remarkable communication

If You're Going to Interrupt Me, Do It Intelligently

Do you hate this as much as I do? There is nothing worse than clicking on a Google listing (even worse, an AdSense listing) and getting a piece of dancing baloney flying in my face while I’m still trying to get my bearings and see where I am.

I'm talking about those little information screens (very often found on sites that are trying to sell you something) that pop up, fly over, zoom around, and generally land right in front of what I'm trying to read. It's like the cat when you're trying to read the newspaper, only not endearing.

The site's owners did whatever work they needed to do to get a decent Google listing. They designed and delivered a message that created a desired action--I clicked through. And then in less than a second, that result was squandered and I’m frantically reaching for the back button.

What’s your ROI (Return on Irritation)?
If you’re going to use dynamic popups and pop-overs, you have to test and re-test. Any time you piss people off this badly, you need to know exactly what you’re getting in return.

You can’t just test the immediate result--the number of people who do whatever the popup asked them to do. You also need to analyze that result against the long-term value of customers who hate rude interruptions--the ones you lost a half second into their session.

If popups or pop-overs truly seem to be working for you, think about how you can add them where your user is going to want more information. Ideally you'll give users a few moments to get acquainted and verify that they’re in the right spot. Then, when they're at least somewhat comfortable, anticipate where they're going to benefit from an additional message--more information, an additional offer, another resource, whatever.

There’s a reason users rush to block these irritating technological gnats. Popups and pop-overs are almost always permission-busters, as is forced audio or video. They take too much for granted. They deliver something that hasn't been asked for.

These attention-grabbing techniques increase your customers’ feeling of risk, just at the point when you want to reduce it. They make your site feel unfriendly and rude at best, potentially dangerous at worst.

Finally, add some usability testing to your process. Get a few users in front of a video camera, and watch their reactions when this stuff starts flying around the screen. What you see may be instructive.

Related reading:
Beyond Google Page One: 10 Ways to Maximize Your Click-through
Trust Me, I'm a Marketer

Tending your Web presence garden

"The greatest fertilizer is the shadow of the gardener."

I've been a passionate gardener for many years. I heard that quote a long time ago, and it's the mantra I live by for my garden. The more attention I put into it, the better results I get. It's not a question of hovering--the seeds germinate and the plants develop at their own pace. But daily attention lets me capture small problems before they get big, notice my successes so I can create more of them, and create the right environment for my garden to flourish.

Can you sense a metaphor coming on? (Gardening is one of those great uber-metaphors--it works for everything.) The same daily attention that lets my garden flourish also helps my Web presence to grow organically.

(OK, metaphor veering into bad pun territory, sorry.)

Start with the soil
You won't be able to grow anything more interesting than dandelions if you don't understand your soil. Know (and fix) its deficiencies whenever you can. Understand what it's going to grow well and what it will probably never be able to support.

To translate this to your Web presence, your "soil" is probably your understanding of your market. This doesn't have to be commercial--your market could be your customers, your nonprofit donors, your church, your PTA--whoever it is that you want to influence and create a relationship with. Notice that it's your understanding of those folks that matters. You need to know what they want, what they worry about, what they value. If you don't have that, any other work you do will be hit-or-miss, with more misses than hits.

That said, there's not a gardener worth his salt who will wait until the soil is perfect before he starts planting. Soil is never perfect, and neither is understanding. Know when to get them to "good enough" to get started, and then keep amending.

Remember, too, that different soil is good for different plants. If you have alkaline clay and brutal sun, like we do here in most of Colorado, your desire for rhododendrons is going to be a painful and labor-intensive one. Try and communicate with folks you already have a feeling for. I'm never going to excel at the mass market or the ultra technical. That's completely fine. I can reach millions of people with the messages that come most naturally to me.

Don't plant a monocrop
Creating different Web points of contact is like planting different plants.  There are dozens if not hundreds of options now. Blogs, e-newsletters, static Web pages, Squidoo lenses, HubPages, ezine articles, Gather articles, Facebook, Tumblelogs.  Create a nice assortment to get the cross-pollination you need.

Remember not to create more sites or touchpoints than you can take care of. Each little content corner you create should be visited regularly, spruced up as needed, tested for broken links, and generally given some love and attention.

Different content types have different needs. Once your ezine (or Gather, or any of the other similar sites) article is written and published, you need to check it for errors that were introduced in the process, and then it will pretty much live on its own. You might check it every six months or so for broken links, but that should do it. On the other hand, to stay effective, you need to keep feeding your favorite article sites with new content, to build and maintain a reputation as a worthy authority on your subject.

(On that subject, I don't recommend submitting the same article to multiple sites. Google discounts duplicated content. You can write dozens of articles on the same subject---just develop new examples and new metaphors. You can borrow the gardening analogy any time you like.)

Squidoo lenses do best with a fertilize-and-prune every couple of weeks. Add a content module, consider removing one that's not performing, or update some of your links with fresher, more exciting stuff.

Contributing to social sites like Facebook or forums depends on developing trust with your friends--you probably want to check in at least once or twice a day. And opinions differ about how often one should post on a blog, but twice a week is probably the bare minimum, and most successful bloggers post at least once daily.

Always have a flat of seedlings to plant
I got this particular method from Ed Dale over at Thirty Day Challenge: create Google News, Google Blogs, and Technorati watches on the subjects you like to write about. Subscribe to all of these in an RSS reader. When an interesting story comes up, clip the most relevant points into a product like Backpack or Google Notes. I like to create a text file with 3-5 possible points I want to cover, and any juicy quotes or connections.

You're a lot less likely to get shut down by writer's block if you have plenty of irresistible idea seeds just waiting to be grown into solid content. Dale uses these to create tiny articles--just a few paragraphs--but the idea works just as well if you're long-winded like I am.

For another source of ideas to develop, make a habit of tucking a few blank 3x5 cards into every book you read, whether for work or for pleasure. Copy down quotes (and identify them as such with very clear quote marks and a page number--you don't want to become an accidental plagiarist). Scribble ideas, especially any connection you can make to something else. Every day, take your 3x5 cards for the day and transcribe them into your online tool. Paper is magnificent, but bytes win this one hands down.

And always credit the book where you originally found the idea--it's just good manners, and it enhances your credibility. No one expects you, especially in the 21st century, to grow all your own ideas from the ground up.

Related viewing:
Darren Rowse's nice video post on how blogging is like growing a lawn.

Do you make these common Web design mistakes?

I found this fabulous set of Web design mistakes over at Dosh Dosh. In addition to being a rant that gets the exact right level of sputter, it summarizes just about everything that doesn't work on 95% of Web sites.

Each of these mistakes comes down to forgetting that your Web site isn't about you, it's about the people whose behavior you want to influence.

If any of this resonates at all, I have a homework assignment for you. Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think outlines everything you need to understand (and act on) to make your site work the way it should.

Whether you're selling anything, buying anything, processing anything, selling anything bought or processed, buying anything sold or processed, processing anything sold, bought or processed, or repairing anything sold, bought or processed, you need Krug's book.

Profuse apologies to John Cusack.