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Here’s another of those issues that stirs up lots of opinions: web design. Is the ideal website one that’s attractive or creative? One that includes plenty of images, graphics, photos and videos? Or one that is nothing more than a plain, white page dominated by text?

As Internet marketers, our chief concern is usually not how a website looks for the sake of it. We want a website that sells, or at least gets the maximum number of visitors to take certain desired actions e.g. clicking on a link, opting in to a list, buying something, etc.

Well, in the direct response marketing world, the consensus seems to be that the simpler, more focused - and less complex and distracting - the design, the better.

But what about images? Does a picture tell a thousand words… or do a thousand words tell a thousand words?

Writing in Early To Rise, David Cross reports the findings of a number of eye-tracking tests conducted by Nielsen Norman Group. In these tests, people were asked to perform a variety of tasks on different websites, ranging from ‘open an account’ to ‘buy a black suit with a blue tie.’

While the subjects went about their business, hidden infrared cameras tracked their eye movements. This allowed the researchers to create ‘heat maps’ to depict which parts of each webpage drew the most attention.

The findings led to David Cross concluding that, when it comes to a webpage:

• Banners and ads - and anything that looks like them - are ignored, regardless of their location on a webpage.
• Images are ignored. Those surveyed paid little attention to images, except for looking at faces and private body parts.
• Study participants fixated on text.

According to Cross, for most websites the visual design and layout is secondary to its text content. As such, his advice is to:

1. Make it easy for web visitors to both skim-read and read your text. Break it up with headings, subheadings, bullet points and other such devices.
2. State the most important information in the first two paragraphs of text.
3. Begin with useful information that makes it easy for visitors to understand what you offer and to find what they’re looking for.

On the whole, I find this research - and David Cross’s conclusions and suggestions - compelling. And Cross makes a good point:

“Almost all the websites and e-mail promotions that took Agora Inc., the parent company of Early to Rise, to its first $100 million in online sales were about as un-designed as you could imagine. They were mainly all text and headlines. In fact, Agora’s websites looked - and still look - very similar to the longer direct-mail sales letters you receive in the mail. According to many Web designers, these sites shouldn’t work any more than a bumblebee should be able to fly (because it breaks every rule of aerodynamics). But fly it does.”

And we haven’t even addressed the value of text-heavy webpages for search engine optimization purposes!

However, I urge you not to dismiss the need for good web design. A well designed website does NOT necessarily mean a complex, image-intensive, Flash-driven website. A well designed website may well be one of those plain sites used by Agora Inc.

Good design actually supports the content and coaxes the visitor into performing a particular sequence of desired actions, such as: (1) Read headline, (2) Read sub headline, (3) Read opening paragraph, (4) Read sales copy, (5) Buy product!

Good design also ‘frames’ the content and encourages the visitor to stay on the page. Through a certain combination of colors, the positioning of certain elements, and even the inclusion of an image here and there, it encourages the visitor to perform those desired actions.

And even though minimal attention will seemingly be given to any images - or any other design elements for that matter - that doesn’t mean such images are not integral to creating an overall impression that gets the visitor taking the desired actions.

So while neither images, nor some exotic design, may help (and may actually hinder) website sales… let’s not think that design per se is unimportant or unnecessary.

Source: David Cross, “A Word Is Worth 1000 Pictures”, Early To Rise, October 10, 2008

It’s never been easier to download images, movies and music from the Internet. Which means you can literally pull images, videos and music off all kinds of sites - from royalty-free sites to torrent sites – and use them in your marketing.

Except that… you may be breaking the law.

Just because you can readily download and repurpose content doesn’t mean you have the legal right to do so. That may seem obvious when it comes to downloading images off just any site or movies off torrent sites… but even where it appears possible to, for example, buy royalty-free content, there are typically terms and conditions that apply.

For example, when you purchase content from a royalty-free site you are really purchasing a ‘license’ to use that content. That license is typically limited, the limits of which are described in the license terms – you know, all that stuff you ‘click’ your agreement to when you buy the content.

As an example, many standard royalty-free licenses enable you to use the given content for promotional purposes, but do not allow you to resell the content in question. There are often other restrictions on how you use that content too.

So… read the terms and conditions before you make assumptions about what you can do with the content!

Now, let’s not all panic. There are sometimes implied licenses to use certain content. For example, on sites such as YouTube, video contributors must specify if they don’t wish to allow others to embed their videos. If they don’t disable the embedding feature they are taken to have agreed to letting others embed their movies. But again, read the YouTube terms before assuming anything!

1. In fact, if I could offer three final thoughts, they would be these:
2. Always read terms and conditions;
3. Assume nothing; and

Ignorance of the law is no defense!

Here are three (3) major blunders to avoid when it comes to your website navigation. They relate to having a navigation scheme that is:

1. Unfamiliar: sure, it might be interesting and new… but only to another web designer. If you’re designing for a regular person… make them feel at home, not on another planet. Otherwise, they’ll be off your site within seconds! A simple navigation panel on the top and/or left of each web page is what most web visitors have become accustomed to and expect.

2. Busy: too much navigation only serves to confuse rather than guide. Again, confusing visitors causes them to leave, which is exactly what you don’t want them to do.

3. Inconsistent: using different navigation schemes from page to page also confuses people. Whether the inconsistency derives from using different links in different places or different colors and designs… this is another blunder that is likely to turn people away from your site.

Here are three (3) super quick - and super powerful - tips for designing a website that sells. I pinched them from Eben Pagan, who emphasized these particular ideas during his Altitude program trainings.

Above all:

1. As soon as they land on your website, your visitor should know instantly that they’re in the right place.
2. Excite your visitor and suspend their disbelief. (We’ll talk about how to deal with ‘lazy skeptics’ i.e. most of your prospects in a later Kikabink Lab article).
3. Your visitor should leave your site better off than when they arrived.

In the market for Wordpress blog theme template? Not satisfied with the free and paid themes you’ve seen so far? Or do you create and SELL Wordpress themes and want somewhere else to sell them?

Consider ThemeForest from Envato. ThemeForest is a service that allows you to buy or sell themes in the $10 to $50 range, and apparently has 150 themes in its library so far.

Some of them look quite good too…

Source: Don Reisinger, “Envato Launches Theme Marketplace For Your Blog”, TechCrunch, September 20, 2008