I was visiting the Problogger forum the other day and came across a new blogger who had a question about how they should set up their website.

The scenario: Bill is starting a website which will consist of two parts:

1. A main site area where he will advertise his products and services
2. A blog… which he’ll use to generate traffic and brand awareness

Bill’s dilemma: Should he create his site as part static (html only) for his products and services and part WordPress for his blog – or – simply create the entire site as a WordPress site and simply place his blog in the /blog path?

Bill’s question sparked a number of replies, some for an all WordPress site and some for splitting it up as part static and part WordPress. Here’s my take…

If html and a little css doesn’t scare you, you might want to consider splitting things up; however, if you have no idea how to code in html and at the very least, toy with css, a full WordPress site might be the better option.

Personally, I like splitting up the two. I can sum it all up in two words: Upgrades and Security.

Consideration #1: Upgrades

Ask anyone who is a WordPress blogger about “upgrades” and you’ll hear it… upgrades are a pain in the butt. It seems every month there is a new release of WordPress and you are advised to upgrade immediately. The problem here is that many times after we upgrade WordPress, weird things can happen:

• Database errors
• Theme not displaying right
• Some plugins might no longer be compatible with your new version of WordPress

The list goes on and on and because of this, we are told to make sure and fully backup our sites before we attempt upgrades.

Now imaging for a moment if your entire site was made up by a WordPress installation and after you hit that “upgrade” button your ducks are no longer all lined up… that means “Database Error” to you and me.

Crap, now what? Your site is disabled and everyone who comes to your site to purchase your “super mommy night time slippers” get to see a big fat “Database Error” instead of your product. On the other hand, if your site was split up between a static site and WordPress blog, only your blog would be disabled and your visitors could still visit your site and make a purchase.

Consideration #2: Security Issues

WordPress sites are a little less secure because they require a database to run and also require PHP code to execute processes. Static sites, on the other hand, are a little more secure because there’s not much to exploit (i.e. crack into).

For the most part, to hack a static site a malicious hacker would need to obtain some information from you, such as your FTP login information. Another way might include them breaking into your web hosting server or possibly even breaking into someone else’s website which is hosted on the same server as yours.

However, for the most part WordPress is pretty well secure as long as you keep up with the upgrades. To that end, if you’re not comfortable with html and css, a full WordPress site might be the way to go because you can update your site very easily without the need to hire a professional.

The choice is yours and not one I can make for you. All I can do is give advice and help you to make an informed decision.

So what do you think? Do you have an all WordPress site but wish it were split up? What’s your opinion here?

Related posts:

1. SEO Q&A: Does It Matter Where My Website's Server Is Located?
2. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website
3. Is Your Website Web 2.0 or Corporate?

That is after all why many of us start a blog, isn’t it? To make money or drive traffic to our business website?

Today I want to talk about professionalism and production quality when it comes to designing your blog. Its already been said online and by various gurus that your site visitors will ask themselves these questions immediately when they land on your site, especially if you’re trying to sell something:

• What’s Here?
• Why Here?
• Why You?
• Why Now?
• Why This?
• So What?

If you’re a blogger, I’m sure you’ve also heard that content is king. There are tons of blogs out there dedicated solely to this topic alone. They show you how to create creative and compelling content which ultimately gets your visitor to stick around or purchase something (i.e. convert).

But if you only have 5 seconds or so to convince a new visitor to stay on your site and have a look around, obviously your content won’t play a big role here. Instead, the visitor will scan your site in an instant and come to a conclusion: “Should I stay or should I go?”

Hey . . . isn’t that a song?

Let’s take a look at some things you can do so that you can communicate in 5 seconds what you’re all about and hopefully convince your site visitor to stick around and take notice. Remember this: Attention is like trust, you have to earn it.

Things you can do to capture attention and convey a message quickly

The first thing a new site visitor will notice is, well, your site. How does it look? What colors are being used? Am I being yelled at (bright colors, lots of capital letters, etc.)? Does it look like “my kind of site?” What’s that tagline say?

You’ll notice one of the questions I highlighted above is, “Is this my kind of site?” What I’m referring to here is in reference to your target customers. For example, if your target customers are computer/Internet techs, your site might be better designed to look high tech and possibly a little corporate; however, if your target customer base are low key and non-techie, then a more relaxed and calming site design might be more suitable.

Colors

For corporate colors, go with colors like:

• dark blue
• gray
• black and white
• dark red, etc.

For a more relaxed setting, try shades of:

• green
• soft yellows and oranges
• earth tones (brown, cream, etc.)

Image Quality & Message

Visitors will also notice immediately the quality of your images. Is that tagline in your header blurry? Make sure if you have text in an image, it comes out clearly and in a font that’s not hard to read.

Also, if you’re running banner ads in your sidebar, it would be nice if they had something to do with your niche. Site visitors who are not bloggers might not quickly realize those are advertisements. Instead, those banners convey a quick message to them. If you sell tax auditing services and in your sidebar there are 3 banner ads showcasing images and sites not related to your niche, that subconsciously tells your visitor a message, and it’s probably not related to finding tax services on your site.

Don’t confuse your site visitor with mix matches of messages in your images, because as I always say, a confused mind always says, no.

Font style and link color

For a while I was a big advocate for changing your link color to something that “pops”. I’m sure you have visited a ton of websites in the past, what color did 90% of those sites use for their link color? Blue, right. I experimented with different link colors and for a while favored red because it really popped out and was not what everyone did.

However, I must admit that time and experience has changed my mind on this. After reviewing my statistics, I found that the different link color really didn’t matter much. In fact, traditionally red has always been associated with danger or “Red Alert”. Therefore, my pick for link color is to simply stick with blue.

For font style, you can never go wrong with Arial, however other styles which seem to be easy on the eyes are Verdana and Tahoma.

As for font size, 12 is pretty standard. I’d say start there and see how it looks and if it makes sense to go a little bigger, try it. Whatever you do, don’t make your visitors have to squint to see your text. Black text over a white background is always preferable. If you experiment with anything other than that, be sure to get feedback from your regular site visitors, their input will help you iron out all the small details. Remember, not everyone uses the same screen size and monitor as you.

Convey quick messages with bullet points

Nothing works as quick and easy as bullet points. Knowing that 98% of new visitors to your site are going to first quickly scan your blog, you can use that information to your advantage. While scanning, they want the bullet points of what your site is all about, so give them bullet points.

Bullet points work really well in header images.

For example, our company which provides Blog Hosting could add 3 quick bullet points in our header image which quickly tells visitors what they need to know:

• Starting a blog made easy
• Get tons of help
• Learn the basics of blogging

For my tagline, also included in the header, I could use something like: “You blog. We’re here to help. It’s THAT simple.” Speaking of taglines, they traditionally go below your logo.

So in my header image now, I’d have the name of my company, a quick tagline, and 3 bullet points highlighting what my blog or website is all about.

Oh wait! Did we just quickly answer the What’s Here?, Why You?, and Why This? questions I highlighted at the beginning of this article?

In our example header image, we quickly sent our site visitor a message which told them:

• You can start a blog here.
• Starting a blog will be easy.
• With our company you will get tons of help.

A final tip: Start at the end and work backwards

Often times thinking in reverse works very well in most things relating to business. The same holds true for designing your blog. Start with then end in mind (i.e. what you want your visitors to do) and then build a site around THAT notion.

Everything else you add to your blog which doesn’t lead the visitor to do what it is you want them to do is just distraction and noise (and less money in your pocket).

Summary (for those of you that skimmed)

It’s ok, I do my fair share of skimming, too

• Look at your logo, tagline, font, colors, and quality of images. People look from the upper left down to lower right of your blog when scanning. Typically logo goes above the tagline.
• Focus your tagline for your audience. If they are newbies, make it sound friendly.
• Use quick bullet points to convey a message quickly. 3 to 4 are good, no more than 6. They would be well placed in your header image, if possible.
• Be careful sending mixed messages with images on your site. Your banner ads could tell a person scanning your blog a message which has no relation to what you’re all about.
• General site colors: Blue and gray (techie) are good for corporate looking websites, so is red and black and white and black. For a more laid back and non corporate look, try earth tones – browns, soft yellows, greens, soft oranges, etc.
• For link color, blue probably works best. Red means danger, error message, etc.
• When first designing your blog, think in reverse. What is the end result you want from a visitor? Design your site around that notion, everything else is just noise.

Food For Thought

What is the purpose of your blog?

If you’ve been blogging for awhile, has your blog become cluttered with a bunch of items in your sidebar which you really don’t need and does nothing for the purpose of your blog?

I know mine has, and I’m doing something about it as we speak.

Related posts:

1. Intro To Creating A Supermodel Blog Design Series
2. Landing Page Optimization: Lesson Learned by Watching Jesse James is a Dead Man
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website

Have you ever wondered why some people make more money from their blog than others do?

You might even ask yourself, “What the heck? It’s impossible to put more hours into blogging than I do; I sit at my computer all day. What is it she’s doing that I’m not?”

The first thing you need to understand is the fact that blogs suck at making money. Blogs don’t make money, people and their creative minds do. In other words, it’s what you do with your blog that makes the money.

People will tell you content is king, and if that’s true, then blog design is the engineer that builds the glorious kingdom. Without a kingdom, what would come of a king?

So how do we create a blog design in a way that gets people to click where you want them to click and their eyes to look where you want their eyes to look? That’s question that cannot be answered in just one blog article. People have written entire books on the subject.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll discuss some major points I think are mission critical to building a better blog design which will answer the question above. For now, let’s take a quick look at how I compare building a better blog design with how designers build a supermodel.

A Supermodel Analogy

Let’s compare building a blog with building a supermodel (and yes, they build them). Please excuse my very poor excuse for a flowchart.

As you can see, there is a certain process to building both a supermodel and building a better blog design. Let’s take a look at my top 6 better blog design bullet points you can use to build a supermodel blog.

Topics will include (but are not limited to):

1. Professionalism and production quality
2. Page layout and the use of screen real estate
3. Navigational architecture
4. Trust and credibility
5. The main content area
6. Calls to action

One thing you should come to understand, however, is the fact that we are all too close to our own work. Because we understand our products and offers so well, sometimes it is difficult for us to design our blogs and websites in such a way our target customers will react positively to. So the first thing we should try doing is taking a good look at ourselves and realize what we’re assuming about our site visitors is probably wrong.

Once you understand that fact, then you can go about designing an effective blog design which your site visitors will react in ways you want them to.

The questions then are: Have you taken a good look at your blog or website lately through the eyes of your target audience? Do you understand that what you’re assuming about them is probably wrong? What is it you want them to do? Have you made it easy for them to quickly find what they’re looking for?

For WP Blog Host, we’ve been testing design changes and you’ll probably be seeing a new design here soon. Our target customers for web hosting are bloggers; so shouldn’t our site reflect blogging?

I think so, and I’ve convinced others.

Related posts:

1. Creating A Blog Supermodel: Professionalism & Production Quality
2. Landing Page Optimization: Lesson Learned by Watching Jesse James is a Dead Man
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website

A couple years ago when my blog was new, I watched an episode of Kitchen Nightmares (Chef Gordon Ramsay) which inspired me to write a post entitled, A Lesson Learned by Watching Kitchen Nightmares. While watching the show I observed how all though Chef Ramsay is a Chef, he’s also an entrepreneur, and that particular episode inspired an entrepreneurial post out of me.

Two years later and I’ve done it again.

Landing page optimization has been on my mind a lot lately because I know parts of our site are in need of some tlc.

Back to the topic of this article, this time I was watching an episode of Jesse James is a Dead Man and what he did to train for the Baja 500 (an off road race). I immediately made a connection in my head with his training exercise and what you don’t want your blog visitors to do when they come to your site.

To train for the Baja 500, Jesse drove a truck through minefield with a computer attached to his head which monitored and tracked his eye movements during the drive.

What? You haven’t done this before?

After his first run through, the computer showed that Jesse’s eye movements were somewhat erratic and his eyes jumped from one area of the minefield to another. This told Jesse that he wasn’t sure where exactly he wanted to go.

After reviewing the footage, Jesse tried the obstacle course again but this time he made sure to focus his eyes on where he wanted to go.

As a result of being more focused on his destination and where he wanted to go (i.e. less erratic eye movements), Jesse ran the obstacle course far better than his first attempt.

You can watch the full episode right here. If you want to see the part I was talking about, skip ahead to about 8:30 in the video.

How this relates to landing page optimization

In case you haven’t made the connection already, the way this all fits in together with optimizing a blog’s landing or sales page is focus and direction.

What you don’t want is your site visitor’s eyes jumping all over the place. You want to guide them and tell them where to look.

By default, blogs suck at converting traffic into sales. There’s just too much to look at and their eyes will jump all over. Some of those eye-jumping areas include:

• Your header image
• Blog’s title and tagline
• Horizontal menu
• Big or blinking graphics (no blinking, please)
• Lots of links in your sidebar

The Takeaway

If part of your goal in blogging is to sell products and/or services, you need to direct your visitors where to go. Remember, the first thing a visitor will do when they arrive on your site is ask themselves, “What does this person want me to do?”

If your visitor is a blogger, there’s going to be a lot of assuming going on in their heads. They’re going to assume what you want them to do is read your blog article and are probably going to skip everything on your site and go straight to your content.

If your visitor is not a blogger, they’re probably going to see something on your site that “pops”, like a nice big pretty image. Simply writing a blog article about your product and then linking to the article isn’t going to do it. You need to link to a product sales page with very little, if none, distractions.

You probably don’t even want a menu system. In this way, their eyes won’t jump all around with many things to see and wonder about. They’ll only have one place to look, where your product and description is.

In fact, make them have to click the back button to get off your page while you’re at it.

Related posts:

1. A Lesson Learned by Watching "Kitchen Nightmares"
2. Creating A Blog Supermodel: Professionalism & Production Quality
3. Intro To Creating A Supermodel Blog Design Series

He sent me his username and password and noted that he was hosted with Host Gator.

Ok, no problem.

So I headed over to Host Gator’s site only to get frustrated as hell. They are suppose to be a web hosting company. I assume that means people will be logging in and out of their accounts often, not to mention needing access to their webmail accounts whenever they’re away from home and don’t have access to their normal email program.

But I couldn’t find a login / out link anywhere. Now when the person signs up for web hosting they will be sent a link to the login page in an email, but what if you want to login from your parent’s house? Or an Internet cafe? How are you suppose to get into your webmail? Do they have webmail?

Confused, I clicked on their Support link and typed in my question. The returned response made it sound like logging is was such a hassle I had to watch a movie on how to do it.

Ok, I’m not meaning to bash on a competitor’s website. Sorry Host Gator, I don’t have anything against you, I swear.

The point here I’m trying to make is this.

You need to make things easy for people online. If you own a membership based website, make it easy for them to get into their account. If you sell a product, make sure navigation to that product is laid out easily.

The worst thing you can do is create confusion on your blog, because I have a saying I’ve always stuck with and has served me well.

“A confused mind always says, no“.

Related posts:

1. Is Your Website Web 2.0 or Corporate?
2. Using Photos On Your Website
3. Marketing In A Crowded Market

Problem is, it’s so damn difficult to try and figure out when you’re just starting out because there’s SO much you can do with it. One of my first frustrations with it was the fact that I couldn’t determine which clicks and visits were my own?

Obviously, you’re more interested in who is visiting your site, where they came from, and what they did to find you. You’re not interested in how you found your own website.

So here’s a little video I put together which hopefully you’ll find useful. It will show you how to set up a filter on Google Analytics so you don’t track your own movements and visits to your own website.

If you haven’t already set up Google Analytics to run on your blog, here’s how: How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin

How To Set Up A Google Analytics Filter

Related posts:

1. How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin
2. Google Keyword Tool + Top 50 Google Tools Bloggers Can Use
3. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention

The other day my wife emailed me a link to a “What’s Your Personality Type?” quiz (PersonalityType.com).

At first I wasn’t too interested but after hearing the results from her test I was intrigued and headed over to the site to take the quiz. It asked me a few questions about what type of person I am, such as do I often say whatever comes to my mind or do I hold things back? It also asked me questions about how organized I am and orderly I like my universe; I prefer orderly, however, with 2 young children running around all day . . . you get the picture

So you’re probably curious as to what personality type I am, aren’t you?

I was awarded with the INTJ personality type. “Yes thank you, I accept this award and I’d like to thank my mother, father, beautiful wife . . .”

Ok seriously though, here’s what that means and how it all ties into understanding the psychology of your website visitors.

Where This Test Came From

After doing a little research, I found that the test PersonalityType.com puts you through is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

In short, it is a test to classify a person’s personality type which might aid in helping you figure out how you might act in a given situation as well as provide people of different types as a means to understand one another.

The box below shows the comparisons you are asked and classified into. For example, are you an Extraversion or Introversion? Do you gather information via Sensory or Intuition? etc.

I don’t think the test on PersonalityType.com gives you an answer key as to what your combination classifies you as, however, here is what I’ve discovered:

How This Ties Into Web Design

After taking the test I made a connection between how I craft everything on my website for my target audience and how this tool helps me to better understand them.

As a webmaster, web designer, copywriter, entrepreneur, marketer, etc., part of being successful is getting into the heads of your target customers and understanding how they will respond to certain pieces of text, ads, banners, and so on that you create.

Inevitably, it is somewhat of a lost cause as you can never really get into the heads of your potential customers. However, with tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey Temperament Sorter, we can work off something.

As an example, let’s say you’ve discovered that your primary website visitors are ENFJs. You could then find out behavioral patterns they exhibit and tailor your offer to satisfy their needs – oh what’s that I’m saying again . . . you need to solve problems to succeed in business

So the question is, what type of people do you think your target audience is? In all honesty, unless you’ve put a lot of money into polling and personal interaction statistics, it’s probably not who you think they are.

Related posts:

1. Is Your Website Web 2.0 or Corporate?
2. Using Photos On Your Website
3. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention

I do sometimes. Especially if it’s a list that I know others will add links to in a comment section.

Like mine, most WordPress blogs you go to have the Subscribe To Comments plugin so those that comment can keep up on the conversation going on in the comment section.

There’s a little tweak I did to my Subscribe To Comments plugin many bloggers may not be aware of that you can do.

By simply adding the following line of code to your comments.php file, you can allow your blog readers to follow a topic without commenting.

<?php show_manual_subscription_form(); ?>

As mentioned above, add the code to your comments.php file and just below the </form> tag near the bottom of the file’s code.

This will add a small box under the “Subscribe To Comments” checkbox where your commentators can enter their email address and stay connected. For an example, scroll down and see how mine is displayed below.

Related posts:

1. 3 Sentences, Post 3: Web Development
2. 50+ WordPress Plugins & Hacks Candy Store
3. Which Philosophy Do You Subscribe To?

Craft a bad, unorganized website and your potential customers will no longer be potential.

My last post 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website showed us how people scan your website and where their eyes naturally are drawn to. Today I’d like to share some videos which can help us learn to design better websites and attract more clicks/sales.

Attractive Headlines

Excellent video on the importance of writing good headlines. Think about how important good headlines are for magazines like Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Enquirer, etc. Headlines are important for your business in press releases and getting people to click through your blog.

Headlines, by Cory from Boing Boing
Run Time: 6:03

Getting Incoming Links

This video shows a few ways how to obtain incoming links to your website. One such method is the link exchange method which as he points out can be a bit time consuming. However, it can be an effective tool to get your site ranked higher in search engines.

He also points out a useful tool that not many people know about. If you own a website and want to get an idea of what websites are out there linking to you, type link: your_website.com in the search box of Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.

Author: Michael Cheney
Run Time: 9:47

Site Makeover

This is a very important topic that some Search Engine Marketers aren’t well trained on. True you want your website to be optimized so Google or Yahoo! can rank it high in their indexes but you also don’t want to ignore the human element.

Also, just like writing captivating headlines helps persuade site visitors to click on that particular topic, so too do you need to actually tell your visitors/customers what to do (something not mentioned in this video). For example, instead of creating a link or button that says “Sign Up,” create one that gives the call to action like, “Subscribe Now!” Or maybe instead of a “$50 off special” image, your image says “Save $50 by Purchasing Now!”

The following video illustrates how you should really examine your website and see if you might be confusing people and/or telling them exactly what it is you want them to do.

Site Makeover – Generating Ecommerce Sales, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 5:24

Site Makeover 2

Very good idea on how you could look up typical keywords people use to get to your product and then add those words in a menu link on the side of your page, maybe a more information section
or something.

Boosting Sales for a Catalogue Site, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 4:49

Site Makeover 3

Some thoughts on designing your blog to help people stay connected with your blog.

Site Makeover – Getting Repeat Traffic to Your Blog, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 3:55

Site Makeover 4

Site Makeover – Getting Users to Click, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 3:01

Optimizing WordPress for Search Engines

Make Your WordPress Blog Search Engine Friendly, by Michael Gray
Run Time: 4:41

Related posts:

1. Using Photos On Your Website
2. Fatten Up Your Wallet by Using Online Videos
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website

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

1. Read left to right.
2. Bright – yelling at you colors are not good for backgrounds or in large areas.
3. Short attention spans (especially online).
4. Scan web pages and don’t read every word.
5. Want information instantly without working too hard to find it.
6. People’s eyes get tired if they read a computer screen too long.
7. Read bold print (got me through college) / headings (size matters).
8. Scan links, buttons, and menus.
9. Don’t like flashing images.
10. Don’t like to feel as if they are being hit hard with advertisements (which is why the Web Hosting page of WP Blog Host looks different than most other hosting companies).
11. Prefer a font size they can read and are use to on the Internet.
12. Prefer bulleted lists for quick information gathering.
13. 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).
14. The upper and left portions of a website typically get viewed.
15. Strange fonts are ignored.
16. 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.
17. Calls to action (telling your visitor what to do) work better and get more clicks than telling them what they can do.
18. 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.
19. Many people read the links at the bottom of the page.
20. Roman numerals are good for numbered lists (I’m bad about that one).
21. Advertising banners typically are skipped and not seen.
22. Other than blogs, website visitors like navigation links near the top of the page (most) and also the left.
23. 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.
24. 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.

Related posts:

1. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention
2. Lateral SEO Thinking: 3 Things Most People Don't Consider
3. Using Photos On Your Website