Giving the Awkward News That You’re Raising Your Prices
The time has come- you’ve been waiting for it and dreading it at the same time. The time when you must, absolutely must, can’t avoid it. You’ve got to raise your prices. You’re sure about it, 100%, and it feels good when you think about it all on your own. Except… How DO you tell […]
Gotta Get Goals
I was tagged by Dave Schoof of Engaging the Disquiet about top goals in my life, as part of a meme. I’ve been watching this thread go ’round some blogs recently, and I think it’s fascinating. It seems it’s been pushing people to really think about their lives, instead of living unconsciously. At the same […]
Cookie Grandma's Secrets to a Unique and Powerful Business
Your business probably seems like many others. There are billyuns and billyuns of therapists, consultants, retailers, and healers. Yet, in order to make an impact and deeper connection with customers that is so necessary for a sustainable business, you need to distinguish yourself. However, just ‘finding your voice’ and ‘developing your uniqueness’ aren’t often helpful […]
"What Do You Use a Newsletter For?"
Colleen Wainright over at the very successful Marketing Mix blog was talking about her resistance to starting a newsletter. This sparked me, because I’m in the exact oppostive place. I’ve been very successful with my newsletter for some years now, publishing every Wednesday for the last two, with great response and impact for the articles, […]
From Grok dot Com: The Web's Old Wives Tale: People Don't Read Online
Bryan Eisenberg wrote this post on the Grok.com blog: The Web’s Old Wives Tale: People Don’t Read Online
The post is particularly interesting, because he mentioned an eyetrack study from the Poynter Institute, (you know, eyetrack is when they use infrared, I believe, to track where someone is actually looking on the screen.)
And they saw that people do read online, many quite thoroughly.
Of particular note is that because some people don’t read thoroughly, they scan, design becomes even more important.
Sean D’Souza have both helped me to learn a lot about website design and readability.
If you are wanting to put content up on the web, I have some tips on how to make it readable. Please note, I’m well aware that this blog is NOT a good example… yet! Dawud is hard at work redesigning it this week.
Tips on how to make your online content more readable:
1. Margins-
Make sure that there is white space -around- your text- that columns and other design elements aren’t crunched together.
The white space gives room for the reader’s eye to actually “enter” the space. If the space is full of stuff, it’s hard for someone to look at and enter it.
2. Use Subheads-
Subheads are really helpful. Make the font size slight larger, and use them every 3-6 paragraphs or so.
Subheads help the reader to know where they are going, so they can settle in. Sometimes people scan the subheads quickly, and then go back and read. Or if they hit a part of your writing that they find boring, instead of clicking away, they may just jump to the next subhead and re-engage.
3. Short paragraphs.
Here I’ll just reproduce what I wrote in Creating Heart-Centered Websites
The BIGGEST Reason People Aren’t Reading What You Write
The answer is two words: paragraph length.
You want to use short paragraphs in your emails.
Really short.
You also want to use short paragraphs on your blogs. And on your website. And in your articles. And in your book. And in your email replies to interested people.
I’m not kidding. Because when you write really, really long paragraphs by email and they go on and on without stopping about every last thing you want to say, then it becomes this block of text that’s hard to read and follow. Your readers become frightened to start the paragraph, and, if they do actually start the paragraph, they get lost in the middle and never reach the end. And if they never reach the end, then they never see the next paragraph and basically the gig is up, because they’ve missed the point of what you were writing about, and you may as well never have written in the first place. And, because you lose them as readers you never hear back from them, you’ve gotten no response and so you can start to feel frustrated. Then angry. Then sad. Then you begin to fill with despair and wonder if anyone cares about you at all, and whether you should even be in business, or even in the world. Maybe you should just give it all up and go get a job in a cafe. When, it’s really not that bad, it?s just because your paragraphs were too long. Make sense? Short paragraphs. No more than three or four lines.
‘Nuff said.
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Those are my tips. There are others, such as not putting patterns behind your text, not putting too many elements on the page, etc, etc.
But these three are the biggies, and will help a lot.
Hey! Why Such Long Sales Pages?
So, you get one of those emails from someone whose business you kinda like. And it’s got some enticing little message in it- so you click to take a look at the offer.
And suddenly you find yourself in highlighter land. Broad streaks of yellow, lots of exclamation points, and pages and pages of words making all kinds of claims and promises. And when you scroll allllllll the way down to the bottom, there isn’t even a price. You need to click on an ‘order now’ button before they even tell you the price.
Steaming, you swear by all that is holy that you will never, ever subject your customers to that kind of nonsense.
So when you go to sell your own offer, say for instance a seminar, you write up a simple, clear paragraph or two about it, add few bullet points, and an understated offer. And hardly anyone responds. Oy!
Do you have to be hyper-hypey to get customers?
Listen to the podcast- around five minutes.
Share- how do you feel about those long sales pages?
For the Sake of Visibility…
I just wanted to use my blog to add to the visibility around death threats made to blogger Kathy Sierra
I posted this comment on her blog:
“I echo many of the already spoken sentiments, and I completely support whatever choices you need to make for your own health and sanity.
I also want to say, as someone who worked as a paramedic for years, as well as in various activist causes, that one of the things that I’m feeling inspired about this situation is the incredible support, visibility and response.
In the past, without the internet, without an interconnected community of readers that can easily respond, something like this would ordinarily be invisible, and instead it becomes VERY visible- and the trail is readily traced back to folks responsibile, or to folks who know who is responsible.
That is an incredible amount of transparency. I know it may do very little for your own feeling safety and sanity, but I rejoice, thinking of folks I saw who had been assaulted silently, hidden in their rooms, with no one except paramedics and police to see what happened, and no way to get publicity, because what- the newspaper is going to publish it in any way that creates compassion and connection? No, they aren’t.
So, my prayers and thoughts for you and a graceful resolution to this entire situation. And my appreciation for everyone who is helping to make this situation visible. The more visibility, the better.”
I also want to add my prayer that the person or people making death threats to her, that they find their own deeper needs, and get them fulfilled in ways that are healthy to everyone involved.
LA Times: "Don't Email Me"
Today I read at the Grok.com blog about a column by Joel Stein of the LA Times (read it here.)
There were a lot of comments about whether Joel was being arrogant, stupid, publicity-seeking, or using reverse psychology.
But there was interesting comment near the end of Joel’s column- I’ll just reproduce what I wrote on Grok.com’s blog here:
The Critical Importance of Candy in Your Writing
Okay, you’ve written an article, or a website, or a book. You’ve worked really hard on the headlines, and everything else, to make it as powerful and helpful as possible.
And yet, when you show it to a prospective client, they glance at it, and say “Okay… I’ll take a look at it later.” And they never do.
Is something wrong with your headline? Or maybe it’s your hairdo?
Listen to the podcast- around six minutes.
What do you notice is going on visually about what you like to read, and what you don’t?
5 Things Marketing Gurus Need To Learn From Bloggers – Healthy WebDesign – Developing and Building Successful Websites for Independent Professionals
5 Things Marketing Gurus Need To Learn From Bloggers – Healthy WebDesign – Developing and Building Successful Websites for Independent Professionals This was something my friend, colleague and spiritual brother Dawud wrote on his blog back in February. I’m one of those top five referrers, and I’m willingly eating my hat. Dawud has turned me […]