'Net Features : topoct10

CNN.com Gets Major Overhaul: What We Can Learn

Mike Phillips — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:30:00 GMT

CNN has released a redesign of their website and it is substantial. And when a property as valuable and recognizable as CNN.com undergoes a major overhaul, you can bet plenty of thought went into it.

The new design appears focused on two factors that often are at odds with each other - 1) suggesting content for users to read and encouraging clicks, and 2) helping readers find content they want. Also, you will see that the site is much cleaner and easier to scan without sacrificing content - not an easy task. To help with this effort, in part, text size has been reduced in favor of more white space and better organization. While readers with less-than-ideal vision might find this change difficult to cope with, it does offer an information-packed page without feeling overwhelmed.

Let's examine the CNN redesign in a little more detail and expose some good tips for Web professionals and designers. Below are five observations and what we can learn from them. Below that are screen captures of the old and new CNN.com to help illustrate.

Branding is everything. What stands out most on the new page? Red. Over the years CNN has become known for their red logo. However, they have now gone to using "CNN Red" as an entire branding mechanism in itself. It's bold, and looks authoritative. Closer attention to the logo shows that not only is it centered on the page (it's impossible to ignore when the page opens) but they dropped the ".com" - now it's just "CNN." This is worthy of some attention and might even spark some debate for your business. CNN is making a statement here; they are more than just another website, they are a leading, globally respected news source who need not remind users that they are "on the Web."

Should you consider a similar step for your site? That depends. If you are a pure online presence, billing it as such with "YourBusiness.com" makes more sense than just "Your Business." After all, the point to drive home with users is that you are an online business. However, if you have brick and mortar locations, or other offline branding channels (such as a print publication or physical product) dropping the ".com" has its merits. For one, it signals that you are a major, respected brand and not just another website or affiliate.
Navigation is key. Another not-so-subtle change is that navigation elements are prominently displayed at the top of the page. Before, navigation links were small and obscure - a reader's eye was drawn to just about every other element than the navigation. Now, you immediately see the option to get straight to what you want. At the same time, the strong images, "Highlights" and "Latest news" directs readers toward discovery. It's a very nice balance that is incredibly user-friendly.
Community is driving interaction. Of course, it helps that the image in the center of the page is a raging inferno, but you'll notice that the most prominent portion of the page comes from iReport - CNN's community-driven news source. Also notice the "Newspulse" section on the bottom right. These stories are displayed according to readers' interests. Users can filter through all the stories on the website using this feature.

What you won't see on the home page are links to CNN's Twitter or Facebook account - these are reserved for interior pages. While it's tough to recommend that you omit your business' social links from your home page, it's interesting that CNN took this route. It almost suggests to readers, CNN.com is your main destination for news and information, not Facebook or Twitter. Is this an effort to control content or simply a way to reduce clutter? Either way, it's a little reminder that our websites are the key to our success. Yes, you want to establish a presence on other websites and networks, but you want your users on your site.
Advertising is on even ground with content. Even if it's only one ad, the Lexus ad on the new page shares top billing with the rest of the eye-catching elements of the page. On the old site, the feature story's image was most prominent, then "Video." While video is nice, it takes attention away from the ad ('AD' in the screen capture below.) Advertising still drives revenue and keeps websites afloat. Keep this in mind when designing your page - advertisers will.
Below the fold is not an afterthought. Below the fold (the portion of the site a user must scroll down to see), CNN's home page features a new, four-column layout as opposed to the old sometimes-two-, sometimes-three-column option. It holds a ton of information, but is airy and elegant, well-organized and well-balanced. The "Editor's choice" section allows for some light browsing while the other categories let the user dive deeper into categories with a quick scan.

Now look at the old CNN.com below the fold. In comparison, it's hectic. It's difficult to know where to look, white space is not evenly distributed, and There simply is not nearly as much "usable" information. In short, it looks thrown together. See the difference by scrolling down the page at CNN.com, and this CNN.com from July 31, 2008.

