Archive for category Web Design

Before You Write Your Next Headline, Take a Breath

Long or short?

Your headline that is. Whether you are a blogger or an article writer or writing good headlines for your site, Sean D’Souza over at Copyblogger recently reminded me of a great way to test your headline length: the breath test.Breath Test for Headline Writing

It’s easy to test your headline length by simply taking a normal breath and then saying your headline out loud at a normal pace.

So, let’s say that my headline is:

Great Lessons on How to Learn to Play Barre Chords on the Guitar from the World’s Top Instructors.

Odds are that you ran out of breath during that one.

He points to some of the most lasting and effective headlines of all-time in his post, such as:

How to Win Friends and Influence People

I would suggest some others might be:

The Secret of Making People Like You

How I Improved My Memory in One Evening

You Can Laugh at Money Worries - If you Follow This Simple Plan

They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play! (Sean uses this one as an example)

Those last two are not exactly short though. But as Sean points out, they use punctuation. In other words, they pause. You CAN say each sentence or each part of the sentence in one breath.

Anyway, I strongly suggest checking out his post. It will definitely help you write better headlines!

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, ,

No Comments

Great Frank Luntz Affiliate Summit Keynote Recap

Frank Luntz Affiliate Summit Keynote

Courtesy of Affiliate Summit

For those who follow our blog, you probably know that I am a big fan of Frank Luntz, particularly his book, Words that Work.

Recently he delivered one of the keynotes at Affiliate Summit and I missed it. That sucked.

But I was able to read numerous recaps of the speech and get some of his valuable insight anyway.

Trisha Lyn Fawyer had the best recap that I have seen so far and she shares a ton of information from the speech, including a picture of the “21 Words for the 21st Century” slide.

She lists about 20 great bullet points focusing the importance of words, targeting males and females, targeting based on age, etc.

Go check out her post and start putting Luntz’s brilliance to use as an affiliate.

All I can really add is to check out this post as well: Language Lessons from Orwell and Luntz

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, , ,

No Comments

15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Seven - Landing Pages

Five Tips for Better Facebook Landing Pages

Alright so far you have learned how to write compelling ad copy on Facebook, how to choose the right images, how to rotate your ads, and much more in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series.Facebook Advertising Tips

So what about once they click? How do you design an effective Facebook landing page?

Here are a few tips. Some may not be relevant to our affiliates, but most can be if you ask me to help you.

1. Design a specific landing page for them. Don’t send them a generic landing page. Send them to a page that mentions their likes, interests, groups, etc. I mentioned in the ad copy post an ad targeted to Jimmy Buffett Facebook Fans. For that ad, I want to send them to a page about Jimmy Buffett Facebook Fans. Use imagery that Jimmy Buffett fans would like…tropical sunsets, beaches, etc. are good starts.

2. Give them a special offer. Give them a discount code or some sort of sale that is targeted to them. “Special Offer for Homeschool Channel Facebook Fans” or something similar works great.

3. Try to mirror the ad content. As simple as it sounds, I have found a significant increase in conversions by simply repeating the question I asked in the ad or repeating word for word the content of the ad at the beginning of the page. If I asked a question, I ask it again, then I answer it and give them the solution (buy our course). If I made a statement, I repeat the same statement. If I included sale dates, I repeat those exact sale dates.

4. Mention our payment plan as an option. Learn & Master Guitar normally sells for $149.00. Our payment plan is $49/month (there are two $4 service charges). In all of our ads, about 40% of the Facebook population takes the payment plan. Odds are that almost all of that 40% would not buy at the full price (no payment plan). So make sure to pump that up more than normal. $49/month is a much more likely impulse buy than $149.

5. Get to the point. Typically, what as worked best for us is getting right to the point. Here’s the course, here’s a button where you can learn more, here’s the price (with payment plan of course), and here is an Add to Cart button. Long sales copy has not worked, at least on the landing page. Give them a link to Learn More and they will if they want, but so many people just decide to buy quickly.

