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12 Startling Design Considerations For Your Blog

Simon Stapleton — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:37:24 +0000

You probably read many blogs, books and other content that tells you how to build a great blog. Often this advice is contradictory! The opinions of bloggers are based on their experiences and what works for them. This blog included! So it’s refreshing to find some real empirical evidence that can tell us how people read websites, how they look for information, what attracts their eyes, and how they navigate pages.

This is the research called Eyetrack III .

Believe me, you will find the results of this research an amazing eye-opener. You just got to read it!

I’ve extracted what I think are the 12 most interesting statements from the research (below) which gives us tips on how to design our blog’s content, templates and layout.

Read the report…. does your blog fit to what the research suggests? (Wait… I betta check this one does too!)

Here are the 12 best bits:

“Dominant headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page”
“A headline has less than a second of a site visitor’s attention”
“The bigger the image, the more time people took to look at it”
“Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best”
“For headlines — especially longer ones — it would appear that the first couple of words need to be real attention-grabbers”
“Shorter paragraphs performed better in Eyetrack III research than longer ones”
“The eyes most often fixated first in the upper left of the page, then hovered in that area before going left to right”
“We found that ads in the top and left portions of a homepage received the most eye fixations”
“Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior…. larger type promotes lighter scanning”
“Size matters. Bigger ads had a better chance of being seen”
“Close proximity to popular editorial content really helped ads get seen”
“Our research also shows that clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixations on homepages”

Other articles you might want to check out:

My Favored Affiliate Platform: PayDotCom

Simon Stapleton — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:32:02 +0000

I expect that you will be wanting to make cash from your blog - why not convert your readers into customers for what is really a few minutes work and little effort?

Promote products that are relevant to your niche, and you could see the money rolling in.

Heck, I hate hype (with a passion), so I say this with genuine belief that you can use your blog to promote the products of vendors as an affiliate.

This is why I choose PayDotCom as my affiliate platform of choice. There is an extensive marketplace of products you can choose from to promote, and it won’t cost you a penny to join, nor do you have to jump through hoops in applying to join!

In November 2008, I made over $4,000 in a single month!

Why I like PayDotCom more than the other platforms is that vendors often add promotion tools to pick up and begin using yourself - e.g. email copy, banners, ad content, etc. It makes PayDotCom stand out above the rest.

Register today on PayDotCom and begin promoting products to your niche by clicking here .Other articles you might want to check out:

Choosing The Right Blogging Tools and Widgets

Simon Stapleton — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:27:56 +0000

Blogging Tools and Widgets are almost always free. So why not pile them on and fill your boots with every tool and widget out there? ‘Less is more’ applies to blogs, too!

There are many free blogging tools on the market, but loading up your blog with all of the free accessories that you can find isn’t necessarily a good idea. While it may be tempting to add a visitor counter, a flashy
background, an exciting new font, and a cluster of quirky animated gifs to your blog, this kind of plan can
easily backfire! The key to getting the most from free blog tools is being thorough and selective.

It is a great idea to learn about all of the kinds of free blogging tools that are available so that you can make
an informed decision about what to add to your blog, but try to remember that just because you can have
something doesn’t mean that you need it. Practice restraint and only choose the options that you think will
really be useful. If you can find out how many visitors are reading your blog by checking your traffic statistics, a visitor counter is likely to add unnecessary clutter to your page. If your blog is text-based, a flashy background can be more of a distraction than an benefit. Be realistic about assessing what kinds of blog accessories will help you realize your vision and improve your site. Remember that even a blog tool that
doesn’t cost you any cash may not be an asset in the long run.Other articles you might want to check out:

Is a Great Idea Enough Reason to Blog?

Simon Stapleton — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:24:28 +0000

Is your idea strong enough to carry your blog to success?

Because there are so many blogs and web sites about blogs on the internet, it can be a real challenge to distinguish your blog from all of the others. Whether you are starting up a new website aimed at bloggers or whether you are looking to make your existing blogging site more distinctive, the key to building and maintaining a site that will capture the interest and attention of the blogging community is discovering your niche. If you can fill a unique need in a way that no other website does, you’ll be able to build a lasting readership among web surfers. Once you have discovered a niche, you will still have a lot to do, but finding your place in the blogosphere is the place to begin. Every great blogging web site starts with a great idea, and you can’t build a successful site that will last without one. There are many great sites aimed at today’s bloggers, and competition for the attention of this growing demographic is fierce. To make your blogging web site stand out from the pack, you will need to offer something that no other site is currently offering, or you will need to do the same thing that an already popular site does but in a more impressive or valuable way.

