How To Increase Conversions With Persuasive Copy Architecture

I was searching the web today looking for a used copy of Dreamweaver CS3 and I ran across a bunch of Craigslist ads selling burned copies for $30. To good to be true, right? I decided to look up "Dreamweaver scams" and soon discovered this great example of persuasive copy architecture and adsense placement that should probably get an award. You have to read it to believe it.

About halfway down the page of this article they reproduced an email from a viewer that supposedly got scammed 27 times . This is where the sponsored ads blend in with the article almost seamlessly causing the reader to click the ad naturally. If you're looking to increase conversions on your site you should see this great example of persuasive copy architecture.

Here's That OEM Hotscams Article

Update: After I posted this article they have changed the entire look of this page and it no longer reflects the gray hat greatness it once was.

Contextual Ads and Design Code Exploits

A few days ago I stumbled upon this website that had some pretty creative code going on. It's a sort of exploit that's designed to improve your overall sponsored ads and affiliate networks CTR. I'm not going to get into the technical aspects of the code in this article but here's how it works.

One quick note before you get started. You should read this whole article so you are prepared to see this great piece of coding in action (it's over in 1.5 seconds). The difference you will see when the page loads will be minor, but could improve your sponsored ads CTR by 20% or more which is a significant improvement. Multiply that times 100 URLs and you've got some serious cash flowing.

Ok here it is. Watch the upper middle of the page when it loads. You will see that the page displays a list of musical instruments with photos, product descriptions and pricing. The product section hangs for about a second or so and instantly shifts the section down the page and replaces it with a big Google sponsored ad. Admittedly, I was in a hurry and eager to click but that shift was timed so perfectly. Great piece of design coding. By the way, I checked out other pages of kijiji and they do the same thing.

Update: They changed the page that I had a linked to. Just look up any kijiji page and you'll see it. I'll post another "discreet" link later.

SEO Design Coding

Poetic Prophet - SEO Rapper. I saw this video back in January and recently stumbled upon it again. It reminded me of how great this video really is. I enjoy the Poetic Prophet's music and he drops some killer beats but there's more to the Poetic Prophet than the music.

Lyrics:

Your site design is the first thing people see
it should be reflective of you and the industry
easy to look at with a nice navigation
when you can't find what you want it causes frustration
a clear Call to action to increase the temptation
use appealing graphics they create motivation
if you have animation
use with moderation
cause search engines can't index the information
display the logos of all your associations
highlight your contact info that's an obligation
create a clean design you can use some decoration
but to try to prevent any client hesitation
every page that they click should provide and explanation
should be easy to understand like having a conversation
when you design the style go ahead and use your imagination
but make sure you use correct color combinations
do some investigation, look at other organizations
but don't duplicate or you might face a litigation
design done, congratulations but it's time to start construction
follow these instructions when you move into production
your photoshop functions then slice that design
do your layout with divs make sure that it's aligned
please don't use tables even though they work fine
when it come to indexing they give searches a hard time
make it easy for the spiders to crawl what you provide
remove font type, font color and font size
no background colors, keep your coding real neat,
tag your look and feel on a separate style sheet
better results with xml and css
now you making progress, a lil closer to success
describe your doctype so the browser can relate
make sure you do it great or it won't validate
check in all browsers, I do it directly
gotta make sure that it renders correctly
some use IE, some others use Flock
some use AOL, I use Firefox
title everything including links and images
don't use italics, use emphasis
don't use bold, please use strong
if you use bold that's old and wrong
when you use CSS, you page will load quicker
client satisfied like they eating on a snicker
they stuck on your page like you made it with a sticker
and then they convert now that's the real kicker
make you a lil richer, your site a lil slicker
design and code right man I hope you get the picture
what I'm telling you is true man it should be a scripture
if it's built right you'll be the pick of the litter
everyone will want to follow you like twitter
competition will get bitter and you'll shine like glitter
if you trying to grow your company will get bigger
design and code right man can you get with it

Organic SEO: Analytics and Technology

Most people think search engine optimization is about meta tags, keyword stuffing and anchor text. While those efforts do help improve rankings and generate traffic, they're often viewed as the only factors in an SEO campaign.

In the last few years SEO has taken on a whole new meaning in the world of internet marketing. With the emergence of Web 2.0, mobile technology and virtual worlds data for SEO purposes can now include everything from psychology, semantics and site usability to interactive elements like video, instant messaging and games. This is a very exciting time for internet marketers and hopefully search engines like Google and the highly anticipated Cuil will help us to be able to interact on the web, with eachother, in an entirely new way.

Today there are many powerful Internet marketing tools available online which vary in price from thousands of dollars to completely free. Click Tracks (no affiliation) makes an excellent product that uses the correlation between hand/mouse and eye movement to track everything a searcher does on any page of your website. It then makes a digital "heatmap" that shows how people are viewing and navigating your website and reveals tons about your page’s design, content and usability. One recent study of an affiliate website promoting Nike’s footwear showed that a high percentage of searchers were repeatedly clicking on their banner graphic. It revealed that searchers thought the banner was a link to a new Nike running shoe but got frustrated and left after attempts at clicking the image. They changed the banner to an image link and found their bounce rate for that page decreased by almost fifty percent and it was all based on this valuable data. This is just one example of the many advanced tools used today that provide unique insight into search behavior. Making these kinds of changes to your Internet marketing campaign can be costly but well worth it if there is a demonstrated ROI.

Budget constraints aside, many companies miss golden opportunities when it comes to Internet marketing and forget to focus on the basics like great content, clear communication and clean design. I’ve recently heard this mindset referred to as “functionalism” and to me it is an integral part of organic SEO and is one of the most accessible and budget friendly. This blog post, for instance, is an example of organic SEO and was designed to hopefully spark your imagination, promote my services and contribute something of value to the web.

The proliferation of this mindset of organic SEO is gaining momentum, especially as search engines like Google continue to "try" and improve their algorithms that encourage higher standards for website design, development and classification. The benefits of an organic SEO strategy have a tendency to resist changes to algorithms and build real strength in fostering an environment of innovation.