Keep this in mind with your own website. If you're lucky enough to get users to scroll down your site, don't turn them off as they explore.

Altogether, the new CNN.com focuses on usability and the delivery of a large amount of information in an easy-to-digest format. Web users have plenty of options from which to get their news, so CNN decided it was time to freshen up. They seem to have accomplished this task while staying true to their mission.

Also read: The LA Times' User-Centric Redesign

Twitter is Important for Businesses; Need Convincing?

MaureenA — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Google and Bing announced big news last week that they are going to start indexing Tweets in search results. If you didn't think Twitter was important before, it definitely is now. It is now another way to command more real estate on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Though we're not sure how Google and Bing are going to do this, we do know it's going to happen.

If you need more convincing that Twitter is growing in importance then check out the results from a new eMarketer report (“Social Commerce on Facebook, Twitter and Retail Sites”). eMarketer finds that more e-commerce merchants are dabbling in social sites because there are so many consumers using them. However, it also claims that while some e-commerce merchants are experimenting with these sites, most merchants are still ignoring them.

So if you're not on social sites, your competitors might be. Add that to the recent developments from Google and Bing and you could be missing out on brand visibility, customers and ultimately dollars.

In August, we looked at how e-commerce merchants were blogging, so now let’s look at how they approach Twitter.

Amazon
Amazon doesn’t have one account dedicated to its Twitter followers but rather many Twitter accounts. Followers can choose which Amazon niche to follow on Twitter – be it MP3, deals, Kindle news, games and more. Each account provides information about its respective niche. For example, the MP3 handle tweets information about music, deals on music at Amazon, and directs users to its site. The deals handle on the other hand only lists deals. It doesn't interact with consumers or provide any other information besides Amazon deals. The Kindle handle also has little interaction with customers and instead pushes information about the Kindle.

Walmart
Walmart also doesn’t have one account dedicated to its Twitter followers but rather many Twitter accounts. By visiting walmartstores.com/twitter, the company provides a list of users that tweet on behalf of the company. These include those in Walmart’s corporate communications department, a profile for specials, music, outreach and more. Each account provides information to followers specific to that handle. The Twitter accounts for those in the company's communications department interact with users, answer questions and share information about the company. However, the other handles provide information about their respective niches (deals, music, etc.) and don't provide much interaction with followers.

Dell
Dell has four accounts on Twitter – Direct2Dell, Outlet, Home Offers and Small Biz Offers. The first account is everything PC related as well as Dell’s philanthropy. The Outlet profile interacts with users, answers questions and lists deals on Outlet products. Home Offers and Small Biz Offers operate their Twitter handles the same way as the Outlet handle, but directed at consumers and business owners respectively. The Direct2Dell profile doesn't interact with followers, but it does provide a personal contact in its bio for users to follow. This personal contact interacts and communicates with Dell users.

Sears
Unlike the others listed above, Sears has one dedicated Twitter account. This account interacts with users, answers questions, lists deals, features, and outreach. It takes the approach of the other e-commerce merchants listed above and puts it into one account.

eBags
Like Sears, eBags also only uses one Twitter account. It provides information on bags, interacts with followers, offers promotions, and more. The personality of the person behind this Twitter account comes through with excitement and commentary.

Though some of these use multiple accounts to manage different areas of their businesses, and others only one account, it's important that you explain to your customers how you operate on Twitter. Make it clear how many accounts you have and what kind of information those accounts provide. This increases customer happiness, loyalty and provides them with the information they want and need. They are following you for a reason - they want up-to-the-minute information on your company and products. Don't ruin it by confusing them.

Do you already leverage Twitter or are you convinced to start?

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E-Mail Marketing Benchmarks for 2010

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:30:00 GMT

It's never too early to start planning for 2010. MarketingSherpa's newly released benchmark study on e-mail marketing reveals the changing environment for business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-mail marketing professionals. Understanding how your peers utilize and perceive e-mail today will help you to generate better results from your current campaigns in the future.

