”

In case you don’t click over to read the article, Justin’s post suggests to us that renting a house and investing your monthly savings may be a better investment than investing in owning your own home.

This sparked a challenge in my head. Which investment is truly better?

I have broken Justin’s article down to 3 main quotes from his article that I will comment on in regards to this idea.

The Challenge

Ok, so you’re not a trained real estate investor and you want to know if there’s any truth to Justin’s article showing how renting can be a better investment than owning.

Here are a few quotes from this article with my replies below:

Quote 1

An $80,000 down payment could be invested instead in a mutual fund earning 8 percent, and housing comes with myriad other expenses, from maintenance to insurance to taxes, none of which build equity.

It’s not unreasonable to walk into a house with $20k to $30k equity right from the start. Can you buy a mutual fund and say the same? Furthermore, most people who don’t follow the stock market will probably have a hard time maintaining an 8% rate of return on their mutual fund or CD. In reality, they are probably looking more around 4.5-5%.

Sure if they stayed on top of the market they might be able to pull it off, but imagine what they could do if they invested that kind of time and energy in real estate investing. You could buy a house and turn around and flip it for a profit in 2-3 months and earn a 300% return on your money . . . in just 2-3 months.

No stock can do that.

Score 1 for owning your own home and investing in real estate.

Quote 2

It (renting) can also be a sound long-term investment. According to Fidelity, if renters save even $300 a month—the difference, say, between their rent and a monthly mortgage payment—that money, invested in stocks growing at only 4 percent, could add up to $114,000 in 20 years.

I don’t see the logic in this but ok, let’s take a closer look and run the numbers.

Let’s assume your tax bracket is 28% and the expected long term inflation rate works out to 3.5% over the next 20 years (and don’t forget the principle of the Time-Value of Money).

Option 1 - Renting: You spend $1200 a month on rent as opposed to paying $1500 a month by owning; thus, you save $300 a month by renting rather than owning. You invest that “extra” $300 in a stock growing at 4% for 20 years. After 20 years you now have added a total of $114,000 to your net worth, however, you’re still renting.

Option 2 - Owning: You purchase a home for $209,371.16 (yields a monthly payment of $1500 a month for a 20 year loan), put $10,000 down, and have an APR of 6%.

After 20 years you will own a house worth $436,502.29 and have saved $42,176.08 in income taxes.

This means after 20 years of investing, Option 1 gives you $114,000 added to your net worth and Option 2 gives you $436,502 added to your net worth PLUS an extra $42,176 the government allowed you to keep in your pocket.

The score is most definitely now 2-0 in favor of owning.

Quote 3

“Over long horizons, if you reinvest the savings,” Harlow says (an economist at the Fidelity Research Institute), “you’re probably not going to find that much difference between renting and buying.”

Uh, see my response to Quote 2. We should really think about what we say before we say it.

And the final score is 3-0 in favor of owning your own home vs. renting and saving.

——————————————————-

As you can probably see, I love discussing this stuff.

There are many kinds of investors out there, but probably the two most well known are the real estate investors and stock market investors.

Most people agree (even the stock guys) that real estate is the best investment out there.

Read any millionaire book; attend any wealth building conference; analyze the world’s most wealthy people and what you will find is a reoccurring theme that real estate is the best investment you can have.

Justin’s article makes investing and owning your own home sound as cut and dry as buying a house and only watching it add to your net worth on average 3-4% per year (in the past, that’s about the average price a home increases in value).

Anyone whose read my How To Buy A House Like A Real Estate Investor series knows there are many methods you can use to walk into a house with a significant amount of equity starting on the day you move in. This is something you cannot do when buying stocks.

Why I Wrote This Article

I wrote this post not only because I felt the need to respond to Justin’s article (his posts don’t allow for comments) but also because I think it’s important to show entrepreneurs that just because it’s written doesn’t mean it’s necessarily correct.

You have to discover things for yourself. As you become more and more successful in your entrepreneurial journey, you will probably one day find a calling to invest your hard earned profits in something. So be sure to get all the information first.

What’s your take on all this? I’d like to know.

How To Buy A House Like A Real Estate Investor: Part 8 - Good Terms vs. Low Price

2008-06-20T16:59:09Z

Do you think this house would sell quickly?

If you’re a normal homebuyer, the statement I’m about to make may shock you.

Price is of little importance when it comes to making a profit in real estate.

“Oh no he didn’t,” I’m sure you’re saying right about now.

Understand this, price is just a number. Price is not the deciding factor on whether you’re going to make a profit in real estate investing or not. Price is something every day homebuyers worry about. For them, it’s about spending the least amount of money, usually looking at monthly payments, and hoping to close the deal with a little equity under their belt.

For a seasoned investor, their only concern is making a profit - that’s it, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if you spend more or less money as long as the endgame results in an increase of net worth.

Good Terms Rule In Real Estate

Personally, I prefer getting good terms in real estate over a lower price - as long as the price isn’t too high. They allow you to be flexible with your property which usually results in an easier sell or easier rent.

Example

Let’s say Johnny wants to buy a home. He doesn’t have a lot of cash on hand and with gas prices and food costs increasing faster than his paycheck, he’s worried about his monthly payments.

He finds two houses for sale. Both houses are the same model, are in the same basic condition with similar upgrades, and sit adjacent to one another. He immediately notices the houses are offered for sale in two different ways.

House A’s Offer - Lower Price

3 Bed, 2 Bath, 2000 sqft living space, 6000 sqft lot, great condition, etc.
Price: $170,000

House B’s Offer - Better Terms

3 Bed, 2 Bath, 2000 sqft living space, 6000 sqft lot, great condition, etc.
Price: $210,000
Owner financing available for full purchase price with no down payment and no closing costs.
APR to be set at 3%

While finding such a deal as house B is rare, it illustrates the benefits of getting good terms vs. low price. If Johnny where to buy House A, he’d spend about $17,000 for a 10% down payment, $4,250 for closing costs, and end up with a monthly interest payment of around $935/month.

However, if he chose to purchase House B, he would spend $0 for the down payment, $0 for closing costs, and only $525/month in interest payments.

In case you didn’t do the math, that equals a $21,250 in savings up front and $410/month in payments.

In my experience, most Realtors aren’t well versed in the many methods of getting good terms outside of seller financing or sellers paying closing costs for buyers. Remember, Realtors are not trained investors. Ask your Realtor for advice, but nothing works better than researching methods on your own, because no one looks out for your best interest better than you.

Investing-wise, if you purchase a property for investment and are able to get a “low price” but the seller doesn’t budge on the terms, try flipping that house for an immediate profit. If the seller gives you great terms but a higher price, that may be a good rental. If you get both, you choose.

Questions?

Can you think of any other “good terms” ideas other than seller financing or seller paying the buyer’s closing costs?
Refer to the picture at the top of this page. Would you rather purchase that house for $600,000 in the traditional way or receive the higher price with great terms?

Google’s ReadAir Allows You To Read Your RSS Feeds Like Emails

2008-06-16T17:18:06Z

For the past month or so I have been using a desktop client for Google Reader called, Google’s ReadAir to efficiently read all my RSS feeds.

It’s still in the development stage but thus far I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever.

For those of you who read a lot of RSS feeds at once, this is a great option that can reduce the amount of time skimming through your feeds and clicking on headlines that catch your eye. It’s as easy as reading your emails.

Google Reader and ReadAir Are In Sync

One nice feature about Google ReadAir is that it’s connected to your Google Reader.

So if you still like using your Google Reader and add or delete a subscription here or there, that’s fine, ReadAir and Reader stay in sync (in reality they are the same account).

Installation

To install, you first have to download and install Adobe Air. Once that’s installed, you can download and install ReadAir.

That’s about it. It’s been easy to use and in my opinion, the user interface is much nicer than Google Reader.