So there you have it…five tips for better Facebook landing pages. I hope they help!

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, , , ,

2 Comments

When to Use Nofollow Links and Other SEO Onpage Optimization Questions

Naturally, in my role as an affiliate manager, I get asked a lot about SEO (search engine optimization).

After months of answering many of the same questions repeatedly, I thought that some of them would make a good blog post.Nofollow SEO Optimization

Here are the list of the most commonly asked SEO questions from our affiliates:

Q1: When do I use nofollow links?

A: As little as possible. Preferably, never. Rule Number One is do NOT link to a page on YOUR site and use a nofollow. If you don’t want Google going there, don’t link to it.

Q2: Why is that? (in reference to Q1)

A: I don’t know. Google says not to. I listen to them. :)

Q3: What are the most commonly missed SEO techniques by affiliates? (Note: no one has ever asked me this, but I see it missed all the time)

A: Proper image naming and tags. All images should follow this basic guideline:

  • Proper image name. If you target keyword is “children playing guitar” then your image should be “children-playing-guitar.jpg.”
  • Proper Alt Tag. Using the same target keyword, take a wild guess at the alt tag. You guessed it! “Children Playing Guitar.”
  • Image Caption. If this is irrelevant or would not make sense in the given context, skip it. But if it works to the viewer, use a caption under the image and use the relevant keywords.

Read more about Google Images Search Optimization.

Q4: What is the H1 tag and what should it say?

A: Short Answer: REALLY important text. It’s the header tag. Use your keyword phrase, preferably exactly as you would want it searched. “Children Playing Guitar” is a good H1 tag.

Q5: What about the H2 and H3 tags? How do I use those and how often?

A: They are slightly less important text than the H1 tag. Think of subheaders. These should contain your keyword phrases as well, but with other relevant keywords as well. Examples: “Tips to Get Your Children Playing Guitar,” “Potential Problems with Children Playing Guitar,” and “Children Playing Guitar in Groups.”

A general rule of thumb is to use each tag the number of times based on the number in the tag (i.e. H1 once, H2 twice, H3 three times).

Q6: Should I bold my keyword phrase in the text?

A: Ever seen a site in which this was overdone? Me too. Those sites suck. Do it once when it makes sense. Then stop doing it.

Q7: What should be in my title tag?

A: Let’s start with what should NOT be in your title tag:

  1. Anything that is not related to your keywords. Company name, your name, etc. Stick to the keywords.
  2. The same keyword over and over again.

Make sure your #1 target keyphrase is the first thing. Make sure that it is readable to a human as well and compelling. What good is a #1 ranking if you never get clicked?

Read more about SEO Friendly Page Titles. How to screw up page titles.

Q8: What about the other meta tags (description and keywords)?

A: The description tag means almost nothing to the search engines. Some use it, Google doesn’t. However, it may be what shows up in the results in the longer description, so focus on making it compelling, using the keywords (because the keywords ARE compelling). I honestly have not seen a difference in keyword tags, but it takes 30 seconds to write them so I do. Not doing so scares me. I am ridden by Google fear.

Q9: Should I use external or internal CSS and Javascript?

A: A general rule of thumb is the less code on the page, the better. Keep it clean! So use external CSS and Javascript.

Q10: Where is the best place to link to my other pages or sites?

A: Within the paragraphs. Text links within the body of text rank much higher than footer links or even side navigation.

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, , , , ,

12 Comments

Questions to Ask Your Affiliate Manager #13: Can I Design My Own Creatives?

In Wednesday’s installment of the Questions to Ask Your Affiliate Manager Series, I wrote about asking your affiliate manager for the sales numbers by country of their products/courses. Yesterday I wrote about asking your affiliate manager about the eligible countries for shipping.Affiliate Manager Questions 13

Question Number Thirteen is to ask, “Can I design my own creatives?”

Ask your affiliate manager if you can design your own banner ads, do your own videos, or use their product shots in your own creatives.

Many programs do not allow these things and unfortunately many affiliates never ask if they can.