What stands out the most in MarketingSherpa's study? The accuracy of Website Magazine's feature story for November on the future of email marketing.

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Past E-Mail Marketing Challenges Will Increase In Importance:
Far and away, the greatest challenge for e-mail marketers continues to be delivering highly-relevant e-mail content to recipients. Competing with social media for recipients' time and attention however, now presents a significant challenge as well. Fortunately, e-mail deliverability seems to be less of an issue perhaps to the efforts taken by ISPs - bringing the topic to greater attention with marketers. Presenting greater challenges this year than last include 1) measuring and proving the ROI of e-mail marketing programs, getting people to opt-in to e-mail lists, and the integration of databases with e-mail systems.

E-Mail Marketing Budgets Increased in 2009:
The effectiveness of e-mail as a marketing tactic can't be denied - and we look to budgets as the ultimate indicator. According to MarketingSherpa, a much larger percentage of organizations increased their e-mail marketing budgets this year than decreased them.

Greater Challenges Result In Bigger Payoffs:
Nobody said your career as an Internet professional would be easy. The study revealed that the tactics more challenging to implement resulted in greater payoffs. For example, while including ads in third-party newsletters or sharing e-mail on social networks requires little effort, the level of effectiveness is low, whereas sending e-mail to house lists and delivering relevant content to segmented lists are complicated but highly effective.

Social Media Helps, Not Hurts, E-Mail Marketers:
According to the study, about eight in 10 marketers agreed that social sharing, an e-mail tactic that allows e-mail recipients to share email content on social networks and social media sites, "extends the reach of e-mail content to new marketers" and "increases brand reputation and awareness." Not everything is sunshine in the universe of e-mail marketers when it comes to social sharing; 47 percent are unsure or disagree that social sharing increases the ROI of e-mail programs, 53 percent are unsure or disagree that social sharing accelerates the growth of e-mail lists, and 60 percent are unsure or disagree that it generates more qualified leads.

Get Your Brand on Every Social Network with KnowEm

Mike Phillips — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:00:00 GMT

One of the biggest advantages of social media is the ability to get your brand Web-wide recognition among very active consumers across any number of niches, large and small. One of the biggest disadvantages is the massive amount of time it takes to get these profiles set up and keep them maintained. You can also run into problems when someone else has squatted on your brand name within these networks. KnowEm has a solution.

Begin by simply entering your name in the search box. What you'll get in return is a list of hundreds of social media sites - and the availability (or lack thereof) of your business name on those sites. It's broken down into social categories; blogging, bookmarking, business, community, design, entertainment, health, information, microblogging, music, news, photo, tech, travel and video. At the very least, this is a good place to start to see the networks that apply to your business, and whether or not your desired user ID is available. But there's more.

For $99, KnowEm will secure your business name on the top 150 social networks. For $349 they will secure your name, as well as complete basic profile information such as photos, bio and your desired business details across 150 networks. And for $649 KnowEm will add in another 150 networks. And for $49, they will monitor the launch of any new social networks and immediately register your name on them. If you already have profiles on some of the chosen networks, they will simply sign you up for other networks to which you do not belong. Subscirbers to the service also get a dashboard to monitor all the networks, as well as mentions of your name on social feed sites like Digg.com.

Is it worth it? On the surface, some might balk at the idea of paying someone else to set up a social profile or even just secure a name. But when you consider the time investment, and the fact that social media is increasingly indexed by search engines and influencing consumer behavior and buying decisions - it sounds like a downright bargain. Just to be able to own your business name across the most popular social networks on the Web for $99 with minimal effort seems worth it. How (and if) you build out those profiles is up to you, but controlling your business' reputation online is increasingly important.

One other note - KnowEm has a white-label solution available. So, if you're a digital marketing agency, this is a very nice add-on service for you clients.

