Google Analytics has some new features in a limited pilot – Multi-channel funnels.
These will allow new insights in your marketing campaigns, such as AdWords, Facebook, Twitter and more.
Check this article for more.
Categories
Save the Pixel – Review
Save the Pixel is a web design book by Ben Hunt. I recently read and reviewed another book by him, Convert! .
Save the Pixel is all about minimalist web design, thus the name. One of the principles repeated over and over is that you should not waste screen space – and most importantly, the visitors attention – with elements that don't contribute for the message.
He also is a believer that the site should be designed with the content – instead of the traditional template/content separation. Seeing his examples, it is easy to see what he means, and it does looks like it makes sense.
There are several chapters about how to make your design work, with explanations on how to use white space, size, contrast and color to make sure that your content gets the attention of the visitor.
Overall, the book was good and I learned a few lessons, but I liked Convert! more. Maybe because the topic seemed more interesting and less design related. It also very much feels like an expanded sequel in some of the aspects covered by Save the Pixel.
One thing that I'd like to have seen more is actual conversion data for the many case studies. There were maybe 2 or 3 stats throughout the whole book, unlike Convert! where they were everywhere.
Ben Hunt also has a web design course . It is video based (with some spreadsheets and PDFs too) explaining design, marketing, SEO and the business. I finished the course, and learned a lot, and I have posted a review in Ben Hunt's Web Design Course Review. You also get the book for free when you join this course.
[button link=”https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=183306&c=ib&aff=6430″ color=”teal”]Get the Book Now[/button]
Categories
Tags in SEO PowerSuite
There was an interesting update today to SEO PowerSuite which adds tags to all the programs in the suite. If you don't know this Suite yet, you should check it out – it has many interesting features that allow you to do SEO work automatically, such as Rank and Link checking, getting links, looking at links and other factors for pages and checking your own pages for optimum SEO.
This allows you easily keep group keywords, pages or tag them with important information. Looks very useful.
They have some screenshots that detail it in the article.
Check my review of SEO PowerSuite and Market Samurai if you'd like to know more about them.
Categories
How to make users scroll down your page
Interesting article on How to make users scroll down your page.
The size of the page they demonstrate is impressive – 19 feet tall!
Turns out that it's important to make it clear that the page isn't over at the fold, and they show a few techniques for encouring users to scroll – such as avoiding horizontal elements that might indicate that the page is over, using a background for the sides, and others.
They also point you to tools to see how far your users are actually scrolling down, such as Clicktale.
I've just finished reading Convert!: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion – by Ben Hunt. The book covers many ways to improve your traffic – and most importantly – how to improve the conversion rate you get from that traffic.
The book is divided in two parts. The first part is Designing for traffic.
This part of the book is about his ideas on how to get better SEO and relevant traffic – multiplicity, good keyword targeting and appropriate use of the Awareness Ladder.
The Awareness Ladder allows your site to reach deeper markets by covering multiple stages of the same market, starting at Step 0 – where people have a problem but don't yet realize they have a need for the solution you are offering – and step 5 – Convinced of your solution and ready to buy. Pages should go and gradually convert the user till they reach Step 5, and – very important – be targeted to catch users from all steps.
That also cover the multiplicity – your pages should cover each a good keyword, to get good SEO positioning. And what is a good keyword?
A good keyword should have low competition (so that you can get in at a good position), enough visitors, and be targeted to your solution. The book explains various ways to get these keywords, and their suggestion is why I got Market Samurai , which is a great tool for finding useful keywords.
The second part is Designing for conversion.
This part covers how to design, set and optimize your funnels – the path from your landing page to your goals. It also covers the specific design of pages, how to keep a visitor's attention and setting up your calls to action.
The book finishes with a coverage of how to optimize your site with Google Web Optimizer.
Overall, I really liked the book – to the point that after reading it I entered his Pro Design and Marketing course.
There is clearly a lot to be learned from this book. I've started adding simple extra landing pages to my site, with some promising results. I also have much more in the copious notes I took that I plan to apply over time to my sites.
Very much recommended – Convert!: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion.
Categories
STGThumb 3.0 and Picture Merge
I've just released version 3.0 of STGThumb.
The features added are related to STG Picture Merge. Picture Merge is an old, simple program from 2002, with a single purpose – merging two picture with an user-selected transparency setting. Recently it has become popular, due to several blog reviews.
Some users do a lot of images at once and asked for an easier way. STGThumb is the perfect way for me to do that and already does most of what was necessary.
What was added was the Merge a Picture setting, and the corresponding options:
It also includes a new Tools menu, which allows merging a single picture quickly, in the same exact way as the stand-alone program.
I may add extra options if users are interested – please comment below if there is anything you'd like.
Categories
Directory Report
A directory report can be very useful in your daily work. Many times you need a record of the files about an account or a customer, the files on specific disks or a MP3 player. A system administrator may need a report to check how a disk is being used – is it full of documents, or are your users storing movies and games?
The classical way of getting a simple directory report is using the command line and using dir > file.txt , or one of many variations.
For more advanced directory reports, you can use STG FolderPrint Plus. You can print or export your reports to many formats, such as text, CSV, PDF or Excel.
You can see whole disks at once, and choose many different file filters, including name, extensions, sizes or dates.
There are specific reports available too, such as the file type report, compact output and CD Covers.
Check it out now – STG FolderPrint Plus.
Categories
Analytics360
Just added a new plugin to my main WordPress Install – Analytics360. It allows getting data from both Google Analytics
and MailChimp (where my mail lists are now).
It gives you Analytics data, complete with graphs, referrers and top content. The graphs show when you list campaigns were sent, so you can easily see their effect. It also has filters so you see distinct graphs, such as Total, CPC, Organic, Referral or e-mail list.
Further on the MailChimp side, it also displays subscriber graphs for any of your e-mail lists.
You can also set GA to show only the blog stats.
If you use both MailChimp and GA, it is pretty neat.
Categories
60 takeaways from Think Visibility Leeds
I hate to repeat myself, but I just received a new article from Wordtracker with more takeaways from a different conference.
Topics are Link Building, Social Media, Content Promotion, Video, SEO, Conversions, Domains, etc.
Recommended.