One way to discover an ideal model for your blog is to look at the sites that have successfully captured an audience already to determine if you can appropriate some of their strategies to help realize your vision. Of course, you will also need to add a unique flair to your project in order to stand apart from your competition. Many people agree that the web sites that do the best in today’s market are the sites that have the most personality. The fiercely individual surfers who are bloggers are a demographic that responds especially strongly to personality, so consider how you can give your site a unique and attractive feeling by lending your own voice and sensibility to your site’s design and content.

Once you have a great idea for your site, have pinpointed a special niche that you are well equipped to fill, and have infused the site with personality, the next step is figuring out how to get the word out to bloggers. In the long run, a great idea just isn’t enough to propel your blogging web site to success. You will need to draft a smart and realistic marketing plan in order to draw readers to your site. Once you hook a blogger, your great content will keep them coming back, but it is vital to get that first glance or your site won’t have a chance to shine.Other articles you might want to check out:

How To Exorcise the Curse of Comment Spam

Simon Stapleton — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:43:03 +0000

Comment Spam is a Pain in the Ass.

It consumes time and energy just dealing with it - that is - reviewing each comment and deciding if it spam, and then tagging it as spam.

If you’ve suffered it, you’ll know what I mean.

Thankfully, there is a Wordpress plugin that removes 99% of spam - Akismet (http://akismet.com/ ).

So first of all, if you don’t have Akismet, then install it today. This will cure the burden of this problem. Download the plugin, place it (unzipped) into your plugins folder, and then enabled it in your plugins manager. That’s all you need to do (well, except upgrade it when Wordpress tells you there is an update.)

Akismet stops, on average, 150 spam comments on my blogs, EVERY DAY!

Next, if you don’t have comment moderation enabled, then you really must do, immediately. You don’t want spam finding it’s way through and making the hard work of your blog a mockery.

There is more. Don’t forget that once you approve a comment, the commentator can add more comments without you needing to approve them!

Some spammers are clever. They write comments that are not blatant spam, but instead give you a compliment or incentivize you to approve the spam. Doing so opens doors for a follow up of spam!

My advice is, if in doubt, don’t approve. Mark it as spam.

The signs of a potential spammer are:

The commentator addresses you as ‘webmaster’
You’re given a compliment without it specifically saying why
You’re offered link-backs
Very generic comment that could apply to any blog

Something else to try. Take the body of the comment you have doubts about, and Google it. Search for the comment, and use quotes around the comment (so that Google searches for the whole string, not just the component parts.)

Here is an example.

Today I received this comment on my blog:

Hello webmaster
I would like to share with you a link to your site

write me here xxxxxx@mail.ru (full email address edited)

Now I do a search on Google using “Hello webmaster I would like to share with you a link to your site write me here xxxxxx@mail.ru

What did I find?

I found 10 sites with this comment for all to see! That’s 10 blogs without comment moderation, or possibly naive bloggers.

Preventing comment spam is a cinch once you have the tools and some wisdom to hand. Don’t let these scumbags destroy our livelihoods!Other articles you might want to check out:

How to Approach Learning Blogging Software

Simon Stapleton — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:15:47 +0000

It’s real easy, if you take it easy!

Most blogging software is specifically designed to be simple to use and maintain, but even the least intimidating blogging system can feel very overwhelming to somebody who has not spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of different kinds of software. Particularly for newer bloggers, learning how to use the interface of blogging software is the most difficult part of blogging. If you are somebody who feels comfortable expressing themselves in another medium, it may prove to be well worth all your time and effort to learn blogging software, but that doesn’t mean that the task will be as easy as pie.

The main thing that will help you find success as you learn how to use a new kind of blogging software is to try and take things slowly. Most people get so excited about learning to blog that they try to rush into the thick of it and start exploring the most complicated features of a program right away. This can often lead to getting confused and feeling frustrated, and all too many potential bloggers burn out during this stage of the process. If you take your time learning the basics of your blog software program before you move on to more advanced techniques, you will be more likely to retain what you have learned, use your new knowledge effectively, and keep feeling positive about your ability to understand the world of blogging.Other articles you might want to check out:

Blogging for Profit Begins With a Long Term Plan

Simon Stapleton — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:15:44 +0000

So you want to blog for profit?

You won’t be the only person dreaming of blogging for profit, and this goal is not far beyond the reach of someone with average intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic grasp of blogging technology. However, very few people manage to reap the profits they want from their blog. Most people who try to make money with their blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often, bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their readership will grow and how much money they will make, and when these expectations are not met the disappointment can crush the desire to continue blogging. The other trap that most bloggers fall into has to do with lack of planning. If you really want to turn a profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a realistic plan and stick to it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the key thing that you will need is a large readership. The higher your traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you. However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will need in order to make a profit isn’t easy. As more and more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get attention. You need to be able to market your blog effectively!