What “Web Superstars” Won’t Tell You (But We Will)

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:23:00 GMT

Ready to put some serious thought into your Web business and push your limits? Good, because we’re about to blow the doors off it all, give you a peek behind the curtain and get you seriously ready for Web success. You may not like what you’re about to read and it may not even be feasible but for those in genuine pursuit of success (whether financial or otherwise), you need to abide by the tenets and tactics outlined below if you’re serious about becoming a Web superstar.

Carl Sagan once said that “finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedicated and courage. But if we don’t practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us – and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.”

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Rise Early, Work Late, Strike Oil

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” - Vince Lombardi

During the early September ad:tech tradeshow here in Chicago, the keynote speaker Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo and the chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media said something that raised some eyebrows (at least mine). It wasn’t some high-level tactical approach or an opinion on the future of a technology, but rather how he spent his Saturday mornings. For three hours (from 4 to 7 a.m.) he woke and dedicated that time to learning something new that would directly benefit his role in the agency. How many of us can say that? It’s safe to assume that few would. Most would rather sleep in (or sleep it off) than wake up that early and get to work. Those most serious about their pursuit of Web success do follow this tenet. It’s routine for me to send emails early in the morning and receive them late at night. The path towards success is always open so be prepared to work diligently no matter the hour.

Success Tactic: Some people are more productive in the morning, some are more productive at night and some, of course, are productive all the time. Understanding your own “productivity biorhythms” will enable you to find the time and tactics that work for you to shorten your own road to success and profitability. Find out when you have more mental energy and use that time to write; find out when you have low energy and use that time to do routine tasks. Scheduling yourself (not your time) is the first key. You’ll still need to rise early and work late to strike oil, but by knowing yourself, you will be in a better position to make the most of each and every day.

Inspiration Comes Quickly; So Act Quickly
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." - Thomas Alva Edison

Did you ever have a moment of inspiration? For those who haven’t – perhaps a real-life example is in order. I once struggled with how I was going to promote a website (pretty routine for me and perhaps for you). In the middle of the night, in what can be called a flash of what I call brilliance, an idea came to me. Instead of writing down the idea and working on it later, I sprung out of bed and started to work immediately. Three hours later I not only had a formal outline of a rock-solid marketing plan but had purchased a domain, built a basic website framework and had a good start on content. If I had gone back to sleep, I may have lost some motivation and let some self-doubt creep in. Since inspiration comes quickly, you must act quickly. As Thomas Edison suggests, be prepared to perspire over your inspiration.

Success Tactic: The Web superstars I know (and I know quite a few) are always thinking. Inspiration can come at a moment's notice so being prepared lets you capitalize on all that brilliance of yours. There are hundreds of ways to get inspired and an equal number of ways to keep track of the ideas you come up with and just as many tools to help you make sense of it all. So use them. Task management applications are everywhere you look on the Web – for the desktop and mobile devices. So use them. You might even need a way to organize all that inspiration. If so, use mind-mapping tools to help you visualize ideas, make connections among them, and even develop new ideas.

Never Follow, Only Lead
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are clearly many benefits to following the best practice guidance put forth by the experts. They are often proven tactics and techniques. What is often left unsaid, however, is that just because something works a few times, people usually catch on and it’s not as effective as it once was. Do you remember the first time someone told you that article marketing and distribution was a key to a successful content marketing strategy? It is, but here’s a bit of a reality check: Everybody else received the same message. If everyone is writing articles, why not create an article directory or work to assemble the best articles on each topic and write a book? If everyone is clamoring to build the next popular Facebook application, create a service that lets developers promote or monetize those applications. The real money is never in using other people’s services but in building your own.

Success Tactic: What stands out to me about those most successful is they often sell the hole, not the nail. When everyone is piling on a bandwagon, it’s best to take a step back and ask yourself what it is that the herd actually needs. While there is certainly more risk (more on that below) there is always a greater potential for reward by not following and focusing instead on how to lead.

