Past thoughts

Awhile back I wanted to start a review site for some service I can’t recall at the moment. However, my primary reason for starting one was that I would able to target a niche more so than I do on this site. With a review site specifically, you have the ability to take something like loans, and review any number of sites to create affiliate income.

Now I’m the type who tries to determine the psychological or visual response that my sites will have on the visitor. So when I drafted up a review site, I of course tried to place everything which I wanted to sell in the best possible place. The most important thing I noticed off the bat was that the #1 affiliate should always be the first to see on the site. If somebody visits your site and is just clicking through to find something, they will see #1 and the product right away. It is just like Google search listings- first is supposed to be most important and, “the best.” And seeing as how many internet users and more importantly consumers were trained to search by Google, there is no harm in using this knowledge to your advantage.

A look at an actual review site:

top online sportsbook

Immediately after I pull up the site, I first look at the banner. This is either because of the flag’s red color which stands out quite well amongst the other images or the cutoff on the flag which creates, what I will call, “a point of interest,” on the site.

Enticing Interest

If it where me, I would take out the flag (or at least make it almost entirely transparent) and enlarge the header for the website. By doing this I think that the viewer would first see the title, “Top USA Online Casinos,” and take note that they are in the right place.

Make it Noticeable

Next, I would go ahead and make the Number 1 site more noticeable. This way the visitor sees it either first or right after they see your header. Let’s face it, don’t you want them to see the best affiliate first and follow it? There are numbers next to the sites which are creating this type of effect, but I really didn’t notice size difference until I looked closely. So clearly, the sites need more emphasis on where to click and which is best.

Color

Color could use a little improvement. Color always plays a big role when determining where you want the user to click or be directed. I have noticed that primary colors are most often the best way to grab the attention of a user and make them read or click on something important. For example, placing a yellow star on the first site would significantly improve the user’s ability to determine that it is in fact the best option to go with.

Likes

“FREE guide,” is very noticeable, and it never hurts to say something is free.

I also like the fact that the first site is showing right in the middle of the screen. In order for the visitor to see anything below #4 clearly, the must scroll down. In turn this is increasing the chances of a user clicking on not only the first, but one of the top four sites.

The update information is nice, but I don’t think it is needed. This isn’t a blog and most visitors will assume that the site is up to date based on how the site looks overall. Perhaps replace the space with a horizontal line to divide your top information with the site listing.

Conclusion

There you have it, a review site somewhat dissected. Hopefully, you learned something from all of this. Tell your user where to go and chances are he/she will go there.

Here is a neat little service I just signed up for today. Brring is a service that allows you to create an advertising number to redirect to your actual number. It is completely free to sign-up for and use, so there is no reason not to. My thoughts are that this is ideal for personal and some business use. If you own a business (local) and want to make a little money off people calling you then go ahead. On the other hand, if your friends call you all the time on a personal phone, you could also setup the service to make a few bucks.

Each call earns you a minimum of $0.05.  I am already starting to drum up a few ideas for this program.

And for those of you who are thinking about making money off your friends phone… When you first sign up you have to enter a verification code to activate the account.

Today I noticed a similarity in two advertising widgets. I am not going to make any assumptions on whether or not one inspired the other, but I just want to make a few observations on the two.

I first heard about the OneYearGoal.com FireBoard back on July 16, 2007 when it was released. Initially I didn’t think much about the widget because I wasn’t into monetization at the time, but the idea seemed quite innovative. FireBoard allows you to pay $1 to get a link under a category labeled, “Featured Sites.”

Today as I was surfing the net I came across ScratchBack.com and immediately remembered the FireBoard tool. Right away I noticed how the two function almost exactly the same. Yes, the ScratchBack.com widget is much more commercialized, but they basically seem to do the same thing. The ScratchBack.com widget allows you place a certain amount on your available spaces and places them under a header which reads, “Are you in my TopSpots?”

Are these two widgets similar? I think so. Perhaps just two different individuals with two similar widgets. I am just here to make observations.

From the time I began this blog, I have closely followed other blogs of the same nature and subject as my own.

As I followed these select blogs I have learned much about them in the few short months I have observed. From these close observations, I can conclude a few simple truths to the successes and failures of blogs in the blogging world.

First of all, you must value your readers. This means that you have to act as though you are offering a service to your readers- You have to believe deep down that what you are saying is valuable. In turn, readers will believe the same. This is why niche blogs are so successful. Aside from being targeted at a specific group of people, they are set on offering great information.

Next, you must keep up a posting schedule. There is nothing more annoying than frequenting a blog, only to watch it completely die within months. Your readers keep coming back to your blog for the simple reason that they want to hear what you have to say. The most you can do is to keep giving them something new to read on a regular basis. You may have also noticed that I used the word, “die,” when referring to a blog’s traffic. Death of a blog refers to a blog that has lost readership. Perhaps it has no new information. Basically the blog is not enticing readers to keep coming back.

With all that said, I hope I have offered a few more thoughts about blogging. I am sure that after a little more observation I will find more trends and generalities to offer. For now, take what I have said to heart and don’t let what you have built crumble to ruins.

I don’t work as a corporate executive, but I do work in a corporate environment. And after seeing the way that these people live and interact with others, I am not at all envious.

From what I have seen, most corporate jobs seem to be quite fast paced. That is to say, they are given a quota or goal which also comes with a time limit.

Even though it might seem like the corporate people are calling all the shots, they really are not. In most cases, what they say, is just being relayed from, “The Top.” That is to say, there is some sort of president at the top who is making the big decisions. The corporate people are employed to make it happen. To me that doesn’t sound like an ideal setting.

Wouldn’t you rather be the one solving the problems? Or finding more efficient ways to run a business? I think that if you did answer, “Yes,” to one of the following questions, that you really want to run your own business. Then again I may be wrong. You might like working for someone else. The boss tells you to act, and most of the time you don’t have time to ask, “Why.”