Too many bloggers spend most of their time writing posts and almost no time marketing their project. To be certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog search engines like technorati, and once your readers know that you update frequently they will return to your site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how often you update if nobody is reading your page, so dont skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in the blog community, and following other established modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a really great idea for a blog, success is not going to happen overnight! Building the kind of readership that blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all likelihood it will be at least several months or even years before you are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed to your blogging project during this initial rough period. To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update and how many readers you want to attract, and then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.Other articles you might want to check out:

‘The Roadmap To Become A Blogger’ report launched!

Simon Stapleton — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:14:01 +0000

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have just launched their new report on how to become a blogger!

And it is amazing!

This is a totally free report 0 which sets out the future standard for blogs, and the news is that multimedia will be king. The days of successful pure-text blogs could be over!

Download the report 0 and take a look for yourself. You’ll read it through in 30-40 mins and I urge you to read it through cover to cover in one sitting. I must admit that when I did so I felt very agitated - but in a good way. I couldn’t wait to start exploring the ideas shared.

The report demonstrates the ‘Five Milestones’ we need to reach to become a successful blogger, and even describes a flow to undertake.

The best thing about the report is it shows reals examples of successful blogs that demonstrate success according to the milestones. This isn’t just bluster.

I recommend this report - the report itself is a milestone in the evolution of the blogging industry…

Look out for posts here that will show you how to achieve these milestones as efficiently as you can!Other articles you might want to check out:

If You Were Wondering What Your Blog Must Do, Then Listen To Seth Godin

Simon Stapleton — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:37:04 +0000

Blogging… blogging… hmmmm…. what must your blog DO?

Seth Godin

Well Seth Godin on his blog answers this question, beautifully. It’s all about making connections. His post (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/how-to-make-mon.html ) is the best I’ve read so far in succinctly explaining what, if you want to make money, you must do with your blog. Make a connection, make a success. This is powerful stuff, Seth!

OK, so if I’m advocating the work of this genius, then what’s my story? Well taking Seth’s advice, what I do with this blog is…

Connect Information Seekers with Information - I give you information on how to most efficiently startup your blog
Connect Advertisers to people who want to be advertised to - you want to see options in the blogging marketplace and make informed choices, don’t you?
Connect people buying with people who are selling - I make no apologies for wanting to show you the best products around to get your successful blog going by promoting these products

Seth speaks wise words in this post. If you’re not making any of the connections he discusses, then what are you doing… and why are you doing it?Other articles you might want to check out:

The Three Types of Blogger

Simon Stapleton — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:58:11 +0000

There are Three Types of Blogger. Which are you? Find out here…

There is the Rambler – this is a blogger who mutters their thoughts online without any real purpose other than to spread their thoughts. Ramblers are the schoolkids that share their love stories and fascinations with the latest band. They are the artistic types that right poems about clouds and cheese. They’re the niche experts that haven’t yet woken up to their monetization potential. The Rambler blogs without structure – they are the free spirits unconstrained by external influence. A Ramble has the lowest barrier of entry, requiring only a browser, keyboard and a few brain cells. About 95% of all blogs are Rambles, and comprise the majority of abandoned blogs.

There is the Reporter – the blogger who is the web-journalist without the press card. They can say what they want and often do. Reporters are conduits for information without adding a great deal of value to it themselves. Reporters are there for one thing – to amass content to funnel browsers into ad-clickers. A Reporter selects a wide field of view and blogs about many subjects, often restating content from other sources, perhaps adding a twist. The Reporter’s attempts to build high-value relationships are thwarted by their lack of authority in their subjects. A Reporter can Ramble should they choose to, and the difference between a Report and a Ramble is sometimes unclear, if facts are disputable. A Reporter only needs a browser, access to the full spectrum of websites and information sources, and a slightly larger brain that the Rambler.

And there is the Expert – the Expert is a blogger who creates their own content based off their insight and deep knowledge and skill in their niche. The Expert limits their field of view to a narrow subject and then dominates it. The Expert, over time, builds a great deal of trust and authority in their subject, and most importantly, influence over their readers (Darren Rowse, an expert himself, has written a post on how RSS subscribers create influence 6). The Expert can also Ramble and Report if they wish to, but at the risk of damaging their authority. The Expert requires significant amounts of knowledge and experience to exist. Experts are able to turn this influence into profit by building a ‘virtuous circle’ – the value received by readers is shared with the blogger, and the blogger’s value creates fresher value for readers, and so on.Other articles you might want to check out: