Will 2011 Turn Out Better Than Your Best Year Of High School?

Happy New Year Clambakers!

Aaah… January begins clean… empty… with so much promise. Like the blackboards at school upon returning from summer break.

You know… after they use that spray stuff on them that smells like carburetor cleaner, gets you a little loopy, and gets them all “super black” again. It’s literally starting with a clean slate.

I used to love that feeling of a new school year. The freshness of it all.

A backpack filled with crisp, clean notebooks and an entire gross of brand new pens with un-chewed caps…

Okay… time for a reality check: I’m old. We didn’t have backpacks when I was in school. Backpacks were for hippies and sherpas!

We had book bags. There… I said it. Book bags. Why are you looking at me like that? I said I was old, didn’t I? Keep whispering and I’ll stop this blog and turn it around. Don’t test me, mister. I’ll do it!

(clears throat) I digress. Where was I? Oh, that’s right…

Desks newly repaired and with almost all of the “key scratch graffiti” painted over. Sure… if you look carefully enough and the shadows are just right you can still make out the faint memory of the dirty words from last year. Not perfect, but close enough for school board work.

And the gym floor oh-so-perfect for determining the sock skating champion of all time…

It’s a new day. A birth, if you will. On that day we all have hope; Hope that this year will be different.

• This year we’ll keep our notebooks perfect.
• This year we’ll resist the temptation to chew on our pens.
• This year we’ll actually study for tests.
• This year our locker won’t become a cluttered mess with an odor we can’t find the cause of till spring.

This year we’ll excel at all things school related.

Now… I’m not going to even touch upon week two of school… The week by which you’ve already abandoned all these plans, no…

Because we’re talking about new beginnings… not the reality of life all year long. It’s about hope… often temporary hope.

The sprucing up of the school, and our subsequent sprucing up of our goals sets us up for a “shot at success.”

I’d like to give you a similar shot at a successful business year by helping you spruce up your websites for 2011.

I’m doing something very rare for me. This advice is going to be general advice. Some marketing advice… some design advice. Nothing specifically copywriting related. After all… there are more things that go into making sales than just copy.

So here we go…

11 Ways To Make Your Site Look And Work Its Best In 2011

1.         Add Video – Whether a video greeting or a full-blown video sales letter, I know no better way to update a tired old site than with video. Of course I have rules on using video.

Unless you’re going for a full video sales letter, the rule is “Keep it short.” Videos at the top of the page, should be no more than 120 seconds in length. Ideally less than 60 seconds.

Short videos are great for welcoming potential buyers to your page.

2.         Add (or change) Color – Color is a tricky thing to get right. I don’t pretend to understand it all, but there are styles and trends in advertising colors that change from time to time. Not as often as fashion changes, but still something you should put some time into.

It’s not as simple as it once was where headlines were navy blue or black and lines you wanted to draw attention to were crimson red. There’s a great book I have on my desk at all times. It’s called “The Big Book of Color in Design.” I’ve been using it for a couple years now, ever since I was introduced to it by a graphics guy.

In the book they explore color in design, in a way that breaks it down into the feeling you’re trying to convey.

And… it’s not always as straight forward as common sense would convince you…

For instance, black, yellow and cream (in the right combinations) are just as “feminine” as pink.

But not all shades are created equal, and like I said… getting it right is damn hard.

What I love about this book is you flip to a section of the book that matches a “feeling” you’re trying to convey, like soothing, rich, in charge, etc. In each section you get numerous examples with exact colors in the exact combinations… with the hex numbers you can punch right into photoshop!

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

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

There are tons; Verdana… Tahoma… and Arial just for starters.

And even within Arial there are a handful of different variation. Keeping up with what’s good, what’s bad, what’s trendy and what’s passé, well… it’s beyond me.

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

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

The little known secret is that some of these sites have thousands of graphics you can not only use royalty free, but ones you can download and use “free” free… as in don’t pay a dime!

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

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

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

6.         Be mindful of the fold – Consider how valuable different parts of your page are to your bottom line. “Above the fold” is the part of your main page that readers see without having to scroll. This is your beach front property… the most valuable spot you own. Make sure it contains something that will bring you the most return.

This topic can fill an entire book of its own, so let me give you a simple example and let you fill in your own blanks… A great headline will bring you great returns… A great video will bring you great returns… Even a proper use of graphics can bring you a great return. Links to your “about us,” or “terms of service” pages will not make you any money.

Now you tell me which ones belong in the footer of your page (the ghetto) and which ones should go beachside.

7.         Always think about load time – You have mere seconds to get someone’s attention. You’ll never get anywhere if your page takes forever to load. Therefore… make sure you only use images when you need them to make the sale, and always compress them to make the page load much faster. Also… make sure to use an outside host for all videos you have on your pages.

If you do that and still have slow loading pages, consider firing your webhost and finding someone who can deliver the speed you need to convert browsers into buyers.

8.         Kick your ads to the curb – It still blows my mind to see people who claim they’re trying to sell something on their website, but they still putting external ads on their page. You ask them why and they all say “it brings in some money…” Well… how much really?

Truth is, most of those adsense type ads on websites bring in pennies. But just by having them you’re losing so much credibility with buyers I’d bet dollars to donuts you forfeit the equivalent to a year of adsense revenue, every month just by having those ads on your page. Get rid of them. Accept the fact that you don’t need the additional $12 you get each month from them, and begin marketing like a professional.

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

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

10.      Change to buttons! – Nope… I’m not saying you should get all Amish with your site… I’m talking about changing your “buy now” and “add to cart” hyperlinks into graphic buttons. There are many ways to go with your button choices… but in my opinion there’s none better than “The Belcher Button.”

This is a button developed by marketer Perry Belcher. It is “the most tested buy button in Internet history…” You can download it (and use it FREE) from www.belcherbutton.com.

Perry claims to have increased sales up to 320% just by switching to this button. And I have to say it’s always worked well for me.

11.      Check yourself out in a virtual mirror – Okay… a little play on words, sure… But what I’m really saying here is make sure to check your website to see how it looks and works on a myriad of browsers.

Not every single one or your potential buyers uses Internet Explorer. Be sure to (at least) check out your site on Firefox, Opera and Chrome. Or… just go to www.browsershots.org and look at your site on every browser you could imagine.

Well… there you have it Clambakers…

Eleven ways to update your site for the new year.

Remember… all this list can do is help you get your site looking and operating its best. Having your site start a new year operating like a well-oiled selling machine…

That’s the New Year hope.

Making it all continue to work out after that is like week two of school; It’s all up to you and your commitment.

I hope you learned something new today. I know I did.

Seriously…

I learned that I’m really addicted to delivering you lists on the Clambake. Now I know why David Letterman’s been doing it for so long.

Until next time, Bakers… That’s my story!