Take Risks Repeatedly
“Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can -- and surely will at times -- fail. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.” - Joyce Brothers

Last year, I read an article (can’t remember where) about a journalist who went door-to-door in the wealthiest neighborhood in the country asking people about the secret of their success. In nearly every instance, the interviewee said that the secret was the ability to manage risk. You will never achieve personal wealth by cutting costs and you’ll never achieve even a modicum of success with your business by not taking real risks. I use the phrase “paralyzed by fear” quite often in my day-to-day business dealings. For some reason, many Web professionals are paralyzed by taking risks. They don’t send e-mails because they fear they will be called out as a spammer; they never try anything new in their SEO campaigns for fear of blacklisting. The list goes on and on. Ask yourself before taking any risk about the worst thing that can possibly happen and I bet you’ll find that taking the risk is well the worth it.

Success Tactic: With every risk there is reward (potentially great ones) but you must take those risks and take them repeatedly if you ever plan on making your mark. Consider this article an opportunity: max out a credit card to fund your new business idea if you need to; send ten thousand people who you don’t know an invitation to your website if you need some website traffic; compare yourself to Gandhi if you want some media attention. These are risks, but just imagine the rewards.

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Social Media Drives Traffic to E-Commerce Sites

MaureenA — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Oneupweb released a new study to determine if social media affects how people shop online. The new report called “The 2009 Holiday Special Report: E-Commerce Jingles All The Way to the Bank,” found that social sites are creating much more online traffic to e-commerce sites reinforcing the need for e-commerce merchants to get on the social media playing field.

Oneupweb found that online retailers have an opportunity to be successful this holiday season, minimizing the effects of the economy. Consumers are more engaged with brands online – and expect the involvement of retailers online. In addition, consumers are much more likely to search information about products and companies, and read about reviews and ratings before making a purchase.

Are you an e-commerce merchant that’s leveraging social media to drive traffic to your site and ultimately increase engagement with your brand? The holiday season is just around the corner.

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2009 Holiday Shopping Trends: Consumers to Buy Early, Buy Less

Mike Phillips — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:07:00 GMT

Performics, a performance marketing solution provider, has released details of a September 2009 consumer survey, “2009 Online Buyer Economic Trends Study.” The results are not shocking - of those surveyed, 29 percent will be shopping earlier than they did last year, and 60 percent plan to spend less. But a look into the details of the study reveal some interesting insights for retailers and marketers.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents who said they will spend less report buying fewer items, not necessarily spending less per item.
Two-thirds will not be buying gifts for some people who they bought for last year.
Of those who won't be getting holiday cheer, friends, co-workers and extended family top the list.

There are also significant differences by gender in this year's expected holiday shopping trends.

35 percent of women will start shopping earlier, compared to 19 percent of men.
A full 66 percent of women will spend less, compared to just 48 percent of men.

For retailers, this is a strong reminder to start holiday promotions ASAP. It does not suggest, however, that retailers need to slash prices. While fewer items may be purchased, there is no indication that big-ticket items will fall out of favor. Performics also reported on a recent projection by the National Retail Federation, who says that overall holiday sales will fall one percent this year - an improvement over last year's 3.4 percent drop.

Yet another study by NPD Group, Inc., a leading market research company, shows a less grim picture than the Performics data. NPD's study shows that only 30 percent of shoppers plan to spend less this holiday. Also encouraging is that there is no change in the top five categories for consumer holiday spending. They are:

Apparel - 49%
Toys - 34%
Movies - 29%
Books and Electronics - 28%
Peripherals, Digital & Video Cameras, MP3 Players - 24%

And from those categories, books and electronics; and peripherals, digital & video cameras, MP3 players are the only ones that saw an increase over 2008.

The bad news from all of this is that consumers are undoubtedly planning to spend less this year. The good news? Consumers are still ready to spend money on popular online retail items. And even if they buy fewer items, they are not necessarily going to spend less per item.

