Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention

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

Getting Incoming Links

This video shows a few ways how to obtain incoming links to your website. One such method is the link exchange method which as he points out can be a bit time consuming. However, it can be an effective tool to get your site ranked higher in search engines.

He also points out a useful tool that not many people know about. If you own a website and want to get an idea of what websites are out there linking to you, type link: your_website.com in the search box of Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.

If you’re interested in some other search engine tricks, I posted a while back in our forums a topic about
Search Engine Tips For Finding What You Want.

Author: Michael Cheney
Run Time: 9:47

Site Makeover

This is a very important topic that some Search Engine Marketers aren’t well trained on. True you want your website to be optimized so Google or Yahoo! can rank it high in their indexes but you also don’t want to ignore the human element.

Also, just like writing captivating headlines helps persuade site visitors to click on that particular topic, so too do you need to actually tell your visitors/customers what to do (something not mentioned in this video). For example, instead of creating a link or button that says “Sign Up,” create one that gives the call to action like, “Subscribe Now!” Or maybe instead of a “$50 off special” image, your image says “Save $50 by Purchasing Now!”

The following video illustrates how you should really examine your website and see if you might be confusing people and/or telling them exactly what it is you want them to do.

Site Makeover - Generating Ecommerce Sales, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 5:24

Site Makeover 2

Very good idea on how you could look up typical keywords people use to get to your product and then add those words in a menu link on the side of your page, maybe a more information section
or something.

Boosting Sales for a Catalogue Site, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 4:49

Site Makeover 3

Some thoughts on designing your blog to help people stay connected with your blog.

Site Makeover - Getting Repeat Traffic to Your Blog, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 3:55

Site Makeover 4

Site Makeover - Getting Users to Click, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 3:01

Optimizing WordPress for Search Engines

Make Your Wordpress Blog Search Engine Friendly, by Michael Gray
Run Time: 4:41

Share And Enjoy

6 Responses to “Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention”

Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach
on 21 Jul 2008 at 7:43 am #

I know this is sooo true…some year I have promised myself I will get on the video bandwagon.

I’m one of those folks who simply prefer to learn from reading instead, alas….

Data points, Barbara

Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach’s last blog post..Make money WITH your blog Tutorial - Free Web Games!

Cath Lawson
on 21 Jul 2008 at 9:56 am #

Thanks for these John - I’ll be watching them later. I really need to work on improving my site. Did you read that Problogger book yet? How was it? Did it contain any secrets that he hasn’t already blogged about?

Cath Lawson’s last blog post..How Far Can You Go Before You Bump Your Head?

John Hoff
on 21 Jul 2008 at 10:10 am #

@ Barbara - I know. I want to create a video too but I hate seeing myself on TV (and hearing myself too). Videos are great tools but is another thing we have to learn how to do (which I’m sure your list is as big as mine).

@ Cath - I haven’t finished it yet but it’s a good read. I think for the most part it contains most everything you can find on his site but with over 4000 posts on his site it’s hard to be sure. It’s nice having a single book to reference though instead of digging through all the articles on his site.

Barbara Swafford
on 21 Jul 2008 at 7:14 pm #

Hi John,

I totally agree that headlines are important. If we don’t capture our visitors attention fast, they will click off, maybe never to return.

The videos sound fascinating. I’ll be back later to watch them.

Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Interview With Lorelle VanFossen - Part 1 - Stay Motivated

Cath Lawson
on 24 Jul 2008 at 6:26 am #

John - I had no idea Darren had so many posts on his site. I have only 376. It would take me years to write 4000.

Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Oops - I Sank A Business

John Hoff
on 24 Jul 2008 at 3:16 pm #

I’ve read a couple interviews where he mentions ProBlogger.net has over 4000 posts on it. His book is organized in a logical order for people to read on how to build a successful blog.

Here are two great interviews with him:

Darren Rowse Interview: Brand Yourself Like a ProBlogger

Darren Rowse Interview