Wit's End?

byIanCampbell

324 followers

10 years ago

Wit’s End?

I have spent the last few months since joining Wealthy Affiliates, looking at members’ websites and what they are trying to promote or sell web pages. I have tried to offer constructive criticism of them in order to help members in their design and in particular I have stressed the importance of making the most of the ‘Above the Fold’ are of the web page. This refers to what the visitor to your websites sees when they arrive at the URL of your webpage. This is the last place where you have control of the situation because now, what happens is at the mercy of your visitor. Will they choose to study your page intently and find it so interesting that they want to see more, or will they find it so boring that they have a ‘beam me up Scotty’ moment because they can no longer stand the boredom.

During the time I have been doing my reviews of members’ websites I have concentrated on the design aspect – layout ‘Above the Fold’ & the judicious use of colour. I have avoided criticising what the member says about what they are trying to promote or sell. This morning, with time on my hands, I cast my eyes over some offerings of the last few days and it dawned on me that most of them had something in common and I will tell you more of that later.

In my opinion, we need to ask ourselves who are our competitors for the attention in the information stakes. We deal in information. That is what our websites are about. People, hopefully customers, visit our websites because we give them something that is better than what they can get elsewhere. More truthful if you like. You need to be the ‘go-to’ expert that prospective customers come to when they are looking for guidance about a product or service and we need to take a hard look at what we are offering these prospective customers. If our websites are boring, then they will switch off with the click of a mouse button and be gone for ever.

What do you do to grab your website visitor’s attention? What lifts your website or page above the dross of your competitors? Who are your competitors? Do you know who they are? In fact, your competitors are everyone who has money to spend and a thirst for information about a product or a service. This includes the Big Boys backed by a huge advertising industry which employs professional copy writers. These are your competitors. So how do you combat them? You need to be resourceful and incredibly creative. Do you possess those qualities?

Think of it like opening a new book and you start reading at page one. How far into the book are you prepared to read if the content is boring? One sentence; one paragraph; one page or one chapter? Myself, it’s one paragraph and if my attention hasn’t been captured by then, it never will be.

Look at the following opening lines:-

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

Charles Dickens ‘A Tale of Two Cities’

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

George Orwell. 1984

“You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by a Mr Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.”

Mark Twain, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’.

“Call me Ishmael.”Herman Melville, ‘Moby Dick’.

Each of these opening lines entices me to want to learn more by reading on. I submit that this is what we need to be able to do with our ’Above the Fold’ Real Estate on our Landing Pages, but this is only my own personal view and I could be wrong.

Ian Campbell