New Poll – Contact Information

Mar 112009
 

If you are selling a product online you should know that visitors often look for trust factors. Having a phone number to contact you is one of those methods. This poll asks voters if they would think twice about making a purchase online if you phone number is not there. The way I see the results for this poll are like this. The percentage of “No” votes equals the percentage of sales you could be loosing if you don’t have a simple phone number on your site.

Here is the poll: Would you purchase something from a website if they didn’t have a phone number listed?

Archive of Previous Polls

Starting a Forum

Mar 092009
 

Thinking about starting a new forum? It’s easier said than done, but it’s hardly impossible. I think what needs to be established before you do though, is why exactly are you starting one. Are you dreaming of a super active, tons of members, super forum? Regardless of your motives, here are a few tips to get your forum on its way.

Good Luck With That

As my five your old daughter likes to say to me when I give her the ultimatum, “Good luck with that.” Your forum is going to need a little more than software to get it going. You could try the bogus pay for post techniques, or the simple act of creating your own fake content to make it look alive. If you ask me though, I would say that is just pathetic. Why produce wasted garbage, and wasted time developing a ghost forum? Work on creating a real one, and you will be on your way. Use real people to create real discussions.

Two Important Tips

Two key factors play an important roll when starting a forum. You need to carefully select what topics to discuss within it, and you also need to be ready to answer as many posts as possible. If you take a look at this new Health Forum, you can see they have done two things very well when setting up the forum. They have limited the number of topics, organizing them in a way so the most popular items are visible first, and they have actively responded to many of the posts. They are on their way, but it needs more.

Limiting the number of topics on a new forum is important because it creates the busy looking effect that is needed to get new members to join. Spread a forum to thin with a bunch of topics, and it may appear like there is only one or two members. Organizing the content in a way to have the most popular stuff on topic is an obvious winning method. It is the most likely relevant content for the new visitor, and is the best way to draw them in. Leave the chit chat and introduction topics at the bottom. That stuff is for your true regulars, and they will check it out without encouragement.

Answering as many threads as possible I would hope is an obvious tip. Why start a forum if you are not going to actively participate? Money? Even it’s just the case of trying to make some online coin, you need to take part in your own venture. If you won’t who will. If you chat, they will come.

Making It Happen

When it’s time to start making things happen, as in getting lots of activity, you are going to need a little more than those two tips. Here are some non-marketing tips to keep your forum alive, growing, and well.

  • Aggressively moderate spam – As best as humanly possible. Spam on a forum is like an ad saying “This forum dead.”
  • Offer additional resources on the forum – An example would be the Links Topic for the health forum, or some type of tool that the visitor would use off of your site.
  • Limit the number of ads
  • Ask non-members to join at the bottom of threads besides your default location
  • Remove all non-essential form elements for registering – I would even avoid using a captcha here.
  • Use polls to start some new threads – Polls are a natural topic starter, and often generate comments.
  • Allow new members to include their signature in their posts just after a few posts – Don’t use nofollow
  • Reply to threads with answers and possibly another question to keep the thread alive, and the visitor returning
  • Stay consistent to your rules when moderating
  • Have a good reason to believe people would want to join – Has anyone even asked you to, or suggested you have one?
  • Be prepared to grow, and be prepared to hire a full time moderator if things really get going – Consistent quality is mandatory to maintain the forum. There is nothing harder than getting a growing forum that took a turn for the worse, to rebound and get going again. You don’t want a mass exodus!

Know Your Competition

Another key factor before starting your forum is getting to know what your would be competitors are doing already. Are there a bunch of other forums already discussing your topic? Are they doing it well? Do you think the owners are making money or benefiting from it? Find what you think visitors like on their site, and consider adding similar features. Don’t look for the things you want or like, look for the things the visitors are active in. You can fulfill your needs as the forum develops.

Just remember, if you are considering a forum know that it does require some work, a lot more than a basic website, and remember to define a clear reason for yourself on why you are developing it. Knowing that will help make all future descisions easier.

New Poll – Adjusting Font Size

Feb 252009
 

After my last poll, How To Increase Fonts Size, I thought I would ask the question “Do you?”

I’m guessing the results will reflect most say yes that they adjust the font size with their browser, and that the second most voted on item will be that they don’t know how. We will see.

Here is the poll: Do you ever adjust the font size of a website with your browser?

Archive of Previous Polls

New Poll – Captcha Grief

Feb 182009
 

Are you sick of crappy Captchas like I am? Captchas are great for keeping the spam down, but they can also be extremely annoying, especially when they are hard to read. If you insist on using them here are a few tips to improve usability, and conversions.

  • Give the option to refresh for a new image
  • Reduce the amount of characters to type
  • Do not make case sensitive
  • Use a simple question instead like what is 2+2.
  • Use a unique form ID – An example would be “bwicaptcha”, and not “captcha”.

On sites where I have had spam problems I typically start with the easy question option. This will get 99% of all spambots. It’s also easier to set up. When I get aggressive, I then install captcha script, but limit it to just four or five characters. Any spam after that, and I think it will happen no matter what you do. Hope you take the poll!

Here is the poll: Are you sick of hard to read Captchas?

Archive of Previous Polls

A Moving Form?

Feb 132009
 

This Dallas Moving company was nice enough to let me use their home page form as an example on how to improve it’s usability. The form allows site visitors get get a quick estimate on how much it would cost to move using their service. If any of you have been following this blog, you have to know by now that the best thing you can do is keep them simple as possible. Let’s take a look at their form.

Give It a Reason

So if you look at their home page you will find this form that I have taken a screenshot of on the right as the main element. If you are good at getting forms to convert you should see right away that it’s missing a key element. It’s the reason why you should fill it out. If you look closely you will find it on the site, but it’s not obvious. If you want someone to fill out a form give them a clear reason.

movers

It’s Not Really Mandatory, or Is It?

The second thing killing this form is the dreaded asterisk. There is nothing wrong with using an asterisk usually. It commonly indicates required field. When using it though, two other things need to happen. There needs to be a note someplace on the form that states the asterisk means required form element, and there also has to be a form element that is not required. Otherwise is just wasted text. If all elements are required, just say “All elements are required”, and forget the asterisks. The form in the current state could create a little bit of confusion.

It’s Just a Quote, Not an Application

The third item, and this is probably the most influential item is asking for information that will have little to no impact on the quote of service. Asking for the moving date should have little to do with costs, and if it does, it could easily be explained…after the visitor has submitted the form. See Poll on forms. Only asks for what is absolutely required.

Make It Easy

Not all forms questions are easy to answer or ask. On this form they ask for the estimated move weight. I’m guessing most people would not be able to accurately answer this. I don’t know the weight of the chair I’m sitting on. In the Dallas Movers defense though, they did make it easier to estimate by additionally offer estimations by the number of rooms instead of pounds.

Finalize It

The final part, and failing of this form is the submit button. We know what it will do, and there is no confusion there. When you just say submit though, you are missing an opportunity to say why you should fill out the form. A quick form reader might see that submit button without reading the form, and think it’s not or them. Where as a quick reader that saw “submit for free quote”, would know what that form was form without reading anything else, and just might fill it out.

New Poll – Landing Pages

Feb 112009
 

If you missed my three part post about parallel design, it basically reviewed the advantage of testing multiple layouts at the same time for a website. Well the same can go for landing pages, and in fact, is probably more important to do with landing pages. Landing pages do a couple of things, they offer information (reference landing page), and can be made to persuade a visitor to complete a transaction (transactional landing page). Most of the time they are transactional landing pages, and this is what this poll is about.

The advantage of creating parallel landing pages is that it saves money and time. Having two or more landing pages makes it a lot easier in finding out what is working, and what is not. Finding these answers quickly can be very important when marketing dollars are being spent.

Here is the poll: Do you have more than one landing page to sell a certain product or service?

Archive of Previous Polls

New Poll – Form Lengths

Feb 042009
 

I recently had a client that thought his forms were fine they way they were. I thought usability wise they were way to long, and said this could play a huge roll in the number of new members he was getting. So I thought, here is a great poll opportunity.

Here is the poll: Has the length of an online form ever influence your decision in completing it?

Archive of Previous Polls

New Poll – Video Introductions

Jan 282009
 

After my last post, Giving Life to Your Site, I thought this weeks poll would be appropriate. I know many users have said in the past they do not like video introductions, but webmasters are beginning to say that video introductions work great. I believe this may be the case of what we say does not equal what we do or react.

Here is the poll: Do video introductions on a home page bother you?

[polldaddy poll="1341056"]

Archive of Previous Polls

New Poll – Bounce Rate

Jan 212009
 

According to Google Analytics the current benchmark for visitors bouncing is 46% for most sites. The benchmark for Web Design & Development sites is a staggering 59%. What’s up with that, and how do you rank? Please answer this quick poll.

Here is the poll: Do you have any websites that have a bounce rate of 40% or less on the home page?

Archive of Previous Polls

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