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The Search for Icons & Icon Engines

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:27:00 GMT

If you're reading this you probably own a website. And if you've got a website, at some time or another, you have had a need for an icon. Fortunately, there are thousands of icons freely available on the Web and even some resources (icon engines) to help you find the perfect one for your Web design needs. More on that in a moment.

What sparked the idea for this post was that hosting company FatCow just launched a library of 1000 free web icons; including some for RSS feeds, iPod, Twitter and emotion options, and a variety of application commands. The set offers both 16 and 32 pixel versions of each icon which can be used for design applications, custom templates and personal use. Additional versions, suitable for desktop and Photoshop use will soon be offered on the site in the appropriate formats. All icons are available under a Creative Commons 3.0 License so you can use them (with proper attribution of course) for personal and commercial purposes.

While the FatCow Icons are great (I reviewed those available and they do look great) know that there are also icon search engines which can make short work of finding that perfect icon for your Web masterpiece. Some of the best icon engines include IconFinder.net, VeryIcon.com, IconLet.com, IconLook.com, and IconSeeker.com.

Do you design your own icons? If not where do you find these essential design elements? Comment below and share with other Website Magazine readers.

Bringing Back Scrollers With jQuery

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:12:00 GMT

Remember scrollers? I do and have missed them terribly since they went out of design vogue.

While there are some holdouts to this traditional design element, using jQuery to scroll text or images adds the necessary Web 2.0 coolness you'll need if you don't want to get laughed out of your next design meetup. Here are some of the best jQuery plugins available to add element/content scrolling to web pages.

Vertical News Ticker: A very simple jQuery plugin that can be used to automatically scroll content vertically. Options include controls for speed of the scrolling animation, pausing (waiting between scrolling, how many items to show, fade in animations and a mousePause which stops scrolling on mouse over. Demo Vertical News Ticker - Download Vertical News Ticker

IntoViewPort Scroller: A rather elegant jQuery plugin for scrolling to a certain DOM-element (but only if the element is not already in the browser's view port). Scroll effects are customizable as are the other animations. Be prepared - this is not your typical scroller. Demo IntroViewPort Scroller - Download IntroViewPort Scroller

jStockTicker: Another simple plugin which animates a div containing a sequence of spans. When the second visible span reaches the edge of the visible area, the first span is appended to the end of the list.
Demo jStockTicker - Download jStockTicker

Smooth DIV Scroll: Perhaps the best jQuery scroller we've come across, Smooth Div Scroll scrolls content horizontally left or right. Since the scrolling is done using hot spots within the scrollable area or via autoscrolling, there are no visible buttons resulting in an unobtrusive and smooth user experience. Ideal for standard scrolling text, it can also be used for image galleries, stock tickers or should you have special navigation requirements. Demo Smooth DIV Scroll - Download Smooth Div Scroll

simplyScroll: Our favorite of the jQuery scrollers on this list, simplyScroll animates a set of elements either automatically or manually, horizontally or vertically and even features an infinite/continuous scroll mode. The best part of course is that the plugin accepts dynamic image input via a Flickr feed or a local JSON source. Speed and frame rate are configurable (which is key because the plugin is performance intensive). Demo simplyScroll - Download simplyScroll

Multidirections Image Scroller: The possibilities are endless with this simple solution. The Multidirections Image Scroller enables designers/developers to create an image scroller with mouse events and features horizontal and vertical scroll and stop/start on mouse events (in and out). The plugin preloads images and its parameters can be configured for speed, direction and to include a preload label. Demo Multidirections Image Scroller - Download Multidirections Image Scroller

Simple Scroller: A modified approach to scrolling is Simple Scroller which converts sets of div elements into a scrolling content area and generates pagination links. While it 's not your typical scroller, it can be used in some innovative ways to present content (perhaps even as a standalone element of a website itself). Demo Simple Scroller - Download Simple Scroller

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