In today’s world, having a website is one of the most powerful marketing tools entrepreneurs can have for their businesses and it’s their responsibility to make sure people can find it and understand its message.

Craft a bad, unorganized website and your potential customers will no longer be potential.

My last post 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website showed us how people scan your website and where their eyes naturally are drawn to. Today I’d like to share some videos which can help us learn to design better websites and attract more clicks/sales.

Attractive Headlines

Excellent video on the importance of writing good headlines. Think about how important good headlines are for magazines like Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Enquirer, etc. Headlines are important for your business in press releases and getting people to click through your blog (by the way, we here at eVentureBiz write press releases if you need one).

Headlines, by Cory from Boing Boing
Run Time: 6:03

We are trained where to look. So show us already. Image by ℓú ℓαcєr∂α

The laws of the Internet (marketing-wise) are different from any other medium. Probably the most important thing to note about the Internet when it comes to marketing is that it is user-interactive.

In other mediums (newspaper, magazine, radio, TV, etc.) people have to read, listen, and wait for all the necessary information they are looking for come to them. On the Internet, however, this information is widely available and can be found by simply scanning and clicking. A wise marketer would take this information and use it to their advantage and apply it to their website.

Some websites create more sales than others simply because its design is designed around the human psyche. Simply having a website and throwing a bunch of content or products on there is no where near as effective as a well formulated (i.e. intentionally placing this and that there) and planned out website.

Turning Wordpress Into Your Own Image by ShadowKris

Wordpress is my chosen blogging platform. Since I’ve begun my blogging journey I’ve come across many great plugins and customizations that other Wordpress users have created.

All our web hosting plans come with easy to install scripts, one of them being Wordpress.

There are plenty of similar plugin and hacks list out there like this one, however, I’ve been asked by a few of our customers which plugins I use and where they can find some more great mods. Therefore, I created the following list.

By the way, the list is ever going and does not end with this post. I’ll continue to add to the list in our community forums. If you have or know of other plugins that you like, please post in the comment section, thanks.

* next to the number denotes plugins I use

As a web development company, we love hacking up programs like WordPress and phpBB and transforming their generic layout to our own, even if it’s only parts used by us.

I stumbled upon a website called Binary Moon the other day and found a great plugin for WordPress that lets you customize your login page.

Looking to the image on the right you can see what I came up with (click image to see the actual page).

Most people will never see this page since I don’t have many guest bloggers write articles, but that could change one day and it would be nice to send them to a branded login page.

I also like the fact that someone would go to our login page and think, cool!

We try very hard here at eVentureBiz to make sure our website has a cool factor to it. When I see our site I like to think simple and futuristic. I want people to see our site and say, “Yup, that’s who I want to design my next website.”

For the past month or so I have been using a desktop client for Google Reader called, Google’s ReadAir to efficiently read all my RSS feeds.

It’s still in the development stage but thus far I’ve had no problems with it whatsoever.

For those of you who read a lot of RSS feeds at once, this is a great option that can reduce the amount of time skimming through your feeds and clicking on headlines that catch your eye. It’s as easy as reading your emails.

Google Reader and ReadAir Are In Sync

One nice feature about Google ReadAir is that it’s connected to your Google Reader.

So if you still like using your Google Reader and add or delete a subscription here or there, that’s fine, ReadAir and Reader stay in sync (in reality they are the same account).

Installation

To install, you first have to download and install Adobe Air. Once that’s installed, you can download and install ReadAir.

Image by Swansea Photographer

Just a quick note for those of you who own websites that may collect personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

If your website is directed at and collects information from children under 13, you must comply with Federal Trade Commission and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

It basically says that you need to get guardian consent before collecting information (name, address, phone, etc.) and give some options.

From their website -

The Rule requires operators (website owners) to:

• Post a privacy policy on the homepage of the Web site and link to the privacy policy on every page where personal information is collected.
• Provide notice about the site’s information collection practices to parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children.
• Give parents a choice as to whether their child’s personal information will be disclosed to third parties.

Image by carf

Photos on your website are a great way to convey a message or tell an instant story to your website’s visitor.

These photos are part of your sales tools.

Of course if you have products you’re selling, you should include pictures. But I’m talking about pictures that tell a story to your visitor. The ones that spark emotional responses.

Be sure, however, the picture will convey the response you want your visitor to have. A poorly lit, slightly out of focus, or too busy photo may give your visitor a confused feeling. I have a saying which if you follow my blog and forum posts, you’ll probably see quite often: a confused mind always says no.

Pictures Of Faces

One of the most powerful photographs you can use to tell a story are pictures of faces. Perhaps it’s because we can relate to people and can read their expression and reminisce about times we’ve had that face.