The answer for our program is “Yes!”

Very few affiliates have ever asked me if they can, but the ones who have ended up doing some awesome creatives. Some of the best banners and videos out there were done by affiliates on their own.

When you ask, make sure to ask for things like PSD files of product shots and pictures in a high-resolution format. You are much better off working with the high-resolution PSDs or PNGs at worst and then compressing them than working with low-resolution images and trying to make them work in a large banner or header graphic.

So, this is a question that you don’t have to ask me since you now know the answer, but I encourage you to ask your other affiliate managers.

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

No Comments

Five SEO Tips for Page Titles

Page titles are one of the single most important factors used by search engines when determining rankings and a clearly important factor in determining whether a searcher will click your link or not.

Here are some basic simple tips for writing page titles.

1. Make it short. Google only looks at the first 70 characters so make the first 70 count. This is important for both SEO and appearance to the searcher. Who wants a word cut off in the middle? NOTE: See below for an edit made based on a comment from Geno Prussakov.

2. Don’t keyword stuff and don’t repeat the same word over and over. Nothing says lame like “Learn Guitar with Guitar Lessons from Guitar Teachers.”

3. Use specific titles for each page. Simply put, don’t use the same title across your site. Make each title about the specific topic of the page. “Beginner Piano Lessons on DVD” is much better than “Piano Lesson Reviews” on each page.

4. Sell them on the click. Don’t forget the searcher. Sure you rank #5 but will they click your page? Make sure the title is attractive enough to a human as well.

5. Forget branding. Don’t put your site name or company name at the beginning. See rule #1 for one reason. You are wasting characters. Unless you have a viable brand name (and if you are reading this you probably don’t) leave it off. It’s wasted space.

EDIT: Regarding titles, it seems the more commonly accepted length is a maximum of 66 characters on Google, with an ideal length of 64 characters. Yahoo has a maximum of 120 characters, so it is possible to have a primary title of 66 characters followed by a secondary title (i.e. 66 character title :: secondary title).

Check out the documentation Geno sent me here.

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, ,

4 Comments

New Wedding-Themed Banners Live on ShareASale

As I mentioned in this week’s podcast, we have been working on some new wedding-themed banners.

Since we became the number one wedding affiliate program on ShareASale, I knew it was a much higher priority to focus on this area.

Our Learn & Master Ballroom Dance course is a great course for learning how to dance on the big day. As I said in the previous post about it,

Currently, there is nothing on the market like Learn & Master Ballroom Dance, and promoting it on your wedding site is a sure-fire winner.

Let’s face it, men don’t like to go TO dance lessons, but if you bring them to them, we won’t mind so much…in fact we may even enjoy them :)

So here are some of the new wedding banners below. You can find them in our “Wedding Banners” category and in the “Ballroom Dance” category on ShareASale.

If you need a specific size, just let me know!

Ballroom Dance Course for Weddings
Ballroom Dance Course for Weddings Ballroom Dance Course for Weddings

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, , ,

1 Comment

New Mother’s Day Creatives are LIVE on ShareASale

Mother’s Day is less than three weeks away now (May 9) so yesterday we added our new Mother’s Day creatives to a new category on ShareASale simply called “Mother’s Day.”

We added creatives in all standard IABA sizes (728X90, 160X600, 250X250, and more) for Learn & Master Ballroom Dance, Learn & Master Painting, and Learn & Master Piano, the three most popular courses with the female demographic. We also added ones for ALL courses together.

Below are some examples. You can find ALL of them in the Mother’s Day Category on ShareASale.

If you need a specific size banner or if you need one for the Guitar or Drums course (mothers play drums too), just let me know and I will have one for you ASAP!

Here’s to a successful holiday!

Perfect Mothers Day Gifts from Legacy Learning Systems Mothers Day Gift - Ballroom Dance
Perfect Mothers Day Gifts from Legacy Learning Systems
Mothers Day Gift - Painting Lessons Mothers Day Gift - Learn Piano

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

,

No Comments

New iPhone App Graphics Are Ready!