And if you’d like to subscribe to my feed, click on the image below.

What You Should Know Before Collecting Information From Children

2008-06-20T12:53:33Z

Image by Swansea Photographer

Just a quick note for those of you who own websites that may collect personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

If your website is directed at and collects information from children under 13, you must comply with Federal Trade Commission and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

It basically says that you need to get guardian consent before collecting information (name, address, phone, etc.) and give some options.

From their website -

The Rule requires operators (website owners) to:

Post a privacy policy on the homepage of the Web site and link to the privacy policy on every page where personal information is collected.
Provide notice about the site’s information collection practices to parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children.
Give parents a choice as to whether their child’s personal information will be disclosed to third parties.
Provide parents access to their child’s personal information and the opportunity to delete the child’s personal information and opt-out of future collection or use of the information.
Not condition a child’s participation in a game, contest or other activity on the child’s disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in that activity.
Maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of personal information collected from children.

Even if you’re not an American citizen, it’s still good business practice to do follow this line of reasoning. Parents will come to trust your site more.

And trust means return customers.

Blind Marketing Is Risky

2008-06-03T01:54:38Z

Image by Hysterical Bertha

A while back I went through the Publisher’s Clearing House process online to register to win a million dollars.

Yes it’s a long shot and no I don’t normally sign up for these kinds of contests, I guess I was bored and figured, why not?

A little while into it I began to notice how I was skipping through all the advertisement pages offering magazine subscriptions. They were there, I saw them, but I didn’t look at them. All I wanted to do was get to the end of the registration process and cross my fingers for a million.

Being that so many people register to win the million, I’d be willing to bet a large number of registrants to the contest really don’t care about ordering magazines. Like me, they keep clicking until the page says, “Enter Your Name Here.”

Once I noticed how I was skipping through to the end, I started analyzing the blind marketing system these magazine companies are doing.

Obviously it’s working for them to some extent because they keep advertising and the contest keeps going. But in general, business owners need to be aware of how their customers view, act, and react to their marketing strategies. Don’t piss them off. Be careful not to spend your advertising dollars in places people skip through in order to get to the area they really are there for.

Sometimes people get mad. If you advertise in the wrong place people will get frustrated. “Why is this here? I don’t want this,” they’ll tell themselves subconsciously.

And if you’re the one offering the advertising, be careful how many advertisements you put your customer through. Too many and they’ll hate you for it.

Test your advertising avenues before spending huge. And choose those avenues you take wisely.

Reading Between The Lines

2008-06-04T14:04:59Z

As the owner of a web hosting company, I spend a lot of time networking online and answering a lot of questions. Because we are not as big a name as say, Yahoo Web Hosting, I try my best to make sure we provide a little more personal service and help to our customers when it comes to setting up their website and promoting it.

Anyone who has followed my blog for awhile now knows I’m always telling entrepreneurs that you have to read between the lines of what people are telling you.

People often times either don’t really know what it is they really want or they don’t say what they really mean.

As an example, I find people online asking about web hosting. One person asked which web host is a good one that will also help her with her website. She doesn’t know much about setting up blogs and forums but she really wants a site that has a blog, forum, and image gallery on it.

I offered to set up a Wordpress blog, phpBB forum, and Coppermine image gallery for her on her website if she hosted with us. Furthermore, through our community forum I would help her even more.

I never heard from her again.

Either another company offered the same (not likely) and she went with them or she didn’t tell me everything. I must have missed something. She didn’t tell me the whole story. Does she not have money? Is she just feeling out web hosting companies and not really serious right now?

Hard to tell.

But this is the perfect example of how you can answer a person’s questions, give them what they say they want, and nothing comes of it. I’m usually pretty good at reading between the lines and seeing what people are actually wanting and not just hearing what they are saying. This is important for entrepreneurs to learn and master.

When you answer the unspoken problems and questions people have, you are one step closer to making a sale.

Obviously I missed something this time. But that’s ok. I’ll still keep “truck’n on”.