So many affiliates have been successfully using links to the Gibson Learn & Master Guitar iPhone App, that we finally created some great graphics for you to use to advertise it.

It really is a great way to drive traffic to us in a non-salesy way. And once your cookie is set, then any sales made will be credited to you!

You can find all of them in the “Guitar iPhone App” Category on ShareASale!

Here are some examples.

Gibson Learn and Master Guitar iPhone App

Gibson Learn and Master Guitar iPhone App

Gibson Learn and Master Guitar iPhone App

Gibson Learn and Master Guitar iPhone App

Gibson Learn and Master Guitar iPhone App
Gibson Learn and Master Guitar iPhone App

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, ,

1 Comment

Bass Guitar Banners LIVE on ShareASale

Bass Guitar Banners and Product Shots are LIVE on ShareASale!

Spotlight Series Bass Guitar // Spotlight Series Bass Guitar Product Shots

Below are some more samples.

The links for pre-ordering the course will go live possibly this week or definitely next week. But at least now you can grab the banners and product shots so you can plug them in.

If you need a specific size let me know!

I will be sending an email tomorrow with all of the banners and their codes as well for you.

Also, a reminder that the promotional video and sample lesson video are up on ShareASale as well.

Bass Guitar Learning System Bass Guitar Learning System Bass Guitar Learning System
Bass Guitar Learning System
Bass Guitar Learning System
Bass Guitar Learning System

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, ,

2 Comments

Lots of New Banners Today!

I have added a lot of new banners to ShareASale today.

Below are some of my favorites along with the codes to use them. Just replace !!USERID!! with your ShareASale affiliate ID.

Also, later today, we will officially be releasing the Bass Guitar creatives!

Learn & Master Ballroom Dance

Ballroom Dancing Learning System

Learn & Master Guitar

Guitar Learning System

Home School Pay Per Call

Home School Learning Systems

Login to the ShareASale Pay Per Call Center to get this code.

Home School Painting

Home School Painting Learning Systems

Affiliate Recruiting - 2nd Tier

Affiliates - Earn 20% or more Promoting Guitar, Piano, Drums, and more learning systems

Lots more in our banners section in ShareASale!

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

,

1 Comment

More Pay Per Call Stuff, New FeedFront, Review Tips, Bonuses…Legacy Affiliate Podcast Episode Five

The Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Podcast Episode Five is ready for your listening pleasure. Affiliate Podcast with Matt McWilliams

Below you can stream it or download it and you can also subscribe to our podcast in iTunes so you do not miss a single episode.

This week I talk about more Pay Per Call stuff, the new FeedFront Magazine, Review Tips, April’s Bonuses, and My Good Friday schedule.

43 First Sales in March

New ShareASale Pay Per Call Recording

Affiliate Marketing Insider Podcast Talking about Pay Per Call for Affiliates

Download | Listen

FeedFront Magazine Issue Ten - Of Golf and Affiliate Marketing

Review Site Tips Blog Post

General Web Design Tips

Related Posts

April 2010 ShareASale Bonuses

Good Friday Schedule

Download Legacy Affiliate Podcast Episode One

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, , , , ,

No Comments

Three Cool Tools to Choose Your Website Colors

As you know, the colors you use on your website play a big role in the overall impression that your visitors get of whatever it is you are trying to sell to them.

I am a big believer that color schemes must be well thought out. I personally have some favorites, but sometimes I get tired of designing the same old sites or my own favorite colors don’t match a product.

I have used three tools that I highly recommend for choosing a color scheme that I wanted to share with you. I have seen others, but these are my favorites. All of them are FREE!

Am I missing one? If so, share your favorites here!

Color Scheme Designer

Very easy to use color theme creator. There are six palette settings: monochromatic, complimentary, triad, tetrad, analogic, and accented analogic color that you can choose depending on what type of site you are designing. The best feature and why it is my number one pick, is the ability to preview the scheme on a dummy web page. You can also export your color palette as a Photoshop palette, HTML+CSS, TEXT, XML, and GPL .

Color Scheme Designer

Colorotate

One great feature of Colorotate is the ability to browse through various user templates. They are a great source of inspiration.

I don’t find it as easy to use as the Color Scheme Designer, but it is still a good resource. Another great feature and one that makes it totally worthwhile is using the 3D interface to see the multidimensional nature of the colors. You can also upload images and use those colors if you already have a logo or design in place.

Colorotate Color Scheme

Kuler by Adobe

Least favorite of the three. You can extract color schemes from images which is good, but I personally don’t like the interface. Like Colorotate, you can look through previous users themes and get some inspiration, which is a great feature.

Choose Website Colors Tools

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

,

No Comments

Is Your Website Being Filtered?

Is your website being filtered by content filters such as BeSafe, Barracuda, or Postini (or the hundreds of other filters out there)?

I had an interesting exchange recently with an affiliate yesterday in which he asked me to check out his new site. I was happy to do so of course and clicked on his URL.

Then I got this:

Content Block Filter

I have a Firefox plugin called “FoxFilter” and it was blocking his site. Knowing his site is perfectly fine I added an exception and told him about it.

He did some research and found that the word “adults” was causing the problem, as in “Children and adults alike can learn…” Nothing wrong with that!

So I encourage you to make sure to have a few plugins or get a software and make sure that your site is not being filtered. You could be missing a LOT of sales!

If you are being filtered, what could be some of the reasons?

First, it might be the text on your site. If this is the case, change your text. Simple as that :)

Second, it could be your server. If you are on a shared server and some other site is doing something shady, you might get penalized. So if that is the case, find a new host pronto. If you can afford it, seriously, get a dedicated server.

Third, it could be something as simple as an image name. Check your image file names and update those if needed.

Lastly, check your outgoing links. If you have links to some suspicious sites, you need to get rid of those.

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

No Comments

How Many Reviews Should You Have? Part Two

Yesterday I wrote a post entitled “How Many Reviews Should You Have?“? Before you read more of this, read that post and the comment from Eric Nagel or it won’t make such sense.

Eric’s site has twelve reviews. Some research as I mentioned in the post suggests that too many options might hurt sales.

As “SlowCooker” said on ABestWeb where I also posted this:

Or maybe the answer is in how the selection is organized.? If all the jams/jellies are sitting together, that is a lot of info to be confronted with.? Maybe the consumer needs to be guided and the info organized for them.? Divide the jams/jellies into a couple of categories.? Then there isn’t as much to process.

So perhaps it has something to do with how Eric organizes and present his twelve options? Perhaps he would be better off with less options, or more options, or perhaps twelve is exactly the right amount.

I am redmined of Amazon’s “Buyers of this book also bought these book” feature, one that has been replicated by many. Does it confuse me and make me possibly lose track of what I originally wanted to do? Yes. But I often end up buying an extra book. I would guess for every time I lost track of my intention, I bought four extra books.

In my opinion, a LOT of it has to do with buyer intent.

In the study presented by Dr. Cialdini, no one came into the store searching for jam. But if a customer lands on your site after searching for guitar courses, I am sure that such a distinction plays a big role in the convertions. A keyword search of “guitar dvd course reviews” would certainly yield a different result than a search for “guitar lessons” as well.

What it comes down to is testing your landing page by your big keywords. “Guitar lessons” can mean anything from guitar instructors locally, guitar learning classes, to learn at home courses. These people must first be talked into the concept of learn at home and then shown a limited selection in order to not overwhelm them.

Whereas someone who searches for “guitar dvd lesson reviews” or “learn piano at home options” or something similar is much more open to many options.

Consider if the study had been done in a jam store. Anyone coming through the doors would be searching for jam. They would expect many options.

So to beat a dead horse…test, test, and test some more!

[Post to Twitter]   [Post to Yahoo Buzz]   [Post to Delicious]   [Post to Digg]   [Post to StumbleUpon]  

  • Share/Save/Bookmark

, ,

No Comments